Evaluation of Apple Store Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Evaluation of Apple Store - Assignment Example This makes the reader interested to know the various items found in the apple store. The article has described apple commodities as those which as combined with technology and are easy to use. By touching on the issue of technology most readers, both young and old will like to know more about the commodity because the world is technology oriented. Â  The article has used amazing pictures for advertising apple commodities. Readers are likely to have the first-hand experience and understand the commodities found in an apple store. The article has also explained how the commodities are used and in case of difficulties, they have illustrated how to get a solution to the problem. The language applied to this piece of writing is simple and easy to understand since it explains everything in details. A subdivision in subtopics prepares the reader for what he is reading under the subtopic. Â  The article has used bright colors in its pictures that are appealing. This makes a reader interested to read on what is being offered in the apple store. It is one strategy for advertising apple products. The background of the picture is also bright; hence, readers do not have to strain while reading the article. Pictures are large enough to pass the intended message clearly (Apple store, Pp 8). The pictures are put at the center for customers get a clear illustration of apple commodities. Â  The article has done a tremendous job of explaining how apple commodities work. They have clearly illustrated to the reader how an individual makes a movie through the iPhones. This is captivating to teenage readers since they are interested in this kind of staff. This is a strategy of catching the attention of a larger population (Apple store, Pp 9). The article has used a technique where pictures change constantly to show the diversity of the apple store commodity.

Statistics in the workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Statistics in the workplace - Essay Example Health statistics gives information on the health matters of people. This means that every person is part of a health statistic. To get knowledge, an organization first gathers data, these data is processed into facts and figures which are transformed into information. Statistics has several other uses such as making decision on the relevant staffing needs of the hospital facility in relation to information or data collected frequency or number of patients a hospital has per period of time. Some of the many ways in which statistics can be used in rehabilitation health facility include: to carry out surveys on patient satisfaction or employee satisfaction, to carry out tests or experiments on new procedures just to mention but a few. There are various branches of statistics, the two main branches are; descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics Descriptive statistics is a branch of statistics that describes data that has been gathered revealing the trends and patter ns of the information. Descriptive statistics illustrates how data is dispersed but does not test any hypothesis so as to form a conclusion on the basis of that data (Bennett, Briggs, Triola, 2009). In healthcare, descriptive statistics is used for various purposes. ... The patients who consent to the trial will undergo close monitoring during the study through close observation and evaluation. The results will be based on specifics such as the degree of side effects, rate of recovery and they are not charged for the process. Descriptive statistics basically uses aspects such as means of central tendency and dispersions these are mean and standard deviation respectively. In this example the mean will be used to give the overall impact of the procedure towards rehabilitation while standard deviation might be used to show how stable or unstable the drug may be. Stability simply means the uniformity in the way patients react to the procedure, therapy or drug. Inferential statistics is simply a method through which conclusions about an aspect of a population is drawn from a sample. A sample is a finite subset of a population. This is the procedure of selecting and using a sample statistic to draw conclusions about the population parameters and eventuall y the population. It is used when we have access to a sample but not the population. Statistical inference uses two methods namely; point estimate and hypothesis testing. The estimation method is usually used to inferences where information about a population is in the given sample. There are two kinds of estimates which are point estimate and interval estimate. The estimates are used to make inference on the population parameters. An example of point-estimates is the mean weight of patients in the hospital while an interval estimate is the range within which we expect the mean of a population to fall at some level of confidence say 95%. Hypothesis testing on the other hand is the

Remote Monitoring and Control System Essay Example for Free

Remote Monitoring and Control System Essay Remote Monitoring and Controlling System Based on ZigBee Networks Soyoung Hwang and Donghui Yu* Department of Multimedia Engineering, Catholic University of Pusan, South Korea {soyoung, dhyu}@cup.ac.kr Abstract Thanks to the rapid development of information technology and the growth of the Internet through high speed networks, network environments have even been changed from office oriented environments based on business industries and public institutions to the interconnection of digital electronics in home networks. Home network based applications are very diverse and the remote monitoring and control areas have been studied. Recently, ZigBee has become one of the most promising technologies for home networks. ZigBee is a specification for a suite of networking, security and application software layers using small, low-power, low data rate communication technology based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard for personal area networks. Moreover, owing to the rapid growth of mobile technology, highperformance smartphones are widespread and in increasing cases are utilized as a terminal device. In this paper, we propose the design and implementation of a remote monitoring and controlling system using ZigBee networks. This system targets a home network. Web services and a smartphone are used for the client system to monitor and control the home. Keywords: remote monitoring, ZigBee networks, remote control, smartphone, web service 1. Introduction Thanks to the rapid development of information technology and growth of the Internet through high speed networks, network environments have even been changed from office oriented environments based on business industries and public institutions to the interconnection of digital electronics in the home networks. Home network based applications are very diverse and the remote monitoring and control areas have been studied. Recently, ZigBee has become one of the most promising technologies for home networks. ZigBee is a specification for a suite of networking, security and application software layers using small, low-power, low data rate communication technology based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard for personal area networks. There have been various studies on ZigBee based home networks. To realize remote home automation based on ZigBee, implementation issues of home gateway and device nodes are proposed in [1]. It presents hardware platform consideration and software implementation for each of them. Similarly, hardware design issues are discussed for various home devices such as wireless communications transceiver modules base, USB expansion base and control switches for electrical appliances in a room [2]. Also, an effective architecture for dynamic integration of ad hoc ZigBee home network devices into OSGi (Open Service Gateway Initiative)-based home gateways is discussed. An ad hoc ZigBee home network device is represented by a device proxy service in the proposed architecture so that it can be dynamically registered, discovered, accessed and unregistered just like a common OSGi service [3]. [4] gives a way to construct ZigBee wireless sensor networks and implement remote monitoring and control by a GSM module. [5] describes the structure composition of the smar t home system based on ZigBee and gives a system design concept and implementation approach. Moreover, owing to the rapid growth of mobile technology, highperformance smartphones are widespread and in increasing cases they are utilized as a terminal device. In this paper, we propose design and implementation of a remote monitoring and controlling system using ZigBee networks. This system is targeting the home network. Web service and a smartphone are used for the client system to monitor and control the home. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee specifications are discussed as background technologies. Section 3 describes design issues of remote monitoring and controlling systems. Next, implementation results are included in Section 4. Finally, we conclude this paper in Section 5. 2. Background Technologies 2.1. IEEE 802.15.4 IEEE 802.15 is a working group for the standardization of WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network). IEEE 802.15.4 is one of the seven task groups which are included in it. The first edition of the 802.15.4 standard was released in May 2003. IEEE 802.15.4 specifies the physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) for low-rate WPAN. WPANs are used to convey information over relatively short distances. It focuses on low-cost, low-speed ubiquitous communication between devices. Unlike wireless local area networks (WLANs), connections effected via WPANs involve little or no infrastructure. This feature allows small, power-efficient, inexpensive solutions to be implemented for a wide range of devices. The basic framework conceives a 10-meter communication range with a transfer rate of 250 kbit/s. Important features include real-time suitability by reservation of guaranteed time slots, collision avoidance through CSMA/CA and integrated support for secure communications. Devices also include power management functions such as link quality and energy detection [6]. Several standardized and proprietary network layer protocols run over 802.15.4-based networks, including IEEE 802.15.5, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Wireless HART, and ISA100.11a. Potential application areas include the following: sensors, actuators, interactive toys, remote control, industry networks, home automation and so on. 2.2. ZigBee ZigBee is a standards-based technology that addresses the unique requirements of most remote monitoring and control and sensory network applications. ZigBee builds upon the physical layer and medium access control defined in IEEE 802.15.4 for low-rate WPANs. The specification goes on to complete the standard by adding four main components: network layer, application layer, ZigBee device objects (ZDOs) and manufacturer defined application objects which allow for customization and favor total integration. The initial markets for ZigBee included Consumer Electronics, Energy Management and Efficiency, Health Care, Home Automation, Telecommunication Services, Building Automation, and Industrial Automation. The core ZigBee specifications define smart, costeffective and energy-efficient mesh networks. It is a self-configuring, self-healing system of redundant, low-cost, very low-power nodes. ZigBee is available as two feature sets, ZigBee PRO and ZigBee. Both feature sets define how the ZigBee mesh networks operate [7]. 2.3. Home Network Technologies A home network is a residential local area network (LAN) for communication between digital devices typically deployed in the home, usually a small number of personal computers and accessories, mobile computing devices, mobile phones, digital TVs, PDAs and so on. An important function is the sharing of Internet access, often a broadband service provisioned by fiber-to-the-home or via Cable Internet access, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or mobile broadband by Internet service providers (ISPs). In a broader sense, it includes software and services for integration and operation of information appliances in addition to wired or wireless network devices. Home networking technologies can be classified into two kinds: wired and wireless. The telephone, power-line, Ethernet and IEEE 1394 exist as wired home network technologies. As wireless home network technologies, wireless LAN, HomeRF, HyperLAN, Bluetooth, UWB (Ultra Wide Band) and ZigBee are representative. Since wireless networking solutions based on the spread of mobile devices have emerged they can be applied to home networks also. 3. Design of Remote Monitoring and Controlling System This section deals with the design of remote monitoring and controlling systems. To design a system, we considered a home automation network. The system architecture is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1. System Architecture The system consists of a real-time home monitoring sub-system and a light control subsystem. A home server with a home camera caters for home status through video to client. It also works as a home gateway to provide interoperability between the heterogeneous ZigBee and Internet and local and remote control over the home’s light devices through the light control sub-system. A client can access the home server through a web service or smartphone. The client can monitor home status through a real-time monitoring sub-system and control the lights through the 3.1. Real-time Monitoring Sub-system The real-time monitoring sub-system captures images of the area of the home to be monitored and serves the client who accesses the server through the web or a smartphone. Figure 2. Operation Processes of Real-time Monitoring Sub-system Figure 2 shows the operation process of the real-time monitoring sub-system. The server finds a video device and captures images. Then, it generates captured data and transforms the data format for RTP communication. After that, it generates the session manager and streams media data to the client. A client using the web or a smartphone generates the session manager and connects to the server. Then, it receives media data and displays the video. In this way, the client can monitor the in-home status in real-time. 3.2. Light Control Sub-system Light control sub-system is composed of a server which works as a gateway, ZigBee coordinator, end-device, switch node and a light as shown in Figure 3. The operation of the sub-system is as follows. ï‚Ÿ A client program maintains a user interface which contains an on/off control panel. ï‚Ÿ A server which works as a gateway receives control commands from the client and relays the command to the ZigBee coordinator through the RS-232C serial communication. ï‚Ÿ The coordinator relays the control command which is received form the server to the end device through RF communication. ï‚Ÿ The end device receives the command from the coordinator and controls the port of the switch node. The switch node controls the switch of the light. ZigBee based remote controlling can be applied in several ways. In this paper, we considered a simple light control and adopted it for a remote control sub-system. 4. Implementation Results In this section we discuss implementation results of a real-time remote monitoring and controlling system. The server contains a web-cam and the monitoring and controlling programs are implemented using Java. Web-based remote monitoring with video capture, data encoding and RTP communication are implemented using JMF (Java Media Framework) which is a multimedia extension API of Java. A client using web service can access the server after user authentication. Of the ZigBee networks, we use two Chipcon CC2420DB evaluation boards with CC2420s (IEEE 802.15.4 radios) accompanying Z-Stack [8, 9, 10]. One is configured as a coordinator and the other is configured as an end-device. When the coordinator starts, it initializes all internal ports and waits for control commands from the home server. If the home server sends a control command to the coordinator through the serial communication, the coordinator receives the command and sends it directly to the end-device through RF communication. The end device receives the control command from the coordinator and controls the switch node. Figure 4. Implementation Result using Web Service Figure 4 shows the implementation results using web service. A client can access the server after user log-in. The client can monitor the rooms status and control the lights. In the figure, the client turns off the light. The implementation results using a smartphone are shown in figure 5. The client program is implemented on the android platform. Figure 5. Implementation Result using Smartphone As shown in the results, a client can monitor the in-home status in real-time and send light control commands using the control button on the smartphone. 5. Concluding Remarks Recently, the home environment has seen a rapid introduction of networked digital technology. This technology offers new and exciting opportunities to increase the connectivity of devices within the home for the purpose of home automation. Moreover, with the rapid expansion of the Internet, there is the added potential for the remote control and monitoring of such networked devices. ZigBee has become one of the most promising technologies for home networks. ZigBee is a specification for a suite of networking, security and application software layers using small, low-power, low data rate communication technology based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard for personal area networks. Moreover, owing to the rapid growth of mobile technology, highperformance smartphones are widespread and in increasing cases they are being utilized as a terminal device. This paper proposes design and implementation of a remote monitoring and controlling system based on ZigBee networks. Real-time remote monitoring is implemented with JMF which is a multimedia extension API of Java. The remote controlling is implemented using ZigBee networks. The client program in a smartphone is implemented on the android platform. Clients can monitor their homes and send light control commands using the web or a smartphone. This system can be applied in many areas such as elderly protecting systems, cultural heritage or forest fire monitoring systems, managing systems for agricultural cultivation and so on. As a future work, we consider expansion of the system using various sensors and actuators. References [1] Z. Shunyang X. Du, J. Yongping and W. Riming, â€Å"Realization of Home Remote Control Network Based on ZigBee†, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments, (2007), August 16-18, Xian, China. [2] A Fang, X. Xu, W. Yang and L. Zhang, â€Å"The Realization of Intelligent Home by ZigBee Wireless Network Technology†, Proceedings of the 2009 Pacific-Asia Conference on Circuit, Communications and System, (2009), May 16-17, Chengdu, China. [3] Y. Ha, â€Å"Dynamic Integration of Zigbee Home Networks into Home Gateways Using OSGi Service Registry†, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, vol. 55, no. 2, (2009). [4] J. W. H. Qin, â€Å"The Design of Wireless Intelligent Home System Base on ZigBee†, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Communication Technology, (2008), November 10-12, Hangzhou, China. [5] D. Yan and Z. Dan, â€Å"ZigBee-based Smart Home System Design†, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computer Theory and Engineering, (2010), August 20-22, Chengdu, China. [6] IEEE 802.15.4: Wireless medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY)specification for low-rate wireless personal area networks (WPANs), (2006). [7] ZigBee Specification,(2008), Document 053474r17,ZigBee Alliance. [8] Figure 8 Wireless, ZigBee Implementer’s Guide, (2005). [9] Figure 8 Wireless, Z-Stack User’s Guide for the CC2420DB Board, (2005). [10] Figure 8 Wireless, Z-Stack/Z-Tool Serial Port Interface, (2005).

Social Construction of Female Gangs

Social Construction of Female Gangs Introduction In the UK, there has been very little research on female gang problem which has led to the vast amount of research from the USA being applied to the UK situation. Female gangs have been in existence throughout history although very little has been said about its members beyond their role as sexual objects. Hallsworth and Young (2008):176) following a home office report in 2008 state that the gang was for the first time explicitly linked to the problem of urban violence and rising weapon use in the UK (2008:176) and according to Campbell (1990) girls have been a part of gangs since the earliest accounts from New York in the early 1800s (1990:166). Female gang activity has been on the increase in the latter half of the twentieth century and as such, these activities have increasingly become violent. In this essay, I will elaborate on the meaning of gangs and female gangs using various definitions given by key authors. My main interest in this paper will be to discuss the historical bac kground of female gangs and the key debates surrounding these gangs in relation to the literature written by authors of different calibers and also the myths as portrayed by the society. I will also be interested in discussing the media construction of female gangs giving examples which will lead me to explore the disconnection between what the media says about female gangs and what the reality is. The term gang according to Schneider and Tilley (2004) does not have a single definition even though it is used universally by researchers, police, social workers, media and the general public (2004: xviii). The US National Criminal Justice Reference Service have defined the term gang as a group of three or more people who have a common name or sign and have an aim of engaging in criminal activity. In the UK context, experts have found it difficult to reach a consensus on whether or not gangs exist and how they can be defined (Aldridge and Medina, 2008; Alexander, 2008; Broadhurst et al., 2009; Hallsworth and Silverstone, 2009; Her Majestys Inspectorate of Prisons, 2010; Pickles, 2009; Pitts, 2008). Websters Dictionary (1961) gives us another definition stating that a gang is a band or group of persons who involve themselves in criminal or socially unacceptable behavior (1961:74). Female gang is simply a girl group or individuals who are involved in criminal activities and share the same names, symbols and signs as their identity. Female gangs do not have a visible leader and according to research that they tend to be fairly informal and they do not often have a visible leader. Campbell for example in the Huffs book on Gangs in America (1990) observes that in Los Angeles some gangs have veterinas or godmothers but she goes on to say that typically the members insist there is no leader and that decisions are made democratically. Campbells observation suggests that some girls clearly have more clout than others, but that this usually is not formalized as a leadership role. (1990: 178). In this review, I will discuss about female gangs drawing upon American research but with more emphasis on the rising phenomenon of female gangs in Britain. In order to accomplish my aim for this literature review, I will use primary sources, some secondary sources and other policy documents or government publications to enable me make conclusions and recommendations, identifying gaps in knowledge which may inspire other researchers into ideas for further research and also enable me to give my general opinion of how I feel about the social construction of female gangs by the media much of which I tend to disagree with. Literature Review Historical Background Many researchers and journalists have for a long time assumed that girls and women did not take part in criminal behaviors and therefore the issue of female gang has often been ignored. Campbells (1990) review on girl gangs states that, girls were defined solely in terms of their relations to male gang members (1990:166). Men have always been the point of concentration in investigating gang crimes and until recently, female gang members were seen as sex objects or tomboys. Literature has shown that researchers describe female gangs as weapon carriers for the male counterparts in addition, Moore and Hagedorn (2001) argue that even when describing female gang members as tomboys, researchers emphasized that the females motivations were focused on males (2001: 2). Looking at the UK context of female gangs, literature on girls and gangs has not been well developed because researchers in Britain have not seen the need to concentrate on female gangs (Campbell and Muncer, 1989; Sanders, 2002 ). According to Downes (1966); Parker (1974) and Scott (1956), the UK tried to apply American gang theories to address the problem of street gangs but these attempts failed over time leading to lack of data on gangs. This explains why there is no sound evidence as in the case of USA, for the proliferation of violent street gangs (Hallsworth and Young, 2008: 177). Female Involvement is not a new occurrence universally. In fact, there has been a lot of concern on the rise of female involvement in gang business over the years. Early studies found that there was a 50 percent increase in serious crimes by teenage gins between 1968 and 1974, compared to a 10 percent increase for boys and arrests of girls under 18 for violent crimes rose 393 percent between 1960 and 1978, compared to 82 percent for boys (CASA Website) . Miller (2001) compared youth gang involvement in 1950, and found out that youth gangs of the 1980s and 1990s are more numerous, more prevalent, and more violent than in the 1950s, probably more than at any time in the countrys history (2001: 263). In the early 1980s, Anne Campbell (1981) became interested and had concerns about female offenders which led her to conduct an investigation about the occurrences of violence amongst girls in Britain. Campbell, (1984) also did an investigation on female gangs in America and this led to her conclusions that the problem of female gangs was socially constructed. She criticized Britain for only concentrating on male gangs and ignoring female gangs and illustrated that in New York, women were very unlikely to organize in to gangs in big numbers because the female groups were only known to follow male groups (Campbell, 1995). Recent studies on girls and violence also shows that there has been an increase in violent and aggressive behaviour by girls and this has been catalyzed by media attention. Earlier on, people knew very little about girls violence because there was a belief that violence was solely committed by men. The study findings show very little evidence suggesting that girls are physically violent. Membership Academic research on gang membership in the UK is very sparse as mentioned earlier on and there is little evidence showing that young women have existential experience in committing violence. It has been difficult to ascertain the numbers of female gangs although there is a significant existence of the members. On the other hand, in the US, feminist researchers have tried to provide a more nuanced portrayal of the complex gender experiences of girls in gangs (Miller, 2001: 16). They have demonstrated that girls involvement in female gangs meets their gender expectations and experience heightened risks for physical and sexual victimization and also ascertains that gang membership provides them with a sense of belonging, giving them confidence and refuge from their abusive families (Campbell, 1990; Joe and Chesney-Lind, 1995; Joe Laidler and Hunt, 2001; Miller, 2001, 2008; Moore, 1991; Nurge, 2003). Many gangs appear to be more highly structured than delinquent groups but that does not disqualify the fact that they may still be seen as loosely organized. Several factors such as age, neighborhoods and so on are considered as the basis of gaining entry to these gangs or becoming a member. The gang sizes range from a member group of four or five and can go beyond a thousand. There have been different classification of gang groups such as the leaders, associates of the regulars then there are the peripheral members and finally the recruits. Most studies have shown that the reasons why females join gangs are because of friendship influence, it is seen as a form of solidarity and self affirmation. Research has indicated that those kids who grow up in dysfunctional families and whose parents are in prison may find it appropriate to join gang groups. Many youth gang formation is as a result of the present deteriorating economic conditions which are characterized by poor housing, lack of school structures and facilities and lack of laws that regulate violation of youth gangs. Being in a female gang may be a refuge from physical and sexual abuse at home. Young et al.s (2007) was involved in a research which directly involved girls and young women who had association with female gang and this gave him a different picture of their involvement. UK studies of female gangs have indicated that girls and young women are just portrayed as girlfriends to their male gang members but Young et als involvement in interviewing some of the females indicated that their groups were mainly composed of peers whose main reason for being together was plain friendship and denied that their groups were gangs. However in the US, Miller (2001) states that young womens group formation was through friendships from school, their house neighborhoods and not through any initiation rites to join these groups. Evidence uncovered by Young et al. (2007) stated that all the female groups interviewed referred to each other as their mates. Seven young women belonged to all-female groups and although they would periodically hang about with the local young men, this was not because these relationships with males were considered to be important or necessary. Indeed, from their testimonies it was evident that these women did not consider the males around them as friends or even friendly, nor did this group enter into intimate relationships with the young men they associated with. These young women determined when they associated with the males in their social circle and were not significantly influenced by the actions of males or male-dominated groups (Young et al., 2007: 143). A study conducted by Pitts in 2007 considers female membership in gangs as Reluctant Gangsters: Youth Gangs in Waltham Forest (Pitts, 2007). According to Pitts (2007), young women in gangs are often sexually exploited, sometimes in exchange for drugs and the relationships (they have with male members) tend to be abusive; one of dominance and submission and also some senior gang members pass their girlfriends around to lower ranking members and sometimes to the whole group at the same time (2007: 39). Pitts (2007) study states that the reason why young women, or girlfriends, are attracted to the gangs is mainly because they believe they can be glamorous or become celebrities within the group. It is unclear how members of female gangs are able to maintain long term roles and specific position given that the core members decide on the primary roles of the gang groups. Some members join the groups for a short period and others may move on to other gang groups after a certain period of ti me but in all these groups, the core members still remain in charge of the criminal activities. Statistics The most widely used data on female gangs has been from the nationwide surveys of law enforcement agencies. Miller (1975) stated that a survey conducted in the mid-1970s indicated that 10 percent of all gang members were estimated to be female and according to Spergel (1995), a national survey found that in 1992 only 3.7 percent of all gang members were female. This was due to the fact that 32 percent of the surveyed jurisdictions did not, as a matter of policy, identify females as gang members (Curry and Decker, 1998: 98). Four years later in 1996 there was an estimate that 11 percent and then 1998, 8 percent of all gangs were female (Moore and Terrett, 1998; National Youth Gang Center, 2000). It is noted that it is in small cities and rural areas where female gangs are more likely to be found and their ethnicities vary by regions (National Youth Gang Center, 2000). In 2003 the Channel 4 documentary Dispatches emphasized that the gang problem was increasingly spreading in the UK and as many as 30,000 gangs were functional and 57 percent included female members (Thompson, 2003). The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS, 2005) released the most recent figures with findings that there were 174 street gangs in London. In 2006 the MPS figures showed that there was a 66.6 per cent increase in gang membership raising the number of UK gangs to 50,000 of which 2500 of the total number were young women (MPS, 2006). The United States gang numbers according to recent police estimates indicate that there are 27,000 gangs with approximately 788,000 members (National Youth Gang Survey, 2007). According to these reports, there was a 25% increase in the reported numbers of gang and gang problems since the year 2001 where there was a low report on gang problems (National Gang Center, 2009). Curry, Fox, Ball, Stone (1992) and National Gang Center (2009) reported that in 2007 there were gang problems in large cities, 86% more than what was reported in 1983 which was at 50% when the gang problem was just beginning to grow. Media construction of female gangs Media representations on gangs and more specifically female gangs have played a very big role in informing the social reality by a social constructionist perspective. In the past two decades, gang crime activities have dominated the crime news and the quality of life among rural and urban dwellers has been eroded also, violent young females have been presented as a new and growing social problem(Batchelor, 2009:408). According to Batchelor (2009) girls have been perceived to be the same as boys especially in fighting to defend themselves (2009:400). Batchelor continues to argue that young women who involve themselves in male gangs have been used as carriers of weapons and drugs and in some cases the girls have been exploited sexually. News in the media has claimed that young women have acted as the heads of anti-social youth groups who commit crimes like rape, murder and violent robbery (Young, 2009). Many newspapers produce stories with an aim of attracting peoples attention and informing them on what they think the public want to read about thus making a lot of sales on the papers. The medias main interest had been to enhance its economic aspect by manipulating the public way of thinking about crime and its social context (Potter and Kappeler 1998). The main contribution of the media has been according to Best (1993:119), a contextual constructionism of gangs where the media makes certain choices of what to cover in the news which contributes to the social construction of the reality. Crime narratives and representations are, and have always been, a prominent part of the content of all mass media( Reiner, 2007:305), with sources such as newspapers and television documentaries playing a central role in creating public perceptions of crime and therefore influencing their perceptions about the extent of crime and the risk of suffering it (Treadwell, 2006:77). Media reports especially in the UK have not been backed up by concrete evidence on the wider female gang problems. The Centre for Social Justice (2009) states that media coverage has, at times, been suggestive of an epidemic in gang-related youth violence (2009:19). In the UK, television headlines and documentaries relating to gang violence and the coming up of girl gangs has been dominant and that has not been different in the case of USA where it has been reported that gang groups are armed, dangerous and prepared to kill (Hallsworth and Young, 2008:176). Despite the fact that gangs and gang activity has been seen as a social problem to society and despite the regular convictions from the news that has shaped such problems, a comprehensive and systematic analysis of newspaper coverage of gangs and societys war on gangs has not been undertaken. There have been extraordinary cases of female violence reported. For example the reported case of a frenzied attack of eight strangers which was enacted by Chelsea OMahoney, who was the only female member of Sergeant Crew, in conjunction with her male friends (Laville, 2005). This case signifies that there are existing modern girl gang members who offend the law. The press gave an impression that made the public perceive the girl involved as aggressive and one capable of extreme behaviour, a trouble maker who causes havoc in and out of her group and catalyses others to be involved in aggressive behaviour (Thompson ,2003). In the next section, I will analyze the literature review and the medias perception towards female gangs. I will explore the information given in order to see if there is a disconnect between what the media says and what the reality is about female gangs. This will aid me in making proper conclusion about the media construction of female gangs. Analysis It has been argued that reports on female gangs offending the law is very low compared to male offenders and noted that female violence is a relatively rare occurrence according to crime statistics. Various authors like Campbell (1995) have stated that Britain for many years had not developed any research on female gangs whereas in New York, female groups were only seen as followers of their male counterparts and could not possibly form gang groups to organize crimes. On the other hand, the press has had much to write on the papers and commentate in news about girl gangsters especially in the last ten years. According to Tara (2009) there have been news reports contending that young women are traditionally engaged in violent crimes. Reports have in excess claimed that many anti-social youth groups are now headed by young women and they commit crime such us rape, murder and robbery. Honigsbaum (2006) states that young women in the UK are cited to be amongst the most violent and aggres sive in the world. It is clear that there have been a few empirical studies on female gang membership especially in the UK although the media coverage of violent offences committed by young women has created a certain perception towards the girl gangsters. This construction of female gangs has also been through the statistical evidence that has been provided by officials from the law enforcement department. Comparing the literature on female gangs and what the media has had to say about this topic, it is evident that there have been gaps in research on female participation in gangs in the UK which is the same case as the American gang literature where else, the media has been successful in socially constructing the girl gangs even though its evidence is very scant. Over the years, most researchers have concentrated on investigating the male gangs, studying the criminal behaviour of men and ignoring the female counterparts. According to Pitts (2007), the female gangs have not been recognized or in some cases, research has been conducted in reference to the experience of men. In reality, female gangs have been in existence for decades but it has been difficult to come up with the true picture of the problem. In the case of UK, there have been claims that currently young women are more likely to engage in street gangs and these women are more likely to engage in serious violent crime. This information is not substantial because the media seems to exaggerate this kind of violent crime thus shaping the public perceptions of gangs. There is a problem of statistic as well. It has been noted that female gangs exist in larger cities but there is no evidence to suggest that female crime is a national problem, therefore the true problem cannot be identified. Unrealistic public attitudes towards girls gangs have been the order of the day because there has been misrepresentation of girls lives and this according to Batchelor (2001) has created a misdirected public policy. The media has been fond of relying on simple statistics and typical gang cases that have no evidence and this has complicated the discussions of complex socio-specific contexts of violence in girls lives (Batchelor, 2001). Young womens genuine problems continue to be marginalized and ignored as the media continues to give wrong information to the public thus making the girls become a problem. Batchelor (2005); Coy (2008) suggest that it is important that any steps taken to address problems of gang involvement by young women should be from the reality and should be able to acknowledge the yo ung women are active agents and victims. As I have discussed above ,most of the violence that is experienced by girls and young women, as both perpetrators and victims, takes place within either the family or their friendship group. This means that social work and probation practitioners need to give careful attention to the familial and peer contexts of young womens offending, putting in mind that both groups can be concurrently harmful and protective. (Batchelor, 2005) argues that if we are to working towards effecting change in young women offenders lives, we need to maximize on their involvement and participation in various positive activities. These activities should enable them relate well with their families and friends and also the social work teams in order to have positive relations. There is need for accessible and affordable leisure activities which can be effective in occupying the girls and young womens minds and address some specific needs like bullying and victimization. It could be argued that research in to the phenomena of the girl gang especially in the UK is barely adequate thus making it difficult to make quantifying conclusion of the girl gang problem. Much of this essay clearly states that crime statistics show that compared to male offending female violence is a relatively rare occurrence (Young, 2009:224), and any rise in female violence may not always be gang related. I will conclude this essay by indicating that a lot of information represented by the media is just assumptions with no evidence to back it and researchers can do more towards looking more into the problem. Conclusion There seems to be no concrete theory as to why girls of women get involved in violent crimes but there have been various factors that have been cited to have played a major role in influencing them to join gang activities. Parental negligence, poverty, teenage pregnancies, lack of education, ill health, early involvement in sexual activities and peer group influence are some of the factors that drive these girls and women into gangs. Researchers, the law enforcement system, school, community based programmes and families have ignored the fact that female gangs exist and have confined young female to victimization and this has resulted to the rise of female violence. This essay has considered the background information of female gangs, the definition of gang and female gang, the key debates surrounding these gangs in relation to literature written, also the media construction of female gangs and the myths as portrayed by the society. It is argued that many researchers have ignored females as gangs and the notion seems to be that female gangs and their members are pale imitations of male gangs (Spergel, 1995: 90). Due to lack of research, facts that have been written and reproduced in books about female gangs are based on journalists and probation officers reports and also the statements given by the male gang members. Looking at the past and current research on female gangs, it is clear that they do exist in the UK and the USA although the statistics given are socially constructed due to the fact that the gang related cases are underreported. Reliable statistics may show that the problem of female gangs is not as large as the media portrays it to be and with the media catalyzing the problem, it may have negative consequences such as labeling to girls and young women. Media reports fuelling a moral panic can also have an impact on how the community and the government responds to female gangs thus failing to tackle the needs of these female groups. I will conclude by saying that it would be important for researchers to further explore the problem of female gangs because I completely agree that they exist and need attention otherwise the problem will get out of hand if ignored. The media should stop exaggerating facts on female gangs and concentrate on finding out the true picture of these gangs.

Electronic Commerce :: social issues

Electronic Commerce Initially, the Internet was designed to be used by government and academic users, but now it is rapidly becoming commercialized. It has on-line "shops", even electronic "shopping malls". Customers, browsing at their computers, can view products, read descriptions, and sometimes even try samples. What they lack is the means to buy from their keyboard, on impulse. They could pay by credit card, transmitting the necessary data by modem; but intercepting messages on the Internet is trivially easy for a smart hacker, so sending a credit-card number in an unscrambled message is inviting trouble. It would be relatively safe to send a credit card number encrypted with a hard-to-break code. That would require either a general adoption across the internet of standard encoding protocols, or the making of prior arrangements between buyers and sellers. Both consumers and merchants could see a windfall if these problems are solved. For merchants, a secure and easily divisible supply of electronic money will motivate more Internet surfers to become on-line shoppers. Electronic money will also make it easier for smaller businesses to achieve a level of automation already enjoyed by many large corporations whose Electronic Data Interchange heritage means streams of electronic bits now flow instead of cash in back-end financial processes. We need to resolve four key technology issues before consumers and merchants anoint electric money with the same real and perceived values as our tangible bills and coins. These four key areas are: Security, Authentication, Anonymity, and Divisibility. Commercial R&D departments and university labs are developing measures to address security for both Internet and private-network transactions. The venerable answer to securing sensitive information, like credit-card numbers, is to encrypt the data before you send it out. MIT's Kerberos, which is named after the three-headed watchdog of Greek mythology, is one of the best-known- private-key encryption technologies. It creates an encrypted data packet, called a ticket, which securely identifies the user. To make a purchase, you generate the ticket during a series of coded messages you exchange with a Kerberos server, which sits between your computer system and the one you are communicating with. These latter two systems share a secret key with the Kerberos server to protect information from prying eyes and to assure that your data has not been altered during the transmission. But this technology has a potentially weak link: Breach the server, and the watchdog rolls over and plays dead.

Social Work Environment :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I live in Hamilton County of Cincinnati, Ohio. I am originally from Toledo, Ohio, but decided to attend the University of Cincinnati (UC). There are currently more than 500 degree programs available at UC. UC runs year round quarters; there are three ten week quarters (September until June), and one ten week summer quarter (June until September). The student to faculty ratio is 19:1, based on a full-time equivalent. As of fall, there were 33,342 total students; 26,054 undergraduates and 7,288 graduate and professional students. There were 3,904 African American students and 1,556 international students. I live in a residence hall (aka  ¡Ã‚ °dorm ¡Ã‚ ±). I live on the seventh floor of Calhoun Residence Hall. It is located on 240 Calhoun St. directly across from all the fast food franchises, significantly Arby ¡Ã‚ ¯s. There are four other normal dormitories: Siddall, Daniels, Dabney, and Sawyer. There are two residence halls that are especially for graduate students, and international students. Calhoun is located directly across from Siddall. The other six residence halls are located on the other side of West campus mainly located on Jefferson Avenue. There is a new residence hall consisting of six different buildings being built for next year. It will be called Jefferson hall and only upper classmen will be permitted to live in it. It will be suite-style, meaning there will be a full bathroom and living area within each room. Calhoun is thirteen floors; one floor is a study lounge, and the remaining twelve are resident floors. Since Calhoun is co-ed by floor this year, there ar e eight floors of men and four floors of women. I live on the seventh floor and I share my room with one other woman. In my room, there are two beds (which are bunked), a refrigerator, two closets, two dressers, and two desks. On each floor, there is a small kitchen area. In the kitchen, there is a stove/oven, sink, drinking fountain, small table, and a microwave. There is a bathroom on each floor in which only the sex of that certain floor are permitted inside. In each bathroom, there are four toilet stalls, ten shower stalls (which are individual), and eight sinks. In addition, on each floor of Calhoun, there is one single room. In this room lives only one individual, however, the cost of that room is $300 more per year than the cost of the double rooms.

Celia Behind Me Essay

Bulling has become a bigger and bigger problem and there is not much to do about it, especially when you know you are the next in line for being bullied. What would you do for not ending there? This short story, Celia Behind Me, deals with the problems of the youth. What it’s like trying to be accepted by your friends and classmates. How there is one to be teased. And how innocent-looking children sometimes act desperately towards a person standing in their way of being accepted into the best clique of the school. Also discussed in this story, is the parent’s role in the upbringing of child. How should parents react, when being told that their child has done something completely wrong? The short story is written in the 1st person seen from Elizabeth’s point of view with access to her thoughts and feelings. Elizabeth is the only one that we have access to. The story is written in the past tense as if Elizabeth has grown up and is telling a story from her childhood. The story is written in a chronological line with no flashbacks. We are starting with a small presentation of Celia and how Elizabeth and the other girls feel about her. We are getting strong feelings of dislike of her and that she is an annoying girl who always running behind the others. The themes in the short story are being the next in line and group pressure. In the text, it is Elizabeth that is the next in line to be bullied, and if she doesn’t harass Celia then she will be the victim. Elizabeth is afraid of being left behind What if they always ran ahead and left us to walk together? and she knows that she is the next obvious victim of the others harassment. Elizabeth is also a bit chubby and wears classes, so if Celia ever stops being the victim – they would go after her. So Elizabeth does everything to keep up with the others. Elizabeth is the one who teases Celia the most just to show the others that she doesn’t like her at all. Elizabeth behaves the way she does because she always has to remind the others that she is a part of their group. She is pressured by the group to do what they want her to do, or she will be the one who will be harassed. Some symbols are used in the title. In the story we are told that Celia is running behind the girls on the way home, always a step behind and not accepted. And when Elizabeth is telling the others to stop throwing snowballs at Celia she is misunderstanding for kindness and is trailing after her even more. But the title could also imply that Celia is behind Elizabeth as if she is â€Å"having her back†. Celia is the only reason that Elizabeth isn’t the one who is being harassed and if Celia was a â€Å"normal† girl Elizabeth would be the victim. This story is about many aspects of puberty, problems at school, problems with parents, problems with acceptance. It’s so important for a young kid to be accepted by the people surrounding you. When you see a child constantly being teased, it’s hard not to feel compassion with him/her. Some feel that they have to try to protect this person from being teased. It’s quite obvious in this story, where Elizabeth has an ambiguous mind. In one way she feels obliged to protect Celia, but she also feels this hatred towards her, because she’s always just behind her. She can’t get rid of her. Elizabeth feels split between her own thoughts and the thoughts her parents try to put into her head. In the end of the story Elizabeth is so mad and frustrated by Celia and about how the others are running ahead when she is brushing the snow off her schoolbag. And again Elizabeth is left back with Celia who starts crying and is getting scared. All the other girls are standing on the bridge calling her â€Å"Sucky† and shouting that she has to take care of Celia. Elizabeth gets so angry that she starts yelling all kinds of bad things at Celia and she even starts shaking Celia and banging her head against the cold metal in the tunnel. Elizabeth’s parents are clearly in favour of physical punishment and they both spank Elizabeth to punish her, but also to get out with their aggression about the terrible event that their daughter has made. The mother also says â€Å"I’ll never be able to lift my head on this street again!† (P.5, l.159) It is clear that the mother thinks a lot about what all the others on the street will now think and it is clear that she is very shocked. And it seems like they are more upset about what happened than they will find out why it happened. At the of the story end Celia dies. Elizabeth has never forgiven Celia for making her a victim of the classmates’ victimization. Elizabeth was seen together with Celia and because of that the classmates start bullying her again.