Native American beliefs are deeply rooted in their culture Essay

They didn’t have one single religion, but they did have many beliefs. They believed in a mysterious force in nature and in spirits that were higher than human beings and influenced their lives. People depended on them when they searched for food or when people were ill. They believed EVERYTHING is sacred from the largest mountain to the smallest plant and animal. A lesson can be found in all things and experiences and everything has its own purpose. Native Spirituality; is about honor, love, and respect. Not only do they love, honor, and respect our Creator and Mother Earth, but also every living thing. They are in touch with themselves and everything around them. It is about knowing and understanding that they were a part of everything, and everything is a part of them. Native Americans valued many things like animals; buffalo, deer, and small rabbits. Meat could be cooked fresh or smoked, and stored for long journeys or winter months. They also ate vegetables and plants; berries, squash and fruits. They valued God because he created everything. Some tribes believed in one or many gods whom more powerful than others. Shamans were religious people who had close contacts with spirits. They were often medicine men and treated sick people . There is no power greater than the Natural Laws. These powers were set up by the Great Spirit in a way that the human being has no access to it, except by obeying. If they choose not to follow the Natural Laws, their life will be filled with confusion, tension, anxiety and stress. If they were to poison the Earth, they would poison themselves. If they were to poison the Water of the Earth, they were to poison themselves. What they would do to Earth, would happen to them and their children, even the children that were unborn.

Globalization: Indigenous Peoples and World

Globalization is the process in which the world becomes connected through communication, trade, and migration. Globalization can transform cultures and the identity of people within those cultures. One of the primary factors that leads to globalization in the advancement of technology In 1980 Dr. Knauft began to study an indigenous group of people deep in the forests of Papua New Guinea. This group of people had no contact with the outside world until the 1960’s, they were cut off from everything. They had a language and a name that was unknown to Anthropologists at the time. They were virtually invisible to the outside world. When Dr. Knauft arrived he met the Gebusi people, and began his study. He watched as they preformed ritual dances and wore traditional costumes. The Gebusi people lived their lives according to tradition and beliefs and were not affected by the outside world. The truth is no one can hide from globalization, not even the secluded Gebusi people. With in a matter of only 18 years they were transformed, most of them willingly converted to Christian beliefs, and they became focused on politics, economics, religion and nationalism. They were caught up to speed with the rest of the world due to globalization. The culture of the Gebusi people and their identity was drastically changed due to globalization. They were now on the same page as the rest of the world, and were now connected with the outside world. Trade organized groups such as NAFTA and the WTO make globalization easier to obtain for the smaller â€Å"developing† countries. For the countries that are a part of these groups goods, and ideas are much easier to share. With groups such as these and other factors globalization is inevitable so there is no sense in fighting it. If it were embraced rather then rejected everyone would be much better off. I understand that it can interfere with older cultures and traditions of developing countries, but it’s eat or be eaten in today’s world and you need to do what you need to do in order to compete with other countries and to survive within your own. Globalization exposes who ever it effects to a variety of new and different opportunities that must be taken in order for that group to survive. It can be compared to having to evolve, or becoming extinct. A lot of people see globalization as a bad thing, but its essential for survival in today’s world, and with out it we would be totally secluded from the rest of the world and that would just make everything extremely hard. It also helps keep the world balanced with power. Without globalization one country, or one group of people could easily be way ahead of others, and that could lead to wars and many other conflicts. The positives of globalization strongly out weigh the negatives and I’m not sure why anybody would be against it.

American Literature Essay

When the English preacher and writer Sidney Smith asked in 1820, â€Å"In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? † little did he suspect that less than two hundred years later the answer in literate quarters would be â€Å"just about everyone. † Indeed, just a few years after Smith posed his inflammatory question, the American writer Samuel Knapp would begin to assemble one of the first histories of American literature as part of a lecture series that he was giving. The course materials offered by American Passages continue in the tradition begun by Knapp in 1829. One goal of this Study Guide is to help you learn to be a literary historian: that is, to introduce you to American literature as it has evolved over time and to stimulate you to make connections between and among texts. Like a literary historian, when you make these connections you are telling a story: the story of how American literature came into being. This Overview outlines four paths (there are many others) by which you can narrate the story of American literature: one based on literary movements and historical change, one based on the American Passages Overview Questions, one based on Contexts, and one based on multiculturalism. TELLING THE STORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE Literary Movements and Historical Change American Passages is organized around sixteen literary movements or â€Å"units. † A literary movement centers around a group of authors that share certain stylistic and thematic concerns. Each unit includes ten authors that are represented either in The Norton Anthology of American Literature or in the Online Archive. Two to four of these authors are discussed in the video, which calls attention to important historical and cultural influences on these authors, defines a genre that they share, and proposes some key thematic parallels. Tracking literary movements can help you see how American literature has changed and evolved over time. In general, people think about literary movements as reacting against earlier modes of writing and earlier movements. For T E L L I N G T H E S T O R Y O F A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E 3 example, just as modernism (Units 10–13) is often seen as a response to realism and the Gilded Age (Unit 9), so Romanticism is seen as a response to the Enlightenment (Unit 4). Most of the units focus on one era (see the chart below), but they will often include relevant authors from other eras to help draw out the connections and differences. (Note: The movements in parentheses are not limited to authors/works from the era in question, but they do cover some material from it. ) Century Fifteenth– Seventeenth Eighteenth Era Renaissance American Passages Literary Movements. (1: Native Voices) 2: Exploring Borderlands 3: Utopian Promise (3: Utopian Promise) 4: Spirit of Nationalism (7: Slavery and Freedom) 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 6: Gothic Undercurrents 7: Slavery and Freedom (1: Native Voices) 6: Gothic Undercurrents 8: Regional Realism 9: Social Realism (1: Native Voices) 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 12: Migrant Struggle 13: Southern Renaissance 1: Native Voices 2: Exploring Borderlands 12: Migrant Struggle 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity Enlightenment Nineteenth Romanticist Nineteenth Realist Twentieth Modernist Twentieth Postmodernist Each unit contains a timeline of historical events along with the dates of key literary texts by the movement’s authors. These timelines are designed to help you make connections between and among the movements, eras, and authors covered in each unit. 4 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? Overview Questions The Overview Questions at the start of each unit are tailored from the five American Passages Overview Questions that follow. They are meant to help you focus your viewing and reading and participate in discussion afterward. 1. What is an American? How does literature create conceptions of the American experience and American identity? This two-part question should trigger discussion about issues such as, Who belongs to America? When and how does one become an American? How has the search for identity among American writers changed over time? It can also encourage discussion about the ways in which immigration, colonization, conquest, youth, race, class, and gender affect national identity. 2. What is American literature? What are the distinctive voices and styles in American literature? How do social and political issues influence the American canon? This multi-part question should instigate discussion about the aesthetics and reception of American literature. What is a masterpiece? When is something considered literature, and how is this category culturally and historically dependent? How has the canon of American literature changed and why? How have American writers used language to create art and meaning? What does literature do? This question can also raise the issue of American exceptionalism: Is American literature different from the literature of other nations? 3. How do place and time shape the authors’ works and our understanding of them? This question addresses America as a location and the many ways in which place impacts American literature’s form and content. It can provoke discussion about how regionalism, geography, immigration, the frontier, and borders impact American literature, as well as the role of the vernacular in indicating place. 4. What characteristics of a literary work have made it influential over time? This question can be used to spark discussion about the evolving impact of various pieces of American literature and about how American writers used language both to create art and respond to and call for change. What is the individual’s responsibility to uphold the community’s traditions, and when are individuals compelled to resist them? What is the relationship between the individual and the community? 5. How are American myths created, challenged, and re-imagined through this literature? This question returns to â€Å"What is an American? † But it poses the question at a cultural rather than individual level. What are the myths that make up American culture? What is the American Dream? What are American myths, dreams, and nightmares? How have these changed over time? T E L L I N G T H E S T O R Y O F A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E 5 Contexts Another way that connections can be made across and between authors is through the five Contexts in each unit: three longer Core Contexts and two shorter Extended Contexts. The goal of the Contexts is both to help you read American literature in its cultural background and to teach you close-reading skills. Each Context consists of a brief narrative about an event, trend, or idea that had particular resonance for the writers in the unit as well as Americans of their era; questions that connect the Context to the authors in the unit; and a list of related texts and images in the Online Archive. Examples of Contexts include discussions of the concept of the Apocalypse (3: â€Å"Utopian Visions†), the sublime (4: â€Å"Spirit of Nationalism†), and baseball (14: â€Å"Becoming Visible†). The Contexts can be used in conjunction with an author or as stand-alone activities. The Slide Show Tool on the Web site is ideal for doing assignments that draw connections between archive items from a Context and a text you have read. And you can create your own contexts and activities using the Slide Show Tool: these materials can then be e-mailed, viewed online, projected, or printed out on overhead transparencies. Multiculturalism In the past twenty years, the field of American literature has undergone a radical transformation. Just as the mainstream public has begun to understand America as more diverse, so, too, have scholars moved to integrate more texts by women and ethnic minorities into the standard canon of literature taught and studied. These changes can be both exhilarating and disconcerting, as the breadth of American literature appears to be almost limitless. Each of the videos and units has been carefully balanced to pair canonical and noncanonical voices. You may find it helpful, however, to trace the development of American literature according to the rise of different ethnic and minority literatures. The following chart is designed to highlight which literatures are represented in the videos and the units. As the chart indicates, we have set different multicultural literatures in dialogue with one another. Literature African American literature Video Representation 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 10: Rhythms in Poetry 13: Southern Renaissance 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation Study Guide Representation 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 9: Social Realism 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 13: Southern Renaissance 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 6 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? Native American literature 1: Native Voices 5: Masculine Heroes 14: Becoming Visible 1: Native Voices 2: Exploring Borderlands 3: Utopian Promise 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 2: Exploring Borderlands 5: Masculine Heroes 10: Rhythms in Poetry 12: Migrant Struggle 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 9: Social Realism 12: Migrant Struggle 16: Search for Identity 9: Social Realism 11: Modernist Portraits 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 1: Native Voices 2: Exploring Borderlands 3: Utopian Promise 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 6: Gothic Undercurrents 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 9: Social Realism 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 12: Migrant Struggle 13: Southern Renaissance 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity 2: Exploring Borderlands 5: Masculine Heroes 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 12: Migrant Struggle 13: Southern Renaissance 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity Latino literature 2: Exploring Borderlands 10: Rhythms in Poetry 12: Migrant Struggle 16: Search for Identity Asian American literature 12: Migrant Struggle 16: Search for Identity Jewish American 9: Social Realism literature 11: Modernist Portraits 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity Women’s literature 1: Native Voices 2: Exploring Borderlands 3: Utopian Promise 6: Gothic Undercurrents 7: Slavery and Freedom 8: Regional Realism 9: Social Realism 11: Modernist Portraits 12: Migrant Struggle 13: Southern Renaissance 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity Gay and lesbian literature 2: Exploring Borderlands 5: Masculine Heroes 10: Rhythms in Poetry 11: Modernist Portraits 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity T E L L I N G T H E S T O R Y O F A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E 7 Literature cont’d Working-class literature Video Representation 2: Exploring Borderlands 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 7: Slavery and Freedom 9: Social Realism 12: Migrant Struggle 16: Search for Identity Study Guide Representation 2: Exploring Borderlands 4: Spirit of Nationalism 5: Masculine Heroes 7: Slavery and Freedom 9: Social Realism 10: Rhythms in Poetry 12: Migrant Struggle 14: Becoming Visible 15: Poetry of Liberation 16: Search for Identity LITERATURE IN ITS CULTURAL CONTEXT When you study American literature in its cultural context, you enter a multidisciplined and multi-voiced conversation where scholars and critics in different fields examine the same topic but ask very different questions about it. For example, how might a literary critic’s understanding of nineteenthcentury American culture compare to that of a historian of the same era? How can an art historian’s understanding of popular visual metaphors enrich our readings of literature? The materials presented in this section of the Study Guide aim to help you enter that conversation. Below are some suggestions on how to begin. Deep in the heart of the Vatican Museum is an exquisite marble statue from first- or second-century Rome. Over seven feet high, the statue depicts a scene from Virgil’s Aeneid in which Laocoon and his sons are punished for warning the Trojans about the Trojan horse. Their bodies are entwined with large, devouring serpents, and Laocoon’s face is turned upward in a dizzying portrait of anguish, his muscles rippling and bending beneath the snake’s strong coils. The emotion in the statue captured the heart and eye of critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who used the work as the starting point for his seminal essay on the relationship between literature and art, â€Å"Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry. † For Lessing, one of the most common errors that students of culture can make is to assume that all aspects of culture develop in tandem with one another. As Lessing points out, each art has its own strengths. For example, literature works well with notions of time and story, and thus is more flexible than visual art in terms of imaginative freedom, whereas painting is a visual medium that can reach greater beauty, although it is static. For Lessing, the mixing of these two modes (temporal and spatial) carries great risk along with rewards. As you study literature in conjunction with any of the fine arts, you may find it helpful to ask whether you agree with Lessing that literature is primarily a temporal art. Consider too the particular 8 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? strengths of the media discussed below. What do they offer that may not be available to writers? What modes do they use that complement our understanding of the literary arts? Fine Arts Albrecht Durer created some of the most disturbing drawings known to humans: they are rife with images of death, the end of the world, and dark creatures that inhabit hell. Images such as The Last Judgement (below) can be found in the Online Archive. In Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), a devout Christian knight is taunted by the Devil and Death, who gleefully shakes a quickly depleting hourglass, mocking the soldier with the passing of time. Perhaps the tension and anxiety in Durer’s print resonated with the American poet Randall Jarrell in his struggle with mental illness. In â€Å"The Knight, Death, and the Devil,† Jarrell opens with a description of the scene: Cowhorn-crowned, shockheaded, cornshucked-bearded, Death is a scarecrow—his death’s-head a teetotum . . . Jarrell’s description is filled with adjectives in much the same way that the print is crowded with detail. The poem is an instance of what critics call ekphrasis: the verbal description of a work of visual art, usually of a painting, photograph, or sculpture but sometimes of an urn, tapestry, or quilt. Ekphrasis attempts to bridge the gap between the verbal and the visual arts. Artists and writers have always influenced one another: sometimes directly as in the case of Durer’s drawing and Jarrell’s poem, and other times indirectly. The Study Guide will help you navigate through these webs of influence. For example, Unit 5 will introduce you to the Hudson River [7995] Albrecht Durer, The Last School, the great American landscape painters Judgement (1510), courtesy of the of the nineteenth century. In the Context focusprint collection of Connecticut ing on these artists, you will learn of the interCollege, New London. connectedness of their visual motifs. In Unit 11, William Carlos Williams, whose poems â€Å"The Dance† and â€Å"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus† were inspired by two paintings by Breughel, will draw your attention to the use of ekphrasis. Williams’s work is a significant example of how multiple traditions in art can influence a writer: in addition to his interest in European art, Williams imitated Chinese landscapes and poetic forms. When you encounter works of fine art, such as paintings, photographs, or sculpture, in the Online Archive or the Study Guide, you may find two tools used by art historians helpful: formal analysis and iconography. Formal L I T E R AT U R E I N I T S C U LT U R A L C O N T E X T 9 [3694] Thomas Cole, The Falls of Kaaterskill (1826), courtesy of the Warner Collection of the Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. analysis, like close readings of poems, seeks to describe the nature of the object without reference to the context in which it was created. A formal analysis addresses such questions as Where does the central interest in the work lie? How is the work composed and with what materials? How is lighting or shading used? What does the scene depict? What allusions (mythological, religious, artistic) are found in the work? Once you have described the work of art using formal analysis, you may want to extend your reading by calling attention to the cultural climate in which the work was produced. This is called an iconographic reading. Here the Context sections of the Study Guide will be useful. You may notice, for example, a number of nineteenth-century paintings of ships in the Online Archive. One of the Contexts for Unit 6 argues that these ships can be read as symbols for nineteenth-century America, where it was common to refer to the nation as a â€Å"ship of state. † The glowing light or wrecked hulls in the paintings reflect the artists’ alternating optimism and pessimism about where the young country was headed. Below are two possible readings of Thomas Cole’s painting The Falls of Kaaterskill that employ the tools of formal analysis and iconography. W R I T E R A : F O R M A L A N A L Y S I S In this painting by Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole, the falls that give the painting its name grab our attention. The shock of the white falls against the concentrated brightness of the rocks ensures that the waterfall will be the focus of the work. Even amidst this brightness, however, there is darkness and mystery in the painting, where the falls emerge out of a dark quarry and crash down onto broken tree limbs and staggered rocks. The descent is neither peaceful nor pastoral, unlike the presentation of nature in Cole’s other works, such as the Oxbow. The enormity of the falls compared to the lone human figure that perches above them also adds to the sense of power the falls embody. Barely recognizable as human because it is so minute, the figure still pushes forward as if to embrace the cascade of the water in a painting that explores the tension between the individual and the power of nature. W R I T E R B : I C O N O G R A P H Y I agree with Writer A that this painting is all about the power of nature, but I would argue that it is about a particular kind of power: one that nineteenthcentury thinkers called the â€Å"sublime. † Cole’s portrait of the falls is particularly indebted to the aesthetic ideas formulated by Edmund Burke in the eighteenth century. Burke was interested in categorizing aesthetic responses, and he distinguished the â€Å"sublime† from the â€Å"beautiful. † While the beautiful is calm and harmonious, the sublime is majestic, wild, and even savage. While viewers are soothed by the beautiful, they are overwhelmed, awestruck, and sometimes terrified by the sublime. Often associated with huge, overpowering natural 10 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? phenomena like mountains, waterfalls, or thunderstorms, the â€Å"delightful terror† inspired by sublime visions was supposed to both remind viewers of their own insignificance in the face of nature and divinity and inspire them with a sense of transcendence. Here the miniature figure is the object of our gaze even as he is obliterated by the grandeur of the water. During the nineteenth century, tourists often visited locales such as the Kaaterskill Falls in order to experience the â€Å"delightful terror† that they brought. This experience is also echoed in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay â€Å"Nature,† in which he writes of his desire to become a â€Å"transparent eyeball† that will be able to absorb the oversoul that surrounds him. The power that nature holds here is that of the divine: nature is one way we can experience higher realms. How do these readings differ? Which do you find more compelling and why? What uses can you see for formal analysis or iconographic readings? When might you choose one of these strategies over the other? History  As historian Ray Kierstead has pointed out, history is not just â€Å"one damn thing after another†: rather, history is a way of telling stories about time or, some might say, making an argument about time. The Greek historian Herodotus is often called the father of history in the western world, as he was one of the first historians to notice patterns in world events. Herodotus saw that the course of empires followed a cyclical pattern of rise and fall: as one empire reaches its peak and self-destructs out of hubris (excessive pride), a new empire or new nations will be born to take its place. Thomas Cole’s five-part series The Course of Empire (1833) mirrors this Herodotean notion of time as his scene moves from savage, to pastoral, to consummation, to devastation, to desolation. This vision of time has been tremendously influential in literature: whenever you read a work written in the pastoral mode (literature that looks back with nostalgia to an era of rural life, lost simplicity, and a time when nature and culture were one), ask yourself whether there is an implicit optimism or pessimism about what follows this lost rural ideal. For example, in Herman Melville’s South Sea novel Typee, we find the narrator in a Tahitian village. He seeks to determine if he has entered a pastoral or savage setting: is he surrounded by savages, or is he plunged in a pastoral bliss? Implicit in both is a suggestion that there are earlier forms of civilization than the United States that the narrator has left behind. Any structural analysis of a work of literature (an analysis that pays attention to how a work is ordered) would do well to consider what notions of history are embedded within. In addition to the structural significance of history, a dialogue between history and literature is crucial because much of the early literature of the United States can also be categorized as historical documents. It is helpful, therefore, to understand the genres of history. Like literature, history is comprised of different genres, or modes. Historian Elizabeth Boone defines the main traditional genres of history as res gestae, geographical, and annals. Res gestae, or â€Å"deeds done,† organizes history through a list of accomplishments. This was a popu- L I T E R AT U R E I N I T S C U LT U R A L C O N T E X T 11 lar form of history for the ancient Greeks and Romans; for example, the autobiography of Julius Caesar chronicles his deeds, narrated in the third person. When Hernan Cortes and other explorers wrote accounts of their travels (often in the form of letters to the emperor), Caesar’s autobiography served as their model. Geographical histories use travel through space to shape the narrative: Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative is an example of a geographical history in that it follows her through a sequence of twenty geographic â€Å"removes† into Indian country and back. Annals, by contrast, use time as the organizing principle. Information is catalogued by year or month. Diaries and journals are a good example of this genre. These three genres can also be found in the histories of the Aztecs and Mayans of Mesoamerica and in those of the native communities of the United States and Canada. For example, the migration legend, a popular indigenous form of history, is a geographical history, whereas trickster tales often tell the early history of the world through a series of deeds. Memoirists also mix genres; for example, the first section of William Bradford’s Of Plimouth Plantation is a geographical history, whereas the second half is annals. Today the most common historical genres are intellectual history (the history of ideas), political history (the story of leaders), and diplomatic history (the history of foreign relations). To these categories we might add the newer categories of â€Å"social history† (a history of everyday life) and â€Å"gender history† (which focuses on the construction of gender roles). Finally, history is a crucial tool for understanding literature because literature is written in—and arguably often reflects—a specific historical context. Readers of literary works can deepen their understanding by drawing on the tools of history, that is, the records people leave behind: political (or literary) documents, town records, census data, newspaper stories, captivity narratives, letters, journals, diaries, and the like. Even such objects as tools, graveyards, or trading goods can tell us important information about the nature of everyday life for a community, how it worshipped or what it thought of the relationship between life and death. 12 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? Material Culture [6332] Archibald Gunn and Richard Felton Outcault, New York Journal’s Colored Comic Supplement (1896), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZC4-25531]. When you look at an object, it may call up associations from the past. For example, for the first-time viewer the clown figure in the image above may seem innocuous, yet at the end of the nineteenth century his popularity was so intense that it started a newspaper war fierce enough to spawn a whole new term for sensationalist, irresponsible journalism—â€Å"yellow journalism. † Objects such as this comic supplement constitute â€Å"material culture,† the objects of everyday life. In Material Culture Studies in America, Thomas Schlereth provides the following useful definition of material culture: Material culture can be considered to be the totality of artifacts in a culture, the vast universe of objects used by humankind to cope with the physical world, to facilitate social intercourse, to delight our fancy, and to create symbols of meaning. . . . Leland Ferguson argues that material culture includes all â€Å"the things that people leave behind . . . all of the things people make from the physical world—farm tools, ceramics, houses, furniture, toys, buttons, roads, cities. † (2) When we study material culture in conjunction with literature, we wed two notions of â€Å"culture† and explore how they relate. As critic John Storey notes, the first notion of culture is what is often called â€Å"high culture†Ã¢â‚¬â€the â€Å"general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic factors†; and the second is â€Å"lived culture†Ã¢â‚¬â€the â€Å"particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group† (2). In a sense, material culture (as the objects of a lived culture) allows us to see how the prevailing intellectual ideas were played out in the daily lives of people in a particular era. Thus, as Schlereth explains, through studying material culture we can learn about the â€Å"belief systems—the values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions—of a particular community or society, usually across time† (3). In reading objects as embedded with meaning, we follow Schlereth’s premise that â€Å"objects made or L I T E R AT U R E I N I T S C U LT U R A L C O N T E X T 13 modified by humans, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, reflect the belief patterns of individuals who made, commissioned, purchased, or used them, and, by extension, the belief patterns of the larger society of which they are a part† (3). The study of material culture, then, can help us better understand the cultures that produced and consumed the literature we read today. Thomas Schlereth suggests a number of useful models for studying material culture; his â€Å"Art History Paradigm† is particularly noteworthy in that it will help you approach works of â€Å"high art,† such as paintings and sculptures, as well. The â€Å"Art History Paradigm† argues that the interpretive objective of examining the artifact is to â€Å"depict the historical development and intrinsic merit† of it. If you are interested in writing an â€Å"Art History Paradigm† reading of material culture, you might look at an object and ask yourself the following questions, taken from Sylvan Barnet’s Short Guide to Writing about Art. These questions apply to any art object: First, we need to know information about the artifact so we can place it in a historical context. You might ask yourself: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What is my first response to the work? When and where was the work made? Where would the work originally have been seen? What purpose did the work serve? In what condition has the work survived? (Barnet 21–22) In addition, if the artifact is a drawing, painting, or advertisement, you might want to ask yourself questions such as these: 1. What is the subject matter? What (if anything) is happening? 2. If the picture is a portrait, how do the furnishings and the background and the angle of the head or the posture of the head and body (as well as the facial expression) contribute to our sense of the subject’s character? 3. If the picture is a still life, does it suggest opulence or want? 4. In a landscape, what is the relation between human beings and nature? Are the figures at ease in nature, or are they dwarfed by it? Are they one with the horizon, or (because the viewpoint is low) do they stand out against the horizon and perhaps seem in touch with the heavens, or at least with open air? If there are woods, are these woods threatening, or are they an inviting place of refuge? If there is a clearing, is the clearing a vulnerable place or is it a place of refuge from ominous woods? Do the natural objects in the landscape somehow reflect the emotions of the figures? (Barnet 22–23; for more questions, see pp. 23–24) Material culture is a rich and varied resource that ranges from kitchen utensils, to advertisements, to farming tools, to clothing. Unpacking the significance of objects that appear in the stories and poems you read may help you better understand characters and their motives. 14 W H AT I S A M E R I C A N L I T E R AT U R E ? Architecture. Most of the time we read the hidden meanings of buildings without even thinking twice. Consider the buildings below: Above: [9089] Anonymous, Capitol Building at Washington, D. C. (1906), courtesy of Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-121528]. Right: [6889] Anonymous, Facade of the Sam Wah’s Chinese Laundry (c. 1890 –1900), courtesy of the Denver Public Library. Even if we had never seen either of these buildings before, it would not take us long to determine which was a government building and which was a smalltown retail establishment. Our having seen thousands of buildings enables us to understand the purpose of a building from architectural clues. When first seeing a work of architecture, it is helpful to unpack cultural assumptions. You might ask: 1. What is the purpose of this building? Is it public or private? What activities take place within it? 2. What features of the building reflect this purpose? Which of these features are necessary and which are merely conventional? 3. What buildings or building styles does this building allude to? What values are inherent in that allusion? 4. What parts of this building are principally decorative rather than functional? What does the ornament or lack of it say about the status of the owners or the people who work there? 5. What buildings surround this building? How do they affect the way the building is entered? 6. What types of people live or work in this building? How do they interact within the space? What do these findings say about the relative social status of the occupants? How does the building design restrict or encourage that status? 7. How are people supposed to enter and move through the building? What clues does the building give as to how this movement should take place? L I T E R AT U R E I N I T S C U LT U R A L C O N T E X T 15 These questions imply two basic assumptions about architecture: (1) architecture reflects and helps establish social status and social relations; and (2) architecture

EBay Stock Option Plans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Statistics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Statistics - Research Paper Example In the study, the research establishes that there is no significant difference in the means for leukemia survivors of different gender. Hypothesis test is the process of evaluation of the truthfulness of a statement made regarding the parameters of research data, at a certain level of confidence. (Anderson, Burnham & Thomson p.913) present a hypothesis test on the mean, and attempt to demonstrate how the test has been misused. (Pearson & Bloom p.8) have used the standard z-test to describe the poll results of senate contest in 2002. They have diagrammatically represented the expected normal distribution of the results, and emphasized on the interpretation of these results based on the drafted hypothesis. Nahid, Reisi, Leila, Khalilian. â€Å"Comparison of Intelligence Quotient in Children surviving leukemia who Received Different Prophylactic Central Nervous System Treatments†. (2012). Web, 28 November 2012. Pearson, Elizabeth Jennie, Bloom, Joel David. â€Å"A Probability-Theory Based Test of the Reliability of Election Polls†. N.d. Web. 28 November 2012.

The Main Causes of World War I. (Militarism, Alliances Imperialism and Research Paper

The Main Causes of World War I. (Militarism, Alliances Imperialism and Nationalism) - Research Paper Example The street celebrations that accompanied the war declaration between French and British gave historians the impression that the move was really popular. Politicians, known to follow the popular side were in support of this move. Historians yet believe that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the heir of the Serbian empire sparked war between the Austria-Hungary, which prompted the allied nations to join. The First World War having started in Central Europe, begun in 1914 and ended in 1918. During its progression time, it rapidly spread to other parts of the world and involved many countries. The war that had devastating effects is believed to have been caused by a number of reasons according to historians. However, they anonymously agree on the four major causes of the war which include Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism. This paper will look at these four as the major causes of World War I and their effects to the fighting nations. Imperialism Various scholars a ttribute the start of World War 1 to imperialism that was sparked in the European continent. Since countries such as United Kingdom had accumulated a lot of wealth in the late 19th century and early 20th century from the control of foreign resources and markets, territories and people, other empires too started gaining hopes of economically benefiting from acquiring empires such as Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Russia1. However, this totally flopped as things did not turn out to their expectations leading to a lot of frustrations that increased the levels of anxiety and rivalry among powers. Increasingly, the natural resources in the European continent were diminishing at a fast rate, negatively impacting on trade balance. This development made it necessary for companies to seek for new raw materials elsewhere, thus settling for Africa and Asian continents. Vested economic interests by various European nations were the major contributors of the Anglo-German rivalry when the sc ramble for Africa intensified. This scene created the sharpest conflict between German and British interests that had been in a heated competition. The rivalry was however not based on colonies alone. Colonial trade and trade routes was also part of the major issues that caused the outbreak of the war as experts observe. Different emerging economic powers and the incumbent of great economic powers in the African continent saw an increased rise in the broader disputes2. From the 1980s, the rivalry among great powers due to colonial territories intensified and kept growing. Hatred between conflicting powers was evident, while war was imminent. This period witnessed the acquisition of both the African and the Asian continents by the European powers. However, the increased conflicts that arose between the various powers of the European origin saw the spark of the war. The scramble for African and Asian continents increased the tensions between Anglo-French and Anglo-Russian powers, as w ell as the crises that had sought to prevent British alliances with either of the two until the wake of the twentieth century. Not only was the overseas empire a problem to some countries such as Germany, she was also faced with yet another predicament. Otto von Bismarck was not in favour of overseas empire building, and more so acquisitions of Africa. His only support for the African scramble and colonization was that to him, it served as a bite which diverted the attention of governments away from Europe

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING - Essay Example external and internal factors. These factors have redefined how management practices or functions are performed across business organizations. In the writings by Burgstahler et al. (2007), they stated that the transformations have largely affected the decision making process since there is a change in the management structure, which has integrated new roles as well as position holders. In addition, technology is also been increasingly applied in performing management functions. Despite the continuous transformation in the field of management, the constant variable has been the fact that accounting figures have consistently played a key role in the decision making process or rather they have consistently been used to decide the direction that the company should take. The strong reliance on accounting figures to perform management functions has led to the development of management accounting or control systems that were specifically designed to help the management of business organizat ions in the process of control, product costing and evaluation of management’s performance. However, in a seminal article, published by Johnson and Kaplan (1987) they both argued that management accounting systems had lost their relevance since they were inadequate for the modern accounting environment. In particular, they succinctly summarized the inadequacy of management account systems to cope with the demands of modern management by stating the information they generated was â€Å"too late, too aggregated, and too distorted to be relevant for managers’ planning and control decisions (Ezzamel et al. 1990). This present study mainly seeks to discuss the above statement in relation to today’s environment. It will begin with a literature review of the main topic of discussion and even a review on Johnson and Kaplan’s criticisms. Secondly, it will state the methodology that was applied in collected secondary data that were used in this study. In the third part before concluding, the study will conduct a critical analysis on the Johnson and Kaplan’s argument. 2.0 Literature review 2.1 Accounting With reference to the writings by Alkaraan and Northcott (2006), they stated that accounting as a practice focuses on recording, measuring, and communicating financial facts to concerned parties who use the facts for varying reasons. Roslender and Hart (2003) noted that in the present business environment, accounting largely focuses on the preparation of accounting reports and less on bookkeeping, which has been reduced to fairly a routine process because of the increased computerization and introduction of more effective systems of internal control. The users and uses of

Human Resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Human Resource - Essay Example Alternatively, I would set aside the elections based on the Taft- Hartley provisions and the circumstances of the case. The law stipulates employees’ freedom and right to determine their representative union and prohibits any form of threat of reprisal from the employer. The supervisor, being a recognized representative of the employer, however expressed interest in the union’s meeting by making multiple appearances around the meeting. Such a repetitive act was therefore not coincidental and indicated a motive to influence employees’ representation. The supervisor’s appearances around the union’s meeting could also have implications such as identifying members of the unions, based on their past unionism initiatives, and influencing elections results to favor some unions. The employer is also vicariously liable for the supervisor’s actions. These therefore mean that the employer’s behavior, through its supervisor, identifies significant threat of reprisal against the union and therefore contravenes employees’ freedom and right to determine their union of representation (Carter and Rausch,

Annotated bibliography/ Intelligence and Emotional development and Bibliography

/ Intelligence and Emotional development and self-esteem - Annotated Bibliography Example This paper focuses only on emotional development and self esteem and is written as an annotated bibliography in order to learn more about self esteem and emotional development. This article defines and explains self esteem in simple words. It says that â€Å"Self esteem is your opinion of yourself†. It explains that self esteem depends on question like: Is your job worthwhile? Do others respect what you do? Do you?;Do you believe you are successful?; How do you see yourself (your self image)?; How do you feel about your strengths and weaknesses?; Are you comparing yourself to others and ignoring the unique value that you have?; What do you think of your social status?; How do you relate to others?; Can you make your own decisions?. The above article divides self esteem into two; low self esteem and high self esteem and explains both of it in simple terms. Alexandria, NSW 2015. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=0TOuX5WW2cgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=self+esteem&source=bl&ots=3zAnBhbi6s&sig=Wi4vBbND5B2qfzqF631h2Gq-JXw&hl=en&ei=FcOETOHoKZC9ccGSsdAL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q&f=false This book, which is available on Google defines self esteem as how we think and feel about ourselves. It refers to our looks, abilities and relationships. Apart from providing definition, this book explains the methods of measuring self esteem, high and low self esteems, body image, methods to boost self esteem, positive thinking, etc. It also explains some of the psychological disorders like depression and eating disorder caused by low self esteem. This book also explains how do we get self esteem and the different entities which can affect the development of a person’s self esteem. This article says that by the time a child becomes three years old, he or she will become an emotionally complex person who has experienced a wide range of emotions. Parents and

To design, conduct and report on a marketing research project of your Essay

To design, conduct and report on a marketing research project of your choice - Essay Example This paper seeks to find out what magic formula Red Bull has, making its competitors trail in its wake as well as the approach taken by Euroshopper to brand awareness. Apart from answering the two questions, this paper shall also seek to compare the above two products based on; taste, price, energy difference and their core markets. Red Bull is synonymous with the energy drink market. It is encountered in action sport. From the Red Bull air race, to the Red Bull cliff diving championship and even the Red Bull formula 1 team. It is keen to live up to its reputation as a drink that ‘gives you Wings’. As a result, brand awareness of Red Bull is vast among its fans (Jonny n.d). The taste of Red Bull is distinct from those of other products in the energy drink market. The same way Coca Cola is distinguishable from all other ‘Colas’ in the soft drinks market. On the other hand, the taste of Euroshopper has variously been referred to as ‘bitter’ and ‘not smooth’. This scenario calls for blind folding. Blind fold testing has been dismissed by critics as belonging to the ‘blind consumer,’ but its continued usage reliability can not be ignored. It is partly down to this distinct taste that Red Bull has kept its hold of the market (Mintel Press Release, 2011 ). The way both companies approach pricing leaves a lot to be desired. Red Bull charges a premium price for its product. Its high prices are necessitated by brand association. On the contrary, Euro shopper charges much lower prices for its product, precisely a third of what an equivalent amount of Red Bull costs. This is also a reasonable step since customers are never ready to pay expensively for a new product which they are not familiar with. Red Bull is better value for money, in terms of the energy levels that its products guarantee. Euroshopper is not far behind, but still the deficit is palpable when compared to its

Influence of face-to-face communication on customer satisfaction Dissertation

Influence of face-to-face communication on customer satisfaction - Dissertation Example The main challenge of this study is the target audience (from the Middle East). There is a constant cultural conflict between Western and Eastern worlds and the sphere of business is not an exception. A high-cultural context of the Middle East countries should be the foremost triggers for the development of service marketing campaigns by the Western partners. There is a strong influence of historical and cultural traditions on business in the Middle East (Smith, Peterson & Thomas, 2008). Patience, loyalty and the conservative nature of the businessmen or customers from the Middle East implies that the Western businessmen should be of high cultural proficiency. For example, face-to-face communication supposes the communication of two individuals from different cultural contexts (a western manager and an eastern service customer). Such issues, as the principle of seniority, respect to the elder people, and low risk-taking behavior of the Easterners should be taken into account while pr oviding them with certain services. This challenge is not facilitated in case telephone or electronic communication means is used. Electronic communication would take less time to deal with the customers, but it does not discard the importance of cultural markers in the process of getting services. Moreover, there is a need to make some changes in the style of communication, when face-to-face communication is an opportunity for single activities (e.g. talking), telephone communication doubles up activities (talking and searching in the Internet). Electronic communication as well as telephone communication consumes less time and is more focused on factual tasks completion (Elving, 2005). The gap in the literature In spite of the fact that cross-cultural communication and means of communication between the companies and customers have been widely discussed, there is a lack of studies focused on an integrative discussion of these issues. Solomon et al. (1985, p.99) propose, that  "the dyadic interaction between a firm and a customer is an important determinant of the customer’s satisfaction†. Further on, the researchers were focused on the growing role of the modern technologies and the Internet (Aron, 2006; Kasper, Helsdingen & Vries, 1999; Little & Little, 2009). The communication between customers and service providers is more effective when they use modern technologies, but at the same time it is also very important to develop face-to-face communication. The advantages of Internet communications is outlined in the following manner: â€Å"Consumers have bargaining power, and they are beginning to  exercise it. They begin to  exercise the right to  know what the price should be† (Steinbock, 2000). On the other hand, Internet communications was considered as inefficient two decades ago. Currently, an important role of virtual communities cannot be denied. Therefore, modern companies should integrate dyadic approach to communication with the customers and business partners, such as personal and virtual communication. Communication in the service marketing Moreover, the specific nature of services  marketing  implies more tricky strategies than in strategies used in product marketing. Thus, for successful operation of the Western service marketing

Soil Erosion and Public Health in Nigeria Essay Example for Free

Soil Erosion and Public Health in Nigeria Essay Soil Erosion and Public Health in Nigeria Introduction            Soil erosion and environmental degradation are some of the mainly severe public health and environmental problems affecting or facing human kind /society. Statics show that, human beings obtain 99.7 percent of their food from the land and the rest is obtained aquatic bodies such as oceans and other water ecosystems. However, each year more than 10 million hectares of crop land are lost through soil erosion and in turn this reduces the cropland that is available for human kind to produce his food. This loss of cropland has turned to be a serious problem as according to the world health organization, more than 3.6 billion human beings are affected by malnourishment globally (Showers, 2005). Generally, soil is being lost from land areas 10 to 40 times faster than the rate of soil renewal imperiling future human food security and environmental quality. This paper critically examines the impact of soil erosion towards public health in developing countries specifically Nigeria (Showers, 2005). Soil erosion is one of the key environmental degradation problems in the developing world. Despite the enormous existence of literature on causes, and impacts of soil erosion a concrete understanding of this complex problem is lacking in the developing countries. The analysis discusses the negative impacts of soil erosion towards the public health care (Cornell University, 2006).            Loss of soil from the land surfaces through the process of soil erosion is spreading globally and negatively affects the production of almost all natural ecosystems as well as agricultural. Together with the escalating human population worldwide, soil erosion, energy and water availability, and loss of biodiversity are ranked as the prime environmental problems all over the world (Beinart, 2008). The change that is inflicted on the soil through human induced erosion over the years is significant and has in turn resulted in valuable land becoming unproductive and eventually it is abandoned. Soil erosion reduces soil quality and hence reducing soil productivity as well that of natural, agricultural and other elated ecosystems. Public health can be summarized as the art and science of avoiding disease as well prolonging and promoting life and health respectively. Soil erosion has been one of the major threats to public globally as its effects have threatened the healt h system in communities (African Development Foundation, 1994).            Public Healthcare in NigeriaThe country’s national government is and has been responsible for the provision of effective health care upon its people. The Nigerian government is the one responsible for providing adequate health care to its people. Health care provision in Nigeria is a simultaneous duty done by the three tiers of administration in the country (Vanlauwe et al, 2005). Its structure is such in a way that, the Federal governments role is limited to coordinating the dealings of the University Teaching Hospitals, Federal Medical Centers. On the other hand, the state management focuses its responsibility for managing various general hospitals, while the local government focuses on dispensaries. In addition, private providers of health care significantly contribute to health care delivery. Even though the spending on health in Nigeria has risen from Naira’s 12.48 million in 1970 to 120.98 million in 2010, health care structure remains ineffecti ve and plays a key role in the poverty status of the country. Over the last two decades, Nigerias public health care system has deteriorated in large partly because of a lack of resources and a brain drain† syndrome of Nigerian doctors as well as skilled health workers to other countries. This as well has been accelerated by the industrial processes which have seen the vast usage of the land, in addition to increased farming practices to cater for the food demand. This, however, has along with natural disasters such as soil erosion brought along a hitch in provision of effective public health care (Orisakwe et al, 2004). Soil erosion            This is a natural process that involves dislodgement and removal of soil particles from one place to the other. There are different factors that contribute to susceptibility of soil to erosion as well as the rate at which it occurs. There are different types of soil erosion such as water and wind erosion. In other terms, Soil erosion entails breaking down, detaching, transporting, and redistributing of soil constituents. This can be through numerous forces such as water, wind, or gravity. Globally soil erosion has been a thing of concern and interest, especially its impact on cropland. This is because of its impacts on crop productivity and soil quality as well as its off-site effects on water quality and quantity, air quality, and biological activity. Cropland includes cultivated and non-cultivated cropland.            Soil Erosion in NigeriaNigeria is one of the African countries with high population, which is around over 170 million people with more than 400 ethnic groups. More than 80 % of Nigeria’s population rely entirely on farming for their upkeep and economic gains. Since the early 20th century, soil erosion in Nigeria has been earmarked as a key problem in the country, not only a threat to the agricultural sector, but as well as a threat to the public health through the process of environmental degradation. One of the major negative points to note is that, the current rate of soil erosion is higher than the rate of production. This has in turn threatened the current practices in agriculture. The high rate of soil erosion suggests that, agricultural practices are unsustainable under prevailing geological conditions. The process of accepting and managing these processes has significant long term repercussion for cropland sustainability, natural resource state and he alth, not forgetting the environmental quality (Berkhout et al, 2011).            Soil erosion is a major problem which is confronting health and land resources in Nigeria. Previous researches in the country have indicated that, more than 70% of the country’s surface has been affected by different types of soil erosion and of different intensities. Despite the process being a natural process, human activities such as overgrazing and clearing of vegetation accelerates it. Degradation of land is the loss of topsoil and in turn reducing its productivity. Moreover, it leads to sedimentation of water bodies which increases suspended sediment concentration in streams, with consequent effects on ecosystem health (Iwegbue et al, 2012).            Fig. 1.0 Gully Erosion Site at Urualla Imo State, Nigeria (Agbenin, 2002)            Impact of soil erosion on public health in NigeriaOne of the major concerns about soil erosion in SA is the pollution effects caused by the soil erosion. Soil erosion has greatly led to the loss of vegetation, leaving the land bare. This leads to accumulation of dust in the air. This in turn impacts air quality in the country and mostly the greatly affected regions such as Camperdown and Greytown districts. Soil erosion has been one of the catalysts of the deforestation process in Nigeria. Deforestation is the loss of trees which are essential in the support of human activity as well as protecting the environment. Deforestation makes people’s life harder as it destroys the habitats of numerous creatures and contributes to desertification. Poor air quality poses a public health to the Nigerian community as it leads to asthmatic problems as well as other airborne diseases. In summary, soil erosion leads to an increase the amount of dust carried by wind. Does t his not only at as an air pollutant and an abrasive, but also carries along about more than 20 human infectious disease organisms such as tuberculosis and anthrax (Agbenin, 2002).            Soil erosion leads to numerous soil contamination which also impacts on human health. Over the time, there has been a significant pollutant in the air as well as water, which contributes to poor health among the citizens. Through the process of soil erosion, the pollutants in the air and on the earth’s surface are washed into the water bodies through soil erosion. Industrialization on the other hand, has resulted in soil pollution with heavy metals which have posed a health problem to the Nigerian communities. Some of the harmful elements washed into water bodies include mercury, lead, arsenic, fluoride, Asbestos, cadmium, benzene and hazardous pesticides which all of them are chemicals of public concern. These ‘heavy metals’ are frequently washed into water bodies and in turn contaminating the fresh water consumed by people in Nigeria. Metals such as arsenic are termed as carcinogenic as well as causing bone marrow and blood diseases when taken for a long period of time. Asbestos on the other hand causes lung carcinoma, liver and kidney damage. Many of these elements have negatively impacted the provision of effective public health services (Salami et al, 2003).            Mining has been one of the economic activities in Nigeria, however, this has not been for the benefit of the farming and environment protections as it had been a health risk to the community. When water erosion (which is the prominent agent of erosion in Nigeria) sweeps across the mining fields much of the minerals are swept into the water bodies. Some of the elements are toxic and a risk to human health. In addition, the gases released from the mining areas are carried as dust through wind erosion and in turn posing a health problem to the Nigerians especially the community living near the mining areas. For example, sulphur dioxide causes damage of the respiratory system. In addition, the sulphur compounds also affect visibility, reduction of sunlight, unpleasant smells, irritation and smarting in the eyes, nose and throat which is a health concern to the community around the mining areas (Salami et al, 2003).            Acidity in the soil and water bodies has been a public health to the Nigerian community. Soil erosion leads to the accumulation of solid waste in water bodies. This has become a serious environmental problem facing Nigeria. The consequence of these solid wastes is pollution of water, land and air not forgetting to mention is hazardous to women’s health as well as their social well being. With the increased urbanization in the country as well as high population, the amount of solid waste being generated has greatly increased. At the moment, virtually all the major cities in Nigeria are faced with the menace of solid waste management. The wastes are in one way or another swept into rivers and other water bodies. Due to their daily involvement with farming and house chores, women are exposed to numerous communicable diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, cholera, yaw; malaria, yellow fever, and relapsing fever that affect women are associated with improper dispos al of wastes (Oladapo et al, 2009).            Soil erosion has drastically reduced land productivity, especially the southern parts of Nigeria. In addition, soil erosion has also led to essential nutrient depletion as a form of land degradation. This has brought along severe economic impact in Nigeria. Reduced land production has severely affected food production in the country. The result of this is a shortage of food in the communities. Reduced food production in the community has increased the impact of drought to the residents. With reduced food production, the community cannot be able to sustain their people and in turn when the dry season comes along, the communities are largely hit by drought. Over the last 30 years, soil erosion in Nigeria has rendered more that 32% of arable land unproductive, this has in turn led to severe food shortage as well as food related diseases such as kwashiorkor among the children in Nigerian farming communities (Sotona Adesodun, 2014).            Soil erosion on the other hand has contributed to flooding occurs throughout Nigeria in three main forms which are urban, river and coastal flooding. For example, urban flooding such as the Ogunpa disaster which claimed over 200 lives and damaged property worth millions of Naira in Ibadan, are common occurrences. Flooding and accumulation of waste product has as well posed a public health concern to the Nigerians, especially the communities living along rivers and coastal lines. About 60 % of the soil that is swept away by the erosion process ends up in rivers, lakes and streams. This makes waterways more prone to flooding as well as contamination from soil, pesticides and fertilizers which are harmful to human health not only in Nigeria but also globally. Soil erosion is believed to have severe and adverse effect on the developing countries economic stability. Nigeria is termed as a developing country and it has suffered economically as a result of soil erosion. L arge sums of funds have been deployed in the fight against the menace and it’s especially the impact to the country’s health care system (Ehigiator Anyata, 2011).            The stubborn persistence of soil erosion in Nigeria as well as its threat to public health has raised numerous ethical questions recent times. Freeing humanity from health menace caused by soil erosion is a moral obligation that weighs on the Nigerian government more heavily as the capabilities and technology advance continues to be experienced. The world and Nigeria in particular, undoubtedly has the productive capacity to produce adequate quality health care and facilities not to mention their ability to control or prevent soil erosion and in turn eradicate health risks to the people. In recent years, rapid technology advances have led to better environmental management, however soil erosion management or prevention in Nigeria has not been fully achieved and in turn hindering good public health (Edosomwan, 2013).            The value of enhancing the well being of the Nigerians, today almost all the nations recognizes the need to enhance the well being of its people. While charity necessary might be necessary to respond to pressing issues in the community, it can not, however, provide for long-term solutions such as the case of soil erosion menace. Long term reversal of such cases can only be achieved through providing the Nigerians with skills, capital, employment, education and opportunities. In addition, for sustainable agriculture and rural development to flourish, as well as a valuable rural infrastructure must be in place as well as policy that will promote effective farming methods as well as soil erosion prevention measures (Adedipe, 1992). Measures to reduce negative effects of soil erosion in Nigeria            The Nigerian government together with World Health Organization has embarked on education, strategy for the farmers on how to improve their farming practices as well as how to prevent soil erosion in their farms. Effective farming practices within the communities are estimated to reduce the extent of soil erosion by 40 %. This would in turn reduce the amount of harmful elements being swept through soil erosion into water bodies. Moreover, farmers are encouraged to plant trees to reduce the desertification process as well as arrest the deforestation process. For example, the World Bank has financed the rehabilitation of land in Enugu, a region with massive gullies caused by erosion in order to prevent loss of life and property (Adeniyi, 1986).            The government has also embarked on landscaping and building of dykes in order to reduce the problem of flooding. The issue of uncontrolled floods from regions such as Osina and Akokwa has raised the concern of flood control. Residents of the Urualla community, for example, had themselves committed towards finding a lasting solution to the problem especially their financial contribution to the cost of the engineering design for the site and urged them to sustain the momentum. Through the arrest of soil erosion, the government has managed to somewhat control the menace of soil erosion and especially its negative effect to the health sector. The fight against the malaria epidemic in African countries has been a success which is one of diseases caused by flooding as a result of soil erosion. Lastly, the government and NGOs have embarked on educating the community members on healthy living such as ways to avoid water borne diseases. As well as providing adequate medica l attention when needed (Ananda Herath, 2003). Conclusions            Nigeria is subject to soil erosion, due to deprived farming practices, together with erodible soils. When considered across all land-use types, it is clear that soil degradation is perceived as more of a problem in Agulu-Nanka (Plate 1), Obioma, Nsuka, and less of a problem in Borno, Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto. This has in turn turned to be a massive public health menace to the community not only in Nigeria but globally as well. It is clear that the process of soil erosion has brought along complicated health problems. The measure has been implemented to reduce the menace of soil erosion and in turn minimize the negative impact on public health.            Despite the dedicated collaborative efforts of both the concerned parties such as the Nigerian government, NGOs, donor agencies provide an effective and efficient health care delivery in the county, confronting problems renders these efforts much less than desired. Some of the problems include poor farming practices, poor waste disposal, deforestation, which is believed to be a catalyst to soil erosion, re-emergence of HIV/AIDS pandemic, poor quality care as well as irrational appointments of health workers has not done the sector any good. Lack of information on prevention of soil erosion as well as the weight of these problems, is further compounded by insufficient budget allocation, lack of strategic plan and prepare for epidemics/pandemics. References Adedipe, N.O. (1992) â€Å"The African Environment: A changing and Scary Scenario† Adeniyi E.O. (1986) â€Å"Environmental Management and Development in Nigeria† A paper presented at the proceedings of a National Conference on Development and the Environment, Rosprint Industrial Press Ltd. African Development Foundation (U.S.). (1994).  Participatory development: ADF, funded projects, 1993. Washington, DC (1400 Eye St., NW, Washington 20005: The Foundation. Agbenin, J. (2002). The impact of long-term cultivation and management history on the status and dynamics of cobalt in a savanna Alfisol in Nigeria.  European Journal Of Soil Science,  53(2), 169-174. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2389.2002.00433.x Ananda, J., Herath, G. (2003). Soil erosion in developing countries: a socio-economic appraisal.  Journal Of Environmental Management,  68(4), 343. doi:10.1016/S0301- Berkhout, E. D., Schipper, R. A., Van Keulen, H. H., Coulibaly, O. O. (2011). Heterogeneity in farmers’ production decisions and its impact on soil nutrient use: Results and implications from northern Nigeria.  Agricultural Systems,  104(1), 63-74. doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2010.09.006 Beinart, W. (2008).  The rise of conservation in Nigeria: Settlers, livestock, and the environment, 1770-1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cornell University. (2006, March 23). Soil Erosion Threatens Environment and Human Health, Study Reports. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 26, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060322141021.htmEdosomwan, N. L., Obazuaye, E. E., Edosomwan, E. U. (2013). Impacts Of Dam On Characteristics Of Tropical Rainforest Soils And Sediments In South Central Nigeria.  Indian Journal Of Agricultural Research,  47(1), 73-77.4797(03)00082-3 Ehigiator, O. A., Anyata, B. U. (2011). Effects of land clearing techniques and tillage systems on runoff and soil erosion in a tropical rain forest in Nigeria.  Journal Of Environmental Management,  92(11), 2875-2880. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.06.015 Iwegbue, C. A., Nwajei, G. E., Eguavoen, O. I. (2012). Impact of Land-Use Patterns on Chemical Properties of Trace Elements in Soils of Rural, Semi-Urban, and Urban Zones of the Niger Delta, Nigeria.  Soil Sediment Contamination,  21(1), 19-30. doi:10.1080/15320383.2012.636772 Oladapo, O. T., Adetoro, O. O., Fakeye, O., Ekele, B. A., Fawole, A. O., Abasiattai, A., Dada, O. A. (2009). National data system on near miss and maternal death: shifting from maternal risk to public health impact in Nigeria.  Reproductive Health,  68-18. Orisakwe, O., Asomugha, R., Afonne, O., Anisi, C. N., Obi, E., Dioka, C. (2004). Impact of Effluents from a Car Battery Manufacturing Plant in Nigeria on Water, Soil, and Food Qualities.  Archives Of Environmental Health,  59(1), 31-36. Pretty, J. N. (1995).  Regenerating agriculture: Policies and practice for sustainability and self-reliance. Washington, D.C: Joseph Henry Press. Salami, A., Jimoh, M. A., Muoghalu, J. I. (2003). Impact Of Gold, Mining On Vegetation And Soil In Southwestern Nigeria.  International Journal Of Environmental Studies,  60(4), 343-352. Showers, K. B. (2005).  Imperial gullies: Soil erosion and conservation in Lesotho. Athens (Ohio: Ohio University Press.Smil, V. (2001).  Feeding the world: A challenge for the twenty-first century. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Pres Sotona, T., Salako, F., Adesodun, J. (2014). Soil physical properties of selected soil series in relation to compaction and erosion on farmers’ fields at Abeokuta, southwestern Nigeria.  Archives Of Agronomy Soil Science,  60(6), 841-857. doi:10.1080/03650340.2013.844334 Vanlauwe, B. B., Diels, J. J., Sanginga, N. N., Merckx, R. R. (2005). Long-term integrated soil fertility management in South-western Nigeria: Crop performance and impact on the soil fertility status.  Plant Soil,  273(1/2), 337-354. doi:10.1007/s11104-005-0194-2 Source document

Accuracy of Frozen Section in Borderline Ovarian Tumor

Accuracy of Frozen Section in Borderline Ovarian Tumor Abstract Borderline ovarian tumor or low malignant tumor present in 10-15% of all ovarian cancers, they usually affect younger women and they have favorable prognosis even with conservative surgery, in which fertility can be preserved. Lack of reliable diagnostic tool to indicate the type of malignancy before surgery or at the time of surgery make the borderline ovarian tumor one of the most controversial topics of gynecology malignancy. This leads to many overtreatment cases with radical surgery or undertreatment with conservative surgery with the higher rate of overtreatment compared to undertreatment. In this review article, we extensively searched for all reported data regarding the accuracy of frozen section in borderline ovarian tumor and compared the results. Our literature search and reviewing the result of 6 studies, which specifically considered the accuracy of frozen section in borderline ovarian tumors, gave us an accuracy of 60% with an agreement between final pathology and frozen section results. 24.5% of under-diagnosed cases where malignant interpreted to benign and 4.9% over-diagnosed cases where benign tumor considered as a malignant. Frozen section is a reliable tool to exclude benign tumor from borderline and malignant but under-diagnosed percentage is higher than to be accepted for a reliable diagnostic method. There are limitations in this review included the low number of enrolled cases, different time of diagnosis and different countries, which did not have similar criteria and classification. Introduction For the first time in 1929, Taylor described the borderline ovarian tumor (BOT) or low malignant tumor [1]. About 10-15% of all ovarian cancers are BOT. They have very interesting histological behavior. Epithelial cell stratification, increased mitotic activity and nuclear atypia are some features of malignancy that present in borderline tumor. They lack the invasion into the stroma and they usually affect younger women and have a favorable prognosis (2). However small percentage, which are invasive and classified in advanced stage are associated with poor prognosis and recurrence rate of about 1-50% (3). Histologically BOTs are classified based on their epithelial characteristics as serous, mucinous, endometrioid, clear cell or Brenner tumors. Their different histologic type plays an important role in their clinical presentation, thus it is very important to determine the cell type before assessment of BOTs [4-6]. Staging is based on International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging system for ovarian carcinoma. Review of literature indicated very interesting controversy in distribution of BOTs based on the geographic region. In western country USA and Europe, the leading histological type of BOTs reported as serous (7-9). Interestingly, studies from Korea and Japan have showed that mucinous type was the most common one (10-11). Nevertheless, limited number of patients in these studies did not help to come to the conclusion based on geographic area. Surgery is a standard of care to treat BOTs. Determinant factors that help to choose the surgical methods including patients’ age, fertility status and most importantly the histological characteristic of the tumor. Two standard methods worldwide are used in order to treat the BOTs, conservative or radical surgery. Borderline tumors have favorable prognosis even when they are treated with conservative method of surgery. Despite their benign behavior, the treatment of borderline tumor has been more aggressive just because they are regarded as a subset of carcinoma conservatively. Choosing and applying the correct surgery method is vitally important since patient fertility should be preserved when a conservative surgery is chosen as a method of surgery. Patients benefit from conservative surgery, if the tumor has not invaded into the stroma. In contrast, malignant epithelial neoplasm are needed to be treated more aggressively with radical surgery. Therefore, it is critically impo rtant to detect the right histology stage of the tumor at the time of surgery. An accurate test will have a golden value in these patients because it can avoid overtreatment by radical surgery and save the patient fertility when it is on early stage. On the other hand, it would not lead to catastrophic underestimation of tumor when it is on advanced stage (12). Preoperative imaging and tumor markers are usually used to estimate the characteristic of these tumors, but what is obtained from these methods are limited (13, 14). Most of the time, the decision should be made at the time of surgery in case of disseminated malignancy. Earlier stage of tumor FIGO stage 1, 2 are controversial ones. Preliminary diagnosis can be made based on cytology but tissue biopsy is generally the only definitive available diagnostic tool. Intraoperative frozen section can be an alternative to make the diagnosis intra-operatively. Frozen section as a diagnostic tool is widely used to detect the staging of the tumor. Therefore, the right decision on the surgical path with this method not only gives us information about the malignancy but also can report presence of metastases. Accuracy of frozen section has been reported to be good in terms of malignant and benign tumors but its reliability in BOT has not been investigated sufficiently to be statically significant to be used as a diagnostic tool (15). Material and methods In this review article, we extensively search for all reported data regarding the accuracy of frozen section in BOT and compared the results. In order to write this review, we did an extensive search on Medline, preliminary search words were borderline ovarian tumor and frozen section, borderline and borderline ovarian tumor. Finally, we found 30 articles, which investigated the accuracy of frozen section in ovarian tumor, but only 6 of them reviewed in this study (18-23) because other studies was not evaluated the accuracy of frozen section in borderline ovarian tumor or it was evaluated in subgroups. We looked at accuracy of test in all the studies individually. All data were pooled and overall accuracy, over-diagnosed and under-diagnosed then calculated. Discussion Gultekin and colleagues retrospectively evaluated the 82 cases diagnosed with BOT at their clinic in Izmir, Turkey between 1995 and 2007. They compared the result of frozen sections with permanent paraffin section. Their data showed the 69.5% rate of correct diagnosis, 1.2% over-diagnostic rate and 29.3% under-diagnostic rate (18) Tempfer et al. were looked at 96 cases of BOT between 1995 and 2007. The result of frozen section and paraffin were compared in 71.9% of cases, which accounted for 69 of 96 the result of FS and definitive histology were the same. Results showed an overall sensitivity of 75% and PPV of 94.5%. Twenty-eight percentage (27 out of 96) were under-diagnosed and none over-diagnosed has reported (19). Kayikcioglu and colleagues conducted their study on thirty-three patients evaluated based on frozen sections between February 1992 and December 1997. The correlation between frozen section diagnosis and final pathological examination was 72.7% (24/33). Nine percentage (2/22) had inaccurate results in the serous type and 36.6% (4/11) in the mucinous type. They found that the sensitivity and specificity of frozen section diagnosis were 86.95 and 57.14%, respectively. They concluded that frozen section evaluation in identifying a borderline ovarian malignancy was accurate enough to exclude the(20) K. Houck, et al review between 1980 and 1998 at Massachusetts General Hospital found by reviewing 140 cases in their study, which had 60% consistency with frozen section and final pathology results. 10.7% over-diagnosed and 29.3% under-diagnosed cases were reported in their study whereas the positive predictive value of borderline by frozen section was 89.3%. Another study conducted at University of Pennsylvania by Menzin and colleagues evaluating frozen section and final pathology results of 48 patients between 1986 and 1993. In all of these 48 cases, frozen section was suggested the BOT. Their analysis showed 27.1% under-diagnosed and none of the final pathology results was benign while frozen section suggested borderline. They concluded that frozen section was accurate in excluding the benign tumor but when it came to distinguish between borderline and invasive tumor it was not reliable (22). Kim and colleagues reviewed all pathology reports with BTO in both frozen and permanent section analyses between 1994 and 2008 at Seoul St. Marys Hospital. Similar to other studies, they have compared the results of frozen section and permanent histology. They showed 62.4% agreement between frozen section and permanent histology results, which accounted for 63 of 76 cases. They had 76 cases of BOT diagnosed by frozen section. Eight has been under-diagnosed and 5 over-diagnosed, which was 10.5% and 6.6% respectively. 50% sensitivity and 80% specificity was reported in mentioned study (23). Summary of all above mentioned studies and pooled data are shown on table .1 In addition to the accuracy of frozen section compared to the permanent histology results, some other variables have been evaluated in some of these studies. Some of them examined serous type and mucinous type of the tumor despite the controversial result. One concluded that serous type had more missing diagnosed cases (20) while other results showed that tumors other than serous were more likely to be missed (21). Expert pathologist was another controversial variable expressed in Gultekin et al in their research and some other retrospective reviews showed that expert pathologist and accuracy of frozen section diagnosis were parallel (18). Menzin and Tempfer studies have shown no difference in expertise of pathologist regarding accuracy of frozen section.(19,22) Conclusion It is important to choose the right surgical policy at pelvic mass operation, especially when it comes to BOT, which have the favorable prognosis even with conservative surgery due to preservation of fertility in younger women. There is no accurate diagnostic method to evaluate the ovarian tumor, before or at the time of surgery. Frozen section analysis can provide valuable hiftological information in term of malignant ovarian mass. However, the overall diagnostic performance for BOTs has not been reported satisfactory in any study. As it is shown in table 1, according to previous published data FS has under-diagnostic rate of 24.5%. It showed an excellent result in term of excluding the benign tumor. These result have its own limitations. All the published data were based on retrospective studies, performed on different time frame with different diagnostic criteria and various recommendations. Moreover, they were from different area, which might cause some bias. Number of enrolled cases were limited in addition to different inclusion and exclusion criteria in each study. Although most of the result were statistically acceptable with p-value of

General Behavioral Characterization of Proximity Malware

General Behavioral Characterization of Proximity Malware CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION GENERAL A delay-tolerant network is anetworkdesigned to operate effectively over extreme distances such as those encountered in space communications or on an interplanetary scale. In such an environment, longlatency sometimes measured in hours or days is inevitable. The popularity of mobile consumer electronics, like laptop computers, PDAs, and more recently and prominently, smart phones, revives the delay-tolerant-network (DTN) model as an alternative to the traditional infrastructure model. The widespread adoption of these devices, coupled with strong economic incentives, induces a class of malware that specifically targets DTNs. We call this class of malware proximity malware. Proximity malware based on the DTN model brings unique security challenges that are not present in the infrastructure model. In the infrastructure model, the cellular carrier centrally monitors networks for abnormalities moreover the resource scarcity of individual nodes limits the rate of malware propagation. A pr erequisite to defending against proximity malware is to detect it. In this paper, we consider a general behavioral characterization of proximity malware. Behavioral characterization, in terms of system call and program flow, has been previously proposed as an effective alternative to pattern matching for malware detection. In our model, malware-infected nodes behaviors are observed by others during their multiple opportunistic encounters: Individual observations may be imperfect, but abnormal behaviors of infected nodes are identifiable in the long-run. OBJECTIVE Network is the combination of Nodes. Each node will communicate with its neighbors and share their data. If a node is affected by a malware it’s necessary to clear it else its neighbors will communicate with it and they also affected by malware. Hence detection of malware is important. Here we discuss some methods for the detection of malware. EXISTING SYSTEM Previous researches quantify the threat of proximity malware attack and demonstrate the possibility of launching such an attack, which is confirmed by recent reports on hijacking hotel Wi-Fi hotspots for drive-by malware attack. With the adoption of new short-range communication technologies such as NFC and Wi-Fi Direct that facilitate spontaneous bulk data transfer between spatially proximate mobile devices, the threat of proximity malware is becoming more realistic and relevant than ever. Proximity malware based on the DTN model brings unique security challenges that are not present in the model. EXISTING SYSTEM DISADVANTAGES Central monitoring and resource limits are absent in the DTN model. Very risk to collecting evidence and also having insufficient evidence. It is filter the false evidence in sequentially and distributed. 1.3.2. LITERATURE SURVEY LITERATURE SURVEY Title:  An Optimal Distributed Malware Defense System for Mobile Networks with Heterogeneous Devices Author: Yong Li, Pan Hui Year: 2011 Description: Consider a mobile network where a portion of the nodes are infected by malware. Our research problem is to deploy an efficient defense system to help the infected nodes to recover and prevent the healthy nodes from further infection. Typically, we should disseminate the content-based signatures of known malware to as many nodes as possible. The signature is obtained by using algorithms such as an MD5 hash over the malware content, and they are used by the mobile devices to detect various patterns in the malware and then to disable further propagation. Therefore, distributing these signatures into the whole network while avoiding unnecessary redundancy is our optimization goal. Title: On Modeling Malware Propagation in Generalized Social Networks Author: Shin-Ming Cheng Year : 2011 Description: This article proposes a novel analytical model to efficiently analyze the speed and severity for spreading the hybrid malware such as Commwarrior that targets multimedia messaging service (MMS) and BT. Validation against conducted simulation experiments reveals that our model developed from the Susceptible-Infected (SI) model in epidemiology accurately Approximates mixed spreading behaviors in large areas without the huge computational cost, which helps estimate the damages caused by the hybrid malware and aids in the development of detection and containment processes. Title: Scalable, Behavior-Based Malware Clustering Author: Ulrich Bayer Year : 2009 Description: In this research, we propose a scalable clustering approach to identify and group malware samples that exhibit similar behavior. For this, we first perform dynamic analysis to obtain the execution traces of malware programs. These execution traces are then generalized into behavioral profiles, which characterize the activity of a program in more abstract terms. The profiles serve as input to an efficient clustering algorithm that allows us to handle sample sets that are an order of magnitude larger than previous approaches. We have applied our system to real-world malware collections. The results demonstrate that our technique is able to recognize and group malware programs that behave similarly, achieving a better precision than previous approaches. To underline the scalability of the system, we clustered a set of more than 75 thousand samples in less than three hours. Title: Self-Policing Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks by Reputation Systems Author: Sonja Buchegger Year : 2005 Description: Node misbehavior due to selfish or malicious reasons or faulty nodes can significantly degrade the performance of mobile ad-hoc networks. To cope with misbehavior in such self-organized networks, nodes need to be able to automatically adapt their strategy to changing levels of cooperation. Existing approaches such as economic incentives or secure routing by cryptography alleviate some of the problems, but not all. We describe the use of a self-policing mechanism based on reputation to enable mobile ad-hoc networks to keep functioning despite the presence of misbehaving nodes. The reputation system in all nodes makes them detect misbehavior locally by observation and use of second-hand information. Once a misbehaving node is detected it is automatically isolated from the network. We classify the features of such reputation systems and describe possible implementations of each of them. We explain in particular how it is possible to use second-hand information while mitigat ing contamination by spurious ratings. Title: The EigenTrust Algorithm for Reputation Management in P2P Networks Author: Sepandar D. Kamvar, Mario T. Schlosser Year : 2003 Description: Peer-to-peer file-sharing networks are currently receiving much attention as a means of sharing and distributing information. However, as recent experience shows, the anonymous, open nature of these networks offers an almost ideal environment for the spread of Self-replicating inauthentic files. We describe an algorithm to decrease the number of downloads of inauthentic files in a peer-to-peer file-sharing network that assigns each peer a unique global trust value, based on the peer’s history of uploads. We present a distributed and secure method to compute global trust values, based on Power iteration. By having peers use these global trust values to choose the peers from whom they download, the network effectively identifies malicious peers and isolates them from the network. In simulations, this reputation system, called EigenTrust, has been shown to significantly decrease the number of inauthentic files on the network, even under a variety of conditions where malicious peers cooperate in an attempt to deliberately subvert the system. Title: When Gossip is Good: Distributed Probabilistic Inference for Detection of Slow Network Intrusions Author: Denver Dash, Branislav Kveton Year : 2006 Description: Intrusion attempts due to self-propagating code are becoming an increasingly urgent problem, in part due to the homogeneous makeup of the internet. Recent advances in anomaly based intrusion detection systems (IDSs) have made use of the quickly spreading nature of these attacks to identify them with high sensitivity and at low false positive (FP) rates. However, slowly propagating attacks are much more difficult to detect because they are cloaked under the veil of normal network traffic, yet can be just as dangerous due to their exponential spread pattern. We extend the idea of using collaborative IDSs to corroborate the likelihood of attack by imbuing end hosts with probabilistic graphical models and using random messaging to gossip state among peer detectors. We show that such a system is able to boost a weak anomaly Detector D to detect an order-of-magnitude slower worm, at false positive rates less than a few per week, than would be possible using D alone at the end-host or on a network aggregation point. Title: A Preliminary Investigation of Worm Infections in a Bluetooth Environment Author: Jing Su, Kelvin K. W. Chan Year : 2006 Description: Over the past year, there have been several reports of malicious code exploiting vulnerabilities in the Bluetooth protocol. While the research community has started to investigate a diverse set of Bluetooth security issues, little is known about the feasibility and the propagation dynamics of a worm in a Bluetooth environment. This paper is an initial attempt to remedy this situation. We start by showing that the Bluetooth protocol design and implementation is large and complex. We gather traces and we use controlled experiments to investigate whether a large-scale Bluetooth worm outbreak is viable today. Our data shows that starting a Bluetooth worm infection is easy, once vulnerability is discovered. Finally, we use trace-drive simulations to examine the propagation dynamics of Bluetooth worms. We find that Bluetooth worms can infect a large population of vulnerable devices relatively quickly, in just a few days. Title: An adaptive anomaly detector for worm detection Author: John Mark Agosta, Carlos Diuk-Wasser Year : 2007 Description: We present an adaptive end-host anomaly detector where a supervised classifier trained as a traffic predictor is used to control a time-varying detection threshold. Training and testing it on real traffic traces collected from a number of end-hosts, we show our detector dominates an existing fixed threshold detector. This comparison is robust to the choice of off-the-shelf classifier employed, and to a variety of performance criteria: the predictor’s error rate, the reduction in the â€Å"threshold gap† and the ability to detect the simulated threat of incremental worm traffic added to the traces. This detector is intended as a part of a distributed worm detection system that infers system-wide threats from end-host detections, thereby avoiding the sensing and resource limitations of conventional centralized systems. The distributed system places a constraint on this end host detector to appear consistent over time and machine variability. Title: CPMC: An Efficient Proximity Malware Coping Scheme in Smartphone-based Mobile Networks Author: Feng Li, Yinying Yang Year : 2010 Description: Many emerging malware can utilize the proximity of devices to propagate in a distributed manner, thus remaining unobserved and making detections substantially more challenging. Different from existing malware coping schemes, which are either totally centralized or purely distributed, we propose a Community-based Proximity Malware Coping scheme, CPMC. CPMC utilizes the social community structure, which reflects a stable and controllable granularity of security, in smart phone-based mobile networks. The CPMC scheme integrates short-term coping components, which deal with individual malware and long-term evaluation components, which offer vulnerability evaluation towards individual nodes. A closeness-oriented delegation forwarding scheme combined with a community level quarantine method is proposed as the short-term coping components. These components contain a proximity malware by quickly propagating the signature of a detected malware into all communities while avoiding u nnecessary redundancy. PROPOSED SYSTEM Behavioral characterization, in terms of system call and program flow, has been previously proposed as an effective alternative to pattern matching for malware detection. In our model, malware-infected nodes’ behaviors are observed by others during their multiple opportunistic encounters: Individual observations may be imperfect, but abnormal behaviors of infected nodes are identifiable in the long-run. We identify challenges for extending Bayesian malware detection to DTNs, and propose a simple yet effective method, look-ahead, to address the challenges. Furthermore, we propose two extensions to look-ahead, dogmatic filtering and adaptive look-ahead, to address the challenge of â€Å"malicious nodes sharing false evidence†. PROPOSED SYSTEM ADVANTAGES Real mobile network traces are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The proposed evidence consolidation strategies in minimizing the negative impact of liars on the shared evidence’s quality. It is used to identify the abnormal behaviors of infected nodes in the long-run. . CHAPTER 2 PROJECT DESCRIPTION 2.1. GENERAL We analyze the problem of behavioral characterization of malware nodes in Delay Tolerant Network efficiently without affecting network performance. 2.2. PROBLEM DEFINITION Proximity malware is a malicious program that disrupts the host node’s normal function and has a chance of duplicating itself to other nodes during (opportunistic) contact opportunities between nodes in the DTN. When duplication occurs, the other node is infected with the malware. We present a general behavioral characterization of proximity malware, which captures the functional but imperfect nature in detecting proximity malware. Under the behavioral malware characterization, and with a simple cut-off malware containment strategy, we formulate the malware detection process as a distributed decision problem. We analyze the risk associated with the decision, and design a simple, yet effective, strategy, look-ahead, which naturally reflects individual nodes’ intrinsic risk inclinations against malware infection. We present two alternative techniques, dogmatic filtering and adaptive look-ahead, that naturally extend look-ahead to consolidate evidence provided by others, w hile containing the negative effect of false evidence. A nice property of the proposed evidence consolidation methods is that the results will not worsen even if liars are the majority in the neighborhood 2.3. METHODOLOGIES Methodologies are the process of analyzing the principles or procedure for behavioral characterizing of node with two methods, dogmatic filtering and adaptive look-ahead, for consolidating evidence provided by other nodes, while containing the negative impact of liars in delay tolerant network. 2.3.1. MODULES Authentication Network Nodes Malware Detection Evidence Analysis Evil Node Revocation 2.3.2 MODULE DESCRIPTION Authentication If you are the new user going to consume the service then they have to register first by providing necessary details. After successful completion of sign up process, the user has to login into the application by providing username and exact password. The user has to provide exact username and password which was provided at the time of registration, if login success means it will take up to main page else it will remain in the login page itself.. Network Nodes Under this module, the network nodes which are interconnected by local area network, that node ip address will be fetched in order to share the resources among the network. As well as the performance of individual system have been analyzed to assess the behavior Malware Detection Malware detection module helps to identify the evil node which is affected by malware program Evidence Analysis This module used to investigate about evidences of nodes by collecting assessments before a normal node get affected by malware program. Evidence aging process helps to discard outdated assessments of a node and evidence consolidation helps to filter negative assessments of a node provided by the other nodes. Evil Node Revocation After detection of evil node, we need to drop the communication with that in order to prevent from malware spreading and the evil node details are transferred to database for further reference. Finally evil node gets revoked from the network computer list. 2.3.3. MODULE DIAGRAM: Authentication Network Nodes Malware Detection Evidence Analysis Evil Node Revocation 2.3.4. GIVEN INPUT EXPECTED OUTPUT AUTHENTICATION Input: Give username and password Output: Allow to your personal details NETWORK NODES Input: Connect to network Output: Communicate between client server MALWAER DETECTION Input: Transfer your file to another node Output: Identifying malicious node EVIDENCE ANALYSES Input: Communicate with other node before affect by malware node then collect evidences Output: Showing all evidence analysis report EVIL NODE REVOCATION Input: Communication with malware node till collect full evidences Output: Malware node has been removed 2.4. TECHNIQUE USED Dogmatic filtering Dogmatic filtering is based on the observation that one’s own assessments are truthful and therefore, can be used to bootstrap the evidence consolidation process. A node shall only accept evidence that will not sway its current opinion too much. We call this observation the dogmatic principle. Adaptive look-ahead Adaptive look ahead takes a different approach towards evidence consolidation. Instead of deciding whether to use the evidence provided by others directly in the cut-off decision, adaptive look ahead indirectly uses the evidence by adapting the steps to look ahead to the diversity of opinion.