Tim Burton and art Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Tim Burton and art - Research Paper Example Tim Burton’s controversial pieces in a myriad of forms of art add flair to the debatable position that the art culture continually gets attached to. It can thereby be correctly stated that making a contribution to the industry in the manner in which Tim Burton does is a unique package that any other industry would warmly welcome. In this discourse, a view of the career that Tim Burton has had in art industry is made in order to highlight the importance that individual artists uniquely add to the entire culture. The uniqueness of this artist is particularly given the center-stage in a number of reviews for four different art pieces. Perhaps one striking contrast in the personality of this artist in the discussion is the current profession, though still in art, which is a complete shift from his earlier forms of art works. An introduction to the artist’s cultural environment during his career and his profile enable a critical analysis on his works which ends in a conclusion on the general contribution to American culture in the tail end of the discourse. Artists’ style of work is largely influenced by the prevailing environment due to the close relationship that art and culture or social surrounding of a people. It therefor implies that something can be picked from an artist’s work to depict the form of influential waves prevailing in form of culture that the people in the artist’s community had. Tim Burton’s career commenced in the early 1980’s during which fine art experienced many changes. Tim Burton was brought up at a time when the movie industry was hitting the market and he particularly had a taste for film works. Interestingly revelations on his early life confirm his liking for films where he made the influence contributed to his spirited input in making his first film in 1971 when only 13 years of age. Film making industry influence assisted in bringing out the artist skills in the artist by triggering interest in film

Water Purification Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Water Purification - Essay Example Boiling water as a means of purifying it is probably one of, if not the most popular and safest water purification processes. Use this simple method to bring water to a rolling boil for at least 5 minutes or longer according to some experts and let it cool before drinking. Along with the many impurities that boiling has removed it also removes the oxygen and this is responsible for its flat taste. A very small price to pay for clean drinking water, you can reinstate its taste by shaking it up or pour it back and forth between two containers to put back the oxygen. Purification using household unscented bleach is another solution, more likely if boiling is not possible. Before executing this method, you may need to filter the water if necessary. This can be done using coffee filters, paper towels or any other clean piece of cloth. After which, place the water in a container and add 2 drops of regular household bleach per quart of water, 8 drops per gallon and the  ½ teaspoon per 5 g allons of water. However, dosage may need to be doubled if the water is cloudy. (Emergency Water Purification Calculator) Following the selected dosage, mix thoroughly and leave for half an hour before drinking but an hour if the water is cold or cloudy.  Lastly, another recommended solution for water purification is filtration using commercial filters. Most of these commercial filters block contaminants using physical obstruction or chemical absorption or a combination of both. Filtration using these filters is regarded as the premier method of water purification removing more contaminants and proving more effective than other methods.  In conclusion, these methods may provide a solution for unsafe water that may contain bacteria and viruses. If water is suspected to be unsafe for other reasons such as chemicals, sewage, poisonous substances etc, it is not recommended for drinking, even if ‘purified’.

A Better Future with Green Technology Essay Example for Free

A Better Future with Green Technology Essay We live in the 21st century which has been called the â€Å"century of the environment†. Our nation’s leaders and individual citizens are coming to an understanding that we can not assume any longer that problems such as pollution, climate changes and the dwindling amount of natural resources can be put off for a future generation to deal with (Green Technology, 2010). There are many uses and reasons for green technology. However, with the use of green technology we can have a healthier, cleaner and possibly longer future. In this paper, I will be discussing just a few of those many uses. The term technology refers to the application of knowledge for a practical purpose. Now the field of green technology encompasses a continuously evolving group of industries, industrial applications, methods and materials which exploit the value of the technologies that benefit the environment. This includes techniques from generating energy all the way to non-toxic cleaning products (Green Technology, 2010). These groups particularly exploit the way this technology impacts the human condition. See more: Unemployment problems and solutions essay The group of effected industries is quite diverse. It includes businesses as far as the fields of energy and agriculture. There are some who predict that someday every consumer product will be affected by green technology. The main goal of green technology is to find ways to produce technology in a way that does not damage or deplete any of the Earths natural resources. The use of green technology is supposed to reduce the amount of waste and pollution that is created during production and consumption. There are many different uses for green technology in our everyday lives. These different uses include a renewable energy source from alternative fuels, recycling, building green, natural and environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, green chemistry and even green nanotechnology (Green Technology, 2010). The most urgent of these issues is perhaps the use of renewable energy. The two main ways to be able to generate energy would be by using solar powered panels and the other is using wind turbines. Recycling is an easy way for us to help out our future generations. Recycling helps to eliminate unnecessary waste in our landfills and is also environmentally friendly. Another good way to also be environmentally friendly is to buy products that have been made using recycled products and natural ingredients. The U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency defines building green , also known as â€Å"sustainable† or â€Å"high performance† building, as the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort (Palmese, 2009). Building green encompasses everything from the choice of building materials to where a building is located (Green Technology, 2010). The United States military is trying to cut back its dependency on their usage of fossil fuels. Therefore, they are turning to more greener and natural approaches to curb their dependency. The green that the military is turning to is definitely not the camouflage. Currently the Army and Navy are both exploring green technology options. Soldiers are going green with solar power units, purifying stagnant waters, solar tents and LED lights (Lowman, 2011). The military is developing two solar powered humvees that they call FED Alpha and FED Bravo. FED stands for Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator (Iliaifar, 2011). FED Bravo’s details are very sparse and so it still remains more of a mystery. FED Alpha is suppose to be equipped with a solar panel that is mounted on the Humvee to be able to assist with its electrical systems (Iliaifar, 2011). The U.S. military are currently using solar powered cooling tents in Afghanistan. The U.S. military has a goal to achieve 25 percent renewable energy by the year 2025. Fort Drum, NY has one of the world’s largest solar installations which currently heats the entire base (Lowman, 2011). The U.S. army and the U.S. Navy have both kicked off net zero programs which is aimed at reducing not only energy use on bases and also on water use and waste. The U.S. Navy is aiming for half of its bases to have net zero energy consumption by 2020. The Army is planning to install rooftop solar installations in as many as 160,000 private military home in 33 different states to help with energy costs (Westervelt, 2012). The Navy has commissioned a ship that is energy efficient. It is called the Makin Island. It is the first amphibious assault ship to replace its steam boilers with gas turbines. It is also the first Navy surface ship to be equipped with both gas turbinesand an auxiliary propulsion system (Department of Defense, 2009) The trucking industry is also continuously evolving to be be more green. Carriers are going with cleaner trucks to get better fuel mileage and help cut out on harmful emissions. These days there are numerous opportunities for a carrier to turn their fleet into a green fleet (Britton, 2010). California is becoming more of a green state. The state of California passed new laws to where a truck driver can not idle there truck if it is not a clean emissions truck. Now that the new clean trucks, Freightliner Cascadia and the International ProStar and Lonestar, are readily available it makes this easier to achieve. The trucking industry has been able to achieve nearly zero nitrogen oxide emissions as of January 1, 2010. It also achieved zero particulate matter emissions as of January 1, 2007 (Britton, 2010). Now that the trucking industry has been able to cut back nearly all emissions to zero they are turning their sights on another problem. The new problem the industry is tackling is fuel consumption. One thing they have tried so far is using auxiliary power units, which are also known as APUs, when idoling the truck at a rest area or truckstop has helped instead of burning a gallon of fuel an hour to idol the truck like before it now takes a gallon to idol for all ten hours since having an APU installed on the trucks. Another way the trucking industry was tried to conserve fuel to become greener is by switching to wide-based tires. This has cut consumption as much as ten percent in some cases (Britton, 2010). Freightliner has clean drive technology in all their trucks they make now. They can claim this only due to Selective Catalytic Reduction, or SCR, and Blue Tec Emissions Technology that help their heavy duty trucks to exceed EPA standards while still being cost efficient, practical and proven to stand the wear and tear of the industry (Freightliner). Blue Tec Emissions Technology has proven to increase performance with every drop of diesel fuel, reduce more of the pollutants from exhaust gases, and improve profitability from every mile covered. The Blue Tec Technology treats the exhaust gases and the end results are nitrogen and water. The same thing we breathe in. The Cascadia has an aerodynamic exterior to also help reduce drag and improve on fuel efficiency. There are new developments constantly in the field of green technology. One of the new developments is a hydrogen powered car. It is a zero emission car that produces water as exhaust. Green technology is hitting our major cities. Most cities are going organic and natural to preserve the Earth’s resources. Most larger cities have public transportation that run off clean fuel. Before we know it there will not be a location that is not going green or already gone green. We ourselves can jump on the green bandwagon. We can do this simply by doing a few things we already do to begin with. The first way is to come up with your own cleaning supplies from a few things around the house such as baking soda, vinegar and even lemons. Baking soda is good to remove stains, cut through tough grease and to freshen carpets (US Green Technology,2012). With these three simple products you could clean your entire home. Vinegar and newspaper or paper towel you can clean windows, mirrors and tile. Do not throw out any old electronics. It is better to donate old cell phones to someone in need or recycle them at a store that offers it. This is important because the old battery and possibly even the device still could contain mercury, which is extremely poisonous to the environment (U.S. Green Technology, 2012). After all the hard earned money spent on the device to begin with, it would be better to put it to good use some how. Another way to be green is the stop drinking bottled water because it saves our planet from having another non-biodegradable plastic bottle laying around. It is better to get a filter that you place on your faucet (U.S. Green Technology, 2012). Hopefully the nation’s leaders and all of the individual citizens will come to understand that while we live in the century of the environment, they can no longer assume that the Earth’s natural resources will be there for the future generation to be able to handle the problems of pollution, climate changes and the rapidly dwindling amount of natural resources left. There are many great uses and reasons for choosing to use green technology. The use of green technology can lead us all to a healthier, cleaner and possibly longer future. References Bibb, B. (2011) Green Perspectives Mandatory Commercial Recycling Creates Manufacturing Jobs. Green Technology. Retrieved from http://www.green-technology.org/green_technology_magazine/a-new-kind-of-corporation-in-california-for-a-new-bottom-line-q-/green-perspectives-mandatory-commercial-recycling-creates-manufa/ Britton, D. (2010, February 17) Investing wisely in Green Technologies. Heavy Duty Trucking. Retrieved from http://www.truckinginfo.com/news-details.asp?news_id=69434 Department of Defense. (2009, October 22). Retrieved from http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=49147 Freightliner Trucks (2012, March 5) Retrieved from http://www.freightlinertrucks.com/TruckInnovation/Clean-Drive-Technologies Green Technology (2010) Retrieved from http://www.green-technology.org/what.htm Green Technology (2010) Retrieved from http://www.green-technology.org/about.htm Iliaifar, A. (2011, December 29). Retreived from http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/us-military-planning-to-go-green- with-hybrid-humvees/ Lowman, M. (2011, August 01) The military goes green. Science/Technology. Retreived from http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/01/v-print/1381865/the-military-goes-green.html Palmese, R. (2009, June) Green Building Construction in California. Retrieved from http://www.green-technology.org/greentech-report-june09r.pdf U.S. Green Technology. (2012, January 14). How to be Green. Retrieved from http://www.usgreentechnology.com/stories/how-to-be-green/ Westervelt, A. (2012, Febuary 2). Why the military hates fossil fuels. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2012/02/02/why-the-military-hates-fossil- fuels-and-you-should-too-part-one-inefficiency/ Westervelt, A. (2012, February 6). The Military’s Green Tech Strategy. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2012/02/06/why-the-military-hates-fossil-fuels-part-two-alternatives/ Westervelt, A. (2012, February 14). How the Military uses Green Tech to Save Soldiers L ives. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2012/02/14/how-the-military-uses-green-tech-to-save-soldiers-lives/

Mutation Testing by Using Formal Method

Mutation Testing by Using Formal Method Jaspreet Singh Abstract Mutation testing was introduced in 1970’s in the field of software testing as a process of testing the test suites by intentionally seeding errors i.e. mutation operators, into the original program’s source code. Its main purpose is to verify the functionality of the test cases which are executed with the aim of catching the variations between the program and the mutants. It’s extremely essential to improve the efficiency and adequacy of test cases. Hence, the goal is to make the mutant program fail. This paper depends upon the literature survey of mutation testing by using formal methods. Keywords- Mutant, Code, Program, Test cases, Kill, PIMS. I INTRODUCTION Since 1970’s, this technique is used by developers for validating the test cases as well as the test data generation. It’s a well know process to computer scientists for years. But due to heaviness of the method, it demanded huge computational power which reduced its usability. But the advancements in software engineering and the era of increased computational power, has laid it continue to serve as the most powerful method of verifying the functionality and performance of test suites. The objective is to improve the aptness and efficiency of test cases where the programmer will intentionally alter the original program’s source code by injecting a faulty piece of code known as a mutant, into it. The resultant code is referred to as mutated code. The mutation procedure will create many versions of the original program. Each version is known as a mutant. The execution of a mutant will verify the proficiency of the test case. If the output of the original program wi ll vary with that of the mutant one causing each faulty version to fail [1]. The resultant mutant is killed and the test case is saved considering it an adequate one. More the number of mutants killed by a test case, the better is the competency of the test case. Mutation testing is proficient in testing programs at the unit level, integration level and the specification level. It has been applied to many programming languages like C, C++, etc. and is a part of white box test technique [2]. II LITERATURE SURVEY Initial concepts of mutation were introduced by Richard Lipton in a class term paper titled â€Å"Fault Diagnosis of Computer Programs†. The first referred publications were presented in the late 1970’s ; the DeMillo, Lipton. PIMS was one of the first mutation testing tools [3]. It originated the basic procedure typically used in mutation analysis of creating mutants, obtaining test cases from the users, and then executing the them on the mutants to conclude how many mutants were killed. The most widely used tool among researchers was the Mothra mutation toolset [3], which provided an integrated set of tools, each of which performed an individual, separate task to support mutation analysis and testing. Several variants of Mothra were created in the early 1990s, including one that implemented weak mutation [4], and several distributed versions. A compiler-integrated mutation tool for C was also developed [5], and tool that was based on program schemata [6]. However, thes e tools were primarily used by the researchers who developed them and the only widely used system besides the original version of Mothra has been the Proteum mutation system for C [7]. A Formal Methods Formal methods are techniques based on mathematics and formal logic. It supports automated consistency checking and testing specifications. It helps finding defects when applied to good quality software. Such methods allow large number of classes of test cases having finite proof with support least dependence on subjective reasoning [8]. B The benefits of using Formal Methods include: Product-focused measure of correctness: The use is used for the of Formal correctness of a system. Early detection of defects: Formal Methods can be applied to earlier detection and elimination of design defects and associated late cycle rework. Guarantees of correctness: Unlike testing, formal analysis tools go through all possible execution paths through the system. If there is any way to reach a fault condition, a tool will find it. In a multi-threaded system where concurrency is an issue, formal analysis can explore all possible interleavings and event orderings[13]. Fig-1 Formal Methods such as model checking examine more system behaviors for safety violations than testing alone III NOTIONS OF FORMAL PROOF: A Mathematical proof: A formal proof is a complete and convincing mathematical argument, presenting the full logical justification for each proof of set of theorems B Machine-checked proof: A formal proof is evidence accepted by a proof checker showing that a conjecture is a valid consequence of given axioms. C Hilbert proof: A formal proof in a theory is a sequence of formulas, each of which is either an axiom of or a direct consequence of preceding formulas in the sequence by virtue of a rule of inference associated with the underlying formal system[14]. IV TYPES OF MUTANTS We define the following classification of mutants as follows: A Killed Mutant; which was killed by a test case which was specifically written to kill it. The concept behind mutation testing is that modifying the source code of a given unit (or mutating it) should cause the test that operates on that unit to fail. Example : Method and Corresponding Unit Test //original code under test public class Example { public boolean is LessThanThree(int number) { return (number Example : Mutated Method public class Example { public boolean isLessThanThree(int number) { return (number > 3); } } Notice that with this mutation, the method testLessThanThree would fail because the mutated method now returns the boolean number > 3, which in this case would be false and the assert statement is checking to see that the desired result is true. The method TestLessThanThreeFail would not fail, however, because 3 is not greater than 3 and the returned boolean would be false, which is what the assert statement is checking for. Because testLessThanThree failed, this mutant is said to be killed; the mutation caused the test to fail, which means the test is adequately catching this kind of mistake[12]. Dead on Arrival (DOA)- Mutant that was killed by the initial test suite found in the test bed. Ignored Mutant which a study participant encountered but did not kill. Living-Mutant which could not be killed due to time constraints (whether or not the mutant was encountered). Crossfire- Mutant that was killed by a test case intended to kill a different mutant. Stubborn.-Mutant that cannot be killed by a test case due to logical equivalence or language constructs. B Ordering Mutants: Let P be an implemented program and P’ be a first order mutant that differs from P at location l. A test case, t1 can distinguish P form P’ provided the following necessary and sufficient conditions hold on executing P and P’ with starting state t1: This has 3 properties: The execution must reach location l ( ); The evaluation of expressions at location l in P and P’ must result in different values at least once ( ) ; The final states on termination of execution of P and P’ must be different ( ). Properties (a) and (b) follow by observing that the location must be reached and in the case of a c-location the two executions must result in two different states if they are to be distinguished. 1) Process of Mutation Testing NO YES YES NO Fig. 2 Working of Mutation process The process of mutation analysis is shown in fig. 2. Steps are as follows: The program is being fed as an input and is executed. The resultant is checked . If the resultant indicates successful completion of the program, then terminate. If not, then create mutants (mutated code). A mutant, as previously mentioned is an intentionally altered program by the programmer. It is fed by some errors termed as mutation operators. Test cases are created to the system to be executed on the program. Execute the test cases against the mutant. If the output of the mutant is correct, then execute the test case on each version of the mutant. If not, then again the output of the original program is checked. Compare the output of the original source code with that of each version’s. A decision is made after determining the output of the original code with that of the mutated one. If the output differs, then the test is considered to be an adequate one and is executed on each of the mutants of the program The mutant that is detected is marked as dead/killed. Whereas, output being same indicates inadequacy of the test case and the program. 2) Mutation Operators- Taxonomy of mutation operators: 3)Statement Mutations: The mutant is produced by replacing the keywords in the statement, like While to do while While to For Example for Switch statement: Program Switch Statements case 0: i++; case 1: i = 4; Mutant: case 1: i++; case 0: i = 4; Operator Mutations The mutant is produced by changing the operator in the original source code. For ex: a=1, b=0 If (a b) { C=1; } else { C=0;} The condition mutation operator would replace with the mutation operator || and gives us the following mutant: If(a||b) { C=1; } else { C=0;} Variable Mutations Replace each variable with another variable declared in the same scope (variable types should be the same). Constant Mutations In constant mutations, the mutant tends to fail as there is no mutation operator to be replaced Ex: If (1) { printf (â€Å"How are you?†); } Else {printf(â€Å"I am fine.†);} In this case, mutation testing fails. [2] Example Original piece of a code: c=a+b; where a=3and b=2 Putting the values for a and b, it will result in 3+2=5 Now, possible mutants are c=a-b; , c=a/b; and c=a*b; Such mutations are mostly easier for a test suite to recognize if (a == b) { //do something } will be mutated to if (a != b) { // do something } Here, == is replaced by !=. V PROS AND CONS Mutation procedure is widely acceptable as an essential way to determine the fault-detecting effectiveness of the test sets. Now software developers and testers everywhere can enjoy the most powerful error- detection capabilities with the speed and ease of use of an automatic running debugging tool [9]. But, at the same time it pertains some disadvantages also, which are as follows: A PRO’S: Providing the testers with a target- One of the major advantages of mutation testing is that it provides the tester with a target. The tester has to generate a test data with the aim of killing all the generated mutants. Therefore, we can generate an adequate test data set that is capable enough to detect errors in the program.[10] Bringing more confidence in customers and testers- The customer also benefits from this technique , as he receives a more reliable and bug free software. This will increase confidence in them which will profit your company where it matters most. Mutation Testing originated as a means of creating more effective test suites by which the tester can be more confident that his program is adequately tested. It’s a powerful fault-based testing approach for competent programmers. B CON’S: Computationally expensive due to lack of automated tool..Mutation Testing is complicated and time-consuming to perform without an automated tool. Often, there are massive number of mutants that are generated for a original program as number of mutants is directly proportional to the mutation operators applied. Hence it is computationally expensive to run. The test cases on each and every mutant. It is also expensive to compile and execute every mutant [9][10]. An example of this is shown in Table No. 2 given below. Table 2 Increase In Computational Cost Such mutants only contribute in increasing the computational cost as the efforts needed to check if mutants are equivalent or not, can be very high even for small programs against the test cases. [2] Equivalent Mutants, one of the biggest problems- Syntactically different from the original program. But, semantically the same. Consider the example given in Table No. 3 given below: The equivalent mutant is generated by changing the operator Table 3 Equivalent Mutants Manual equivalent mutant detection is quite tedious- The other barrier to more widespread use of mutation testing is the amount of manual labor involved in using this technique. Hence, developing mutation adequate test cases can be very labor-intensive.[2] VI CONCLUSION This paper provides a detailed review of mutation testing .It covers the objective, Analysis of previous mutation systems, Formal Methods, working of mutation testing and efficient test case generation, Taxonomy of mutation operators and its Pro’s and Con’s . Mutation testing has given a great contribution in the field of software testing and provided the testers with a matured and affordable technique in detecting best test suites. Future Scope Our future scope is to develop a more advanced mutation testing approach that minimizes the issue of computational cost up to a certain level with the aim of killing all the possible mutants and thereby generating good test cases. REFERENCES [1] Yue Jia ans Mark Harman. An Analysis and Survey of the Development of Mutation Testing. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, King’s College London, Centre for Research on Evolution Search and Testing (CREST), Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, UK, 2010 [2] Hiralal Agrawal , Richard A. DeMillo, Bob Hathaway, William Hsu, Wynne Hsu, E.W. Krauser, R.J. Martin and Aditya P. Mathur, â€Å"Design Of Mutant Operators For The C Programming Language†, Software Engineering Research Centre, Department of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN 47907, Revision 1.02, March 20, 1989. [3] D. M. S. Andre. Pilot mutation system (pims) user’s manual. Technical report GIT-ICS-79/04, Georgia Institute of Technology, April 1979 [4] A.J Offutt and S.D.Lee. An empirical evaluation of weak mutation. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering , 20(5): 337-344, May 1994. [5] R.A. DeMillo, E.W.Krauser, and A.P. Mathur. Compiler-integrated program mutation. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC’ 92), Tokya, Japan, September 1991. Kogakuim University, IEEE Computer Society Press. [6] R. Untch, A.J. Offutt, and M.J. Harrold. Mutation analysis using program schemata. In Proceedings of the 1993 International symposium on Software Testing, and Analysis, pages 139-148, Cambridge MA, June 1993. [7] M.E. Delamaro and J.C. Maldonado. Proteum – A tool for the assessment of test adequacy for C programs. Proceedings of the Conference on Performability in Computing Systems, pages 75-95. July 1996. [8] A. Jefforson Offutt, A practical system for mutation testing: Help for the common programmer, ISSE Department, George Mason University,Fairfax, VA 22030, 1994. [9] S. Madiraju ,S. Ramakrishnan and A.J.Hurst, â€Å"Towards Automated Mutation Testing†, March 2004. [10] A. Jefferson Offutt and Roland H.Untch, Mutation : Uniting the orthogonal, A. Jeerson Offutt ISE Department, George Mason University Fairfax, VA USA, Roland H.Untch, Department of Computer Science Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, 2000. [11] David L. Dill, â€Å"Formal Methods Specification and Verification Guidebook for software and computer systems† Vol. 1, Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, July 1995. [12] Ben Smith and Laurie Williams, â€Å"Software Engineering†, Department of computer science North Carolina State University. [13] Murali Rangarajan, â€Å"Formal Methods†,Honeywell Laboratories 3660 Technology Drive Minneapolis, MN 55418. [14] James G. Williams and Marshall D. Abrams, â€Å"Formal Methods And Models†.

Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Banned Essay -- Argumentative Essay, 2

Imagine you are at home, watching tv. Flipping through the channels, you see a preview for next week’s episode of Toddlers & Tiara’s. They show the girls dressed in frilly, sparkly attire, fake teeth, fake hair, fake tans, and makeup that could transform their faces into someone in their 20’s. These children are usually misbehaving, disobedient, overdramatic and they are between the ages of four and six. Any person could see that this lifestyle is incredibly harmful to these children not just because of what it does to their appearance, but what happens when these little girls’ minds become tainted with the thoughts of needing to be beautiful and talented in order for people to like them. They also learn that being beautiful means doing whatever it takes to make yourself look perfect, even if it means that everything about you is fake. At the same time, when these little girls are dressing up for these shows, they are being put in outfits that could b e worn by strippers. This draws attention to sex offenders and pedophiles, which could potentially end up in something tragic. Claude Knights, the director of child protection charity Kidscape, says, "We do know that predators or paedophiles continually tend to justify their interest in children by saying children are sexual beings. That children are now given a channel to become little Lolitas, to be portrayed as older, to almost become mini adults – these are all trends that give legitimacy to that kind of thinking." In the end, children’s beauty pageants are essentially harmful to both young girls safety and minds. It may not happen to some, but most of the young girls that compete in beauty pageants seem to have a bit of an attitude towards their parents and ... ...today.com/blog/food-thought/201108/child-beauty-pageants-what-are-we-teaching-our-girls>. "Child Beauty Pageant Statistics." OccupyTheory. N.p., 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. . Day, Elizabeth. "Living dolls: inside the world of child beauty pageants." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 11 July 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. . Image/Video Citations -http://susannemoore.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/childrens-beauty-pagents-eden-wood/ -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_7vsWF_Ox4 -http://www.soulfulspoon.com/2013/03/my-take-thursdays-how-to-recover-from.html#.U09T2yjrdSo -http://cynicalreview.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/child-beauty-pageants-harmless-fun-or-vomit-inducing-child-abuse/ -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRSUS4WZO5Q

Rising Incidence of Alzheimers Disease Essay -- Alzheimers Disease Es

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common dementia that destroys brain cells and causes problems with memory, thinking and behaviour. According to recent statistics (Alzheimer's Association, 2010), Alzheimer’s is the 7th-leading cause of death in the USA with the number of people suffering from AD only in America over 5.3 million. It affects more women than men, causing differences in symptoms depending on gender. There is no cure which can guarantee a recovery for diseased people to date. However, more possible cures exist for diseased females. As per Brian Ott’s article on gender differences in Alzheimer’s disease, females have huge changes in behaviour comparing with males. This process is tightly connected with emotional instability, mood swings, wandering, and refers to personality change. Over listed symptoms are the first one to show up, but eventually there become more and more consequences of the disease such as frequent delusions, hallucinations, and sun-downing – the exacerbation of syndromes in the afternoon and evening, which makes a person in early stages of Alzheimer’s more antisocial and unadapted to a daily life. Such difficulties with communicating with people makes lives of patients very complicated, make them suffer of misunderstanding, and lead to depression as it was proved by American Psychiatric Association (1980). Indeed, 69% of people with dementia were suffering from depression (from Neundorfer, 2001: American Psychiatric Association, 1980). A group of researchers has found evidence of difference in language comprehension and memory regression between males and females: the latter are more vulnerable to such changes in cognition due to influence of sex hormones on the brain (from Ott, 2005: Sherwin, 1997)... ...llet, X., N. Raoux, N. le Carret, J. Bouisson, J. Dartigues, H. Amieva. 2009. Gender-related Differences in Visuospatial Memory Persist in Alzheimer’s Disease. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 24 (issue: unknown): 783-789. Oxford Journals. http://acn.oxfordjournals.org (accessed October 27, 2010). Neundorfer, M., M. McClendon, K. Smyth, J. Stuckey, M. Strauss, M. Patterson. 2001. A Longitudinal Study of the Relationship Between Levels of Depression Among Persons With Alzheimer’s Disease and Levels of Depression Among Their Family Caregivers. Journal of Gerontology: PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES 56B (5): 301-313. http://psychsocgerontology.oxfordjournals.org (accessed November 12, 2010). Ott, B., D. Cahn-Weiner. 2005. Gender Differences in Alzheimer’s Disease. Geriatric Times 2 (6). http://www.cmellc.com/geriatrictimes/g011123.html (accessed October 23, 2010).

Icloud Technology Essay

Cloud computing is not necessarily a new technology, but it is one that has become much more popular in the past few years. It is a technology that has been improved upon and more companies are relying on cloud computing for their hardware, software, and storage needs. What is Cloud Computing? There are several definitions of what exactly cloud computing is. The simplest explanation is that cloud computing is a means of renting computers, storage, and network capacity on an hourly basis from a company that already has these resources in its own data center and can make them available to you and your customers via the Internet (Smith, 2009). Cloud computing comes in three main formats: Infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) (Howarth, 2009). Infrastructure-as-a-service provides access to server hardware, storage and bandwidth (2009). Platform-as-a-service provides basic operating software and may also include services such as database access, user interface, message queues, and application servers (2009). The last model is software-as-a-service (SaaS), which provides customers with access to complete software applications that are often integrated with other users to prove greater functionality for the customer (2009). Positive Aspects of Cloud Computing Prior to cloud computing, there were related services that offered certain or limited services, but not all the services were combined, as they are with cloud computing. Small- and mid-size businesses are signing up for cloud computing, as their goal is to eliminate as much internal IT services as possible (Shacklett, 2011). Cloud computing allows a company to use the services that they see fit for their needs and use as much computing power as them deem necessary on an hourly basis (Smith, 2009). As the demand for internal or external users shrinks or expands, the necessary software, hardware, storage, and network capacity can be added or subtracted as needed (Smith, 2009). The equipment is not kept at the company using the cloud computing service. It does not require upgrades to the electrical system, modifications of the cooling system, additional floor space, or expansion of the IT staff (Smith, 2009). The cloud computing company handles the storage and service of the equipment needed. The last advantage is that there are competing providers for cloud computing services (Smith, 2009). If you are not happy with the current company, you have the choice to move your business to a different company that offers the services that you need. Disadvantages of Cloud Computing The biggest concern or disadvantage of cloud computing is security. The geographical location of the data in a cloud computing environment will have a significant impact on the legal requirements for protection and handling of the data (Bowen, 2011). The laws of the host country apply to the data on the machines (Smith, 2009). Most businesses are hesitant to allow their internal data to be stored on a computer that is outside of their own company and could potentially be stored with another company’s application (Smith, 2009). To date, there has been no breach of client-to-client data, which could be due to sufficient security or because there has been no value in this type of breach (Smith, 2009). There have also been variations of performance when running applications on the cloud (Smith, 2009). Cloud computing services have crashed and become unavailable for several hours or days. When this happens, all your services are off-line until the problem is corrected (Smith, 2009). It may appear as if cloud computing has an unlimited amount of computers and storage disks to meet the needs of customers. As cloud computing becomes more popular and widely used the amount of computers and storage disks may become somewhat limited. Relation of cloud computing to a Biblical Ethical Worldview When a business uses cloud computing they are putting their trust into another company with their personal and business information. The cloud computer company must protect the information as if it were their own. Recommendation of Cloud Computing I believe I would use cloud computing if I were starting or operating a small- to mid-size business. To have access to the hardware, software, and storage capacity of the changing and growing computer industry, it is a good alternative to actually purchasing the equipment or software. Projections of Cloud Computing Cloud computing will continue to grow in popularity. As more businesses look for ways to cut cost, cloud computing will eliminate the need to have the storage space, money needed to purchase and upgrade equipment and to have the technical knowledge to handle problems that arise. Conclusion The popularity of mobile devices is growing rapidly in the business world. To be able to have the software needed downloaded on the mobile devices, as needed, will be a huge benefit to businesses. Cloud computing will also help companies that have several different locations throughout the world connect to the same network, using the same software, when needed. Security will always be a concern, whether the data is stored in-house or at an off-site location. Reputable companies are quickly joining the cloud computing business and although there still may be breaches, the more reputable the company, the better the consumer feels about storing their data off-site. Cloud computing will be a huge benefit to businesses as technology continues to change and grow.