Emerging Markets: Brazil Case Study Essay

I. Summary Brazil’s agricultural advantage stems from its extensive natural resources. The country’s competitors either utilize more supplies or more time in order to yield an amount that can rival Brazil’s production. Although every other country desires the agricultural production capable of Brazil, Brazil‘s government is determined to invest in industrialization in order to modernize its economy. While Brazil has a large amount of natural resources available for use, its government must provide the funding of the growing industrialization, to include: energy, materials, and increased employee earnings. II. Problem Brazil’s success in agriculture is attributed to vast lands, diverse climates, and a large population pool for labor (Brazil Agribusiness Report – Q4 2013, 2013). Without regard to its solid base in agriculture, the Brazilian government is attempting to modernize the economy through industrialization. Alongside this movement comes the â€Å"Brazil† cost: the increased operating cost of energy, raw materials, and wages. Also, in addition to paying more to industrialize, the government compensates domestic, uncompetitive industries enabling the theory of protectionism. III. Effective Solutions/Strategies In response to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s desires to become a world-class manufacturing base, the country can reassess its comparative advantage in agriculture and redirect resources solely to those businesses. According to Brazil Agribusiness Report – Q4 2013, its agricultural production is yielding lower than expected numbers with respect to international standards and, therefore, still has potential for growth. Alternatively, Brazil can strategize by addressing agricultural weaknesses via industrialization. First, seize the opportunity to grow and re-attack infrastructure to promote expansion and competition. Then, allow for raised incomes, as they will decrease farmers’ debts and allow for reinvestment in the economy. Finally, although the â€Å"Brazil cost† will hurt in the short-term, a higher-paid population will result in a hygienic environment  producing greater quality of products. Therefore, previously instated non-tariff barriers due to health concerns will decrease allowing for a greater degree of expansion. IV. Questions for Discussion Why is Brazil’s agriculture so competitive? Why do its manufacturing industries lack competitiveness? Brazil’s agriculture is competitive because its environment contains natural and inexpensive resources that other nations would have to spend extra time and money to produce or acquire. Furthermore, Brazil gained a distinctive comparative advantage in agriculture and livestock by doing away with nontariff barriers and reducing import tariffs on similar products other countries were trying to bring into the country (Brazil: Economic background, 2006). With regard to underdeveloped manufacturing industries, Brazil lacks competitiveness for the same reason its agricultural competitors fall short. The â€Å"Brazil cost† of energy, raw materials, and wages is exponential compared to another nation primed to capitalize on manufacturing. As a result, domestic industrial products are costly compared to international competitors so consumers will frequent the competitor. Why have Brazil’s governments in both the 20th and 21st century been eager to develop world-class manufacturing? According to the closing case, the Brazilian government seeks to modernize its economy through world-class manufacturing. I would argue that the core reason is to achieve globalization through a combination of manufacturing and agriculture. Employing globalization means greater economic growth and standards of living, as well as attracting numerous low-end manufacturing jobs. Therefore, by modernizing its economy, Brazil fortifies its potential as a developed economy, which could launch it onto the global platform for competition in industry. How can Brazil shift some of its resources from uncompetitive industries to competitive industries? Via resource mobility, Brazil can shift resources used in uncompetitive industries to competitive industries in order to bolster the competitive industries’ potential. Furthermore, the government can shift strategic intervention and subsidies from uncompetitive industries to competitive industries. ON ETHICS: While President Rousseff’s critics accuse her of ignoring Brazil’s lack of comparative advantage in manufacturing, her supporters argue that her policies force Brazil to reduce its dependence on  foreign-made manufacturing goods. If you were to participate in this debate, which side would you be on? I would be on the side of her supporters. Through research, I have found that Brazil has extraordinary potential to grow its agricultural sectors through industrialization. By reducing manufacturing imports and producing and employing its own industrial products, Brazil not only increases domestic income and the standard of living, but also solidifies the nation’s comparative advantage in agriculture. Although, I will say that finding the balance between directing resources towards industry versus agriculture will be a delicate quest. References Brazil: Economic background. (2006). (). New York: The Economist Intelligence Unit. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/466598073?accountid=27203 Brazil Agribusiness Report – Q4 2013. (2013). (). London: Business Monitor International. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1436333107?accountid=27203

Small Island †Andrea Levy

Small Island is a book written by Andrea Levy mainly based on race, War and prejudice in London in 1948, the story is explain through the point of view of 4 different narrators including flashbacks into their pasts. One of the narrators is Gilbert, who appears the charming fool a Jamaican newlywed who served in the RAF during World War II, hopes for a prosperous future in London, though his experience of racial discrimination tells him this won't be achieved easily.This is shown when he is stopped from sitting next to Queenie and Arthur by the usherette and after heated words between them and American soldiers it leads to the death of Arthur (183-193), as well even after serving for England after he rejoins civilization he is still treated poorly His young wife, Hortense, is more naive.Arriving from Jamaica via the empire windrush, hoping to take up a teaching career, as well as trying to find her former flame Michael who left Jamaica to join the RAF after being caught having an affa ir so in a desperate need to continue her dream marries a Gilbert thinking life in England would be great however she is soon in despair over rude rejections and her struggle to make herself understood, literally and figuratively, by white working-class neighbors who don't seem to comprehend the English she learned in her home island.However towards the end she and Gilbert bond more and eventually take in Queenies baby Michael to raise as their own after she plans to leave Queenie’s house and settle down with Gilbert Queenie is a tough, level headed survivor, with a good heart. Brought up on a pig farm in Yorkshire, from an early age she grows to hate the smell of the pigs, the squalor and the blood. With dreams of escape, she finally gets her wish when her kindly Aunt sends the train fare to London. Queenie is open-minded and hungry for new experience. She like Hortense goes to London with hope in her heart.Despite trying to better herself with elocution lessons, she can nev er quite shake her Yorkshire vowels. However an unexpected death forces her into the arms of the educated but rather uninspiring Bernard as to keep her dream Queenie believes that her dreams are lost to her forever.After Bernard goes to war she is forced to look after Bernard’s Mentally ill father and during this she sleeps with Michael a black serviceman she invites to her house who impregnates her, and after Bernard doesn’t return from the war she later invites a man she had earlier met Gilbert after he rescued her father in law  to stay at her house along with his wife who would be arriving as well as a few other lodgers. Queenie and Hortense initially clash however unsurprisingly due to their similarity in life they eventually bond and become as close to friends as they could be which eventually ends in Queenie giving them the baby she had with Hortense’s former companion Michael.However after Bernard returns he blatantly shows unhappiness as black civilia ns living at the house â€Å"Did they have to be coloured† however Queenie seems to be the only white person in the book who doesn’t judge a person based on the colour of their skin Bernard is the husband of Queenie Bligh’s bank clerk husband who seems to be quite stuck up and racist and he is shown to be the complete opposite of Queenie, his dad Arthur who served in World War 1 suffers from shellshock leaving him to not speak after meeting queenieBernard changes from being repressed and quiet to being quite lively and affectionate after marrying queenie whom he loves he reverts back to being his closed down self and leaves to go and join up with the army where he befriends a guy named Maxi however after his death Bernard who seemed the gentle and nonviolent type he got in a fight, and cheated on Queenie with a seemingly under aged prostitute and got what he thought was a life threatening syphilis however It seems to be just a simple Flu.And after two years away he then goes to see Maxi’s Family and then eventually returns home to the shock of queenie †and I was collapsed sitting on the pavement† however Bernard simply replies Indeed when Queenie talks to him showing his ‘boringness’ which Queenie seems to dislike The story starts with a flashback to the past when Queenie was a child. Levy starts with this is as it starts with a showing of the racism as queenie calls the British empire exhibition as Africa due to the black people there showing that racism was imprinted onto children at a young age as well â€Å"go on queenie, kiss him, kiss him† is as if the black man has some sort of disease so Emily is saying I dare you to do it

Succubus Revealed Chapter 15

It was easier said than done, and once Hugh and Roman gave me some space, the full impact of what had taken place really and truly hit me. Seth was Kyriakos. Kyriakos was Seth. Even after witnessing what I had with my own eyes, I don't think I would have believed it if something inside me . . . some gut instinct . . . hadn't told me it was all true. Not that I'd ever suspected it. Not that I'd ever dreamed it. The draw that I'd felt to Seth had been strong, no question, just as the draw to his other incarnations had been. I'd always felt there was something special about Seth in particular, though, and wondered now what might have set this life apart from the rest. Did some part of me – or some part of him? – recognize that this was the last chance for us to be together? Was that where the urgency was coming from? Or was it more about the passage of time and whom I had become? Recent years had made me more jaded about life as a succubus, and I wondered if perhaps that was what made him and our love so precious to me at this point in time. Our love, which had just blown up before my eyes. I called in sick to work the next day, something that didn't really go over all that well. It was Christmas Eve, one of the busiest days for Santa and his mall team, but I didn't care. There was no way I could face that chaos, not after what had happened with Seth. I was told curtly that if I didn't come into work, then I shouldn't expect to be rehired next year. I almost laughed and only barely managed to cling to some shred of professionalism, as I gravely informed my manager that I'd take that risk. Next Christmas, I'd most likely be in Las Vegas. Even if I wasn't, I was pretty sure I could manage to get by without minimum wage and my foil dress. Finding Seth proved trickier. He didn't answer my phone calls, and when I went to his condo, no one answered. Neither his nor Margaret's car was parked out front, leading me to believe they were either doing last-minute Christmas shopping or visiting Terry and Andrea. If it was the former, I had no way of locating Seth easily. If it was the latter, I certainly wasn't going to barge into Terry's house and demand Seth speak to me. The situation might be dire, but I still had my boundaries. It would've been so easy to use these obstacles as the means to dodge talking to Seth altogether. Despite my assurances to Hugh and Roman, I really didn't want to see Seth. Well, the part of me that was in love with him did. That part was in agony every moment we weren't together. But the rest of me didn't want to face that expression again, that terrible hurt on his face. I didn't want to confront the reality of what I was. Despite agreeing to see Seth, I really hadn't been able to truly convey to Roman and Hugh just how agonizing the thought of facing up to my sins was. I hadn't been able to handle the wrongness of what I'd done then; I could barely do it now. I'd sold my soul, blighted away the memories of all those I'd loved . . . all because I didn't want to accept the responsibility of what a terrible thing I'd done. You'd think after almost a millennium and a half, that fear and self-preservation would have changed. I guess it hadn't. Or maybe it had. The fact that I was trying to find Seth now was proof that I had changed a little, enough to attempt another conversation after his adamant rejection of me. â€Å"Kincaid?† I glanced behind me. I was standing in line at a coffee shop Seth occasionally patronized to sit and write. Coming here had been a long shot, and I hadn't been all that surprised to see he wasn't around. Last I knew, he hadn't been here in ages, especially with everything going on in his family. Apparently, this place had other patrons I hadn't known about. â€Å"Doug,† I said in surprise. I quickly placed my order for a white chocolate mocha and then waved as Doug strolled over to me. He'd just come in, and fine drops of water covered his black hair. â€Å"What are you having?† I gestured to the barista. Doug looked a little surprised but only hesitated a moment before ordering an inhumanly sized cup of drip. â€Å"Thanks,† he told me, when I handed it over to him. â€Å"You want to sit a minute?† I asked. My original intention had been to grab the mocha and go. I didn't know what Doug's plan was, but some perverse urge made me want to try to get a moment with him. â€Å"Sure,† he said, looking a little uncertain. â€Å"But just for a minute. I've got to be at work in an hour.† â€Å"We don't want you to be late for that,† I agreed, settling down at a small table that gave us a fine view of the sleet outside. Seattle wasn't really known for white Christmases. â€Å"All those last-minute shoppers trying to get their boxed sets.† The ghost of a smile crossed his face. â€Å"You know it. I'm surprised you aren't at work. Is it true? I heard you were, uh, working elf duty at a mall on the Eastside.† I grimaced. â€Å"Painfully true. But I quit today.† His eyebrows rose. â€Å"On Christmas Eve? That's cold, Kincaid. Think of the children.† â€Å"I know. But, well, something came up. . . .† I glanced away, unable to meet his eyes as all my troubled feelings threatened to surface. â€Å"Yeah, I can tell,† he said. I dared a look back. â€Å"What do you mean?† Doug shrugged. â€Å"I don't know. Just this vibe I always got off of you when you were feeling blue. You put on a good face for most of the world, but when something hurts you, your energy changes. Christ.† He took a big drink of coffee. â€Å"Now I'm sounding all New Agey and shit.† â€Å"Well, whatever it is, your instincts are right.† I reconsidered. â€Å"Though ‘blue' is kind of an understatement. More like navy. Or even black.† â€Å"Mortensen?† he guessed. I shook my head and glanced away again. â€Å"You don't want to hear about that.† Although, perhaps some part of him would be glad to know Seth and I were through. It'd be vindication after what we did to Maddie. â€Å"Try me,† said Doug. When I didn't answer, he sighed. â€Å"Kincaid, I don't hate you. I'm not happy about what went down, but in some weird, twisted way, I do still care about you. If something's wrong, you can tell me. Did Mortensen hurt you?† â€Å"No,† I said. Then: â€Å"Well, yes, but not without cause. I hurt him first.† â€Å"Ah.† I dragged my gaze back to Doug. His eyes were dark and serious, no trace of enjoyment in my suffering. â€Å"I've been trying to find him today . . . trying to get a hold of him. But I think he's avoiding me. No, I know he's avoiding me.† â€Å"You'll patch it up,† said Doug. â€Å"I don't know. I don't think we can this time.† † ‘This time,' † he scoffed. â€Å"Kincaid, the first moment I saw you and Mortensen together, there was something there. I don't know how to describe it. I was always surprised you guys never went out. I was surprised when he started going out with Maddie, though they seemed happy enough until . . . well, you know. Until he figured out he should be going out with you.† He paused, thinking. â€Å"Anyway, I talk a good talk about love in my songs but really don't know shit about it in real life. From what I do know, though, I feel like it's going to take more than whatever argument this is to keep you guys apart.† â€Å"Thanks,† I said. â€Å"That's nice of you . . . but you don't know. What I did was pretty terrible.† â€Å"What you guys did to Maddie was pretty terrible,† said Doug. â€Å"But I've forgiven you.† â€Å"You have?† I asked, startled. â€Å"Yeah.† He seemed a little surprised by the admission. â€Å"I mean, it helps that this neurosurgeon asked her out last week. I can forgive a lot if it means having a doctor brother-in-law. But in all seriousness? I know you guys didn't mean to hurt her, just like you didn't mean to hurt Mortensen here. What you did do is screw up majorly in the forthcomingness department.† â€Å"Forthcomingness?† I repeated. He waved me off. â€Å"Whatever. It's a word. If you guys had been honest with yourselves and with her, you could've saved everyone a world of hurt. Keep that in mind now.† â€Å"You're a regular relationship guru,† I said, earning me another scoff. Yet, as wise as his words sounded, I still didn't think there was any way to fix this thousand-year-old hurt. Before I could muster another comment, my phone rang. I looked down at the display in surprise. â€Å"It's Seth.† â€Å"You better answer it, then,† said Doug. With a gulp, I did. â€Å"Hello? Yeah. Uh-huh . . . sure. Okay . . . I understand. Okay. Bye.† I disconnected and Doug gave me a questioning look. â€Å"That didn't sound all that warm and fuzzy.† â€Å"Seth wants me to come to Christmas dinner tomorrow,† I said disbelievingly. â€Å"Well, that's a good sign,† said Doug. I shook my head. â€Å"I don't think it is. He said he doesn't want to create more upset in the girls' lives and just wants me there for appearances, to make them happy. He made it clear that nothing's changed, nor does he expect it to.† â€Å"I guess it's more of a lukewarm sign, then,† said Doug. I sighed, and Doug gently chucked my chin. â€Å"Cheer up, Kincaid. You wanted to talk to him. Here's your chance, no matter what he said. Don't waste it.† I mustered a smile. â€Å"How'd you get so wise, Doug?† He finished his coffee in a gulp. â€Å"Fuck if I know.† Doug's words were the kind that you hear in movies and books, the kind that power the against-all-odds comeback we love to see. It was my one chance, my chance to break through Seth's walls and surmount the insurmountable problems between us. But Seth made sure I never had the chance. I arrived on my own, laden with presents, and was immediately directed to entertain the girls. Seth made the request, since he and most of the other adults (except Ian, who only marginally counted as an adult anyway) were dug in inside the kitchen, and it seemed very reasonable. Normally, I wouldn't have minded either, except I had the gut feeling Seth was purposely keeping us far apart and constantly surrounded by people. So, I played with the girls, only half-listening as they excitedly told me about what they'd gotten for Christmas. The only time my brooding thoughts shifted from Seth was when Brandy remarked about how more presents had shown up under their tree this morning than could be accounted for. â€Å"No one will own up to having gotten some of the presents. Mom and Dad think Uncle Seth did it. He thinks Grandma did it,† Brandy said in a soft voice, so the littler ones wouldn't overhear her. â€Å"What kind of presents?† I asked. She shrugged. â€Å"Just toys . . . but lots of them. Like, Mom and Dad got Morgan some Princess Ponies. But this morning ? There were some Power Prism Ponies there too.† I vaguely remembered Carter and Morgan discussing those very ponies. â€Å"Maybe Santa came by,† I said. Brandy rolled her eyes, looking skeptical. â€Å"Maybe.† When dinner came, there was no avoiding being near Seth. Everyone expected us to sit together, and he could hardly ask to move somewhere else. But again, with so many people around, it didn't matter. I wasn't going to bring up any dangerous topics in the middle of Christmas dinner, and Seth knew that. Both of us were silent, simply listening as the others talked excitedly about the day and how happy they were that Andrea was feeling better. When dinner ended, Seth was the first one up and made a big deal about how all the guys should do dishes tonight while the ladies of the household retired to the living room. Everyone was pleased with this idea, except for Ian and me. â€Å"What is it with you guys and Christmas?† asked Andrea conspiratorially. I was sitting with her on the loveseat watching as Kendall directed Morgan's ponies into an epic battle to the death. â€Å"Huh?† I asked, glancing away from the battlefield. â€Å"You and Seth,† said Andrea. â€Å"I remember last Christmas, you guys were the same. Isn't this supposed to be the happiest day of the year?† I repressed a grimace. Last Christmas, I'd found out that Seth had slept with Maddie in an effort to â€Å"protect me† from a relationship with him. Yeah. That hadn't been a great holiday either. â€Å"We've got nothing against Christmas,† I said bleakly. â€Å"Just . . . some issues to sort out.† She frowned. â€Å"Is it about his tour? I figured you'd be for that.† â€Å"What tour?† â€Å"His publisher wants him to go traveling right after New Year's. Seth had originally refused because of . . . well, me. But I've felt so good lately, I told him he shouldn't waste the chance.† I hadn't known about that. I wondered if it was something that had just come up in the last day or if Seth simply hadn't told me beforehand. The tour would fall before my Las Vegas transfer, and I wouldn't have put it past Seth to decline it in order to maximize his time with me. Well, at least before things went bad. â€Å"That's not it,† I said after several seconds, when I realized she was expecting an answer from me. â€Å"It's . . . complicated.† â€Å"It always is,† she said wisely. I looked past her, toward the kitchen, where I could just barely see the Mortensen men moving around with the dishes. â€Å"For now, I'd just settle for a few moments alone.† She made no comment about that, but later, when the guys returned to the living room, she said very casually, â€Å"Seth, would you mind going upstairs to get my red cardigan? I left it on the foot of the bed.† Seth was about to sit down – far away from me, of course – but sprang up instantly at the request. As soon as he'd disappeared up the stairs, Andrea nudged me with her elbow. I turned to her, startled, and she jerked her head toward the stairs. Go, she mouthed. I glanced around, saw no one was paying much attention to me, and hurried after Seth. I found him in the bedroom, staring around curiously for the sweater that most likely didn't even exist. When he saw me in the doorway, he sighed heavily, realizing he'd been tricked. â€Å"I don't have time for this,† he said, attempting to move past me. I put out my arm to block the door. â€Å"Seth, please. Just listen to me. Just for a few minutes.† He stood there, only a few inches away, and then backed up. Since he apparently didn't want to push past and risk touching me, he must have decided distance was better, even at the risk of being trapped in the room. â€Å"Georgina, there is nothing you can say. Nothing that can change what happened between us.† â€Å"I know that,† I said. â€Å"I'm not going to try.† He eyed me suspiciously. â€Å"You aren't?† I swallowed, all words and thoughts fading from me as I stared into his eyes. There it was – that look. That same look of hurt and utter devastation that Kyriakos had worn so many centuries ago. It was looking out at me through Seth's eyes. I nodded. â€Å"We need to know about your contract. We just want to know some details.† â€Å"To help you?† he asked. â€Å"To help both of us. From what we've gathered, Hell violated my contract when it wrote yours. And that makes the conditions of yours contradictory. We might be able to get them both invalidated . . . but we need to understand yours better.† Seth leaned against the wall, eyes staring vacantly ahead as his thoughts turned inward. â€Å"I don't even understand the details of my contract. I barely remember it. . . . I mean, I do and don't. What went down . . . with the hypnosis . . . it's real and it's not.† I started to take a step forward, wanting badly to touch him and comfort him since he was clearly distraught. Caution held me back. â€Å"You have to try. Right now, if you don't, then you're going to go to Hell when you die. Doesn't matter if you become a saint before then. That contract brands your soul . . . unless, well . . . we're not sure if there was some condition that if you and I got back together, then you'd be free. That's what we need to know.† â€Å"Does it matter?† he asked. â€Å"Seeing as that doesn't look like it's going to happen – doesn't look like it was ever going to happen, if all those lives were any indication.† â€Å"Well, I mean, yeah . . . it matters in that the more information we have, the better our case.† â€Å"Can't you just have Hugh look it up?† I shook my head. â€Å"Not without raising attention. It'd be better if we can get the details from you.† â€Å"Well, sorry, then. I don't remember anything more than what I told you. And honestly? I don't care.† â€Å"How can you not care?† I asked incredulously. â€Å"It's your soul we're talking about!† â€Å"I'll take my chances,† he said. A spark of anger permeated the sorrow that had clung to me these last couple days. â€Å"There are no ‘chances.' It's a done deal. Your soul belongs to Hell. Nothing's going to change it.† â€Å"Does it really matter? You gave your soul to Hell.† â€Å"For you!† I cried. â€Å"I did it for you. To save you. I would do it a hundred times over if I had to.† Seth scoffed. â€Å"Why didn't you just not cheat on me one time?† â€Å"I was young, and I was stupid,† I said, amazed at how levelly I could acknowledge that. â€Å"I was scared, and I felt like you were so far away from me. Like I wasn't part of your priorities anymore. It was all about work and music for you.† â€Å"And you never thought about talking to me about any of that first? You know you can always bring anything up to me.† I sighed. â€Å"To you, maybe. Not to Kyriakos. He . . . you . . . may have meant well but wasn't always so easy to get through to.† â€Å"But I am him,† argued Seth, though he sound a little unsure. â€Å"Er, was.† â€Å"Yes and no,† I said. â€Å"Look, I'm no expert on reincarnation, but from what I know, even though the soul and some parts of the character are constant, there's still, like . . . evolving taking place. You grow and change. That's the point of reincarnation. You're the same person, but you aren't. You weren't perfect back then. Hell, you aren't now. Maybe you – Seth – can handle talking about this . . . maybe after ten lives, you've developed enough relationship maturity. Back then? I'm not so sure. I obviously didn't have it either.† â€Å"Obviously,† he repeated. His gaze held me for a long time, and this time, I couldn't tell what he was feeling. At least there was no overt hate or anything. Either that, or he'd simply learned to conceal it. Finally, he said, â€Å"I meant it. I don't remember the contract details. . . . Just that I would be allowed to keep finding you.† â€Å"That's it?† I said. â€Å"Nothing else? If there's anything more . . . I mean, the stakes here are huge, Seth. I know you said you'd take your chances, but remember when we're talking about your soul, we're looking beyond the scope of one human life. We're looking at eternity.† â€Å"There you go again,† he said, with a small, rueful smile. â€Å"Making an argument for the sanctity of the soul, a soul you threw away.† â€Å"And I told you before, I'd do it again.† â€Å"So you wouldn't have to face me and look me in the eye after what you'd done.† â€Å"In part,† I said. â€Å"But also to save your life. To give you a chance at happiness. Because at that moment . . . that was more important than my eternity.† Seth took a long time to answer, and I again wished I knew what was happening behind those brown eyes. Whose thoughts were stirring in there? His or Kyriakos's? Or any of the other men I'd had turbulent romances with? â€Å"You didn't want to face me then,† he said at last. â€Å"But here you are. Why? To save your own soul?† â€Å"To save both our souls,† I said. Seth straightened up from his slouch against the wall and moved toward the door. â€Å"I can't help you. I mean it – I don't remember anything else. Now. If you'd please make some polite excuse to the others and leave, I'd really appreciate it.† He came to stand in front of me in the doorway, and for a half a second, time stood still as we studied each other, only a few inches apart. A thousand feelings warred within me, powered by a thousand years' worth of lifetimes. With a slow nod, I yielded and let him walk past me. He didn't look back.

Strategic Management-A report based on a strategic review of eBay Essay

Strategic Management-A report based on a strategic review of eBay - Essay Example On the other hand, favourable economic conditions initiate the growth of online shoppers within the industry. This factor has enabled the company to strengthen its financial base and cater needs of consumer market. Technological changes also influence the company to upgrade its technical capabilities. Competitive analysis reveals the fact that there is intense competition within the industry. The bargaining power of suppliers is less in comparison to bargaining power of customers. This is because availability of more players offering similar products and less switching costs involved. Internal analysis has been performed in order to evaluate internal strengths and weakness, and market opportunities and threats. On basis of value chain, swot analysis, external environmental analysis and resources and competencies certain appropriate strategies has been outlined. These strategies are then evaluated with the support of SFA framework so as to recommend most suitable strategies for future development and growth. eBay Inc., is an ecommerce company that provides business to consumer and consumer to consumer sales service through Internet. The mission of the company is to provide an online platform where individuals can trade anything thereby facilitating economic opportunity. It is an online auction company and strategies are inclined towards creating global leadership. The forces present in external environment tend to affect business operations in nearby future. Business of eBay Inc. is linked with politics as it is closely knitted with economic conditions. Political uncertainty is highly prevalent across the globe and this affects eBay’s operations since it operates worldwide. In the coming general elections, tax rate is to be increased by labour planning council (Verdin and Subramanian, 2003). On the other hand, income tax threshold is also expected to rise to 41,865 pounds from 41,450 pounds (Allen, 2006). Legal factors also

Psychology research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Psychology research paper - Essay Example (Bruens 1998, 25) Charlotte Perkins Gilman is also believed to have described herself and her own psychopathic state in her story The yellow wallpaper. Many eminently creative individuals have been retrospectively diagnosed with mood disorders, suggesting relationships between creativity and affective disorders. Jamison (1989) described several research paradigms used to study relationships between mood disorders and creativity. A common approach uses historical and biographical studies to provide anecdotal evidence for high rates of affective illness in eminently creative individuals, suggesting artists and writers may have a 2-3-fold more psychosis, mood disorders and suicide compared to people in less creative professions. (Simeonova et. al 2005) Basing on the research conducted by Andreasen who studied for over fifteen years the members of the writing workshop at the Iowa University, K. Jamison who studied 47 British writers and artists, A. M. Ludwig who had done a biographical survey of 1,005 important 20th-century writers, artists and other creative people, etc. M. Ingram states that '[t]he writers had a substantially higher rate of mental illness, predominantly affective, with a tendency towards bipolar attacks'. (Ingram 2001) The study of Guastello et. al showed that cyclothymia is extremely highly represented among creative people. (2004) Different studies have demonstrated "relationships between creativity and bipolar disorder (BD) in individuals, and suggested familial transmission of both creativity and BD". (Simeonova et. al 2005) Hershman and Lieb researched "the often turbulent lives and careers" of talented people, linking their psychological state and manic depression they suffered from to their creativity, and demonstrating "how manic-depressive disorder often becomes the essential difference between talent and genius and offers insights into the obstacles and problems this illness posed for highly creative people in all fields". (Hershman & Lieb 1998) As it can be clearly seen, there are two basic approaches to investigating the psychic states of writers establishing the connection between their creativity and mood disorders, one being based predominantly upon their biographies and other records of their lives, and another - on assessing living creative people. Yet, we presume that one more approach might prove effective as far as researching the link between bipolar disorder and creativity is concerned, and namely - textual analysis of the works of writers. In our research we are planning to concentrate on the works of Virginia Woolf. Modern science being anthropocentric, literary text should be studied taking into account social and psychological peculiarities of its author. Thus, we presume that the evidence for the writer's state can be collected from her texts, above all novels and essays. Manic-depressive disorder is a disease that usually reveals itself in periodic changes of manic and depressive phases separated from each other by

Issue of gender inequality from a global perspective Essay

Issue of gender inequality from a global perspective - Essay Example Again, the focus of how the media covers the improvement of women will be aimed at presenting those 'general' variables that apply across all cultures, and education will be presented as one of the most important ways toward female emancipation. Finally, and in keeping with the economic focus, the solution driven approach will be examined from the US perspective over and against that of the rest of the world. Given that both health care and education are institutions that have had a very measurable positive impact, the question emerges as to whether these should be state or private? In terms of economics, the problems and the solutions will be examined with a particular central focus on fiscally driven themes. However much there is a lot of legislation and many institutions that function to challenge discrimination in the US, discrimination is nonetheless a problem. From the beginning's of US history, and to the present time, there has been a marked progress toward creating the insti tutions and legislation that promotes equality across social classes, race or visible minority barriers, barriers created by disabilities, and finally, the issue which will be the focus of the following analysis, namely, discrimination on the basis of gender. This said, progress toward gender inequality has been a long struggle. In the twentieth century, for example, the right to vote for women was established in 1919 or well after the right to vote was given to men. Further, the most significant acts or legislation for promoting equality, were really only passed in the 1960's. Among these, it has to be maintained that the Equal Pay or Equality Act rank as the most significant. While, the legislative or formal area of breaking down discrimination has taken some time, the effects of greater equality are arguably only a fairly recent phenomenon. For instance, in the US at the moment, in over two-thirds of all households women are in the workforce [Bennett and Ellison, 2010]. Further, women are outranking men in education at significant levels, and represent 71% of all valedictorians [Bennett and Ellison, 2010]. However, while there is progress by so many social indicators, they remain largely outsiders at the top of the work chain, so to speak. Moreover, they are still earning less than men for equivalent which means that there is a persisting wage gap in spite of a lot of the progress that has been noted in brief: â€Å"Women in the U.S. may be working more, and in greater numbers, but women are still just 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs, and make 77 cents on the dollar† [Bennett and Ellison, 2010]. It cannot be stressed enough that the wage gap for present purposes, has to be understood within some of the perimeters of economics. As a gap measurable or quantifiable, it follows that a tax revenue base is effected as just a single instance where impacts are made well beyond the immediate or surface layer. It cannot be said enough that both the wage gap and the impact of fewer women earning the top salaried jobs in the Fortune 500 boardrooms are economic at least as much as moral issues. In terms of the legal problems involved with systemic discrimination,

American Constitution Law 1.1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American Constitution Law 1.1 - Essay Example Three hours later, the officers again sought to enter Miss Mapp’s house but still Miss Mapp refused to let them in. The police officers coercively opened one of the doors and accessed the house. Miss Mapp insisted that the police officers to produce search warrant. One of the police officers produced a paper claiming to be a search warrant, which Miss Mapp grabbed and concealed it in her bosom. A struggle emerged in which the law enforcers took the paper and in turn, they handcuffed Miss Mapp on the basis that she has been aggressive in rejecting their official rescue of the search warrant. The police officers forcibly took Miss Mapp upstairs where they searched her concealed items, closet, and some suitcases. In addition, they also searched her personal papers and photo album. The police officers moved on to search the kitchen, children bedroom, and dining hall. In the course of the forceful search, the police officers managed to get the obscene materials they wanted (Clancy, 2008). During the trial of the appellant, no search warrant was produced. The Ohio Supreme court held that it was reasonable that the conviction should be quashed or reversed. This is because the approaches or methods used by police officers to get the evidence were directed in a manner as to offend or insult a sense of justice but the court realized that the evidence had not been obtained from defendant’s person by application of offensive or brutal force against the defendant. In addition, the court asserted that even if the search were done in absence of legal authority or unreasonably by the police officers, it is not stopped from utilizing the unconstitutionally and unreasonably seized evidence at the trial (Clancy, 2008). The fourteenth amendment does not prohibit the use of evidence gathered by unreasonable search and seizure. Therefore, in this case the court held that there was probable and reasonable jurisdiction to try

Memo revision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Memo revision - Essay Example The parking here at DataTech is free unless you do not follow the parking guidelines. While we do not like resorting to these measures, when you do not follow the parking guidelines, we have to ticket you. However, since you are not following the policies, we have decided that it was time to send this reminder to make sure that you were aware of these policies in the future. Day-shift employees should park in Lots A and B in their assigned spaces. Employees that do not register their cars will be ticketed. Everyone must display the white parking stickers on the bumper of their cars. Also remember that it is a MAJOR violation if you park at the curb before 3:30 p.m. That area is reserved for visitors and swing-shift employees, who do not have assigned parking spaces. Please park in assigned spaces only. Swing-shift employees may park in any empty space after 3:30 p.m. They have the option to park at the curb before 3:30 p.m. if no spaces are available. However, please do not park in curb spaces marked for handicapped, van pool, or car pool vehicles. All employees must register their cars and display a parking sticker. These white registration stickers should be placed on your back bumper on the driver's side of the vehicle. You may pick them up in the Human Resources Division from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. To make it more convenient for you, they will be in the cafeteria on September 10th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m. We are trying our best not to issue tickets. You can help by following these suggestions, which can benefit everyone.

Freud Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Freud - Essay Example cre ability to hypnotize, necessarily took on a more imaginative turn that revolutionized the way people approached the treatment of the mind (Robbins, 1999). Although others had been doing work to understand the inner workings of the mind before him and others have come after him to refine and build on his theories, as well as add theories of their own, Freud is generally credited with the first break-through in treating the mind as an entity separate from the body. His identification of different levels of thought and how these levels interact and intertwine led to his development of psychotherapy. Within this theory, Freud outlines three major components of an individual’s psyche – the id, the ego and the superego. This intuitive leap, however, did not occur by accident. To understand Freud’s theories, his concept of the human mind and how that translates into his theories regarding human culture, then, it is necessary to understand a little bit about how thes e ideas were developed as well as how Freud himself expressed them. With his origins in the medical field, it should not be surprising to learn that Freud’s psychoanalytic theory had its earliest basis in the fields of 19th century biology and physics. One of the theories that held particular importance to Freud’s theories was that of Hermann von Helmholtz. According to Helmholtz’s dynamic theory of energy, â€Å"energy cannot be destroyed but can only be transformed into other states. Drawing upon this notion of undestroyable energy, Freud formulated a dynamic psychology, one of whose key points is that whenever a psychic drive or urge is suppressed, repressed or driven below (or out of) consciousness, its energy inevitably appears elsewhere† (Landow, 1988). This idea is supported in Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents ( ) as he discusses the aggressive energy associated with the super-ego. â€Å"According to one view, that energy merely carries on the punitive energy of the

Compliance of Apple Inc Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Compliance of Apple Inc - Research Paper Example Companies have shifted their operations to developing countries in order to curtail their costs and improve through economic ways. With such an approach, businesses have saved heavy taxes that could be imposed while operating in their homelands. The Economic factor is most influencing for the businesses as it directly affects revenues and profitability. Apple Inc has suppliers from China, India and other parts of the world that serve the company virtually or provide the required hardware, supplies, etc. The company has to assure compliance with standard ethics and variable economic obligations that exist in each country. It attempts to choose most reputed suppliers from around the globe so that economic and legal compliance may not be compromised while quality is maintained throughout operations (King, 2011). In the present era, societies are driven through global values and the gulf between different societies is contracting due to expanding embrace of international social values. H owever social circumstances differ geographically (Zylla, 2013). Apple Inc behaves as socially responsible entity and endeavors to aid workers as and when required to bring them in pace with the rapidly changing dynamics of the world. Apple does not allow the suppliers to overburden employees and limits the working hours per week so that they stay in good health and work efficiently in the long run. The company attempts to educate manpower of its suppliers through SEED (Supplier Employee Education Development) program.

The history of Antibiotics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

The history of Antibiotics - Research Paper Example Thus the drugs to treat these infections have to be numerous, so that they target the susceptibility of each bacterial pathogen. Thus, the advances in pharmacology have brought forward a new era of antibiotics with vast options to treat the infections that were once considered lethal in the history of mankind. Major disease epidemics in the history of the world, like the Black Death by plague in early 1900s that caused deaths of millions of people were brought under control successfully with the help of antibiotics (Levinson 2008). Endemic diseases like Tuberculosis, that have been a scourge for humanity for ages and were uncontrollable despite the use of innumerable drugs and therapies, have been found to be susceptible to different combinations of antibiotics. Worldwide measures are now being taken to eradicate such diseases from the face of the earth. Thus, single or in combination, antibiotics have opened the new doors to healthy life for the sick people who had no chances of sur vival. Antibiotics themselves are the products of microorganisms. The drug substance produced by one microorganism has adverse effects on certain other microorganisms and serves to kill them. This is how the antibiotics were produced initially. Due to their remarkable effects on wound healing and recovery from infections, soon they became famous with the names like ‘magic bullet’ and ‘wonder drug’ (Aminov 2010, Levinson 2008). The origin of the use of antibiotics for treating the infections is as old as the infections themselves. Different communities in the past used living organisms to treat infections. In ancient times, different types of moulds were used by people to heal wounds and infections. Tetracycline antibiotics have the ability to get incorporated in the bones and accumulate in them. Studies on bones of ancient Romans of Egypt and the Nubian population of Sudan reveal traces of

Richard Branson and the Virgin Group of Companies in 2007 Essay Example for Free

Richard Branson and the Virgin Group of Companies in 2007 Essay A. Problem Summary â€Å"Richard, you will end up in prison or as a millionaire†. These are the words of the headmaster of Stowe, a private boarding school Branson dropped out at 17. His success started by publishing a magazine called Student, then he moved on to mail order records. This is where the Virgin Group started. Richard Branson has developed his brand in a large variety of markets. The over-familiarity of the Virgin brand has caused the consumers to not take the brand in a serious manner. One might argue that he stretched his brand too thin. This lack of focus and over-diversification could result in further over investments in projects that do not hold a steady future. In this paper we will brake down the strategic of sense of apparent entrepreneurial chaos. We will address topics such as key resources, dominant logic, characteristics of markets that conform to this logic, and designing a corporate strategy and structure. B. Analysis †¢ Key Resources o Virgin Brand The Virgin name is the group’s most important asset. The group is involved in a variety of different business ranging from airlines, books, jewelry to limousines. The Virgin Brand strives for value for money, good quality, brilliant customer service, innovation, competitively challenging and fun. The customers receive these attributes in a variety of ways. This is the brand’s competitive advantage. o Branson Branson’s eccentric personality, laid-back look and charisma are the essence of the Virgin brand. Branson embodied the spirit of â€Å"New Britain† to his generation because of his image and entrepreneurial spirit. Branson acted as a magnet for potential entrepreneurs; his brand actively encouraged the creating of fresh business ideas to its development office in London, Sidney and New York. Branson’s opposition to corporate offices led him to conduct business from family homes, houseboats, and vacation homes. His image exuded a carefree approach to exploring new ventures. Branson was impressed by the Japanese approach to business. Their long-term development and focus on organic growth were the key points Branson admired. His networking skills started a very young age. His first team was comprised of childhood friend Nik Powell, and affluent individuals such as Simon Draper and Mike Oldfield. Key management of the Virgin Group is the informal relations between Branson and a small core of long-term associates who form the senior management team of the group. Branson considers cash flow and capital value as important performance indicators, rather than concentrating in accounting profits. His tendency to avoid short-term taxable profits makes his approach ideal, concentrating in long-term capital growth instead. †¢ Dominant Logic The ability of the Virgin Group to operate effectively with so little structure or management systems owes much to the group’s unique organizational culture. This is defined almost entirely by Branson’s management style. His style reflects his sense of fun, disrespect for hierarchy and formal authority, commitment to employees and consumers and belief in hard work and individual responsibility. †¢ Characteristics of Markets that Conform to this Logic o Consumer Branson wanted to offer consumers a â€Å"new deal† by continually being on the lookout for business opportunities. Branson did so by involving venture with direct sales to consumers and passing on the cost savings from bypassing traditional distribution channels. o Dominant Incumbent Branson’s Virgin Travel is the dominant incumbent Virgin brand company. Post 2002 recovery in the airline industry, Virgin Travel was able to turn the largest profit of the Virgin Groups. o High Entry Barriers to Other Start-ups The airline and galactic companies both involve high entry barriers and significant start up costs. In addition to costs, Branson also had to negotiate with governments in order to receive approval. o Branson/Virgin Image Appeals to Customers Branson believed in multiple companies interlocking through managerial and equity linkages in a collaborative network. He accomplished this by having small companies combined and believes â€Å"small is beautiful† with strength through unity. Branson is a strong advocate of sticking it to the large corporations. †¢ Designing a Corporate Strategy and Structure o Business Model Virgin Group is built upon the theory of creating an entrepreneurial incubator and diversifying the corporation as much as possible. Branson does not want his best people to leave the company and start their own ventures. Instead, he prefers to develop them into millionaires within. The company is focused on diversifying into many markets. Some of these markets include travel, jewelry, entertainment, records, and mobile. His corporate strategy is focused on cash flow and capital value. He wants to increase his company’s real value and a long-term cash generation potential. He does not care about his accounting profit. o Type of Structure The Virgin Group is structured as if they are 150 small companies. Each one stands on its own two feet, as if they are their own companies. Employees have a stake in their success. They feel they are crucial to their individual company because they are one-in-fifty or one-in a hundred instead of one-in-tens-of-thousands. All of the companies are under the Virgin umbrella, but none of them are looked at, as simply a subsidiary. C. Alternatives As for the scope for New Approaches to Customer Service, Branson wants to create value for the customers entering with a new anti-establishment attitude, which sought to offer customers a better alternative. Branson hoped to bring a breath of fresh air. Virgin’s brilliant customer service approach strived to be â€Å"friendly, human, and relaxed; professional but not corporate†. According to the financial results of select Virgin Companies from 2004 to 2006. Virgin Retail Limited had a negative net profit in 2004. This branch of Virgin could be looked at to potentially divest. In order to maintain the Virgin name a success. Branson may look to consolidate some of his different brands in the future. With the threat of Britain’s capital gains tax laws, this could eliminate the advantages of multiple off shore companies, which Branson is involved in. D. Recommendation We feel the best alternative for Branson and his Virgin Brand would be to look into divesting out of some markets and focusing more on a smaller scale. Richard should look into investing more into the companies that are performing well and stray from unprofitable, high-risk markets. If Branson looks at the financial standpoint of his companies and possibly divest in the poor performing ones, he could potentially be more successful. Overall, Branson has been mostly successful in his quest for Virgin dominance. There is some room for improvement in Branson’s strategies; however, he is going to do what Branson wants to do. And this strategy has obviously been successful thus far.

Threat Analysis and Risk assessment

Threat Analysis and Risk assessment Case articulation Staysure.co.uk Ltd specialises in insurance and financial services in the UK and Europe. It was formed in 2004 to provide travel insurance and expanded further to provide home, motor, health and life insurance along with some insurance products. In October 2013 Staysure.co.uk faced a security breach wherein over 100,00 live credit card details along with other personal details of the customers were compromised. This security breach affected 7% of the customers who had purchased insurance from Staysure before May 2012. Before May 2012 the firm stored the card numbers of the customers along with the CVV numbers and other personal details like customer name and addresses. The card details were encrypted but the CVV numbers were fed as plain text into the database even though the card security details should not have been stored at all according to the industry rules. The chief executive of the company said that these details were stored in the system to help customers in their renewal process. After May 2012 the company ceased storing these details. The server on which the website server was based had a software vulnerability and even though a software patch was published in 2010 and 2013 the data controller failed to update software both the times due to lack of formal process to review and apply software updates. The failure to update the database software and the security flaws in the IT security system made the company very vulnerable to a cyber-attack. The security flaws in the companys JBoss Application web server were exploited between 14th and 28th October 2013. The attacker used the vulnerability in the application server to inject a malicious JavaScript code called JSPSpy on the firms website. JSPSpy enabled the attackers to remotely view and modify the source code of the website and query the database containing the details of the customers. It also let the attackers open a command shell allowing them to remotely execute privileged operating system commands. The attackers specifically targeted and downloaded the payment card details. Even though the card numbers were encrypted the attackers were able to identify the keys used in the encryption and hence could decrypt the card numbers. At the time of the attack the database contained a total of 110,096 live card details, which were at a risk of being accessed and used in fraudulent transactions. The firm became aware of the attack on 14th November 2013 and immediately hired in dependent forensic data experts and wrote to 93,389 affected customers, to make them aware of the attack. The company also offered the affected customers free access to Data Patrol, which is an identity fraud monitoring service. After the attack Staysure was fined with an amount of  £175,00 by the   ICO since the company did not comply to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) , which is a standard administered by PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) to increase payment card security and decrease the transaction frauds over the internet. References: http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/staysure-fails-to-comply-with-the-pci-dss-and-is-fined-175000-by-the-ico/ http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/broker-fined-175000-by-information-watchdog-after-cyber-criminals-raid-customer-records/1411917.article http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/21002/cyber-crime/staysure-hacked.html https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2015/02/ico-fines-insurance-firm-after-hacked-card-details-used-for-fraud/ http://www.insuranceage.co.uk/insurance-age/news/2396976/staysure-fined-gbp175k-for-it-security-failings http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2321017/staysure-travel-insurer-admits-to-credit-card-theft http://trainsure.com/news-posts/insurance-times-reports-another-cyber-attack/ http://www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2014-01-06/staysure-insurance-customer-data-stolen-hackers http://www.computerworlduk.com/it-vendors/travel-insurer-reveals-almost-100000-customer-details-in-cyber-attack-3495625/ Threat Analysis and Risk assessment The purpose of threat analysis and risk assessment is to maximize the protection of the three main pillars of security namely confidentiality, Integrity and Accessibility while still providing usability and functionality. A Risk to any organization or an individual is an interactive relationship of threat, asset and vulnerability. The various levels of risk can be represented as the product of the impact and probability (likelihood). Quantitative Measure Qualitattive Measure Description 5 High A high level risk can occur frequently and can have a drastic effect on the organization. Sever measures will be needed in order to mitigate a high level risk. 4 Medium High A medium high risk can occur/recur with high probability but might not persist. If it occurs the organization can have a significant or sever effect. 3 Medium A medium level risk is likely to occur   under many circumstances and if a medium level attack occurs it can have moderate to severe effects on the organization. 2 Low Medium A low medium risk can be considered when the organization will have a minor or moderate impact as a result of an attack. A low medium risk can occur occasionally or might not occur at all and can be mitigated easily. 1 Low The risk is considered to be low when the likelihood of an attack on an entity is low and the impact of the attack on the entity is negligible or minor. Low risks will never or rarely happen and can be mitigated easily. Table 1: Risk Rating Scale Figure1. Figure 1 shows a risk matrix which represents the various levels of risk. A vulnerability is a weakness in the system that can be exploited by an attacker or can be unintentionally triggered by a person within the organization. The likelihood is the possibility that any vulnerability will be taken advantage of or the vulnerability will be triggered by someone unintentionally. The likelihood is related to attackers intent, attackers ability and attackers target. If a certain vulnerability is exploited the impact on an organization can be expressed in terms like Negligible, Minor, Moderate, Significant, Severe. The table below shows a risk assessment architecture for Staysure.co.uk. The Firm had several security flaws in the system, which the attackers exploited to gain access to customer information. Asset Threat Vulnerability Threat Actor Threat vector Consequences Likeli hood Impact Risk Customer Personal details Can be assessed and manipulated The database had no security procedure in place hence the data was highly accessible. Hackers or a person within the organization (insider). Gaining access to the database by getting access to the webserver or SQL injections. Personal   details of the employees like name, address, phone can be accessed and used or even modified. Possible (3/5) Significant (4/5) Medium High Company website Source code of the website can be modified and malicious code can be injected and made to run on the browser (Cross site scripting). Cross site scripting can be performed on the website if security measures are not taken care of while developing the website. Hackers or an insider. Web pages Malicious code can be injected into the web pages thus allowing access to the web server and the database. Very Likely (5/5) Severe   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   (5/5) High Data controllers system No intrusion detection system. A system with no proper security measures can be easily penetrated. Hackers or an insider trying to get unauthorized access. Backdoor created in the web server. Getting access to the data controllers system enables the threat actor to execute Privileged operating system commands Very likely (5/5) Severe (5/5) High Financial card details Storing financial data incorrectly. Unencrypted card details stored in the database Hackers or an insider trying to get unauthorized access. Web site source code can be used to query the database Card details can be used to make fraudulent transaction and cloning. Very likely (5/5) Severe (5/5) High Encryption key Encryption algorithms   can be used to calculate the encryption key Simple encryption algorithm used to form an encryption key. Hackers or an insider. Reverse engineering. If the encryption key is compromised all the encrypted data can be decrypted. Possible (3/5) Severe (5/5) Medium High CVV number Storing CVV numbers in the database is a high risk. CVV numbers if not encrypted can be easily read if the attacker gets access to the database. Hackers or an insider. Web site source code can be used to query the database for CVV numbers. CVV numbers can be used to prove authentication while doing online transactions. Very likely (5/5) Severe (5/5) High JBoss Application Server Unpatched and out of date softwares and no intrusion detection system Scripts can be uploaded to the server which when executed gives remote administration access to the server. Hackers or an unauthorised insider. Backdoors created on the server via malicious script. Once administration access is acquired on the server various admin activities can be initiated and the hosted web servers can be accessed. Likely (4/5) Severe (5/5) High Database Database injections and unmanaged data The data in the database can highly vulnerable to SQL injections and can be highly inconsistent. Hackers SQL injections Data can be erased and stolen from the database and used in a fraudulent manner. Likely (4/5) Severe (5/5) High https://www.towergateinsurance.co.uk/liability-insurance/smes-and-cyber-attacks remove later http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/how-to-prevent-cross-site-scripting-attacks/ remove later Security Architecture Figure: 2 Figure 2 shows security architecture for Staysure during the time of the attack Security Recommendations Staysure.co.uk had no security policies in place which can be sited as the base for the cyber-attack. Being an insurance company and holding personal records of millions of customers the company should have had security procedures in place. It is important that the employees of a company are trained and made aware of the importance of information data security. The fact that the attackers took advantage of the software vulnerability in the JBoss application server even though there were patches available to fix the vulnerabilities shows the ignorance of the data controller towards information security. Table 2 lists security recommendations which would have prevented the attack. Security Recommendations Descriptions Security policies Security policies is an integral part of any organization. Staysure being an insurance company and handling millions of customer records should have had strict company security policies which could have prevented the attack. Security training and awareness The employees of Staysure were clearly not aware of the importance of data security and management. The employees should have been provided good data security and data management training and made aware of information security. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) add appendix When an organization handles personal records of customers it is necessary that the organization follows certain industry standards for data storage. According to PCI DSS the CVV numbers should not have been stored in the database. If the standards were followed the attack would not have a major impact. Data storage and data security Data storage has both physical and logical security aspects.   The logical aspect being data authorization, authentication and encryption. The physical aspects include the place in which the servers are placed, it should be safe from heat-waves, power fluctuations and other physical elements. In case of Staysure the payment card details and the CVV numbers should have been encrypted with a strong encryption algorithm from the very beginning and the database server should have had an intrusion detection and prevention system which would have prevented access to the database. Patch management Unpatched systems and softwares pose a big threat to an organization. The most efficient way to shield from attacks is to have patch management procedure to make sure that all the systems and softwares are patched on regular basis. If Staysure had patched the vulnerabilities in the Jboss application server and software, the attackers would not have been able to exploit the vulnerability. DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) The servers that are faced towards the public should be kept in the DMZ, so that they can be separated from the private network. If a malicious party gains access to the server, he will be isolated in the DMZ and will not be able to attack the private network. If Staysure had a DMZ the attackers would not be able to access data on the private network. Encryption Encrypting any valuable information of customers is necessary in order to protect customer data from being accessible and using a strong encryption key is vital to serve the purpose of encryption. The data controller should have had made sure to encrypt the CVV and the card number and should have used a strong encryption key. IDS Staysure should have had Intrusion detection systems   so that the intrusion by the attacker could have been detected and would alert the authorities thus preventing high impact Firewalls Prevention of human errors http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSTFWG_4.3.1/com.ibm.tivoli.itcm.doc/CMPMmst20.htm patch management policy. High level security diagram to prevent attacks

Image Based Steganography Using Lsb Insertion Technique Computer Science Essay

Image Based Steganography Using Lsb Insertion Technique Computer Science Essay The Data transmitted comes in many forms and it is used for more than one application. Communications should be done secretly. Secret communication varies from level of security needed such as banks , in credit card payments and secured communication related to corporate systems .Steganography is an art of embedding a secret message into a normal message. Steganography is used in watermarking for protecting data copyrights .Unsurprisingly, methods of Steganography change because innocuous spam contents are growing frequently by embedded texts Cryptography is technique used to make secret message scribbled for third party and are normally used in WEB. The encrypted message is targeted by attackers in cryptography because it hides the message content. An another data hiding technique known as watermarking used for embedding and hiding, some symbol data or digital manifest in the digital valuable data like photo picture, digital movie, musical sound etc. Watermarking purpose is mainly used to protect ownership or copyrights of the data. In this technique, hardness of embedded evidence and hidden evidence are very small and is important. In this technique the important information is present in external information which can be seen. In the Steganography technique, confidential information made invisible for a human eye by embedding it as a dummy data such as a speech sound and a digital image. Steganography contains another research topic called as steganalysis which is used to find a stego file from the available files. Steganalysis is used in detecting suspicious image file. The suspicious image files are embedded with the crime associated information The information hiding capacity is limited in traditional Steganography. These techniques can hide 10% or less than 10% data of a carrier data. The principle of these techniques is to replace frequency components of carrier or to swap LSB bits of multivalued image with secret information. In Steganography, image is used as a carrier data and it embeds secret information in bit planes .In Steganography, replacing noise like reg ion without disturbing the image quality is termed as B.P.C.S Steganography..BPCS Steganography is known as Bit plane complexity segmentation Steganography. BACKGROUND HISTORY: Steganography is derived from a Greek word which means as a covered writing or hidden writing. In Steganography stegos means cover and grafia means writing. THEORY: Steganography used to hide confidential information from human eyes by embedding it in a carrier data such as a digital image or a speech sound. A carrier data is consists of color images having RGB color components in a multi-bit data structure. The embedded information is evoked by means of special extracting program and key .The techniques of Steganography different from file camouflage or file deception technique. File deception is used for hiding secret data in system file and it almost looks as a Steganography. But, it is a one of easy method to disguise an secret-data file as a regular file and is possible in files which have dont care option. For example, Word file or JPEG image OR MPEG will allow for adding an extra data (extension) at the end of a usual file. After adding an extra data, the JPEG image, word file or MPEG looks as original image and original sound, or document on system.People may think this is due to Steganography. The lengthy files are easily noticed by engineers. Therefore file deception and Steganography are different. The Steganography softwares that are available in the market are based on file deception. In Steganography, if output file size is increased by embedding the information then the program is called as File deception. A secret data can be made unreadable by encrypting the data. The secret data should be encrypted to make it unreadable for third party. With the help of data encryption, secret data can be safe. Data encryption depends on a data scrambling and it uses a secret key. Data encryption can create a doubt to the people that owner of the data is hiding something in an image. In data encryption we can find easily that he is hiding something in a image. Therefore encryption of data is not enough. Steganography is the solution for data encryption. There are two types of data in Steganography .they are secret data and carrier data. Secret data is very valuable when compared to the carrier data. Carrier data is a type of dummy data which is not so important but it is needed. The data which is embedded is called as stego data. If we want to recover the secret data , we can extract that data from stego data. We need a special program or a key for data extraction.. The carrier is image data which has color components of red green and blue colors in 24 bit pixel structure. The figure below shows an example of carrier image and stego image. The secret data is embedded in stego image. http://www.datahide.com/BPCSe/images/stegano-scheme.jpg Steganography is a method of hiding the secret data by fixing it in media data .For example in the figure a secret data is embedded but we cant find in which place the secret data is embedded. The data which is embedded will be very safe in the Steganography because it will hide content of the message and location of hidden image. There are many methods to embed the data .but; it is very hard to find about the method used in embedding the message.. Steganography collaborates with cryptography to embed the encrypted data safely. In Steganography, Stego data will not have any evidence about the embedded data. The Steganography user should discard the original carrier data after embedding such that it will not allow comparison of stego and original data. Embedded capacity should be larger. BPCS method is the method available method for image Steganography. If anyone detect the Steganography image, it is very difficult for him to retrieve the hidden image. There are three basic ways to hide a message in image. They are Injection, substitution and generation. Using Injection method we can find in which place data to be inserted and using substitution we can find least significant bits for hiding the message. Using generation method we can create a new file based on the hidden information. Method of implementation: Least significant bit insertion is one of the important methods of implementation. In this method , the LSB bits of byte is altered so that it form bit string and represents a embedded file. By changing the LSB bits, it will cause some small differences in color which are not noticeable to human eye. After that an image is compressed and a text message is hidden in image .In LSB method, LSB bits of the covered image are changed to form embedded information. Embedding a message into cover image will result a stego image. For normal vision, the appearance of stego image will be same as cover image because of small changes of pixel values. Therefore there is no significant difference. The embedded message is sequentially embedded in covered image so that it is simple for other third party to recuperate the message by retrieving the pixels consequently which starting from the first pixel of the image. Steganography uses a key which as a better security. It is difficult to recover the emb edded image without valid key. LEAST SIGNIFICANT BIT INSERTION Least significant bit insertion is the common technique used in Steganography. In LSB method, an image is used. An image is more than strings and string of bytes. Each byte in an image represents different colors. The last few bits in a color byte do not hold much significance as the first few bits. Therefore only two bits differ in last few bits that represent a color which is undistinguishable to human eyes. In LSB method, least significant bits of a cover image are altered such that we can embed information. The example shows how letter A is hidden in first 8 bytes of 3 pixels in a 24 bit image. Since the 8 bit letter A requires only 8 bytes to hide it, ninth byte of the 3 pixels used to hide the next character of the hidden message. Example shows that in a 24 bit image, letter A can be hidden in first 8 bytes of 3 pixels Pixels: (00100111 11101001 11001000) (00100111 11001000 11101001) (11001000 00100111 11101001) A: 01000010 Result: (00100110Â  11101001 11001000) (00100110Â  11001000 11101000) (11001001Â  00100110Â  11101001) The five underlined bits are the 5 bits which were altered. With LSB insertion technique, on an average half of the bits of an image are changed. A is a 8 bit letter and requires 8 bytes for hiding. The ninth byte of 3 pixels is used for hiding next character of secret message. The slight variations of this technique allows a message to embed into two or more least significant bits per bytes, and increases the information hidden capacity of the cover object .but cover object is degraded and easily detectable.LSB insertion is easy to implement and is also easily attacked if the modifications are done wrongly. Improper modifications in color palette and normal image calculations will demolish hidden message. Image resizing and image cropping are some examples of image manipulations. Applications of Steganography: Steganography is applicable the following areas. 1).Private communication and secret data storing. 2).Security of data. 3).Accessing the control system for distributing the digital content 4).Media data base systems. The application area of Steganography differs based on the features utilized in a system. 1).Private communication and secret data storing: The secrecy of embedded data is important in this area. Steganography provides capacity for hiding the existence of secret data and Steganography makes very hard to detect the embedded data in a image and Steganography strengthens the encrypted data. In Steganography, select a carrier data according to the size of embedded data. Carrier data should not be effective. Now embed the secret data using an embedding program with the help of a key. To recover the embedded data, an extracting program is used with a key. Before starting the communication in this case, Key negotiation is used 2).Security for a data: Steganography is used in military applications for maintaining the secret data .In military secret information should be very secure to avoid sudden attacks on them from enemies. Steganography can hide the existence of contents of data but it cannot hide the presence of data. Data should not be larger than carrier image .Steganography strengthens the secrecy of the data. Fragility of the embedded data is advantage for this application area. Embedded data can be rather fragile than robust. But embedded data is fragile in most of the Steganography programs. No one can change or tampered the data .If anyone changes or tampers the data, and then it can be easily detected by the extraction program. 3). Accessing the control system for distributing the digital content : In this application, embedded data is explained to publicize the content. Here embedded data is hidden data. Digital contents are being commonly distributed by internet. Some music companies release the music for free in some web sites and in some sites it charges for the music downloads. Digital contents are equally distributed to user who accesses the web pages. Even it is possible to send digital content to e-mail messages it takes more time. We can to upload any content on the web page; we can issue a special access key to extract the content. In Steganography a prototype of an access control system is developed for distributing the digital content through internet. This can be explained by following steps. 1).The content owner will classify his digital content in a folder and embeds the folder according to Steganography method by accessing the folder access key and uploads embedded content on web page. 2).On the web page, owner will explains the contents clearly and publicises it worldwide and gives his contact information on web page. 3).The owner will receive access request from the customer who visited that web page. Then owner creates an access key and provides it to the customer for free or charge. 4).Media database systems: In this type of application secrecy of data is not important, converting two types of data into one data is important. Photos, Pictures, movies and music will come under media data. For example the media data for a photograph will contain about the title of the photo and date and time of a photo and it also contain about the camera used to take that photograph. Data hiding in .bmp images: There are several formats exists for an digital image. .BMP, JPG, GIF are some formats .Each format is associated with advantage and disadvantages. Because of its simplicity, windows BMP file offers more advantages. It has an advantage of widely spreader and the information contained is minimum .Bmp file is a binary file.bmp file is divided into four sections such as file header, color table, image header and pixel data. To know about size of the image file header are used and also to learn where actual image data is located within the file. The Image header gives information about the image and its data format such as width and height of the image. Image header also gives information such as how many bits are used per pixel and checks whether the image data is compressed data or uncompressed data. Depending on the image data, color table will be present. When color table is not present, a set of bit masks are used to extract the color information from the image data. When dealing wi th 24-bit image, color table is not present. When dealing with 8-bit image, color table consists of 256 entries. Each entry consists of four bytes of data. In these four bytes of data, first three bytes are blue, green and red colors values .The fourth byte must be equal to zero because it is not used. In 8-bit format, each pixel is represented by single byte of the data which is index in to color table. In 24-bit format, each pixel I represented by RGB component values .The pixel data holds entire hidden data and there are changes by one pixel value either positive or negative. IMAGES IN MATLAB The data structure in MATLAB is array, it is set of real or complex elements. MATLAB suits better in representing the images. images are stored as two dimensional array or matrices where each element of matrix determines one pixel in displayed image. DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING Image is a two dimensional function f(x, y). Whereas x and y are spatial co-ordinates. The amplitude of f at f(x, y) is called as intensity image. Image is defined as digital image if values of f, x, y are of discrete quantities. Digital image processing is defined as a process of a digital image using a digital computer. The digital image contains finite number of elements. Each element as its location and a value and elements are called as pixels. Image plays an important role in human life. The analysis of an image depends on vision and image processing. At one end of vision there are no clear cur boundaries in continuum. Let us consider three types of process in continuum. They are low level, mid level and high level process. Low level process involves operations like reduction of noise, sharpening of image, and adjustment of contrast. Mid level operations involve segmentation, object description. These operations will be helpful in reducing a object and for classifying object. In mid-level process , inputs are images and output are extracted from input images. High level processing involves operations like ensembling of objects and some functions that are involved with human vision . Definition for an image: Image is a two dimensional function f(x,y) , x y are spatial co-ordinates. Amplitude of f at x, y is called as intensity of image. Gray scale image: It is function of two spatial co-ordinates of image plane. On image plane I(x,y) is intensity of image at x,y. Color image. Image is represented by three functions R, G, B. RGB is a three colors red green and blue. The image as continuous amplitude and is continuous with x, y. The amplitude of image should be digital for converting an image to digital image. Conversion of co-ordinate values of an image into digital values is called as sampling. Converting the values of amplitude into digital values is called as Quantisation. Coordinate convention : Sampling and quantisation result a real number matrix.The digital images are represented in two ways.By sampling f(x,y) , an image with M rows and n columns resulted and the size of that image is MxN .The coordinate values are of discrete quantities.In many books that are related to image processing it is mentioned that origin of image is at (xylem)=(0,0) .the next coordinates are at first row of image and it is given as (xylem)=(0,1).Here it is importent to keep note that (0,1) is used to signify second sample along first row. Toolbox uses the word race instead of using xylem to indicate rows and columns. Toolbox employs spatial coordinates less frequently. Image as matrices: A digital image is represented by a function F(0,0) f(0,1)f(0,N-1) F(1,0) f(1,1)f(1,N-1) F(xylem)=f(M-1,0) f(M-1,1)f(M-1,N-1) In above equation f(M-1,N-1) can be defined as a digital image. In this array , each element is called as image element and picture element. In MATLAB, digital image is represented as F(1,1) f(1,2)f(1,N) F(2,1) f(2,2).f(2,N) . . F=f(M,1) f(M,2) ..f(M,N) If f(1,1)=f(0,0) then it represents they are identical. F(x , y ) denotes that elements are located in row p and column q. Lets take an example f(8,7). Here elements are located at eight row and ninth column. In a MxN matrix, M denotes number of rows and N denotes number of columns. Here MxN matrix is called as column vector and 1xN matrix is called as row vector and 11 matrixes is defined as a scalar quantity. In matlab, matrix is stored variables A, real array, and so on .The variables in matlab matrix should contain letters and numbers. F(x,y) is a roman and Italian notation that are used in matlab for mathematical expressions. How to read image in MATLAB: The function imread is used to read an image in MATLAB. The syntax for reading an image is imread(filename).The different formats used in MATLAB are TIFF PNG JPEG XWD GIF BMP .TIFF is a tagged image file format and is represented as .tif and .tiff. PNG is a portable network graphic and it is represented as .png. JPEG is joint photograph experts group and are represented as .jpg and .jpeg. GIF is a graphic interchange format and are denoted as .gif. BMP is bitmap window and are recognised as .bmp. XWD is X window dump and are recognised as .xwd. The filename contains image file EXAMPLE : >> f = imread (8.jpg); In this command, it reads jpeg image into image array f and single quote delimits the filename of a string. In a MATLAB, semicolon is used for suppressing output and if we wont use semicolon it displays result in that line. The symbol >> denotes that starting of a command. This symbol is shown in matlab command window. In command line, path is not included in filename. Imread reads the file in a current directory. If it is not read in the current directory window, we can find that file in MATLAB search path. We can read an image from directory that includes full path or relative path in filename. Example : >>f=imread (E:jaichestxray.jpg); Therefore it reads the image from jai folder on E drive >>f=imread(.jaichestxray.jpg); Therefore it reads an image from a sub directory jai of current working directory. Current directory displays MATLAB current working directory on matlab desktop toolbar. TIFFS, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, and XWD are the popular image formats and these formats are supported by imread and imwrite functions. In a image the dimensions of rows and columns are given by size of a function >>size (f) In MATLAB this function is useful in determining the size of an image. >>[M,N]=size(f); The syntax returns number of rows and columns. M is number of rows and N is number of columns and f gives the size. How to read a graphic image: In a graphic file format, imread can be used to read an image. For storing an image pixel , most of the formats uses 8 bit and are stored as class uint8 in matlab and if the file supports 16bit data , MATLAB stores image as class uint16. How to display image: The function imshow is used for displaying an image in MATLAB. The syntax for displaying a image is imshow(f,g) In the above syntax f is array of image and g is used for displaying number of intensity levels. G defaults to 256 levels if it is omitted by syntax imshow(f,{low high}).If the values are less than are equal to low then it displays as black and if values are greater than are equal to high then it displays as white. If the values are not less than and not greater than and are in between then it displays as intermediate intensity value by defaultly. Therefore the final syntax is Imshow(f,[ ]).The variables which are high will have maximum value and low variables will have minimum value. The function imshow will display positive and negative valued images. Pixval function are used for displaying the intensity values individually. Pixval function displays cursor on the image. In a figure window, Move the computer mouse on the image so that intensity values and position of cursor is displayed. The color components such as red green and blue are displayed when working with color image. The Euclidean distance of initial and cursor positions can be displayed by pixval and this can be done by clicking left side button on mouse.Click the x button for closing the window. >>imshow(f) If there is a semicolon at ending, it will not have an effect so it is exception of using semicolon. MATLAB can replace an image with new image by displaying another image using imshow. Use the function >>figure, imshow(g) for keeping first image as output second image.The statement >>imshow(f),figure , imshow(g) is used for displaying both and first and second images .If different commands delimits commas and semicolons then more than one command is written on the line. To suppress the outputs of a screen from command line , the semicolons are used. HOW TO WRITE IMAGE : The function imwrite is used for writng an image in MATLAB. The syntax for writing an image is Imwrite (f,filename).In this syntax , filename contains a string .file extension format should be a recognised format. >>imwrite(f,patient10_run1,tif) Or >>imwrite(f,patient10_run1.tif) This command is used for writing f to a TIFF file patient10_run1:.In current directory window imwrite will save the file if the file does not have information about the path. Depending on the selected file format ,imwrite is having other parameters. The most important formats are JPEG and TIFF .so it is important to focus on these two file formats.The syntax imwrite is applied to jpeg images Imwrite(f,filename.jpg,,qualityq) Here q is the integer and its value ranges between 0 and 100.In compression of jpeg image ,if the number is less than the degradation will be higher. This can be explained by the following example. Here q=25 Then the syntax is >>imwrite(f,bubbles25.jpg,quality,25) If an image is has q=15 then it has false shape which is hardly visible.this effect pronounces as q=5 and q=0.compress the image with q=25 for an expectable solution .compression can be achieved by obtaining details of image file by using imfinfo The syntax is Imfinfo filename Filename refers the complete filename of image that is stored on disk.this can be explained by following example >>imfinfo bubbles25.jpg It displays output in following way. filename: bubbles25.jpg and filemoddate :08-jan-2009 12:30:25 and filesize :13849 format:jpg format version : width : 715 height : 687 bit depth :8 color depth :grayscale format signature: comment: { } The filesize is expressed in bytes. The number of bytes in original image multiply width and height by bit depth and divide the obtained result by 8 therefore we get result as 491205.We can obtain the ratio of compression by dividing the file size.(491205/13849)=35.46 therefore compression ratio is achieved and it is 35.46.Maintain the quality of image consistently. The reduction of stoage space transmits 35times of the uncompressed data per unit time. Iminfo displays the information field and are captured by a variable for some computations. >>k=iminfo(bubbles25.jpg); Here k is assigned to a structure variable. The variable k as information and it is generated by command imfinfo. The information that is generated by imfinfo command is added to structure variable by a field that are separated from k by dot. The height and width of a image is stored in k.height and k.width Consider the structure variable k for changing the ratio of compression bubbles25.jpg >>k=imfinfo(bubbles25.jpg); >>image bytes=k.width*k.height*k.bit depth/8; >>Compression_ bytes =k.filesize; >>Compression_ ratio=35.16 Imfinfo can be used in two different ways. One method is type imfinfo bubbles25.jpg at prompt then it displays information on screen. Second method is type K=imfinfo(bubbles25.jpg) then it generates the information that are stored in k variable. The two different ways of calling the function imfinfo is an example of command_function duality. In general imwrite syntax is applied to tif images only Imwrite (g,filename.tif,compression,parameter resolution,[colres rowers] The parameter will have one of the principal values such as none it indicates no compression and pack bits indicates compression of pack bits and ccitt indicates compression of ccitt. By default ccitt is for binary images.1*2 is an array and it contains two integers that gives resolutions of row and column in dot per unit. If the dimensions of image are in inches then colres will have number of dots per inch in vertical direction and it is same for rows in horizontal direction . >>imwrite(f,sf.tif,compression,none,resolution.[300 300]) Multiply 200 dpi by ratio 2.25/1.5 then we get 30dpi to determine values of a vector.if we compute manually , we can write >>res=round(200*2.25/1.5); >>imwrite(f,sf.tif,compression,none,resolution,res) This syntax is like an argument for nearest integer. The number of pixels is not changed by using these commands but there is a change in scale of the image. These processes are useful in controlling image size without loosing its resolution. On matlab desktop , it is necessary to export images to disk. It is true with plots. In a figure window, there are two ways for exporting the contents. First method is , in a figure window select file option in menu and then choose export option. Using this option user can choose the location, format and a filename. Using print command we can obtain the control on export parameters.The command isprint-fno-dfileformat-rresno-filename. In figure window no refers to the number of a figure and file format refers to file format that are available. The resolution in dpi is referred as resno. The filename is used for assigning a file. If we type print at the prompt, MATLAB prints contents of the displayed last figure window. How to write a graphic image: In a graphic file format, imread can be used to read an image. For storing an image pixel , most of the formats uses 8 bit and are stored as class uint8 in matlab and if the file supports 16bit data , MATLAB stores image as class uint16. In a graphic image format, the function imwrite is used to write an image to graphic file .The basic syntax imwrite takes image variable and image filename. How to resize an image: The function imresize is used to change the size of image. Using the imresize function we can fix the output size Image cropping: The function imcrop is used for cropping an image. Using imcrop, we can crop the rectangular portion of an image. The imcrop function is used for displaying an image in a figure window and we can crop the image in a figure window. DATA CLASSES: The pixel values are not limited to integer values in matlab. The MATLAB supports various data classes for representing the pixel values. There are three types of data classes .they are numeric data class and char class and logical class. Char class is the ninth entry in data classes and logical data class is the last entry. The numerical calculations in MATLAB are done in double quantities so data classes encounters frequently in image processing applications. The class unit 8 is found when reading the data from a storage device and 8 bit images are commonly found .The two data classes logical data class is of less degree and unit 16 forms the primary data class. Ipt functions support all data classes. To represent a number, data class double requires 8 bytes. Uint8 and int 8 requires one byte and uint16 and int16 requires 2 bytes. The various data can be described as follows. The data class double can be described as double_precession, floating_point numbers. Uint8 ranges from [0, 255] and it is an unsigned 8bit integer and it is of one byte per element.Uint16 is a unsigned integer and ranges from [0, 65535] and it is of 2 bytes per element. Uint 32 is an unsigned integer and ranges from [0, 4294967295] and it is of 4 bytes per element. Int 8 is an 8bit signed integer and it is of 1 byte per element an d ranges from [-128,127]. Int 16 is a 16 bit signed inter whose is range is of [32768, 32767] and it is 2 bytes per element. Int 32 is a 32 bit signed integer of range [-2147483648 , 21474833647] and it is of 4 bytes per element. Single is a single_precession floating_point number with the values and ranges 4 bytes per element. Char is called as character and it ranges of 2bytes per element. Logical is a data class, whose values are 0 to 1 and it is of 1byte per element. Char data class holds characters in Unicode representation. The char string is simple 1*n array. The values of logical array are 0 and 1 .Using logical function each element is stored in the memory. TYPES OF IMAGES There are four types of images that are supported by MATLAB. They are Intensity image, binary image , indexed image , R G B image. Most of the image processing operations are performed by binary image or intensity image. Intensity image: Intensity image is a data matrix and its values are represented within some range by intensities. The Intensity image is stored as a single matrix in MATLAB In intensity image, image consists of intensity or gray scale values. Intensity images are represented by arrays in matlab. In intensity image, images are repr