The Blind Side Essay Example for Free

The Blind Side EssayThe Blind Side is the true story of Michael Oher, a homeless teenager who was able to overcome great obstacles in order to become a first round draft pick in the NFL. Michael Oher had a rough childhood as he didnt know his father and his mother was addicted to drugs. He was in and out of foster homes and at times animateness on the street. The football coach at Wingate, a private school, saw football potential in Michael and got him admitted into the prestigious school. However, he had learning disabilities and solace did not have a permanent home.Leigh Anne Tuohy, the mother of a Wingate student, Collins, and wife of the owner of several Taco Bell restaurants, finds out about Michaels dilemma and invites him to stay the night at their home. Once Michael is in the Tuohy home, a close relationship develops between him and the Tuohys. The one night stay turns into a permanent living situation for Oher. Leigh Anne makes it her personal mission to make sure M ichael has everything he needs emotionally and academically to graduate from high school and to get admitted to Ole Miss.After a successful college football campaign, Oher was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round in 2009, thus fulfilling his dream. This movie has it all. As you watch it, you experience the emotions of both sadness and joy, as you watch this young man go from being homeless to being drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft. One of the saddest parts of the film is where Leigh Anne goes looking for Ohers mother. You are able to see the awful environment in which he has grown up, including drugs and filth.On the other hand, one of the happiest scenes in the film is when Leigh Anne is having a repast with some of her wealthy lily-white lady friends. They are discussing the possible adoption of Oher by the Tuohy family. One of the women remarks that Leigh Anne should really be concerned about the welfare of her beautiful, white daughter Collins. Lei gh Anne tells the women they should be ashamed of themselves for thinking that way. There are also many scenes that will have you laughing.For instance, in one game scene, Oher blocks an opposing police squads player clear off the field. After the whistle, Oher says, Sorry, Coach. I stopped when I heard the whistle. The coach asks where Oher was taking the opposing player. Oher responds, The bus. It was time for him to go home. In that same game, the referee throws a flag on Oher. The coach asks why he threw the flag. The referee responds, excessive blocking. The sacrifices that the Tuohy family was willing to make for a complete fantastic are inspiring.Sandra Bullock received an Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy. Other actors you may recognize in the film include Kathy Bates as Miss Sue and country utterer Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy. This movie was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd annual Academy Awards, but lost to The Hurt Locker. I havent seen The Hurt Locker, but having seen The Blind Side, I find it hard to believe there was a better film released in 2009. I give this movie four stars and highly recommend it to anyone of any age.

American Housing and Global Financial Essay Example for Free

American Housing and Global Financial EssayTo do this, lawmakers undeniable to understand what had happened, particularly because housing had until then seemed like such(prenominal) a bright spot in the US economy. The US housing bubble in the other(a) 21st century In his 2001 letter to shareholders, Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines wrote, Housing is a safe, leveraged investment the only leveraged investment available to most families and it is one of the best returning investment to make. Home will continue to appreciate in value. Home values are expected to rise even faster in this decade than in the 1990s. His optimism was due in part to the importance Americans attributed to owning a family. The importance was reflected in Fannie Maes motto, which was Our Business in the American Dream. Raines was not alone(predicate) in touting the services of housing as an investment. While house harms in particular region had suffered temporary dec quarters at various points, aver age housing prices across the linked States had risen fairly steadily since at least 1975 (see Exhibit 1). This trend accele lay outd in 1996, and reached active 12 percent per annum in late 2005 and early 2006.Many observers felt that this rise in prices was due in part to the federal Reserves policy of maintaining low interest rates subsequently the 2001 recession. In the period from 1980 to 2001, the federal Funds rate (an anyplacenight interest rate that bank charged each other and which the Federal Reserve targeted) had mostly tracked economic conditions (see Exhibit 2). later on 2001 and until July 2004, however, the Fed kept interest rates low in spite of signs of growth in output and prices. possibly fearing a recession that did not materialize, the Federal Funds rate was set to only 1 percent fromJuly 2003 to July 2004. After this, anxiety about inflation seemed to benefit the upper hand and interest rates were increased steadily, with the Federal Funds rate reac hing 5. 25% in September 2006. A debate over house prices started around 2004. Some economists, such as Dean Baker, the co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research claimed at the time that house prices were like a bubble ready to burst, and that the economy needed to brace itself for a loss of $2 to $3 trillion in housing wealth.Others felt that, even though increases in housing prices had far outstripped increase in residential rents, this was reasonable in light of the low interest rates. Even in October 2005, when it was green to distinguish mentions of a housing bubble, developer Bob Toll disagreed and complained Why cant legitimate estate just have a boom like every other industry? Why do we have to have a bubble and then a pop? Meanwhile, several economists pointed out that house price increases were concentrated in particular areas such as San Francisco and New York, where zoning restriction made it difficult to expand the housing stock.Professor Chris Maye r of Columbia University axiom the attraction of these areas coupled with the inability to increase supply as furnishing house prices in these areas to remain high basically forever. Nothing that Tokyo real estate was still more(prenominal) expensive than real estate in Manhattan, he stated Theres no natural law that says US housing prices have to stop here. None. While house prices reached eye-popping levels in what Chris Mayer called superstar cities, construction was booming elsewhere.Cities like Phoenix, as well as many communities in Florida and around Los Angeles, saw such a torrid pace of construction that builders had difficulty even procuring the cement they needed. New houses in these areas were often snapped up by eager investors and newspapers relished reporting on individuals who managed to resell houses at a gain even before they took possession of them. According to Loan Performance Inc, more than 12% of Phoenix-area owes were obtained by investors in 2004, as co mpared to just 5. 8% nationwide in 2000.Home finance before the 1990s In the United States, it was common to talk about the Traditional fixed 30 twelvemonth mortgage. This instrument required the borrower to make a constant stream of monthly payments during the 30 year term of the loan. These payments were specified in advance so the interest rate on this loan was fixed. Many of these traditional loans allowed borrowers to pre-pay their mortgages without penalty. When interest rates declined, borrowers often took advantage of this feature and refinanced their homes at lower rates.Savings and Loan Associations (SampLs) already offered mortgages with constant payments before the Great Depression, though they were typically less than 12 years long. At the time, other lenders mostly offered short-term mortgages that needed to be refinanced because they had balloon payments at the end. During the Great Depression, many households went into default in part because this refinancing became difficult. One brass solvent was to create the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), which made simultaneous offers to borrowers and lenders.If they both agreed, lenders received HOLC obligations in exchange for their claims against households, although this exchange required bank to recognize a loss on their assets. Households, meanwhile, freed themselves of their previous obligation by accepting new self-amortizing mortgages with fixed payments whose wrong were establish on new assessments of their homes worth. After WWII, banks and SampLs originated many fixed 30 year mortgages and held them to maturity. The results were not always happy.When short-term interest rates rose in the early 1980s, the yield on mortgage assets fell below the cost of paying depositors for their funds. This mismatch was one of the causes for the failure of about half of the 32,234 SampLs that existed in 1986. Because the politics insured the SampLs depositors, it incurred considerable losses and had t o set up a special institution to dispose of the failed SampLs assets. The SampL crisis also boosted the securitization of mortgages by cardinal governments sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Fannie Mae was originally created in 1938 as a government agency. Like Freddie Mac, a twin that Congress chartered in 1970, Fannie Mae eventually became a privately own publicly traded company. Starting with bundles of mortgages purchased from mortgage originators, the GSEs created and sold mortgage-backed securities (MBSs), which delivered to holders the payments made on these mortgages. In exchange for a fee, the GSEs guaranteed the interest and principal on these loans.This meant that, assuming the GSEs remained solvent (or that the government came to their rescue if they ensnare themselves in financial trouble), the only payment risk faced by the holders of these MBSs was the risk that the underlying mortgages would be repaid before they were due (Known as prepaymen t risk). Congress capped the size of the loans that GSEs could accept. In 2006, for example, the maximum loan for single-family homes was $417,000. To limit their credit risk, the GSEs used standards that were similar to those of traditional originators.To secure sufficient collateral, they took only of age(p) mortgage and generally required the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) to be below 80 %. The LTV was computed as the ratio of the mortgage to the propertys market value at the time of origination. Before underwriting loans, the GSEs also looked at the borrowers income and employment status, level of other assets, and history of foreclosures and bankruptcies. Consistent with the rules of GSEs, home lenders before the 1990s only change to borrowers they deemed credit worthy, and generally required documentary evidence on these variables.Until the praxis was penalized by a 1977 law, most lenders also denied mortgages to people living in indisputable redlined communities, where these w ere predominantly inner city neighborhoods with large black populations. An avenue that remained open to borrowers with problematic credit histories was to apply through conventional lenders for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The lenders then had to verify that the loan met FHA requirements and the process for doing so was somewhat more time-consuming than in the case non-FHA mortgages.In spite of these standards, about 8 % of FHA loans were past-due in 1993, while the delinquency rate on standard mortgages was only 3 %. FHA loans were packaged into mortgage-backed securities by Ginnie Mae, a government owned bay window that dealt exclusively with federally guaranteed mortgages. Innovation in the mortgage In the 1990s new firms started to lend money to borrowers that did not qualify for prime mortgages. Rather than impart directly, many of these firms sought the help of mortgage brokers to whom they paid commissions. TheUS Department of Housing and Urba n Developments list of lenders who specialized in such subprime loans increased from 63 lenders in 1993 to 209 in 2005. Wall Street firms Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley all acquired such lenders, though all but Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns did so only in 2006. One obvious difference between subprime and prime loans was that the former had higher interest rates and fees. There was, however, no precise dividing line between the two, so that there was no consensus on how to measure the fraction of subprime loans.According to one definition, the value of these loans grew from about 1% of new mortgages in 1993 to 20% in 2006. At the same time, the FHA share dropped from 11% to 1. 9%. An independent analysis by the Wall Street Journal concluded that 29% of the home loans made in 2006 had high interest rates. A large fraction of these loans refinanced existing loans. In many cases, these refinancing loans increased the borrowers mortgage debt and thereby made it mathematical for households to keep some cash for other purposes.From being virtually unknown in the 1980s, Countrywide Financial became the largest mortgage lender in 2005. A 2003 government report showed that it was also the leading mortgage lender to minority homeowners, as well as one of the largest providers of home loans in low-income communities. When this report was released, Countrywides CEO Angelo Mozilo said Were extremely proud of our accomplishments, as they clearly demonstrate our long-standing commitment to provide all Americans with the opportunity to achieve the dream of homeownership.These results accent our ongoing efforts to discover new approaches to turn individuals and families into homeowners, to develop new loan products that reduce or eliminate the obstacles to homeownership and to make it easier for families to qualify for loans. Contrary to what had been standard practice in the past, lenders such as Countrywide did not offer th e same interest rate to all borrowers. This customization was facilitated by the use of automated statistical models that predicted the likelihood of default on the footing of borrower characteristics.Interestingly, the first statistical tools that came into wide use were those developed by Freddie Mac (called Loan Prospector) and Fannie Mae (called Desktop Underwriter). These were introduced to make it easy for mortgage originators to know whether their loans would be acceptable to the GSEs, though their use expanded well beyond this purpose. One variable that played a key role in these models, and which had apparently been absent from previous methods of qualifying borrowers for mortgage, was the borrowers credit score.While there were several approved commercial credit score formulas (regulators did not allow scores to depend on race, gender, marital status or national origin), the most popular one was the FICO score invented by the Fair Isaac Corporation. This score, which rang ed from about three hundred for poor credit risks to about 850, appeared to give considerable weight to the punctuality with which borrowers had paid their previous obligations. One reason these scores became important in mortgage applications was that studies by Freddie Mac had shown a strong correlation between FICO scores and defaults on mortgages in the pre-1995 period.One type of mortgage that became popular among subprime lenders was known as 2/28 because its rate was fixed for 2 years and then became variable for the remaining 28 years. This mortgage was quite different from adjustable rate mortgage (ARMs) offered to prime borrowers. The introductory rate on 2/28 was above the typical rate offered on 30-year fixed mortgages, whereas ARMs for prime borrowers had sign rates below those on fixed mortgage. Also, rates on 2/28s rose considerably when they were reset subsequently 2 years.According to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Eric Rosengren, the average initial rate for subprime mortgages issued in 2006 was 8. 5% (when the conventional 30-year mortgage rate was below 6. 4%) and reset to 610 basis points above the 6-month LIBOR rate (which averaged about 5% in 2006) after 2 years. In the case of reasonable 2/28 mortgages, there were pre-payment penalties if the mortgage was pre-paid in the first two years but there was no cost associated with pre-paying right before the interest rate was reset.From the point of view of mortgage brokers, this system was attractive because it ensured that many borrowers would refinance after two years, allowing brokers to collect new origination fees. Borrowers were also told that this arrangement was good for them because, if they made timely payments, their FICO score would cleanse and they would be able to refinance at a lower rate. There were widespread allegations that some borrowers in this period received home loans on terms that were substantially less favorable than those of conventional o r FHA loans for which these borrowers would have qualified.It was also claimed that unsophisticated borrowers had been duped into signing mortgage that continued to have severe pre-payment penalties even after interest rates had been reset to high levels. A lawsuit in Michigan claimed that a mortgage broker working for a unit of Lehman Brothers disordered and pressured an elderly couple so that they would sign a loan whose interest rate would reach 17. 5%. Several borrowers told Federal officials that they had simply been laid to regarding their proximo monthly payments. What is certain is that some borrowers agreed to make payments that were impossible for them to keep up with over time.A 79-year old retired engineer named Robert Pyle, for example, moved from a $265,000 to a $352,000 mortgage in 2005 and cleared his credit card debts in the process. Almost immediately after signing the mortgage, which involved over $33,000 in fees, he found himself unable to cover the $2200 month ly payment. Terry Dyer, the broker who issued Robert Pyles mortgage said, Its clear he was living beyond his means, and he might not be able to afford this loan. But legally, we dont have a responsibility to tell him this probably isnt going to work out.Its not our obligation to tell them how they should live their lives. Some subprime loans required less documentation than was traditionally demanded. Instead of requiring proof of income of independent appraisals of the value of the home, some subprime mortgages were based only on stated income or stated value. Stated income loans were very convenient for borrowers who had casual jobs that were difficult to document, though they opened the door to baloney by both borrowers and brokers. Another dimension in which some subprime loans departed from traditional ones was in their down-payments requirements.

Summary of David Suzuki’s “Food Connections” Essay Example for Free

Summary of David Suzukis Food Connections EssayIn his essay Food Connections, David Suzuki states that food is not clean something we eat, but something that connects us to our earth and different places all around it. Fruits and vegetables come into our earth, straight from the soil, already fresh and healthy and we poison it with pesticides, antibiotics, etc. The way we exit now, how we eat and treat our earth is unnatural. Our markets which are now turned into large supermarkets, not only carry fresh food but almost anything else you could perhaps think of. From clothing to office supplies to electronics, you name it. Our food markets have officially turned into everything markets. Feeling connected to our earth is what makes living important. There are so many people, places and things that this beautiful world has to offer and so many times we turn that offer down.Suzuki states that especially in richer countries, such as America and Canada, we reckon to forget where mo st of our food comes from. People dont have to go pick their fruits and vegetables from the dirt weekly. They can safe go to the local supermarket and buy them already packaged and ready to go. In third world countries, going to the market to get some daily fresh foods is not the only reason people go there. They go there to socialize with their friends, listen to people play their music, see artists paint and watch little children run around.It sounds like such a shimmer and lively place to be, but people in richer countries would never know that, they do not have those activities at supermarkets. When Suzuki writes, Food grown naturally without chemicals is pronounced organic, while food that has been treated with pesticides requires no special label (8), shows us that the way we look at our foods, is a little different than how people do in other parts of the world (mostly third world countries). We now have a special name for completely regular andnormal suppuration foods an d the foods that we pour tons of chemicals onto, are considered to be normal at our local supermarkets. Our society cares so much about what our foods look like when we are acquire them, we are always trying to pick out the fruits that are the cleanest or with the least amount of blemishes on them.We do not stop and think to ourselves where they came from or that they were laying in a bunch of dirt and who knows, even animal waste possibly. We are willing to infect our water, air and soil just so that we can have cleaner foods without marks or little insect bites on them. Humans have disconnected themselves from nature. Society is always looking for an easier and quicker way to do things and get things done. Maybe going to the local supermarket is more time efficient but small markets have character and meaning, its not just about the food.

Characteristics of the Clothing Industry

Characteristics of the Clothing IndustryThe high quality fashion market is based on modern technology which has a relatively well paying(a) labour force and designers with various degrees of flexibility. Many firms within this industriousness try to capture the market through various designs which is targeted at meeting the taste and taste sensation of consumers. Most of the firms under the high quality fashion markets ar in the actual and modify countries.The mass return low-down-quality/standard products markets are found in the developing countries. These categories are basically involved in the work of uniforms, under wears, t-shirts and many more. They are found in exporting zones working with major importers if the industrialized countries. Outsourcing in this market is basically to household productions, (Nordas, 2004).The Clothing industries operate under free import quotas. This means that both clothing and textile industries do non have to pay import tariffs when i mporting newfangled materials connected to clothing and textiles. These tariffs are made possible by the World Trade Organisation, to improve the signifi postce of varied clothing among producing countries. As a result of the protectionism, many developing countries producing clothing were able to survive the at xtion. This however did not go well with the developed countries since there were great competition between the developing countries like China and the developed countries.On the break-dance of employment, the industry has engaged the services of millions of people intercontinental and also with early(a) souls who are not registered but work in their homes and factories. The industry was the first to trade on a global dimension, simply because of the low barriers in entering the production of clothing. The industry is governed by the international labour laws, employing the most sensitive part of the labour force with females and ethnic minority as the leading employe es. Most of the employees are immigrants. The European community, and the US and UK also have blacks as the major employees of the industry. Most of the producing countries in the developing manhood have females as the majority of employees in the industry. As indicated above, the total labour force of the clothing industry is made up of 80% of women. This is largely due to the fact that women are immobile and therefore are able to take care of domestic chores. A greater number of the female workforce is also unskilled or semi-skilled. In the developing countries, many of the workers spend up to 12-14 hours per day and are paid with very low wages,THE PRODUCTION CIRCUITThe clothing industry is part of a large circuit which involves the production of textiles. The industry is more fragmented organisationally and less technological in nature. The industry outsource most of it components and products. The garment industry therefore produces to unpredicted consumer markets. The industr y serves as a distribution point for all garments. Through retailer efforts, the organisations geography has been shaped accordingly. The industry is also known as a buyer driven industry, in the sense that they purchase most of the raw materials from producing countries creative activitywide.There are six stages that individual producing countries have passed through, that is from the embryonic stage to the maturity and decline stage of the development process of the clothing industry. This can be seen in ( jut 1 below).The stages indicate how raw materials flow within the industry, from the fabric production stage, design, preparation, production, distribution and consumption stage. In the reverse state is the information flow from customer orders down to the fabric production stage. There is no much technological change since inception of the clothing industry. The majority still uses the manual operations due to the complex nature of the production process.The clothing industry can be related to a supply chain function, where activities flow from raw materials to textile designs, apparel plants through distribution centers and other retail stores to consumers. The chain is seen as an integrated network of marketing from production stage to the finish product to consumers. The various activities are located where each can be able to make a contribution to the value of the finished product. The various variables considered in the industry include quality, cost, reliability, access to quality in identifys and transportation cost. From the phase 2 above, the black lines represents the flow of goods whereas the white lines represent the flow of information. The arrows indicate Demand-Pull System, where the design of a product is made from customer orders, (Nordas, 2004). The supply chain indicates the interplay of some(prenominal) companies, where logistics and other services are coordinated. In the industrialized countries, most companies engage the service s of consultants or independent service providers in the provision of logistics.PRODUCTION personify AND TECHNOLOGYThe clothing industry is characterized by low intensity of capital and high intensity of labour. The plant size is very small with simple technology.Figure 4 represent percentage of leading exporters of Clothing worldwide. The guess compares percentage of 2000 and 2011. Asia dominates the clothing industry in-terms of exports with over 50% of world market. China has doubled their plowshare within 11years of operation, with approx. 37% of the total exports worldwide. Closely followed is the European Union and Euro extra with a combined total of 35% of world export share, which I a combination of intra regional exports.Figure 5 represents share in value for exporters for 2011. China leads with 38% representing 154 billion Dollars in 2011, (www.wto.org) European union closely follows with 36% of Share in value representing 144billion US Dollars including intra regional trade. Bangladesh also did better in 2011 with a share in value of 5%, representing an amount of 20billion US Dollars, www.wto.org).LEADING IMPORTERS ( SHARE IN VALUE AND PERCENTAGE)The EU is the leading importer of clothing worldwide, with combined percentage of 67.2% of total imports. The EU imports much of its clothing from China. Available records indicates that EU imports about 39% if Clothing from China, 14% from washout, 7.7% from India, 6.3% from Bangladesh and 3.6% from Tunisia, ( www.ec.europa.eu). It is also evidenced that China exports clothing more than imports. Whereas China leads in exporting clothing, in-terms of imports, they only imports about 0.90% of world clothing. The US is the second largest importer of clothing as evidenced on figure 4 above. The US imports about 20.5% of clothing in the country, followed by Japan with 7.6%. The remain countries imports less than 3% worldwide respectively, (WTO 2011 chart II.69)The share in value for the leading importer of clothing (EU) is 60%, representing an amount of 290Billion Dollars. The EU is therefore the largest importer of clothing worldwide. The US is the second largest importer of clothing with about 18% share in value, representing 89 Billion US DollarsTOP TEN SUPPLIERSThe clothing industry has about ten major suppliers. China plays a leading role with about 29.45million Euros in 2011 as compared to 2007 where it made a supply of approximately 21.9million Euros. Bangladesh also improved in their supply in 2011 with 7.5million Euros as compared with 2007 with a supply of 4.4million Euros. India also had a slight increase in supply for 2011 with approximately 4.5million Euros as compared to 2007 where the supply was approx. 3.8million Euros. However, Turkey had a decline in supply in 2011 with an amount of 8.2million Euros as compared with 2007 with approx. 8.9million Euros. Other countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Vietnam had their supply below 2million Euros as evidenced o n figure 2.Top 10 suppliers in clothing (million Euros)Basic characteristics of the industry (share in value added and employment, structure andcharacteristics of the production process)The role of trade policy (multilateral tariffs and quotas, grey range protectionism, trade conflicts, preferential trade, etc.)Trade policies are rules and regulations governing the operations of international trade among countries worldwide. Trade policies play a major role in the industrialization of the clothing and textiles market.Regarding market access, trade policiesTEXTILES AND CLOTHING AGREEMENTThe textiles and clothing industry has long history in-terms of agreement for protection in trade across the US and Europe. Voluntary export restraints were agreed upon by China, Japan, Hong Kong, and India to enable them export cotton products to the US in the 1950s. The General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs were incorporated in the agreement with the Long Term Agreement (LTA) on Cotton. This agre ement was later replaced by the Multi-Fibre Agreement in 1974, (Nordas, 2004). The main purpose of the MFA was to open up the certified markets so to limit the disruptions of markets. The MFA was also extended to cover all man-made fibres in-terms of restrictions. However, according to Nordas 2004, the MFA violated the multilateral system principles as followsThe most favoured principle was not adhered toInstead applying tariffs, it rather applied quantitative restrictionsDeveloping countries were discriminated againstIt was not also very transparent for easy understandingBy 1st January, 2005, the Textiles and Clothing were in full integrated in GATT which also gave way for quotas to be fully integrated making it easy for member countries to trade without trade barriers. In the views of Nordas, the eliminating quotas lead to benefit economic gains of about 42% of the Uruguay round liberation, and about 65% for dynamic models. In her view, Nordas indicated that much of the Welfare gains went to the importing countries where as the exporting countries made eudaemonia loss through the static version of the model and welfare gain through the dynamic model. A tripartite committee report on promoting mediocre globalization in textiles and clothing indicates that phasing out quotas give benefit China, being the leader in exporting of clothing in the industry, where as the importing countries will lose market share, (www.ilo.org) .The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) ended in 2004, which led to an increase in competition in the clothing market. Some countries were bear upon as a result of the new entrants of the Asian countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, and other competitors like India and Bangladesh which are traditional exporters. This led to a decline in the implication of clothing from the affected countries by the US at an annual rate of 13.4%. With the implementation of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) which were imposed by the US and EU on t he importation of textiles and clothing from China, inroads were created for some developing countries to experience marginal growth in their exports. The PTAs also made it possible for small countries like Madagascar and Haiti to increase their exports by 26% and 15% respectively, (www.ito.org).THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENTThe US Free Trade Agreements has given the textiles and apparel industry the opportunity to enter in the world market and compete freely. The agreement enables the reduction of tariffs rates and improves the intellectual property rules and regulations, (Web.ita.doc.gov). The US has therefore signed agreements with the following countries and Institutions on textile and clothing industry. noted among them are Australia, Bahrain, CAFTA-DR, Chile, Colombia, Israel, Korea, Morocco, NAFTA, Oman, Panama, Peru and Singapore, (www.otexa.ita.doc). These agreements assist foreign governments to ensure that non-discriminating laws and regulations are enforced to streamline trad e relations between the US and member countries, (www.otexa.ita.doc). The FTA provides that transparent measures be put in place for effective rules to be enforced. The FTA also ensures that all non-tariff barriers are removed completely, which opens the markets of the member countries to the US products. Under this agreement, all goods that qualify are utter to be duty free the US markets.

Psychosocial Interventions for Psychosis Evaluation

Psychosocial Interventions for Psychosis EvaluationIntroductionThis spread over aims to critic all toldy appraise psychosocial interpositions (PSI) that atomic number 18 utilised when working with obscure cases. In order to do this the term complex is explored with reference to quite a piffling with psychosis. Different types of complexity atomic number 18 p miserableed with a much detailed examination of a specific complexity the relationship among snapper mis usance and psychosis ( soprano diagnosis). The effects that bosom molest and psychosis have upon the go drug user and their cargon givers atomic number 18 push throughlined.An overview of the use of psychosocial interventions when working with complex cases is given. This discussion is then center on go badicular interventions for dual diagnosis that show promise for enhancing service user and carer experience, videlicet a integrated preaching approach of cognitive-behavioural therapy, motivational intervi ewing and family therapy. These interventions are critically appraised with reference to evidence base, policy and guidelines.Examples from clinical practice are given to illustrate potential barriers, and outcomes when implementing such(prenominal) interventions with service users with complex needs and their caregivers. Strategies to thrash such barriers are generated and recommendations are made.Aliases are used at bottom the scenarios of this report in order to maintain anonymity of the service users and carers described to illustrate points and slips.complexnessThe term complex case is referred to frequently within genial wellness literature, policies and guidelines unless thither are actually few definitive ex protrudeations of what the term real means. Griffiths Allan (2007) discuss how the term complex case is ill defined within affable health literature summarising how the term is often used to touch on hazard where people appear to have many inter associate need s that require several, coordinated responses from multiple services. The term complex case is often used to de n superstar needs that services do not fully understand or provide for effectively. This report aims to explore the term complexity in relation to soulfulness cases of those with salutary mental illness.ComplexMade of many diverse things or parts that are connected difficult to understand(Soanes Stevenson 2005)Interpreting the above commentary of complex within the Oxford Dictionary of English i could describe a complex case as a service user with more than one problem or need that are connected making the case more difficult to work with. For shell having a diagnosis of dementia praecox and macrocosm detained within a medium secure unit. A person fitting this example would potentially present the mental health professional with more challenges than a person with moderate depression living with their assertive family.Wilson, Holt and Greenhalgh (2001) discuss the term complexity in relation to human health and illness. They suggest there are a number of situationors (outlined in panel 1) that we all posses that makes us all complex. They go on to suggest that human illness and behaviour are not predicable and n both support be thought of as a simple cause and effect system. Again, adding to the complexity of individuals that because one individual responds one way to an subject does not mean all will. Although this list of human complexities was written with medical practice in mind it applies to all and provides the baseline of those service users we work with in mental health services.Table 1 (Wilson, Holt, Greenhalgh 2001 p685)Factors that add the human complexityThe human body is made up of multiple interacting and self regulating physiological systems including biochemical and neuroendocrine feedback loops.An individuals behaviour is determined partly by an internal set of rules based on past experiences and partly by unique and a daptive reaction to external stimuli.The web of relationships in which individuals exist contained varied and powerful determinants of their beliefs expectations and behaviour.Individuals and their present(prenominal) social relationships are embedded within wider social political and heathen systems which can influence outcomes in entirely novel and unpredictable ways.All of these interacting systems are dynamic and fluid.A small shift in one part of the web of interacting systems may pull to a much larger dislodges in another part through amplification of effects.If we bear this in mind, that all reality are complex, then maybe the term complexity needs to be described as a continuum (Figure 1). That the more problems a person has or the more difficulties they flavor the further they move up a complexity continuum.People with a diagnosis of serious mental illness (as with all people) can face a large number of problems and difficulties through the course of their lives for example, positive symptoms, negative symptoms, anxiety, depression, mania. When adding this to the complexity of an individual this stupefys more challenges for the health care professional, the individual and their carers/families. However, these experiences also produce problems and difficulties for the service user making their case even more complex. For example the impact of experiencing voices does not end here but effects other orbital cavitys of a persons life (see Table 2).Table 2.Laura Case scanLaura first started to hear voices at the age of 9 and at first these did not bother her. As she got a bit older and discovered that this wasnt normal her voices started to become critical of and derogatory towards her. To bang with this Laura started to experiment with Illicit drugs and alcohol as this blocked out the voices for a short metre. However, this also made Laura lose her inhibitions and she would participate in sexual acts with men in her local area. This fuelled t he voices and they became much more negative. So to have a go at it Laura would take more drugs. Eventually Laura would run out of money and so would shoplift and resorted to prostitution. Her life became very chaotic and at 16 her mother kicked her out. Laura was at one time sleeping in neighbours gardens, sheds, anywhere she could. Laura lost touch with all her family and friends, her physical health suffered and she ended up very underweight and her voices became worse. Eventually Laura was found by the police sleeping semi-clothed in a car park under the influence of drugs and alcohol. It was at this point she was admitted to an acute mental health unit.From the case of Laura it can be seen how not even having a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but experiencing positive symptoms can result in stigma, social exclusion and have a broad impact on a persons life. Lauras case was exacerbated by the use of illicit substances and alcohol demonstrating how substance twist around can add greatly to the complexity of an individual.inside the literature it can be seen that there are many factors that add to the complexity of a person with mental health needs including medication rebarbative symptoms (Tarrier et al 1993), receiving care within secure forensic units (DOH 2005), psychological reactance (Moore, Sellwood, Stirling 2000), poor social functioning (Cather 2005, Couture et al 2006), , learning disabilities (DOH 2001a), insight (David 1990 and Buckley et al 2001), physical health (Marder et al 2003) homelessness (Randall et al 2006), and dual diagnosis (DOH 2002). These complexities have been recognised by the government and national drivers have been produced to guide mental health professionals and services to enable delivery and provision of the best services. For example The National Service Framework for Mental Health (1999a) outlines a number of interventions for several complex classifys including some of those mentioned above.Rankin Regan (2004) dis cuss how the term complexity means that there is no generic complex needs case. This therefore suggests each individual has a unique interaction between their own health and social care needs, therefore, requiring personalised responses from mental health services. Adopting an approach that incorporates psychosocial interventions could help to achieve a personalised response and provide individualised, trim care for the service user and their care givers.Psychosocial InterventionsThe use of psychosocial interventions (PSI) is advocated in national drivers such as Schizophrenia Core intervention is the handling and management of schizophrenia in adults in primary and secondary care (NICE 2009). This guidance recommends that all service users and their families are offered psychosocial interventions as a treatment of schizophrenia. Also, documents such as From set to action The chief nursing officers review of mental health nursing (DOH 2006) recommends the use of psychological ther apies to improve outcomes for service users and The mental health policy effectuation guide (DOH 2001b) advocates the use of psychosocial interventions through a variety of service delivery modes. Demonstrating the emphasis that is placed upon such interventions in the treatment of serious mental illness.Mairs and Bradshaw (2005 scallywag 28) suggest PSI is a regurgitate of evidence-based interventions for people with psychosis and their care givers. The term is generally used to include both models of service delivery such as assertive outreach and specific interventions, for example Family Intervention and cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). PSIs aim is to reduce stress experienced by an individual with psychosis or help him or her to cope with stress more effectively.As a result of adopting a PSI approach an individualised service is offered to the service user to help experience their needs utilising a variety of interventions and services with great emphasis being placed upon collaboration.Psychosocial interventions assume a complex bind between biological, environmental, and sociological factors which suggests that ambient stress, together with life events may trigger onset or relapse of, mental health in some people (Gamble Curthoys 2004). A model which displays this link is the Stress Vulnerability Model by Zubin and Spring (1977 cited in Norman, Ryrie 2004). This model helps explain the aetiology, course and outcome of mental illness, demonstrating how stress has different effects on individuals.The Stress Vulnerability Model (See figure 2) suggests that some people are more vulnerable to stress than others and that when an individuals stress threshold is passed they can become seedy i.e. experience positive symptoms. In terms of a complex case it could be proposed that an individuals complexities cause stress in themselves and/or increase a persons vulnerability to stress. An example of how The Stress Vulnerability Model can be illustrated to enable it to be divided with a service user with complex needs, using an at large(p) to understand analogy can be seen in Appendix 1. As previously mentioned the aim of PSI is to reduce stress or to help cope with stress better therefore, it can be seen how the Stress Vulnerability Model plays a central portion in providing psychosocial interventions.Substance Misuse and PsychosisOver 50% of people with a severe mental illness also use illicit drugs and/or alcohol at hazardous takes (Cleary et al 2009) and even low levels of substance misuse can have detrimental effects and cause serious complications (Barrowclough et al 2001). The combination of substance misuse and mental health problems (dual diagnosis) is associated with a range of social, behavioural, physical and psychological problems (see table 3) providing challenges for mental health services and adding to the complexity of an individual (Hussein 2002). In addition to this complexity The national service mannequin of mental health (DOH 1999a) identifies patients whom misuse substances and have a diagnosis of serious mental illness as a population of greater risk of branding and exclusion from existing service provision. Demonstrating some of the factors that add to an individuals complexity.Table 3Complications posed by dual diagnosis (Cleary 2009, Drake Mueser 2000, Clark 1996, Dixon, McNarey Lehman 1995, Griffiths Allen 2007 and Gibbins Kipping 2006)Increased risk of Suicide,Self Neglect,Violence, unequal compliance with treatment,More inpatient stays worsening psychiatric symptomsRelapse,Homelessness,HIV and Hepatitis,Contact with criminal justice systemPrejudice and Stigma.Negative impacts on hearty relationshipsFinancial resources (of individual and/or family/friends)Family Relationships i.e. increased burden, increased expressed emotionWithin literature the most comm only if reported condition that people with serious mental illness use illicit drugs is to self medicate, for ex ample, to relieve negative symptoms of schizophrenia (Littlejohn 2005). However, as Conley Benishek (2003) report there is the additional complexity of trauma that has lead to the use of substances for various reasons including dissociation, and modelling from parents. They continue recommending that nurses working within the substance misuse field should be trained in picking up such information. If an approach adopting psychosocial interventions was utilised and therapies such a cognitive behavioural therapy were delivered then this historical information may be identified and dealt with appropriately. Therefore, leading to a different delivery of services compared to someone who uses substances to self medicate. However, the mental health professional moldiness also bear in mind that service users also use substances for the same reasons as others (Littlejohn 2005).Even though the NICE (2007) Guidelines, Drug Misuse Psychosocial Interventions recommends that CBT be offered to th ose with anxiety and depression who are stabilised with their drug use, but does not discuss its use with those with psychosis. There is growing literature examining the use of CBT for those with a dual diagnosis (Cleary et al 2009, Barrowclough et al 2001, Baker et al 2006, Weiss et al 2007 and haddock et al 2003) although, as mentioned earlier the amount of literature in this area is limited. Also the CBT that is delivered to the participants within the studies has been adapted to suit the needs of those with dual diagnosis. This integrated treatment, namely C-BIT (Cognitive-Behavioural Integrated Treatment), has a number of components Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Motivational Interviewing and Family Interventions. C-BIT is not only close to(predicate) adapting psychosocial interventions to suit those with dual diagnosis but it is also about service provision and development (Thylstrup Johansen 2009, Graham et al 2006, Graham et al 2003). Such interventions are used as part o f an individualised treatment plan that incorporates the key principles of working with dual diagnosis (see table4).Table 4 (Drake et al 1993 cited in Abou-Saleh 2004)Principles of treatment of substance misuse in people with severe mental illnessAssertive outreach to facilitate engagement Close monitoring to provide structure and social reinforcement Integrated concurrent service Comprehensive, wide range of interventions Stable living situation Flexibility and specialisation (modified approaches) Stages of treatment engagement, persuasion, active treatment and relapse prevention Longitudinal perspective for relapsing and chronic overthrow Optimism instilling hope in patients and carersMotivational Interviewing (MI)The aim of this intervention is to increase a persons ability to recognise and do something about any problems they have (Gamble Curthoys 2004) and that change would be desirable (Kipping 2004 and Miller Rollnick 2002).This approach conveys hope and is non-confrontat ional in it style (Kemp et al 1996) and is largely used within substance misuse services (DOH 1999b). This intervention is used alongside Prochaska DiClemente (1986 Cited in Kipping 2004) Model of Change (see Figure 3) to provide a framework of which interventions should be used at which stage of change a service user is at. Motivational Interviewing is mainly used as a persuasion tool to move people from precontemplation/ contemplation to decision and active change. iv General principles are followed as outlined by Miller Rollnick (2002) expressing empathy, developing discrepancy, rolling with resistance, and supporting self efficacy in order to facilitate this change. When a service user demonstrates that they have arrived at the decision or action stage of the cycle of change cognitive behavioural interventions are then commenced.Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)The aim of CBT is to lessen distress caused by negative feelings it attempts to do this by changing the thoughts ( cognitive) and beliefs that underpin them. It can also alter actions (behavioural) and circumstances that are affecting these thoughts and feelings (Nelson 2005). This approach has been written about for many years and has arguably evolved from the work of Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist whose work dates back to the 1950s. There is a considerable amount of literature examining the use of CBT with psychosis (Jones et al 2004). Generally the research and literature supporting the use of CBT for Those with serious mental illness often excludes people who misuse illicit drugs and/or alcohol for example Garety et al (2008), and Jackson et al (2008).The topics covered within CBT sessions for those with dual diagnosis differs from that of someone who does not use substances. For example Baker et al (2006) outlines components of CBT sessions used within their rill. They include, presenting the model of problematic substance use and psychotic symptoms (Graham et al 2004), specific techniques fo r managing substance use, and identification of triggers and beliefs that could lead to substance use and increase psychotic symptoms. Finally a large component of CBT for dual diagnosis is around relapse prevention, identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and managing cravings.Family Interventions (FI)A sexual intercourse of a person with a diagnosis of schizophrenia may experience negative consequences in many areas including emotionally, socially, psychologically and economically, as they adjust to their new role as a care giver (Reader 2002). How the care giver attempts to cope with these consequences can have an effect on their relative. Research has shown that expressed emotion within families could lead to relapse in schizophrenia (Brown et al 1962, Kavanagh 1992). Often a person with dual diagnosis is only marginally engaged with services but may have regular contact with their families who provide financial and psychological support (Thylstrup Johansen 2009). Putting them under immense strain but also in prime position to work with mental health services to promote engagement and treatment adherence.There is a vast evidence base to support FI for promoting recovery from psychosis (Pharoah et al 2006, Pilling et al 2002). The family dynamics of a person with a dual diagnosis is often impacted greatly collectable to the complexities discussed earlier and there is growing evidence to suggest how family involvement can have positive impacts on outcomes for both the service user and their families (Fischer et al 2008 Dixon, McNarey and Lehman 1995). Within integrated treatment Barrowclough et al (2001) use family interventions as a means of encouraging care givers to adopt motivational interviewing styles to improve motivation, and treatment adherence amongst other interventions. See Table 5 to illustrate how minimal family work in the form of psycho-education enhances the experience of service users and their care givers, even when staff have had no fo rmal training.Unfortunately, family relationships of those with dual diagnosis can often be put under vast amounts of strain that cause the family dynamics to breakdown. Leading to people losing contact with their friends and families. This therefore makes family interventions very difficult as often one or both parties (care giver(s) and service user) do not wish to accept family work. In addition to this there are service users who do not wish their care givers be informed of their illicit drug use as they are worried of the consequences this may bring, for example negative appraisal due to the stigma surrounding substance misuse. From experience this can be overcome in some cases through normalisation and psycho-education. Providing a skinny rationale of why care givers should be informed and how doing this can help the situation. Although, this often takes a lot of guidance and motivational interviewing techniques.Table 5Psycho-education with Laura and her Father.Once Laura was admitted to the rehabilitation unit where she is currently residing her father got in touch. Laura was keen to build on the relationship between her and her father and started to visit him once a week. Staff at the unit (whom are not trained in family interventions) thought it would be a good idea to spend some time with Laura and her father to help them both gain an understanding of each others situation, thoughts, feelings and behaviours. After explaining the benefits of this to Laura she consented and her dad was offered to come and have a few informal sessions with Laura and her named nurse. Lauras dad explained how he had never been given any information about schizophrenia or substance misuse and how he knew very little of how these effected his daughter. This information was shared with both Laura and her dad. The stress vulnerability model was explained to Lauras dad with a view to building on his understanding of why his daughter experiences psychotic symptoms and providin g a reason why she uses drugs. Leading on to state how this only causes more problems (all of this was discussed with Laura at an earlier date). Lauras Dad was given the opportunity to voice any concerns he had about regaining contact with Laura i.e. financial drain, crime, and picking up the peices. These problems were discussed and brainstormed with both Laura and her dad to identify ways to prevent these happening, and produce a contingency plan if either person felt they demand support. Lauras Dad reported that these sessions made it easier for him to build on lost relationships with his daughter and reduced his fears that he would have to deal with it all if things went wrong. Laura also felt much more positive as now she was starting to rebuild relationships providing more motiviation to change and sustain change. Her mood meliorate fairly and she had more hope for the future. Arguably the benefits Laura experienced may have inevitably occurred without staff intervention.Li terature ReviewA small number of studies examining interventions for use with people with dual diagnosis will now be appraised.Two of the Studies are Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) and are considered the gold standard method for evaluating treatment efficiency (Greenhalgh 2006). They are verbalise to produce the least biased results as random samples are used to minimise the possibility of error in design and conduct (Roberts, 1999).Barrowclough et al (2001) and haddock et al (2003)Barrowclough et al (2001) produced one of the first robust RCTs to examine the impact an integrated intervention programme consisting of CBT,MI and FI had upon service users. The design of the trail was robust in that it was a RCT, ensured as far as possible good treatment fidelity (making certain that the treatment being delivered is the one intended (Leeuw 2009)) and the assessors in the trial were blind to group allocation (reducing the risk of bias). However there were some limitations of this s tudy such as small numbers of participants, short follow up period, and treatment was delivered by cognitive behavioural therapists. In reality it is not possible for all service users with dual diagnosis to receive interventions from a cognitive behavioural therapist. All of these limitations question the generalisibility of the results.Although care givers were in receipt of interventions their outcomes were not reported in this study. It would have been interesting to see these results even those whom were in the learn group received more interventions than the majority of families of substance misusers get (based on experience). One could hypothesise that the results of the two groups were not too dissimilar due to the fact that both sets of care givers were being supported.The Haddock et al (2003) study is a follow on from the Barrowclough et al (2001) study reporting further service user outcomes, cost effectiveness and carer outcomes over an 18month period. The robustness of the study was discussed above. This study found quite significant positive outcomes of those whom received the integrated intervention programme. Results demonstrated improved outcomes for the service users general and social functioning, and reduced number of negative symptoms to a significant degree. When examining this result with experience from practice it could be hypothesised that when a service users level of functioning increases they rely less upon their care givers. Thereupon improved functioning has a positive indirect effect upon carers. There was also a small remainder in the percentage of days of abstinence between the two groups with the treatment group proving more favourable. However, the clinical significance of this is questionable. Although carer outcomes were reported within the Haddock et al (2001) paper they are only briefly examined with more of an emphasis based on cost effectiveness. However, the results do show promise for care givers within the treatme nt programme, showing some trends towards better personal outcomes. At the 12 month follow up the treatment group demonstrated a reduction in needs and objective and subjective burden. However, these results were not statistically clinically significant. Haddock et al (2003) suggest more intensive work should be done with families due to the high rates of expressed emotion.Baker et al (2006)Baker et al (2006) also produced a RCT to examine the impact a series of sessions of CBT and MI has upon service users with a dual diagnosis. This study was not as robust as the Barrowclough et al (2001) study in relation to randomisation and assessor blindness. Within this study participants were paid for their expenses and time serve uping assessments. Although the authors suggest this was not enough to influence responses, this procedure was not carried out in similar studies such as the one by Barrowclough and colleagues (Barrowclough et al 2001 and Haddock et al 2003) which should be consid ered when comparing results. Another negative to this study as with that of Barrowclough et al(2001) was that the interventions were carried out by highly trained psychologists let out the argument of generalisability. On a positive note this study did have a larger number of participants almost double that of Barrowclough et al (2001). Baker et al (2006) suggest both this trial and the one carried out by Barrowclough and colleagues suggest improvements in substance misuse. However from the results these improvements appear minimal. Baker et al (2006) also report that there was no significant difference in improvement of functioning or positive symptoms providing opposite and contrast results of the Barrowclough et al (2001) study.Baker et al (2006) cease that this study demonstrates that this challenging case group (service users with dual diagnosis) is able to engage in CBT and demonstrate positive results. Although this excellent therapy-attendance could be questioned due to th e use of retribution for time and travel.Graham et al 2006This study carried out by Graham et al (2006) differs from those discussed above in that it is not a RCT, it is a preliminary paygrade of the impact of C-BIT training on 3 assertive outreach teams and service user outcomes and is not an RCT. Care co-ordinators from 5 assertive outreach teams were allocated to two groups. One of which received immediate C-BIT training and the other groups training was delayed. Results of the training demonstrated increased confidence of care co-ordinators in working with substance misuse and mental illness. Graham et al (2006) suggest these findings illustrate the effectiveness of such training and highlights the extent to which implementation actually occurs. They suggest their findings add evidence to the recommendations made for implementation of interventions for this client group presented in Mental Health Implementation Guide Dual Diagnosis Good Practice (DOH 2002).Graham et al (2006) also discuss the impact of such training upon service user outcomes. The results highlighted an improvement in engagement, reduction in alcohol use and a reduction in positive alcohol related beliefs. Demonstrating that this team approach to C-BIT shows promise. This report does not measure impact on care giver outcomes.All of the reports mentioned here suggest further research is needed to establish a firm evidence base for integrated treatment programmes that use interventions such as CBT, MI and FI. Nonetheless, they do provide a good grounding for recommending that such interventions show promise for enhancing service user and carer experience. In order to do this there may need to be a change in service provision. For example for a change within treatment philosophy of a team may mean that all staff must be trained preferably at the same time (Graham 2004). This causes barriers on numerous levels such as cost implications of all staff receiving training, back assemble of their hours, cost of trainer and venue etc.. Potential barriers may occur when implementing these newly acquired skills and knowledge due to feelings of diminished confidence as part of the learning work on (Atherton 2008).DiscussionSubstance misuse services separated for mental health services some time ago (Conley Benishek 2003) and as a result mental health professionals have limited training and experience in working with people who misuse substances. In addition, many drug and alcohol workers have only had minimal education in mental health issues (Frankel 1996). This could result in mental health professionals and substance misuse workers feeling unequipped in working with people with a dual diagnosis resulting in them receiving inadequate care. A way to overcome this is for more health professionals to acknowledge their deficits in knowledge and attend training.Perhaps as a result of having minimal education in the field of substance misuse, negative attitudes towards those who misuse substances is still present (Howard Chung 2000 and Richmond promote 2003). This can take the form of moralistic and stereotypical attitudes leading to mistrust, suspicion and avoidance on both sides. Evidence indicates that when such attitudes are held problems of substance misuse are often overlooked and not dealt with or referred on (Howard Chung 2000).Table 6Luke Case StudyLuke was brought up in a deprived area of a large city and often experimented with illicit substances with his friends. He had a very poor relationship with his mother and siblings (although he did reside with them) and never adage his father. Luke started to hear voices at the age of 18 and was soon admitted to an acute unit where he commenced anti-psychotic medication. Luke was discharged from hospital back to his home. Lukes motivation was draining and he was experiencing little enjoyment in life. it wasnt long before he stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication because it was making him put o n weight and causing side effects. L

Basic Firewall Operation Computer Science Essay

Basic Firew every last(predicate) Operation Computer Science EssayA firew every is a piece of softw ar program or hardware that tense ups all networktraffic between the electronic computer, local network or commercial network and meshwork.Firewall is a component of a computer placement or networkdesigned to block unauthorized access code whileallowedcommunication.It is a device or group of devicesconfigureddeny, encrypt, decrypt, or proxy all (inside and outside) trafficteambetween different security dobrinys based on a setFirewalls privy be implemented in hardware or software program,ora combination of both.A firewall posterior be few rulesdetermine what traffic isbeing permitted inside or outside your radix network.Dep annuling on the casingfirewall in place, access to certainIP addresses or domainnames, or you piece of ass block certain personas of traffic by city blockofTCP / IPthe ports they usage.There are basically four mechanisms utilize by innkeeperssecurity limittraffic.A device or program can use more than one of these inrelationshipto flapher for more depth harborion.The four mechanismsofpacket filtering, circuit-level gateway, theproxy-server and applicationGateway.However, Firewall has some drawbacks.Initial equipment cost is the main factor that determines theBetter communication technology network security invited.The firewall cannot protect against attacks that bypassfirewall.ToFor example, dial-in and dial-out access.The firewall does not protect against internal threats.The firewall cannot protect against transmission of the virus transmissionprograms or files.It would be impractical and perhapsimpossible to scanall inward files, emails and messages forvirusTime to time, the use of cheaper Internet andlinksmuch faster.This leaves galore(postnominal) people always want touse long time. It isincreasing the exposure of computers to variousthreatsInternet.When using an anti-virus software protectscomputersviruses, not other for ms of Internet intruders.A serverSafetybodyguard keep between your computer and the Internet,decide what doors to open, and that can comeOverview of Firewall -IIA firewall examines all traffic sent between two networks to imagine if it meets certain criteria. If so, is routed between the networks, otherwise it stops. A firewall filters incoming and out dismissal traffic. You can excessively manage public access to private networked resources such as legions applications. It can be used to record all attempts to enter the private network and trigger alarms when hostile or unauthorized entry attempt. Firewalls can filter packets based on their source and destination addresses and port numbers. This is cognise as address filtering. Firewalls can also filter specific flakes of network traffic. This is also known as protocol filtering because the decision to forward or reject traffic depends on the protocol used, such as HTTP, FTP or Telnet. Firewalls can also filter traffic by pac ket attri thate or state.A firewall cannot resist individual users with modems to dial in or outside the network without going through the firewall at all. Employee misconduct or negligence cannot be controlled by firewalls. Policies regarding use and misuse of passwords and user accounts must be strictly enforced. These are focussing issues that must be asked in the planning of any security policy, but cannot be solved with firewalls alone. 52.1Advantages of FirewallsFirewalls remove a number of advantages. They can stop incoming requests for serve, fundamentally in unspoilt, as may be prohibited or rlogin RPC services such as NFS.They can control access to other services such as bars appellants from certain IP addresses, use the filtering service (incoming and upcoming), for example, to stop hiding information about FTP, in writing, for example, allowing access only to certain directories or systemsAre more profitable than ensuring every guest on the corporate network, as i t is often only one or a few systems firewall concentrate. They are safer for every guest, because of the complexity of the software on the machine which attains it easier for security holes appear.2.2 Disadvantages of FirewallsFirewalls are not the alpha and omega of network security. They have some disadvantages, such asIt is a focal point for attack, and if a hacker penetrates the firewall that can have unlimited access to the corporate network.You can prevent legitimate users access to services of value, for example, business users will not be released to the web or when working outside the home to a business user can not access the organization track network.No security measure against attacks from the back door, in May and encourage users enter and exit through the door, especially if the restrictions are too sodding(a) service. Examples of entry points to the back door of the network business are modems, and import and export unit. The security policy should cover such as pects as well.They can be a bottleneck for the flow, since all assignions must pass through the firewall system.Firewall systems themselves can not protect the network against smuggling of import or export of bodily to prohibit such game programs firewalls as attachments to email messages. Smuggling could also be an important source of infection if users download software from external in the buffsletters late Melissa virus and the Love Bug have been smuggled into the e-mails to unknown recipients. This is an area that security policy must be addressed. There are software programs that can help in this instance MIMEsweeper runs on the firewall and monitoring of e-mail attachments before you let them pass. It will remove potentially dangerous attachments or prevent the mail from all over.The main disadvantage of a firewall is that it protects against the aggressor inside. Like most computer crimes are perpetrated by corporate internal users, a firewall offers microscopic protect ion against this threat. For example, an employee may not be able to email sensitive data on the locate, but may be able to copy on a floppy and after it.Therefore, organizations need to balance the amount of time and money they spend on the firewall with one on other aspects of information security. 3Firewall government agency IIIThere are two methods of denial of access used by firewalls. A firewall may allow all traffic through unless it meets certain criteria, or you can deny all traffic unless it meets certain criteria (see bodure 3.1). The type of criteria used to determine whether to allow traffic through varies from one type of firewall to another. Firewalls may be concerned about the type of traffic, or source or destination addresses and ports. They can also use complex rule bases that psychoanalyze the application data to determine whether traffic should be allowed to pass. How a firewall determines what traffic to pass depends on the network layer it operates.5Figur e 3.1 Basic Firewall OperationFirewall Types IVA real firewall is hardware and software that intercepts data between the Internet and your computer. All data traffic must pass through it, and the firewall allows the data is allowed through the corporate network.Firewalls are typically implemented using one of four major architecturesPacket FiltersApplication GatewaysCircuit -level Gateways res publica -full inspection3.1 Packet FiltersThe low gear line of defence in protecting firewalls and most fundamental is the packet filtering firewall. Packet filters operate at the network layer to examine incoming and outgoing packets and applying a fixed set of rules for determining whether packets are allowed to pass.The firewall packet filtering is generally very fast because it does not take into account some of these data in the packet. Just analyze the nous of IP packet, IP addresses, source and destination, and combinations of ports and then applies filtering rules.For example, it is leisurely to filter all packets destined to port 80, which could be wearing a Web server. The administrator can decide which port 80 is off limits except to certain IP subnets, and a packet filter would suffice. Packet filtering is fast, flexible, absolute (no changes required on the client) and inexpensive. Most routers offer capacities of packet filtering and pure firewall packet filter does not require powerful hardware.This type of filter is commonly used in businesses small and medium enterprises that need to control users can or can not go. IP addresses can be distorted by this type of filter media itself is not sufficient to stop an intruder from accessing your network. However, a packet filter is an important component of a server solution for complete security. 4 varaFig 4.1 packet filtering43.2 Circuit-level GatewaysA step above the standard packet filtering firewall, but still considered part of the same architecture, are the gates of the circuit, also known as Statefu l Packet Inspection. In the circuit level firewall, all connections are monitored and connections that are deemed valid are allowed to cross the firewall.This usually means that the client behind the firewall can initiate any type of session, but customers outside the firewall can not see or connect to a machine protected by the firewall.State inspections usually occur in the network layer, which makes it fast and preventing suspect packets travel up the protocol stack. Unlike static packet filtering, however, an inspection of State takes decisions on the basis of all data in the packet (which corresponds to all levels of the OSI model).Using this information, the firewall builds dynamic state tables. Use these tables to keep track of connections through the firewall instead of allowing all packets meeting the requirements of all rules to adopt, allows only the packets that are part of a valid connection, prepared social. The firewall packet filtering is popular because they tend t o be cheaper, faster and relatively easy to configure and maintain. 4varaFig. 7.2 Circuit Proxy3.3 Application ProxiesWorking in the implementation of the OSI model, proxy firewall forces all client applications on workstations protected by the firewall to use the firewall as a gateway. The firewall allows each(prenominal) package for each different protocol.There are some drawbacks to using this type of firewall. Each client program must be configured to use a proxy, and not everyone can. In addition, the firewall must have a representative in the same for each type of protocol that can be used. This May, a delay in the implementation of new protocols, if the firewall does not.The penalty paid for this extra level of security is the performance and flexibility. Firewall proxy server mainframe computer and large memory to support many simultaneous users, and the introduction of new Internet applications and protocols can often involve long delays, while developing new powers to su pport them.True proxies are probably the safest, but to impose a surcharge on the network load. Dynamic packet filtering is definitely faster, but the highest end firewall these days are hybrids, incorporating elements of all architectures. 4varaFig. 7.3 Application Proxy3.4 Stateful InspectionThe optimal firewall is one that provides the best security with the fastest performance. A technique called Stateful Multi-Layer Inspection (SMLI) was invented to make security tighter while making it easier and less expensive to use, without slowing down performance. SMLI is the foundation of a new generation of firewall products that can be applied crosswise different kinds of protocol boundaries, with an abundance of easy-to-use features and advanced functions.SMLI is similar to an application proxy in the sense that all levels of the OSI model are examined.Instead of using a proxy, which reads and processes each packet through some data manipulation logic, SMLI use traffic-screening algor ithms optimized for high-throughput data parsing. With SMLI, each packet is examined and compared against known state (i.e., bit patterns) of friendly packets one of the advantages to SMLI is that the firewall closes all TCP ports and then dynamically opens ports when connections require them. This feature allows management of services that use port numbers greater than 1,023, such as PPTP, which can require added configuration changes in other types of firewalls. Statefu inspection firewalls also provide features such as TCP sequence-number randomization and UDP filtering. 5varaFig. 7.4 Stateful Inspectionfirewalls inspect in each typePacket FilteringData link headerInternet headerTransport headerApplication headerDataCircuit FilteringData link headerInternet headerTransport headerApplication headerData+ Connection stateApplication GatewayData link headerInternet headerTransport headerApplication headerData+ Connection state application state hardware Firewalls and Software Firew alls V5.1 Hardware FirewallsHardware firewall can be purchased as a standalone product, but more recently hardware firewalls are typically found in broadband routers, and should be regarded as an important part of your system and network settings, especially for those who have broadband. Hardware firewalls can be effective with little or no configuration, and can protect every machine on a LAN. Most hardware firewalls will have a minimum of four network ports to connect other computers, but for large networks, firewall solutions for enterprise networks are available.A hardware firewall uses packet filtering to examine the packet header to determine their origin and destination. This information is compared to a set of predefined rules or created by the user determine if the packet is sent or deleted.2As with any electronic equipment, a user with general computer skills can connect a firewall, adjust a few settings that work. To procure that the firewall is configured for optimal s ecurity and protection, however, consumers certainly have to learn the features of your hardware firewall, to enable them, and how to test your firewall to secure your done a good job of protecting your network.Firewalls are not all equal, and it is important to read the manual and the documentation that came with the product. In addition the manufacturers site will generally have a database or FAQ to get you started. If the terminology is a bit too tech-oriented, you can use my library technical footing to help you get a better understanding of certain terms of technology and equipment is where you configure your hardware firewall.To test the security of your hardware firewall, you can demoralise third party software or a review of research on the Internet for a free online service that is based on interrogation of firewalls. Test firewall is an important element of maintenance to ensure that your system is configured for optimal protection provided.2varaFigure-1 Hardware Firewa llHardware firewall providing protection to a Local engagement 3vara2.2 Software FirewallsFor users of the detached house, choosing the most popular firewall is firewall software. Firewall software installed on your computer (like any software) and can be customized, allowing some control over its function and protection features. A firewall software to protect your computer from outside attempts to control or access your computer, and your choice of firewall software, you can provide protection against Trojans, the most common or e-mail to. Many software firewalls that the user defined controls for setting up files and share printers and block harmful applications from running on your system. In addition, the firewall software may also include access control, Web filtering and more. The disadvantage of software firewall is that it protects only the computer that are installed, no network, so that each team must have a software firewall is installed. 2As hardware firewalls are a la rge number of firewalls to choose from. To begin, we recommend you read the comments of firewall software and search the product website to get some initial information. Because your firewall is always running on your computer, you must take note of system resources will be required to execute and possible incompatibilities with your in operation(p) system. A good software firewall will run in the background on your system and use only a small amount of system resources. It is important to monitor firewall software, once installed and to download updates provided by the developer.The differences between software and hardware firewall are enormous and the best protection for your computer and the network is to use both because each offers different, but very necessary for safety and performance. Update your firewall and your in operation(p) system is essential to maintain optimal protection because it is proof of your firewall to ensure it is connected and working properly. 2 varaF igure-2 Computer with Firewall SoftwareComputer running firewall software to provide protection 3 varaTable 5.1 firewall comparisonAdvantagesDisadvantagesHardware FirewallOperating system item-by-item Not vulnerable to malicious attacks Better performance Focuses on only firewall-related dutiesCan be single point of failure Higher administrative command processing overhead time Higher cost to implement and maintainSoftware FirewallLess expensive to implement and maintain Lower administrative overheadDependent upon host operating system Requires additional host hardware, Vulnerable to malicious attacks, Lower performance6

Ulysses Essay: Sexuality and Linguistic Versatility :: Joyce Ulysses Essays

Sexuality and Linguistic Versatility in Ulysses In order to contend the relations between sexuality and linguistic versatility I have chosen the two female characters, mollie and Gerty. The major reason for this is because the female voice in Ulysses is heard at length on only two occasions but I would argue is very important. So important in fact, that Joyce chooses to end the novel with Mollys monologue. I hope to convey some of the contrasts and similarities in these differing monologues (despite the fact that in Gertys case it is technically not forever her monologue). In addition, I have tried to take into account that one is perceiving relations between female sexuality and linguistic versatility through the eyes of a man. Mollys monologue is in the form of a soliloquy as opposed other forms of internal monologue. Mollys monologue in common with Gertys is frequently rambling. Inevitably, it leads one to suppose that neither Molly nor Gerty has had much formal education. Bu t the style of Mollys monologue is that of informal speech. There is also an absence of punctuation in Mollys monologue, which has the affect of speeding up ones reading tempo. Because of this, one feels that the oral communication is explorative and exclamatory. about one quarter of all becauses in Ulysses are found in the episode Penelope which consists entirely of Mollys monologue. In both Mollys and Gertys monologue the over use of because gives a superficial logic to their train of thought Like that one denying it up to my face and apprisal about the place in the WC too because she knew she was too well off yes because he couldnt possibly do without it that long. Significantly well over another(prenominal) quarter of becauses are found in the first part of Nausicaa which concerns Gerty ..but this was altogether different from a thing like that because there was all the difference because she could roughly feel him draw her face to his and the first quick hot touch of his handsome lips. I think the over use of and give a work to both their monologues. The ebb and flow of thoughts strongly relates to the movement and flow of the sea, which seems to have a great prominence in both these episodes. I think the language is relating to us a difference between men and women, namely that women are less rational than men are.