Customer Service Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Customer Service - Assignment Example And customers’ demands and expectations are rising every day. Customers always expect something more than that they buy. So organizations took several steps to retrain their old customers and if possible attract new customers. Retaining old customers is a game changer for companies as these customers are loyal to the organization and they keep valuable feedback as per the product and services they buy or get. No matter what an organization providing that can be industrial product or consumer durables but manufacturer have to bundle their product with significant amount of services. Otherwise they will lose to their competitor because customer will shift to the competitor from where they are getting more services. That is the reason now every organizations having effective customer policies. If we visit all most all the shops in central London or anywhere in London we shall find out every shops have a complain and suggestion form and after every purchase no matter what the volu me of purchase is seller will give after sale services like home delivery or call the taxi or free baggage etc. For high value consumer durables seller or manufacturer gives free installation and if the product is big and heavy they will provide home delivery and not only that seller or manufacturer are bound to give free insurance that can be lifetime also for some kinds of goods and quarterly or half yearly free servicing is became mandatory from manufacturers end. These are all customer services policies just to retain existing customer and attract new customers. Theoretical background of management gives several version of key words like Management, organisation. (Cole, G.A. 2004, p.6) P2: Continuous and sustainable scrutiny method for customer relationship management method is necessary to keep these services proper and effective. And for that purpose proper customer training policies are must follow steps. 2002) Service quality gap: In above figure seven gaps of service model is been shown. This model is a part of Parasuraman. As per the above pictorial representation the most important three gaps are Gap1, Gap5 and Gap6; these are very important because they directly deal with the customer and make a bond between the seller and buyer or manufacturer and customer. Gap1: Management perceptions versus customer expectations: If proper market research is not done and miscommunication between two parties are in place or proper data transfer between the managements is not taking place then this situation can arise. There a gap between customer expectations and management perception can arise if in an organization too many vertical management layer in place. Gap2: Services Specifications versus management perception: If organisation goal is not made and model of the works are not standardized then quality of the services will not match with the management perceptions. And management will not be able to fulfil its commitment towards customers. So an uncomfortabl e situation can arise for the organisation. Gap3: Services delivery versus services specifications: If proper team management is not going on and control over employees is lost and their work is not satisfactory then this situation may arise. As a result very poor employee performance and less technological development happen. Then conflict of role in organization regarding jobs arises. Gap4: External communication versus service delivery: If

Impact of low number of minorities working in healthcare industry in Research Paper

Impact of low number of minorities working in healthcare industry in usa - Research Paper Example Eventually, the disparities in the provision of care due to racism and ethnic issues will be tackled in details. Given that the majority of the health care providers are the Native Americans, the impact of language barriers in terms of providing care to minorities who could not speak the English language well will be determined. Given that half the US population would be the minorities, the impact of language barrier between the health care providers and the minorities as patients will be thoroughly analyzed. As of November 16, 2009, the total number of population in the United States is 307,946,634 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). In line with this, the total population of white Americans alone is composed of 65% of the total population. The rest of the minorities includes Hispanic (15%), African Americans (13%), Asian (4%), Two or More Races (2%), American Indian & Alaska Native (1%), and Native Hawaiian & Other Pacific Islander (0%) (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009b). (See Figure I – US Population by Race & The number of minorities working in the health care industry is very limited as compared to the White Americans. Since the minorities are earning less as compared to the White American physicians, Weeks & Wallace (2006) revealed that black male and female family physicians tend to serve more patients as compared with the White Americans male and female counterparts. This is probably due to the fact that the number of African Americans who are practicing as family physicians is less as compared to the population of African Americans they are serving. Although socio-economic and racial issues are among the common factors that has contributed to lower number of available health care professionals in the United States, Sabin, Rivara, & Greenwald (2008) revealed that the classification of health care profession also matters when it comes to racial bias such that pediatricians are less likely to implicit racial

Facts And History About The Peacock English Language Essay

Facts And History About The Peacock English Language Essay Peacocks belong to the pheasant family, Phasianidae. There are three species, or types, of peacock-the blue (or Indian) peacock, the green (or Javanese) peacock, and the Congo peacock. The only peacocks that have trains of tail feathers are the males of the blue and green types. Peacocks usually live in lowland forests. At night they sleep in trees. The blue peacock comes from southern Asia, while the green peacock comes from southeastern Asia. The Congo peacock is found in central Africa. In both the blue and green types, the males body is about 35 to 50 inches (90 to 130 centimeters) long. Its train of metallic green tail feathers is about 60 inches (150 centimeters) long. Each tail feather has a shining spot at the end of the feather that looks like an eye. A crest, or tuft of feathers, tops the males head. The peahen of both these species is green and brown. It is almost as big as the male. Male blue and green peacocks put on a showy display when trying to attract mates. The peacock lifts its train and spreads it like a fan. It then struts about and shakes its train, making the feathers shimmer and rustle. The Congo peacock is mainly blue and green. Its tail is short and rounded. The peahen is reddish and green. Source: Peacock. (2011). In Britannica Junior Encyclopedia. Retrieved January  22, 2011, from Britannica Online for Kids: http://kids.britannica.com/ elementary/ article-9353606/Peacock Green Invaders April 18, 2008 Green invaders are taking over America. Nope, not invaders from space. Plants. You might not think of plants as dangerous, but in this case they are threatening natures delicate food web. The invaders are plants from other countries brought here to make gardens and yards look pretty.   Ever since people started to arrive on Americas shores, theyve carried along trees, flowers, and vegetables from other places. Now there are so many of those plants, they are crowding out the native plants that have lived here since before human settlers arrived. And thats a problem, says Dr. Doug Tallamy. Hes an entomologist (an insect expert) at the University of Delaware. He explains that almost all the plant-eating insects in the United States-90% of them-are specialized. That means they eat only certain plants. Monarch butterfly caterpillars, for example, dine on milkweed. If people cut down milkweed and replace it with another plant, the butterflies will not have the food source that they need to survive. But the trouble doesnt stop there, it goes right across the food web. When insects cant get the right plants to eat and they die off, then the birds dont have enough bugs for their meals. Tallamy points out that almost all migrating birds depend on insects to feed their young. We cannot let the plants and animals around us disappear, says Tallamy. The way to preserve them is to give them food to eat. But when we plant non-native plants, we are clobbering the food web, because then we dont have the insects the birds need to live. Fewer of the right plants mean fewer bugs, and fewer bugs mean fewer birds. And thats bad for the Earth, because we need a variety of living things to keep the planet healthy and beautiful. The good news is, gardeners everywhere are working hard to protect native plants and get rid of the invaders. Many local garden centers sell native plants. Just Google native plants and your location, and you can find out which plants really belong where you live, says Tallamy. Planting the right things makes a real difference, and fast. He describes planting milkweed in a tiny city courtyard about the size of a living room one spring. By summertime, that milkweed patch had produced 50 new monarch butterflies! Tallamy encourages kids to go out and plant native plants. Adopt a bird species in trouble and see if you cant plant some things that will attract the insects they need, he suggests. It will happen-insects move around a lot, and they will find the plants you put out there for them! Text by Catherine Clarke Fox Fox, C. (2008). Green invader. Retrieved January 22, 2011, from national geographic kids: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com /kids /stories/animalsnature/ Chomp! Meat-Eating Plants March 14, 2007 I want people to get passionate about plants, says Lisa Van Cleef about a new exhibit at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers. Everybody gets excited about the zoo and animals, but once you start looking at plants you find they have a lot going on, too! Especially the carnivores, or meat eaters, that use the sneakiest of tricks to trap their insect dinners. Take bladderworts, for example. They appear so small and delicate growing in a quiet pond. But these are the fastest-known killers of the plant kingdom, able to suck in unsuspecting mosquito larvae in 1/50 of a second using a trap door! Once the trap door closes on the victim, digestive enzymes similar to those in the human stomach slowly consume the insect. When dinner is over, the plant ejects the remains and is ready to trap again. Carnivorous plants grow in places with soil that doesnt offer much food value. You and I could take a vitamin pill, says Van Cleef. But these amazing plants have had to evolve over thousands of years, developing insect traps to get their nutritional needs met. Just look at all theyve done in the fight to survive.   The traps can be well-disguised to fool the eye, like pitcher plants, which get their name because they look like beautiful pitchers full of nectar. The Asian pitcher plant, for example, has a brightly colored rim and an enticing half-closed lid. Curious insects are tempted to come close and take a sip, then slide down the slippery slope to their deaths. Hair-like growths along the pitcher walls ensure that nothing can scramble out, and the digestive enzymes can get to work. A tiny insect called a midge might be digested in a few hours, but a fly takes a couple of days. Some of these pitchers are large enough to hold two gallons (7.5 liters). Carnivorous plants only eat people in science fiction movies, but once in a while a small lizard, rodent, or bird will discover that a pitcher plant isnt a good place to get a drink. Other plants have found different ways to grab a bite. Sundewsand butterworts snag snacks with flypaper-like stickiness, while the Venus flytrap snaps shut on its victims. Carnivorous plants grow mostly in wet areas, from sea level to the mountains. They may seem exotic, but if you live in the United States, you dont have to travel to faraway lands to see some. North America has more carnivorous plant genera than any other continent. If you cant travel to the exhibit in San Francisco, check out a carnivorous plant guidebook from your local library, and you may discover some growing in your neck of the woods! Fox, C. (2007). Chomp! meat-eating plants. Retrieved January 22, 2011, from national geographic kids: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/ stories/ animalsnature/meat-eating-plants/ Basic Rule All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation. Authors names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work for up to and including seven authors. If the work has more than seven authors, list the first six authors and then use ellipses after the sixth authors name. After the ellipses, list the last authors name of the work. Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work. If you have more than one article by the same author, single-author references or multiple-author references with the exact same authors in the exact same order are listed in order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest. When referring to any work that is NOT a journal, such as a book, article, or Web page, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word. Capitalize all major words in journal titles. Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals. Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections. Please note: While the APA manual provides many examples of how to cite common types of sources, it does not provide rules on how to cite all types of sources. Therefore, if you have a source that APA does not include, APA suggests that you find the example that is most similar to your source and use that format. For more information, see page 193 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sixth edition. In-Text Citations: Author/Authors Summary: APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, second printing. Contributors:Elizabeth Angeli, Jodi Wagner, Elena Lawrick, Kristen Moore, Michael Anderson, Lars Soderlund, Allen Brizee, Russell Keck Last Edited: 2010-11-16 02:10:54 APA style has a series of important rules on using author names as part of the author-date system. There are additional rules for citing indirect sources, electronic sources, and sources without page numbers. Citing an Author or Authors A Work by Two Authors: Name both authors in the signal phrase or in the parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the word and between the authors names within the text and use the ampersand in the parentheses. Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports (Wegener Petty, 1994) A Work by Three to Five Authors: List all the authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses the first time you cite the source. (Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, Harlow, 1993) In subsequent citations, only use the first authors last name followed by et al. in the signal phrase or in parentheses. (Kernis et al., 1993) In et al., et should not be followed by a period. Six or More Authors: Use the first authors name followed by et al. in the signal phrase or in parentheses. Harris et al. (2001) argued (Harris et al., 2001) Unknown Author: If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are italicized or underlined; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks. A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers (Using APA, 2001). Note: In the rare case the Anonymous is used for the author, treat it as the authors name (Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author. Organization as an Author: If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source. According to the American Psychological Association (2000), If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations. First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000) Second citation: (MADD, 2000) Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses: When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list, separated by a semi-colon. (Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983) Authors With the Same Last Name: To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last names. (E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998) Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year: If you have two sources by the same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the entries in the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text citation. Research by Berndt (1981a) illustrated that Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, and Afterwords: When citing an Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterwords in-text, cite the appropriate author and year as usual. (Funk Kolln, 1992) Personal Communication: For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person communication, cite the communicators name, the fact that it was personal communication, and the date of the communication. Do not include personal communication in the reference list. (E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001). A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2002). Citing Indirect Sources If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the parentheses. Johnson argued that(as cited in Smith, 2003, p. 102). Note:When citing material in parentheses, set off the citation with a comma, as above. Electronic Sources If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date style. Kenneth (2000) explained Unknown Author and Unknown Date: If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation n.d. (for no date). Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with tutoring (Tutoring and APA, n.d.). Sources Without Page Numbers When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to include information that will help readers find the passage being cited. When an electronic document has numbered paragraphs, use the  ¶ symbol, or the abbreviation para. followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001,  ¶ 5) or (Hall, 2001, para. 5). If the paragraphs are not numbered and the document includes headings, provide the appropriate heading and specify the paragraph under that heading. Note that in some electronic sources, like Web pages, people can use the Find function in their browser to locate any passages you cite. According to Smith (1997), (Mind over Matter section, para. 6). Note: Never use the page numbers of Web pages you print out; different computers print Web pages with different pagination.

What are some of the key ideas and messages presented in the novel, Ess

What are some of the key ideas and messages presented in the novel, Fahrenheit 451? Explain your answer with examples and quotations. What are some of the key messages and ideas presented in the novella, Fahrenheit 451? Explain your answer with detailed examples and quotations. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian, science fiction novel, which is written through the perspective of Bradbury’s protagonist, Guy Montag. Fahrenheit 451 was initially published in 1953; however it is set in the twenty fourth century in a conformist society, where literature is illegal. Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury conveys some very important messages and ideas. Among these are; censorship, the influence of technology, individual choice and the role of the individual in society, ruling by fear and totalitarianism, and the evolution of society. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 forces us to envision a world that has been so thoroughly censored that firemen, such as Guy Montag no longer exist to fight fires (for all buildings are fireproof) but rather to start them and take part in censorship. In this world individuality and individual choice are lost. Appropriately named, Guy appeared from the start to be just like any other firefighter. He found it â€Å"a pleasure to burn (p.3)†, and followed the dictations of his leaders. Eventually, however, Montag begins to realize that he lives in a society that takes away the power of an individual to make choices and to make a difference. Montag realizes that without being fully aware of it, that in two minutes he was essentially destroying something that took someone an entire lifetime to create. Censorship is a significant theme in Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury, through Beat... ...he loss of characters freedom to read and to think was not an act that was forced on the people, but rather one embraced by the people, either because they do not find the content of literature appropriate or because technology makes takes the place of literature. The terrifying resemblance that Bradbury’s vision of the twenty fourth century bears to the world today only further extends the possibility that some day our world might become no different from the world which Guy Montag lived in. Bradbury describes this world, â€Å"Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito- out! Every simile that would have a sub-moron’s mouth twitch- gone! Any aside that explained the two- bit philosophy of a first rate writer- lost!....Every image that demanded so much as one instant’s attention- shot dead.(Afterward)†

Alcohol Laws

Three days ago, i attended the burial ceremony of my best friend. Not only do we do everything together, we have become family.Our parents were mates in college so the legacy continued with the children. We went to the same preschool, high school and as we planned it, we went to the same university. Jack did not die of any sickness neither was he murdered – he, like many Americans, lost his life in a highway accident as a result of drunk driving.In this essay, I will be making an exposition into alcohol abuse and the problems that come with it. I will also explain the extent to which this vice has eaten up into our lives as a nation.Furthermore, I will examine the major alcohol laws in America and probing into if these laws have actually helped in curbing the problems associated with alcohol use. I will also be making a comparison of the DUI laws in each state and how this directly or indirectly tells on the extent in which people abuse alcohol in these states. Finally, I will be using Las Vegas as a point of reference for alcohol abuse – the DUI laws that exist in the state, the people’s disposition towards alcohol use and the effect that this lifestyle has on the people of the state.For the purpose of clarity of this essay, it will suffice to make a conceptual definition of the major terms that will be used in this essay. Alcohol abuse can be defined as the act that involves the use of alcohol in an immoderate manner turning into an unhealthy habit. Alcohol abuse is not the intake of alcohol but the intake of alcohol everyday or excessively at a time.Many people confuse alcohol abuse to alcoholism. Alcohol abuse as an act is less severe to alcoholism. Although both of them are alcohol disorders, alcoholism is an extreme form of alcohol intake that leads a person to alcohol dependence – a state where an individual develops unusual cravings for alcohol, uncontrollable consumption of alcohol, physical dependence on alcohol to feel alr ight and tolerance.Alcohol abuse as an act is typified when an individual who is under the influence of alcohol is involved in some life threatening activities like driving and other activities that pose a threat on the life of the individual and people around him/her.The term DUI simply put is an acronym for Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol. In States in America, DUI is an alcohol laws that is set as a way of reducing casualties of highway accidents.This is determined by a test done on the blood of the person accused of the DUI offence. Although every state has a form of DUI laws that seek to keep alcohol consumers in check, the intensity of this law differ from one state to another. While some states have stricter and almost non-tolerant DUI laws, the DUI laws in other states are less strict and tolerant.â€Å"The 2001 survey shows 25 million (one in ten) Americans surveyed reported driving under the influence of alcohol. This report is nearly three million more than the pr evious year. Among young adults age 18 to 25 years, almost 23% drove under the influence of alcohol† (Drugs-rehabs.org, 2002).Alcohol abuse in America is not an individual problem but a national one. In America, alcohol remains the number 1 drug problem we face. According to statistics gotten from a study made in 2000, an average American consumes over 25 gallons of beer, 2 gallons of wine and 1.5 gallons of distilled spirits every year (Drugs-rehabs.org, 2002).Apart from this, it was discovered that The American government spends over $100 million in healthcare on alcohol and alcohol related problems. Perhaps the most appalling of these statistics is the fact that over 15 million people are dependent on alcohol and of these number, 500 000 fall between the ages of 9 and 12.Alcohol has made a nuisance of many families in America. As statistics have it that three out of four of cases of spouse violent victim incidents happened as a result of alcohol use/abuse by the offender. à ‚  Apart from this, it is reported that four in ten criminal offenders blame alcohol as reason for their violent behaviour. The younger generation are not excluded from this madness. In the same report, it is alleged that students in America spend over $5.5 billion on alcohol.This accounts for double of what they spend on beverages books and milk combined.   In addition to this, it was reported in a survey done in 200 that about 7 million persons between the ages of 12 to 20 was an excessive drinker (drug-rehab.org, 2002). With the death toll statistics by alcohol abuse rising each year, we are faced with a problem that we ourselves caused with our very own hands. We have become a prisoner of our own decisions and every day, someone somewhere in America has to pay the price.Alcohol has been woven into the fibres of our lives. Everyday, someone somewhere is being lured into the population of alcohol consumers. â€Å"Each year, a typical young person in the United States is inundat ed with more than 1,000 commercials for beer and wine coolers and several thousand fictional drinking incidents on television† (drug-rehab.org, 2002).  With the society being infused with this unhealthy habit, the family is the first contact of a victim to alcohol usage. According to drug-rehab.org, about 43% of Americans have been exposed to alcoholism in their families while growing up so they grow up consuming alcohol.

Awareness and Adoption of E Banking in Pakistan

Abstract: This study aims to understand customers’ perception towards adoption and awareness of electronic banking in Pakistan. The outcomes would help the policy makers to develop effective strategies for future outlook of electronic banking in a country. The results suggest that banks’ customers in Pakistan perceive electronic banking as a tool for minimizing inconvenience, minimizing risk of carrying cash and time saving. Customers further believe that electronic banking increases chances of government access to public data, increases chances of fraud and data losses. It reduces cost and save our precious time. There are also some limitations of e-banking as it requires skills to operate it and passwords can be hacked. This research paper discussed that people of Pakistan are well aware of electronic banking but they are not satisfied with the services provided by the bank and they also feel risk in that service that’s why they trust more on employees. It contains different demographics and their association with research questions. The results conclude that various customers segments do not differ in opinions towards benefits and risks associated with e-banking. This paper also includes recommendations in which it describes that what strategies the banks should choose to increase the satisfaction of customers Keywords: electronic banking; e-banking; customers’ perception; adoption; Pakistan, e-banking in Pakistan, e-banking, SMS banking, ATM I. INTRODUCTION The developments taking place in information and communication technology are increasing competition in financial institutions worldwide. Development of electronic distribution channels in financial industry has completely transformed the traditional bank–customer relationship in recent years. It has reduced personal contacts between the service providers and the customers (Barnes and Howlett, 1998). The scenario is further changed with increased competition among banks and non-bank financial institutions (Zineldin, 1996). Thus an enhanced understanding of why some people adopt one distributional channel and others do not, alongside an identification of the factors that may influence this decision is vital to investigate (Patricio, 2003). Thus, the deployment of advanced technologies is essential to achieve a competitive edge. In the world of banking, the development of information technology has an enormous effect on development of more flexible payments methods and more-user friendly banking services. Recently, the banking industry was highly affected by the technology evolution that transformed the way banks deliver their services, using technologies such as automated teller machines, phones, the Internet, credit cards, and electronic cash. In line with global trends, electronic banking in Pakistan has been undergoing many changes. Electronic banking is a term for the process by which a customer may perform banking transactions electronically without visiting a brick-and-mortar institution. Electronic banking refers to systems that enable bank customers to access accounts and general information on bank products and services through a personal computer (PC) or other intelligent device. There are many benefits of e-banking as it provides easy way to monitor an account, we can shop, pay bills, buy items at auction, and transfer money from anywhere at any time, it reduces costs, it saves time, and vice versa. Objectives This study focuses on awareness and adoption of electronic banking in Pakistan. Our objectives of this research were to: 1. Check awareness of electronic banking in Pakistan. 2. Check why people are not aware of electronic banking. 3. Know if the people are aware of electronic banking then to how much extent. 4. Check whether banks of Pakistan are providing electronic banking or not. 5. To find the critical attributes that customers expect important while using electronic banking. 6. To find the key variables that affect customers’ evaluations towards risk associated with electronic banking. 7. To understand the relationship between demographic characteristics of customers and their perceptions towards electronic banking. 8. To present results and implications which are insightful to researchers and banks interested in electronic banking. This research is important because it tells bankers that how much people in Pakistan are aware of and adopt the electronic banking and to how much extend. It also tells them to improve their e-banking services in Pakistan. Electronic banking in Pakistan State-owned banks dominated the Pakistani financial market before 1990. The government introduced economic liberalization policies in 1991 when two smaller banks, Muslim Commercial Bank and Allied Bank were privatized. Since then, the government continuously advocated the privatization of existing state-owned enterprises and encouraged the private and foreign banks to setup their businesses in the country. Recent acquisition of locally owned Union Bank by Standard Chartered Bank indicates foreign interest in domestic financial market. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) annual report (2005), there were 35 commercial banks, including 16 private banks (with 797 branches), 11 foreign banks (with 82 branches), 4 privatized banks (with 4,141 branches) and 4 public banks (with 1,543 branches), respectively. Electronic banking is an innovation in the series of technological wonders. Automated teller machine (ATM), telephone banking, internet banking, credit cards and debit cards, etc. have emerged as effective delivery channels for traditional banking products. In Pakistan, foreign banks took a lead by introducing ATM and credit cards in mid-1990s followed by domestic banks in late 1990s. Annual Report of SBP (2003, p. 110) explained this delay in electronic banking largely by regulatory hurdles, higher startup costs, an ongoing banking sectors reforms and lack of technical skills. The government also introduced Electronic Transaction Ordinance in 2002. This ordinance provides legal recognition to digital signatures and documentation. Thus reducing the risks associated with the use of electronic medium of business. At present, almost all commercial banks in Pakistan have setup their ATM networks, issuing debit and credit cards and have joined one of the two operating ATM Switch Networks. According to Kolachi (2006) Pakistani banks provide the following online banking services and products. 1. Enquiry, account statement enquiry, account balance enquiry, check statement enquiry, fixed deposit enquiry 2. Payment, funds transfer, credit card payments, direct payments, utility bills payments 3. Request, checkbook request, stop payment request, demand draft request, new fixed deposit request 4. Download, customer profile, statement download, other information and guidelines downloads. 4 Literature review Consumers’ perceptions towards adoption of electronic banking have attracted many researchers in recent years. Thornton and White (2001) who compared seven distribution electronic channels available for banks in US concluded that customers’ orientation such as convenience, service, technology change, knowledge about computing and availability of internet affected the usage of different channels. According to Hagel and Hewlin (1997) the Internet banking became very attractive to customers and lots of banks because the technology is being accepted by them and they can now understand and have information about the complex products. Nowadays banks are also facing a lot of competition and need a high market share and provide better services to its customers so that they can attract the new customers and old customers do not try to leave them. Howcroft et al. 2002) found that the most important factors that have encouraged consumers to use online banking are lower fees followed by reducing paper work and human error which subsequently minimize the human disputes (Kiang et al. , 2000). Byers and Lederer, (2001 ) concluded that it was changing consumer attitudes rather than bank cost structures that determines the changes in distribution channels; they added that virtual banks can only be profitable when the segment that prefers electronic media is approximately twice the size of th e segment preferring street banks. Decrease in percentage of customers visiting banks with an increase in alternative channels of distribution will also minimize the queues in branches (Thornton and White, 2001). Internet banking increases power of the customers to make price comparison across suppliers quickly and easily, which subsequently pushes the price and margins downwards (Devlin, 1995). Although, electronic banking provides many opportunities for the banks, it is also the case that the current banking services provided through Internet are limited due to security concerns, complexity and technological problems (Sathye, 1999: Mols, 1999). Risks associated to electronic banking Although internet provides many opportunities for banks but it is the case that current banking services through internet are limited due to security concerns, complexity and technological problems (Mols, 1999; Sathye, 1999). Hewer and Howcroft (1999) referred the term trust to measure a risk. While, Suganthi et al. (2001) viewed risk in context of security concerns and risk in context of trust in one’s bank. Finally, a number of studies also found trust and perceived risks have a significant positive influence on ommitment (Bhattacherjee, 2002; Mukherjee and Nath, 2003) and ultimately leads towards overall satisfaction (Rexha et al. , 2003). Reputation of a service provider is another important factor affecting trust. Doney and Cannon (1997) defined reputation as the extent to which customers believe a supplier or service provider is honest and concern about its customers. Tyler and Stanley (1999) argued that banks can build close and lo ng-lasting relationship with customers only if trust, commitment, honesty and cooperation are developed between them. Nancy et al. 2001) study found that customers’ complaint about computer logon time which are usually longer than making a telephone call. Further, the respondents felt that they have to check and recheck the forms filled online, as they are worried about making mistakes. Frequent slow response time and delay of service delivery causes customers to be unsure about the completion of a transaction (Jun and Cai, 2001). Min and Galle (1999) found crashes in operating systems and disruption of information access as common factors related to unwillingness to use internet channels for commerce. Liao and Cheung (2002) found that individual expectations regarding accuracy, security, transaction speed, user friendliness, user involvement and convenience are the most important attributes in the perceived usefulness of internet-based e-retail banking. Confidentiality of consumer data is another important concern in adoption of online banking (Gerrad and Cunningham, 2003). Customers fear about someone’s unlimited access to personal financial information. White and Nteli (2004) focused on why the internet usage has not been increased in UK as compared to internet usage for banking purposes? Results found that the customers still have concerns about the security and safety aspects of the internet. Lack of internet accessibility and a provision of documentary evidence for all transactions are found important hurdles in the development of electronic banking in Thailand (Jaruwachirathanakul and Fink, 2005). Laforet and Li (2005) found that habit of carrying cash, less accessibility of internet and documentary proof of financial transaction as important hurdles in adoption, in case of China. Lack of specific laws to govern internet banking is another important concern for users. It covers issues such as unfair and deceptive trade practice by supplier, unauthorized access by hackers. Larpsiri et al. (2002) argued that it is not clear whether electronic documents and records are acceptable as sufficient evidence of transactions. Another issue is the jurisdiction of the courts and dispute resolution procedures in case of using internet for commercial purpose. Dispute can arise from many issues. For instance, websites is not branch of the bank. It is difficult for the court to define location of branch and decide whether they have jurisdiction (Rotchanakitumnuai and Speece, 2003). Other risks associated to electronic banking are job losses, lack of opportunities to socialize and development of lazy society were mentioned by (Black et al. , 2001). Demographic factors Gender alone is not a significant factor, affecting adoption of technology in general (Gefen and Straub, 1997). However, Kolodinsk et al. (2004) found that married couples are more likely to adopt the new technology than either single males or females. Research has also linked age and adoption of technology, as young people are more likely to adopt technology (Lee et al. , 2002). Maturity in population in terms of knowledge, confidence and comfort in computer usage also increase influence towards online banking (Karjaluoto et al. , 2002). Increase in income and education have found positive effects on adoption (Lockett and Littler, 1997; Sarel and Marmorstein, 2003). Mattilia et al. (2003) indicated that young, educated and wealthy consumers are most likely to adopt internet banking in Finland. Mature customers prefer personal service and a printed receipt of their transactions. Mature customers also perceive internet banking to be more costly than paying bills over the counter. Methodology The study was conducted in Lahore city which is the second largest city of Pakistan and represents almost 20% of all branches network. Branches for survey were selected on convenience basis but after the permission of respective branch managers. Survey covered both residential and commercial areas. In this research data is conducted by using questionnaire as a data collection instrument, in which questions were asked starting from their command on computer and internet usage, following with the awareness of electronic banking and its types, about the benefits of e-banking and then some questions regarding their bank services and the security provide by these banks. The questionnaire includes close-ended questions and they were on liker scale of utilizing a five point categorical. IV. EMPIRICAL RESULTS There is â€Å"table † which shows gender wise association with research questions No. Question| Gender| | Total| P – values| | | | Male| Female| | | | | | | | | | | 1| Aware of electronic banking| 196| 200| 396| 0. 011| | 2| Your bank provides electronic banking facility| 190| 195| 385| 0. 000| | | | | | | | | 3| Aware of SMS banking| 196| 195| 391| 0. 036| | | | | | | | | 4| Aware of INTERNET banking| 189| 198| 387| 0. 010| | | | | | | | | 5| Aware of ATM card usag e| 193| 198| 391| 0. 054| | | | | | | | | 6| Aware of PHONE banking| 193| 199| 392| 0. 272| | | | | | | | | 7| Satisfied with the E-banking services provided by| | | | | | | bank| 192| 198| 390| 0. 08| | | | | | | | | 8| Satisfied with the security of E-banking provide by| | | | | | | bank| 191| 195| 386| 0. 068| | | | | | | | | 9| Want to use e-banking facilities in future| 194| 197| 391| 0. 000| | | | | | | | | Table shows the different questions and their association with gender. First question is about awareness of electronic banking. Total respondents who answered this question were 396 in which 196 were male respondents and 200 were female respondents. Its result shows that awareness of electronic banking is dependent on gender. Next question was answered by 385 total respondents from which the amount of male and female were 190 and 195 respectively. Its results show that providing e-banking services by banks were highly dependent on gender. Third one is about awareness of SMS banking which was answered by 196 male and 195 female respondents. Its result shows that awareness of SMS banking is also dependent on gender. Now the next question is about Internet banking awareness which was answered by 189 male respondents and 198 female respondents and its result shows that awareness of internet banking is dependent on gender. Next question is about awareness of ATM card usage. Total 391 respondents answered that question from which the amount of male and female were 193 and 198 respectively. It results shows that awareness of ATM card usage is not dependent on gender. Now there is a question about Phone banking awareness so total 392 respondents answered that question from which 193 were male and 199 were female and its result shows that phone banking awareness is not dependent on gender. Now the seventh question was asked by respondents about their satisfaction about e-banking services providing by their banks and total 390 answered that question and its result shows that satisfaction about e-banking services providing by banks is depends on gender. Now there is second last question which was answered by 191 male and 195 female respondents and its result shows that satisfaction about security of e- banking providing by banks is not depends on gender. Last question is about the using e-banking service in future and its results are highly dependent on gender. | | Aware of electronic banking| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | strongly| | | | | | | | | disagree| disagree| neutral| agree| strongly agree| Total| | Gender| Male| 13| 28| 46| 64| 45| 196| | | | | | | | | | | | Female| 31| 32| 53| 57| 27| 200| | Total| | 44| 60| 99| 121| 72| 396| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Now there is a table which shows the description of the question, â€Å"Aware of electronic banking †. It shows the amount of respondents from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The highest figures of people are agreed about awareness of e-banking. In male respondents 64 were agree which is 33% of total male respondents. Likewise, in female respondents 57 were agreeing about it which is 29% of total females. | | | High| | | Post| | | | No. | Question| Primary| School| Secondary| Graduate| Graduate| Frequency| P-values| | 1| Aware of electronic banking| 8| 7| 10| 195| 164| 384| 0. 000| | | | | | | | | | | | 2| Use debit or credit cards for| | | | | | | | | | online transactions| 8| 6| 8| 191| 163| 376| 0. 008| | | | | | | | | | | | 3| Aware of ATM card usage| 8| 7| 10| 193| 163| 381| 0. 030| | | | | | | | | | | | | Aware of PHONE banking| 8| 7| 10| 194| 161| 380| 0. 155| | | | | | | | | | | | 5| Feel risk about hacking of| | | | | | | | | | passwords| 8| 7| 10| 192| 161| 378| 0. 555| | | | | | | | | | | | 6| Satisfied with the E-banking| | | | | | | | | | services provide by bank| 8| 7| 9| 191| 163| 378| 0. 269| | | | | | | | | | | | | More trust on the bank| | | | | | | | | 7| employees with communication| | | | | | | | | | tha n E-banking| 8| 7| 10| 191| 163| 379| 0. 680| | 8| Want to use e-banking facilities| | | | | | | | | | in future| 8| 7| 9| 192| 163| 379| 0. 69| | | | | | | | | | | | In this table there is a demographic of education whose relationship with research questions is given in above table. No. | | | | | | | | | Age| | | | | | | | Question| | | Below| 20 -| 30 -| 40 -| 50 -| Above| Frequency| P-values| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 19| 29| 39| | 49| 59| 60| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1| Have full command on computer| | 91| 241| 30| | 16| 10| 3| 391| 0. 034| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2| Involved in banking transactions| | 91| 239| 30| | 14| 14| 3| 391| 0| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Awareness of usefulness of| | | | | | | | | | | | | electronic banking| | | | 91| 238| 30| | 16| 14| 3| 392| 0. 004| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4| Your Banks provides online technical| | | | | | | | | | | | assistance or 24 helpline| | 88| 240| 30| | 16| 14| 3| 391| 0. 002| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 5| Use debit or credit cards for online| | | | | | | | | | | | transactions| | | | 90| 237| 30| | 16| 14| 3| 390| 0| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 6| Aware of INTERNET banking| | 91| 238| 29| | 14| 14| 3| 389| 0. 443| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Aware of PHONE banking| | 91| 240| 30| | 16| 14| 3| 394| 0. 105| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 8| It provides| easy| way| to monitor| a| | | | | | | | | | | | account| | | | | 91| 242| 30| | 16| 14| 3| 396| 0. 019| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 9| Feel risk about hacking of passwords| 91| 239| 30| | 16| 13| 3| 392| 0. 089| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 10| Have easy access to ATM machine| | 88| 240| 30| | 16| 13| 3| 390| 0| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 11| Satisfied| with| the| E-banking| | | | | | | | | | | | services provide by bank| | 90| 240| 30| | 16| 13| 3| 392| 0. 47| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 12| Satisfied| with| the| security| of| | | | | | | | | | | | E-banking provide by bank| | 89| 239| 28| | 16| 13| 3| 388 | 0. 004| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 13| More trust on the bank employees| | | | | | | | | | | | with communication than E-banking| 90| 241| 30| | 16| 13| 3| 393| 0. 036| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Above table shows the relationship of research questions with age. In first question it is asked about command on computer. This question was answered by total 391 respondents from which from which 91 respondents had age less than 19.

Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Banned Essay Example

Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Banned Essay Example Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Banned Essay Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Banned Essay Child beauty pageants should be banned Child beauty pageants should be banned because they cause children, especially little girls, to use artificial means to boost their self esteem. People were not born with makeup, spray tans, big hair, and false teeth. Beauty pageants set false rules on beauty. They make children believe they have to wear make-up, jewelry, wigs, fake nails, and other acessories to be beautiful. Every child is beautiful in their own way. Their beauty is natural and they shouldnt have to have anyones opinion on the way they look. Beauty pageants can also cause serious mental and health issues. They can lead to depression, anorexia, suicide, and many other serious issues. Children might starve themselves to lose which could lead to eating disorders. Beauty pageants can cause depression, and depression may later lead to a suicide Children shouldnt be forced to be in pageants. Mothers try to live their dream through their children. Children shouldnt get their lives taken away from them. They only get one childhood, they dont get it back after its over. Any parent placing their child in these types of pageants, based solely on looks, is giving their child the attitude that appearance can get you anywhere in life. It is wrong to teach children that looks are the most important asset to possess. I am not stating that children shouldnt be encouraged to develop a talent or skill, and compete with that talent or skill, I am stating that competing over looks is sending the wrong message to children.

How to Explore the Great Barrier Reef 4 Best Bases

How to Explore the Great Barrier Reef 4 Best Bases SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Swimming through coral forests, coming face-to-face with a sea turtle, relaxing on powdery white beaches, being surrounded by schools of neon-colored fish: you can do all of these at the Great Barrier Reef, one of the great natural sites of the world. The awe-inspiring reef stretches roughly 1,250 miles from north to south, contains nearly 3,000 individual reefs and hundreds of islands, is home to thousands of species of coral, plants, and animals, and covers an area roughly the size of Italy. With so much to see, where should you base yourself? There are numerous cities and towns along Australia’s northeastern coast that serve as jumping-off points for exploring the Great Barrier Reef, and each offers something different. This guide explains the pros and cons of four of the reef's best bases. For each base, tour prices, marine life, and options for other activities in the area are ranked from 1-3 stars. Tour Prices refer to what you can expect to pay for a reef tour, with three stars indicating the cheapest tours and one star indicating the most expensive (all prices mentioned below are in Australian dollars). Marine Life refers to how much coral and aquatic life you can expect to see under the water and how diverse it'll be. Bases with three stars generally have the most pristine and abundant marine life, while lower rankings indicate some degradation and/or sparseness of marine species. Don't think a low ranking means you'll be swimming through an underwater desert though; you'll see interesting things on any tour. Finally, it's also important to enjoy yourself before and after your reef tours, so Options for Other Activities are also ranked. More stars in this category means you have a wider variety of things to do nearby when you're not on the reef. Below the star rankings, the base itself, what reef tours generally offer and where they go, and options for nearby activities are explained in more detail. Knowing this information will help you choose a base that fits your interests and budget, helping you have the best Great Barrier Reef trip possible. At the end of this guide is additional logistical information to help you plan your trip after you've decided on a base. Cairns Tour Prices: Marine Life: Options for Other Activities: The Base The most popular base for visiting the Great Barrier Reef is the city of Cairns, and, as such, it’s here that you’ll find the widest variety of reef tours and tour operators. Cairns is a lively city that has decades of experience as a top tourist destination. Some visitors will appreciate all the amenities and activities Cairns has to offer, while others might be turned off by the proliferation of backpacker bars, tattoo parlors, and souvenir shops. Cairns is definitely a place that knows how to make the most out of its popularity with tourists. There’s a wide variety of accommodation here, ranging from hostels to exclusive resorts, but most places are moderately-priced hotels. Despite its commercialism, Cairns is still an enjoyable place to visit and offers travelers plenty to do both in and out of the water. The Reef and Reef Tours Cairns is the city closest to the reef, so trips out to the reef here are shorter than those from many other bases. Tours go to a variety of spots, but two of the reefs closest to Cairns are Arlington Reef and Sudbury Reef. Because Cairns is the most popular base for the Great Barrier Reef, many of the reefs around it are heavily visited, and some of the reefs, particularly those closest to the mainland, have suffered significant degradation as a result. There will still be things to see, but the coral may be sparse, and there may not be as much marine life as in other places. However, this depends significantly on which reef or reefs your tour visits. Because Cairns is the main jumping-off point for the Great Barrier Reef, there are tours catering to all budgets, and if you’re willing to spend the money, you can get high-end tour experiences similar to those at other bases in this guide. However, the majority of the Great Barrier Reef tours in Cairns cater to budget travelers and backpackers. This means you’ll find the cheapest reef tours here, starting at about $100. These tours often have larger groups and visit 1-2 reef sites during the day. Additional Activities As one of Australia’s top tourist destinations, there are lots of things to do in Cairns. The Cairns Lagoon, a pool and artificial beach close to the ocean, is a popular spot for all travelers, as are the lush Cairns Botanic Gardens and the Esplanade Boardwalk winding along the edge of the water. For families with children, Cairns has playgrounds, water parks, and nearby Trinity Beach to keep them occupied. You’ll also find bike tours, hiking, whale watching tours, jetskiing, waterfalls, rafting tours, markets and several museums and galleries nearby. Cairns has probably the best nightlife scene on the coast and numerous bars and restaurants that cater to all tastes and budgets. A popular day trip from Cairns is traveling to Kuranda. Visitors can take the spectacular Kuranda Scenic Railway over treetops and past waterfalls to reach Kuranda, a cute village in the rainforest. At Kuranda there are several animal parks, a butterfly sanctuary, hiking trails, shopping opportunities, riverboat tours, and numerous restaurants and ice cream shops. Port Douglas Tour Prices: Marine Life: Options for Other Activities: The Base Another popular base for the Great Barrier Reef, Port Douglas is like Cairn’s richer and more sophisticated cousin. There’s still fun both day and night to be had, but, in general, Port Douglas caters to a somewhat older and wealthier crowd than Cairns does, and it’s a favorite destination for celebrities. As a result, accommodation and dining prices are about 25%-50% higher than what you'll find in other areas. The vibe in Port Douglas is quieter and more relaxed than many other towns along the coast. The town has a few small museums and buildings of interest, an excellent market on Sunday mornings with homemade food and handicrafts, and is home to Wildlife Habitat Port Douglas where visitors can witness an alligator feeding show, view numerous Australian animals, and take a photo cuddling a koala. Four Mile Beach is the major beach in town, and it’ll do the job if you just need a place to splash around, but it’s definitely not one of the standout beaches in the area. The waves are often rough, the water is not very clear, and the sand is somewhat rocky and strewn with seaweed. The Reef and Reef Tours Day tours in Port Douglas tend to be more expensive than those in Cairns, Airlie Beach, and Townsville, but they are often higher-quality, going to the outer reef, visiting several reef sites, and having smaller boats with fewer people on board. Expect to pay over $200 for snorkeling and at least $300 for diving. Prices can be twice these amounts for the highest-end companies. A few of the biggest tour companies basing themselves in Port Douglas are Quicksilver, Wavelength, and Poseidon. Popular reef spots tours visit from Port Douglas include Agincourt Ribbon Reef, Opal Reef, St. Crispin Reef, and Tongue Reef, all located in the outer reef. While there is coral bleaching in this area, the coral is, generally still vibrant and diverse. Swimmers will often find themselves exploring massive coral forests while parrotfish, clownfish, damselfish swim nearby. This part of the reef also has some of the best opportunities for spotting mega fauna like sharks, rays, and sea turtles. Additional Activities While people who like to keep active may not find enough to do within Port Douglas, a short drive from town are some of Queensland’s most popular attractions including the Daintree Rainforest, Cape Tribulation, and Mossman Gorge. These three sites are within Daintree National Park and can all be visited in a day (with a guide or on your own), although many people enjoy the seclusion and nature they offer and choose to stay longer. The Daintree Rainforest is one of the last homes of the massive cassowary, an endangered Australian bird related to the ostrich and emu. There’s a boardwalk through the forest and other walking trails. Cape Tribulation is a remote and attractive beach where Captain Cook once ran aground, while Mossman Gorge is an important Aboriginal site where visitors can explore the rainforest and wade in the Mossman River. There’s a huge amount of biodiversity in this part of Queensland, and spending the day in some of the area’s top natural spots on land can be a good change of pace from all the time you’ve spent in the water. Townsville Tour Prices: Marine Life: Options for Other Activities: The Base Townsville is one of the largest cities in the area, and it’s often considered the unofficial capital of North Queensland. Due to its size and the number of administrative buildings located within it, Townsville lacks a lot of the charm and atmosphere of other towns along the coast, and it can often feel like you're in any generic large city. However, Townsville’s not all business, and visitors to the city can still find hiking trails, animal sanctuaries, and museums to enjoy. These are discussed in more detail in the â€Å"Additional Activities† section. Also, Townsville’s size means it has numerous amenities for travelers, although the city is more focused on local business than catering to tourists. The Reef and Reef Tours While the other bases in this guide are equally suitable for both snorkelers and divers, Townsville is most popular for its Great Barrier Reef diving opportunities. The main reason people do reef tours from here is because of the wreck of the SS Yongala, a large passenger ship which sank off the coast in 19. Today the site, a three-hour boat ride from Townsville, is often described as the best wreck dive site in the world, and it is visited by over 10,000 divers each year. As one of the largest historic shipwrecks, there is a lot to explore here. Large species often frequent the site, including sharks, grouper, sea snakes, and barracuda. Because of potential dangers associated with wreck diving, only experienced divers can visit the Yongala site. However, Townsville has options novice divers and Great Barrier Reef snorkeling as well. Nearby are several reefs, including Lodestone Reef, Wheeler Reef, and Kelso Reef. These areas typically have numerous coral species and good visibility. Be aware that Townsville is farther from the Great Barrier Reef than both Cairns and Port Douglas, so it will take longer to get to the reefs, even those closest to shore. Magnetic Island is another popular place for diving from Townsville. There are day trips available, or you can choose to spend several days on the island. There are multiple dive sites around Magnetic Island, and because its waters are generally calm and shallow, it’s a popular place to take diving classes. Tour prices in Townsville are slightly higher than those in Cairns and about what you’d pay in Port Douglas. Additional Activities When you’re not on the water, Townsville has multiple attractions to fill your time. For those who want to see wildlife, the Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium and the Billabong Sanctuary are two top places to get up-close with animals. Townsville is home to numerous museums, including the Museum of Tropical Queensland, the Army Museum of North Queensland, and the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery. Townsville also has great walking and hiking opportunities, many of which include viewpoints over the town and coast. The Strand, Castle Hill, and Mount Stuart are some of the most popular. Airlie Beach Tour Prices: Marine Life: Options for Other Activities: The Base Little Airlie Beach, with a population of less than 10,00, is the most southerly base listed in this guide, about a seven-hour drive or a one-hour flight from Cairns. Airlie Beach has primarily been a backpackers’ destination with little more than a few hostels and beach bungalows. However, as its fame increases, the town has become home to more upscale cafes, shops, and hotels. Because it is not as heavily visited as Cairns or Port Douglas, Airlie Beach has a more laid-back atmosphere, with many people content to relax on the beach when they’re not touring the reef. The Reef and Reef Tours It’s possible to do traditional day tours to the reef from Airlie Beach, but most people who visit the Great Barrier Reef from here do so on a several day live-aboard tour of the gorgeous Whitsunday Islands. This collection of over 70 islands is covered with powdery sand and palm trees, and it has some of the most pristine coral in the Great Barrier Reef. The reefs surrounding the islands are called fringing reefs, and they are particularly known for their vibrant soft coral species. Turtles and whales are also frequent visitors to the reefs surrounding the islands. The best spots for diving are in the outer islands of the Whitsundays, particularly Hook, Hayman, and Langford islands. During these live-aboard trips, which are often 2-3 days but can be longer, guests will overnight in boat cabins or a room on one of the islands (you can also travel directly to the islands and stay there). During the day, there are typically several dives as well as time for exploring the islands. Some tours also include additional activities like sailing, which is a popular activity in the Whitsundays. Live-aboards also offer the chance for night dives. These dives can give you the chance to see a lot of marine life that isn’t active the day, including many types of sharks and other large fish species. However, be aware that, although you’ll have headlights, some people find swimming in near darkness to be disorienting and unsettling. Live-aboards are generally the most expensive reef tours; expect to pay at least $500 for a two-day trip, with some tours costing significantly more. Additional Activities Beyond reef tours you’ll find a couple other things to do in Airlie, such as helicopter tours, hiking (the town is close to jungly Conway National Park), and a water park, but, in general, Airlie is famous for one thing: the gorgeous beaches, considered some of the best in Australia. In town, manmade Airlie Beach Lagoon is a pretty stretch of sand, dotted with palm trees and grassy spots perfect for picnics or relaxing. On Whitsunday Island, Whitehaven Beach is a standout in a country known for its beaches. Almost all tours to the Whitsunday Islands visit this stunner, with gleaming white sand mingling with swirls of tropical blue water. Additionally, because Airlie Beach is still a popular spot for young backpackers, there’s always something going on in the evenings at the local bars and pubs. When's the Best Time to Visit the Great Barrier Reef? The Great Barrier Reef can be visited any time of the year. However, the weather is best between June and August, when it’s Australia’s winter. During these months the water is clearest and the chance of rain is lowest. Try to avoid Queensland’s rainy season from January to March when visibility is lower, the days can be gloomy, and the chances of cyclones are highest. Stinger season, when large numbers of jellyfish come to the waters around the reef, is typically from November through May. During this time, you’ll often have to wear a stinger suit to protect yourself from jellyfish tentacles. This is not a big deal, though; the stinger suit is a lot like a wetsuit and wearing it won’t be too cumbersome or uncomfortable. It’s also important to keep in mind that, even during the height of stinger season, the chances of getting stung are still low, and your tour operator will have supplies on board to treat any stings. How Do You Get to These Bases? Cairns and Port Douglas are closest to Cairns Airport. The city of Cairns is a short drive away, and Port Douglas can be reached by frequent buses and taxis that make the one-hour drive throughout the day. Townsville is served by Townsville Airport, a few miles from the city. Airlie Beach can be reached by Proserpine Airport or Hamilton Airport. From Proserpine, there are regular bus and taxi connections to Airlie Beach. From Hamilton Airport, which is on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays, it’s a 50-minute ferry ride to Airlie. Because these are both smaller airports, flights can be less frequent and more expensive, so many people opt to drive or take a long-haul bus from Cairns or Brisbane to Airlie. Buses run daily, and the trip takes about hours from Cairns or 20 hours from Brisbane. Driving will likely get you there a few hours sooner because you won't be making as many stops as the buses. Once you get to your base, there are numerous buses and ferries to help you get around the area. Many tour companies offer hotel-pickup and drop-off on the day of your reef tour, although some charge extra for this service. How Can You Choose the Best Great Barrier Reef Tour? The Great Barrier Reef tourism market is saturated with tours, each of them claiming to be the best on the reef. Even after you’ve winnowed down your choice for a base, you’ll still have to choose between a multitude of tour operators. Ask these questions before you book a trip: What’s the Cost of the Tour? What Does That Include? For many Great Barrier Reef tours, you get what you pay for. Higher-priced tours will typically have fewer people and go to more distant parts of the reef, but it’s always smart to compare the cost of different tours with what you’ll be getting. Also make sure to ask what the price includes. Many things, like snorkel or dive gear, should be included, but you may have to pay extra for the Great Barrier Reef Tax ($6.50), extra food and beverages, seasickness pills, and photos from the day. How Many People Will Be on the Tour? How many people will you be sharing the boat and that part of the reef with? Great Barrier Reef tours typically range from 10 to over 100 people, but some especially large operators have a couple hundred people in the water at a time. Having a lot of people in the water with you can make it difficult to swim and scare away the marine life. Which Parts of the Reef Will You Visit? Tourism, development, and climate change have all taken a toll on the Great Barrier Reef, and some parts are in much better shape than others. The outer reef sites (those farthest from the coast) are often healthier, larger, and more vibrant because they see fewer tourists. Some heavily-visited reefs close to shore have suffered serious coral bleaching and death, and, unfortunately, aren’t very interesting to view. Many operators wait until the day of the tour to choose which exact sites they’ll be visiting based on the weather, but you should still be able to find out which reefs the company visits most often and where those reefs are. Additionally, if you’re prone to seasickness, you may want to visit a reef closer to shore to minimize travel time. There are numerous inner reef sites in good condition, so just make sure to do some online research on the health of the reefs after you get this information from the tour operator. How Many Other Tours Will Be There? Some of the higher-end operators have exclusive access to certain parts of the reef, while others share spots with many other tours. Ask how many other tours and people you can expect at the sites that tour will be visiting. How Many Dive Sites Will There Be? Many Great Barrier Reef tours will visit one site on the reef and spend the entire day there, while others will visit two or three sites, or even more if you’re doing an overnight tour. Some parts of the reef are large enough to justify spending an entire day at them, and you may prefer this option if you want to minimize travel time. However, if you want to see diverse parts of the reef, a tour that stops at several different places may be more enjoyable. How Long Will You Spend in the Water? The tour departure and return times may make it seem like you’re out on the water all day, but a lot of your time could be eaten up by traveling to the reef, going over safety information, getting people organized, and breaking for meals. Get specifics on how long you can expect to actually be in the water. 5 Things to Know Before You Visit the Great Barrier Reef While it’s possible to sign up for a reef tour heading out the next day, you’ll have more options and peace of mind if you book several weeks beforehand. The most popular operators can get booked well in advance, especially during Australian school holidays when Great Barrier Reef holidays are extremely popular. If you’re prone to seasickness (or think you might be), take sea sickness pills several hours before you get on the water. You can purchase medication before you leave for Australia, or you can purchase prescription or over-the-counter seasickness pills at any major pharmacy in Queensland. If you’d like pictures from your reef trip, you may want to purchase a disposable underwater camera. These are available at many tourist shops. There are also companies, mostly in Cairns, that rent underwater digital cameras by the day. Renting one costs about twice as much as buying a disposable camera, but they have higher image quality. You can also rent or buy a waterproof case for your own digital camera from many of these shops. If you don’t want to take pictures but still want some memories of what you saw in the reef, many reef companies have an employee taking pictures throughout the day. You can purchase a digital collection of these photos at the end of your trip. Always be aware of where your body is in relation to the reef. This is particularly true when you’re swimming in shallow water because the reef can be within a few inches (or less) of your kicking feet. Hitting the reef not only damages it, it can also be very painful and leave nasty cuts and bruises.

Definition and Examples of Confirmation Bias

Definition and Examples of Confirmation Bias In argumentation, confirmation bias is the tendency to accept evidence that confirms our beliefs and to reject evidence that contradicts them. Also known as  confirmatory bias. When conducting research, people can make an effort to overcome confirmation bias by deliberately seeking evidence that contradicts their own viewpoints. The concepts of perceptual defense bias and the backfire effect are related to confirmation bias. The term confirmation bias  was coined by English cognitive psychologist Peter Cathcart Wason (1924-2003) in the context of an experiment he reported on in 1960. Examples and Observations The confirmation bias is a consequence of the way perception works. Beliefs shape expectations, which in turn shape perceptions, which then shape conclusions. Thus we see what we expect to see and conclude what we expect to conclude. As Henry David Thoreau put it, We hear and apprehend only what we already half know. The truism, Ill believe it when I see it might be better stated Ill see it when I believe it.The potent effect of expectations on perception was demonstrated in the following experiment. When subjects were given a drink that they thought contained alcohol, but in fact did not they experienced reduced social anxiety. However, other subjects who were told they were being given nonalcoholic beverages when they were, in fact, alcoholic did not experience reduced anxiety in social situations. (David R. Aronson, Evidence-Based Technical Analysis. Wiley, 2007) The Limits of Reason Women are bad drivers, Saddam plotted 9/11, Obama was not born in America, and Iraq had weapons of mass destruction: to believe any of these requires suspending some of our critical-thinking faculties and succumbing instead to the kind of irrationality that drives the logically minded crazy. It helps, for instance, to use confirmation bias (seeing and recalling only evidence that supports your beliefs, so you can recount examples of women driving 40 mph in the fast lane). It also helps not to test your beliefs against empirical data (where, exactly, are the WMD, after seven years of U.S. forces crawling all over Iraq?); not to subject beliefs to the plausibility test (faking Obama’s birth certificate would require how widespread a conspiracy?); and to be guided by emotion (the loss of thousands of American lives in Iraq feels more justified if we are avenging 9/11). (Sharon Begley, The Limits of Reason. Newsweek, August 16, 2010) Information Overload In principle, the availability of a great deal of information could protect us from the confirmation bias; we could use information sources to find alternative positions and objections raised against our own. If we did that and thought hard about the results, we would expose ourselves to a valuable dialectical process of objections and replies. The problem is, though, there is too much information to pay attention to all of it. We must select, and we have a strong tendency to select according to what we believe and like to believe. But if we attend only to confirming data, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to have well-reasoned, fair, and accurate beliefs. (Trudy Govier, A Practical Study of Argument, 7th ed. Wadsworth, 2010) The  Backfire Effect and Affective Tipping Points The strongest bias in American politics is not a liberal bias or a conservative bias; it is a confirmation bias, or the urge to believe only things that confirm what you already believe to be true. Not only do we tend to seek out and remember information that reaffirms what we already believe, but there is also a backfire effect, which sees people doubling down on their beliefs after being presented with evidence that contradicts them.So, where do we go from here? Theres no simple answer, but the only way people will start rejecting falsehoods being fed to them is by confronting uncomfortable truths.  Fact-checking is like exposure therapy for partisans, and there is some reason to believe in what researchers call an effective tipping point, where motivated reasoners start to accept hard truths after seeing enough claims debunked over and over. (Emma Roller, Your Facts or Mine? The New York Times, October 25, 2016) Perceptual Defense Bias Like other biases, the confirmation bias also has an opposite which traditionally has been termed perceptual defense bias. This process refers to the automatic discounting of disconfirming stimuli that protect the individual against information, ideas or situations that are threatening to an existing perception or attitude. It is a process that encourages the perception of stimuli in terms of the known and familiar. (John Martin and Martin Fellenz, Organizational Behaviour and Management, 4th ed. South Western Educational Publishing, 2010) Confirmation Bias on Facebook [C]onfirmation bias- the psychological tendency for people to embrace new information as affirming their pre-existing beliefs and to ignore evidence that doesn’t- is seeing itself play out in new ways in the social ecosystem of Facebook. Unlike Twitter- or real life- where interaction with those who disagree with you on political matters is an inevitability, Facebook users can block, mute and unfriend any outlet or person that will not further bolster their current worldview.​Even Facebook itself sees the segmentation of users along political lines on its site- and synchronizes it not only with the posts users see but with the advertisements they’re shown. (Scott Bixby, The End of Trump: How Facebook Deepens Millennials, Confirmation Bias. The Guardian [UK], October 1, 2016) Thoreau on Chains of Observations A man receives only what he is ready to receive, whether physically, or intellectually, or morally, as animals conceive their kinds at certain seasons only. We hear and apprehend only what we already half know. If there is something which does not concern me, which is out of my line, which by experience or by genius my attention is not drawn to, however novel and remarkable it may be, if it is spoken, I hear it not, if it is written, I read it not, or if I read it, it does not detain me. Every man thus tracks himself through life, in all his hearing and reading and observation and traveling. His observations make a chain. The phenomenon or fact that cannot in any wise be linked with the rest which he has observed, he does not observe.(Henry David Thoreau, Journals, January 5, 1860)

Ming Dynasty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ming Dynasty - Essay Example The essay "Ming Dynasty" analyzes the period of the rise of Ming dynasty which controlled China between 1368 and 1644. It was founded by the emperor whose aim was to see the success of dynasty after the fall of the previous empire. Ming dynasty was a prosperous period and respected cultural values. Ming dynasty was a period of cultural revival, expansion, and economic revival. Zhu Yuanzang reign made several changes, which include cutting taxes, and ensuring the government was cooperative. He also reorganized the administration. This period also saw the rise of military prowess. The number of the army improved significantly. During the reign of Emperor Chengzu who was a known sailor he improved foreign relation whenever he landed. His voyage saw an improved relationship with countries far away from China. In the final period of this dynasty saw improved trade activities. The dynasty usually traded in agricultural produce. This saw an improved income hence the economy became stable an d could sustain itself. There was also the revival of agriculture by Emperor Hongwu. This led to a production of surplus agricultural commodities. The excess produce was then sold to areas that he voyaged and this provided income to the dynasty. The progress the dynasty was faced with various challenges such as drought that affected agriculture. This led to various rebellions that saw the fall of the dynasty. This period had potential to improve China greatly. The failures at the end saw the decline of that progress to the level it started.

Prison in the US justice system Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Prison in the US justice system - Research Paper Example The current conditions of prisons will be considered, as well as the presence and implementation of recidivism programs, rehabilitative programs, introductory back into society programs, and steps taken to ensure the safety of the public after a prisoner has been released. When most people think of prisons, cold, rundown jail cells for the purpose of punishing hardened criminals is what usually comes to mind. While punishment is one of the primary reasons that prisons exist, there are two other reasons that often go overlooked: to protect and to rehabilitate. Prisons are used to protect both society and the criminal. Society needs protection against harmful individuals and groups, and the criminal needs protection from those in society wishing to seek revenge for any wrongdoings (for example, the father of a murdered child might feel tempted to go after the murderer). Prisons also help to rehabilitate to prisoners so that they can learn to handle their anger in healthy and beneficial ways, and will also be less likely to commit crimes once they have been released. In recent years, many state and federal prisons have been under fire due to the physical conditions that prisoners are being forced to live. The majority of these issues have stemmed from the two greatest ordeals that prisons are facing, which are overcrowding and underfunding. As early as 1991, prisons throughout the United States have faced a significant increase of inmates, and thus an increase in prison overcrowding (Weschler, 1991). The number of prisoners being released back onto the streets is shrinking while the number of prisoners being brought into prisons is continuing to grow. The demand to maintain prisoners is too great and cannot be kept up with. To make the overcrowding even worse is the underfunding of our state and federal prisons. Due to nationwide budget cuts and our current economic recession, our prisons are among the institutions that are being given the cold shoulder

Case Study Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Case Study Evaluation - Essay Example As per the latest reports presented by the World Travel and Tourism Council, The sector has been demonstrating annual growth of 14% and also comprises of numerous tourism and leisure related projects which are worth more than ?35 billion. It is also important to mention that the tourism sector in Dubai comprises of 22.6% of the annual GDP of the Emirates (Dubai Update, 2008, p.1). The most important and prominent reason for the development of the sector is the location of the Dubai. Dubai is located between two of the major world tourism markets, namely, Asia and Europe. It does not take more than six or seven hours to fly from these regions to Dubai. This is coupled with the fact that is the home base of the Emirates which is one of the best airlines in the world. Accessibility accounts for one of the key factors for travelers and the location of Dubai at the gateway towards the Middle East provides major advantage to the region in terms of attracting visitors in the region. Coupled with sunshine round the year, world class infrastructure, high quality of services and also the best facilities of spas, restaurants, hotels and shops, Dubai accounts for an extremely popular and attractive destination for the ever increasing number of tourists. The place has been extremely effective in attracting tourists from across the globe which also accounts for one of the major reasons for the development of the tourism sector in the region. The increase in the number of tourists visiting the place since 1982 gets revealed through the following figure. Figure 1: International tourist arrivals in Dubai between 1982 and 2004 (Source: Henderson, 2006, p.3) Tourists have gradually gained extensive knowledge about the place and have developed a favorable impression about the place too. This has generated motivation among the tourists to visit the place and stay in a place which offers safety and security. Authorities have also played a major role in developing the safety and secu rity of the place and made huge public investments also. They have also actively implemented pro-tourism policies which have further provided a stimulus for the growth of the place through tourism. As apparent from the figure the rate of tourist visitors have remained substantially high in the region. The huge developmental potential of the place has also driven its tourism growth rapidly. As per the information provided by the WTCC, Middle East accounts for the only region in the world which achieved a growth of 7% in its tours and travel sector. This accounts for a total of approximately ?125 billion. This growth has also been able to generate and sustain 10.3% of employment of the region which corresponds to generation of roughly 5.7 million numbers of jobs (Dubai Update, 2008, p.2). Potential issues involved during the development of tourism Political and economic stabilities are few of the primary issues which could retard the progress of the tourism sector of any nation. Insta bility in the above two aspects might lead to volatility and disturbances which would deter not only tourists from visiting the place

Human prompting behavior research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Human prompting behavior research paper - Essay Example Human behavior is exhibited throughout a person’s lifetime and is impacted with certain traits that people have. Factors that determine human behavior include heredity, social norms, culture, religion, and attitude. Except for heredity, the other factors can altered through effective prompt processes to ensure that people demonstrate the desired behaviors. Human resource training is a critical component of organizational prosperity. Sitzmann and Ely focused their research on the effects of prompting self-regulation on regulatory processes, learning, and attrition. The authors defined prompting self-regulation as asking trainees reflective questions with the aim of stimulating their self-regulatory engagement during the learning process (Sitzmann and Ely 132). Reflective questioning implies taking some information gathered previously and using it in answering the question at hand. Reflective practice enables trainees to pay critical attention to practical values and theories through reflexive examination of human actions. Polaha, Amanda and Rachael argue that reflective practice is the most common tool applied in practice-based professional learning contexts where trainees learn from professional experience (336). Sitzmann and Ely concluded that continuously prompting self-regulation had the greatest effect on learning and attrition (140). This is because trainees applied the principles of reflective practice in their learning processes, leading to increased learning. Prompting behavior, however, did not significantly increase the self-regulatory activity. The subsequent modules were characterized by moderate self-regulatory activity and attrition. Continuously prompted trainees tend to continue with the training even if their performance is low. Thus, prompted trainees continue to apply other strategies to enhance their performance in learning, which helps them to remain engaged

Training and development is said to be beneficial for both firms and Research Paper

Training and development is said to be beneficial for both firms and employees. Why then are some organisations and individuals reluctant to invest in training - Research Paper Example he essay will develop into an analysis of various factors that characterise training and development such as human resources development as well as mentoring and coaching. This section will also attempt to investigate why other organisations and individuals are reluctant to invest in this noble initiative that is beneficial to both parties involved. A conclusion will be drawn at the end on the basis of the main ideas that are going to be raised in the main part of the discussion which is centred on training and development. During the contemporary period, it can be noted that organisations operate in a dynamic environment which is characterised by different changes. In most cases, these changes are necessitated by various factors which include the following: economic, political, social as well as cultural and demographic among others (Schultz et al 2003). In order for the organisation to remain viable as well keep pace with the changes taking place in the environment, it is imperative for them to put measures that the employees are developed and trained to know the changes that may take place in their operations so as to be prepared to face the consequences that may affect their day to day dispensation of duties. Workers’ skills ought to be upgraded to meet the dictates of the constantly changing environment in which they will be operating. It is imperative to provide basic training to the employees so that they are equipped with the required knowledge to undertake the challenging tasks that can arise as a result of change in the operations of the organisation that can be encountered. Basically, employee training is job related learning that is provided by the employers for their employers and the aim is improvement of the employees’ skills, knowledge and attitude so that they can perform their duties according to the set standards (Swanepoel et al 1998). More often than not, successful training begins with the needs assessment to determine which employees

Management assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Management assignment - Essay Example My objective work objective for the future is to work with Saudi Aramco Company and head the marketing department. Being the national producer oil the company is in a very strategic sector considering that oil and gas account for a good proportion of the country’s total GDP. As a marketing manager with the company I will be able to develop and marketing strategies with the aim of growing the company’s profitability while at the same time serving the common good of the public. I will for instance want to see the company give back to the community through CSR, participate in sponsorship of sports and projects that enhance national unity. Also by growing Aramco’s sales I will indirectly touching on the lives of many persons since oil products form the backbone of Saudi’s economy. I think project management is very important and the skills learnt in the module will greatly help me my quest for achieving my wildly important goals. Skills such as working with different teams, diversity and divergent opinions as well as expatiations of budget, time frames and quality have really transformed by outlook. With these skills I believe I should be able to effectively achieve my wild goals and become a very successful global business

Training and development is said to be beneficial for both firms and Research Paper

Training and development is said to be beneficial for both firms and employees. Why then are some organisations and individuals reluctant to invest in training - Research Paper Example he essay will develop into an analysis of various factors that characterise training and development such as human resources development as well as mentoring and coaching. This section will also attempt to investigate why other organisations and individuals are reluctant to invest in this noble initiative that is beneficial to both parties involved. A conclusion will be drawn at the end on the basis of the main ideas that are going to be raised in the main part of the discussion which is centred on training and development. During the contemporary period, it can be noted that organisations operate in a dynamic environment which is characterised by different changes. In most cases, these changes are necessitated by various factors which include the following: economic, political, social as well as cultural and demographic among others (Schultz et al 2003). In order for the organisation to remain viable as well keep pace with the changes taking place in the environment, it is imperative for them to put measures that the employees are developed and trained to know the changes that may take place in their operations so as to be prepared to face the consequences that may affect their day to day dispensation of duties. Workers’ skills ought to be upgraded to meet the dictates of the constantly changing environment in which they will be operating. It is imperative to provide basic training to the employees so that they are equipped with the required knowledge to undertake the challenging tasks that can arise as a result of change in the operations of the organisation that can be encountered. Basically, employee training is job related learning that is provided by the employers for their employers and the aim is improvement of the employees’ skills, knowledge and attitude so that they can perform their duties according to the set standards (Swanepoel et al 1998). More often than not, successful training begins with the needs assessment to determine which employees

Social Studies Sba Outline Essay Example for Free

Social Studies Sba Outline Essay Introduction to CSEC S.B.A. Geographic fieldwork is about the application of geographic concepts and ideas in the investigation of a problem or issue. Instead of gathering information from books, we gather information about the world around from the environment. Geographers first identify an area for research. They ask geographic questions about the issues that have been identified and form hypotheses.. They then conduct a systematic collection of data to test the hypothesis. This is done through the systematic collection of field data through observations, collecting samples, interviews or surveys. The collected information will be analysed and presented in a field report. The Purpose of the School Based Assessment The School Based Assessment (SBA) will help you to understand how geographers build the knowledge that they present to us in textbooks and other publications. In this part of the course you must rely on the information, concepts and understandings that you have collected during your study of Geography. You are expected to design a simple study, collect and present information that is relevant and arrive at a conclusion about your study, using no more than 1500 words in total. Contents of a Geography SBA The Aim (or Aims) of the study ? Methodology Analysis and discussion Location maps Conclusion Bibliography Appendix There is a particular order in which the report must be done for presentation. This is as follows: 1. Title page 2. Strategy sheet 3. Table of contents 4. Location map(s) 5. Aim of the study 6. Method of data collection 7. Presentation of data 8. Conclusion 9. Bibliography 10. Appendix Mark Scheme (1) Table of Contents Details properly sequenced with correct page number 1 MARK (2) Aim of the Study At least ONE aim clearly stated as a direct or implicit question. 2 MARKS Aim is geographical and based on the Syllabus Aim allows collection of primary data. (3) Location of the Study At least two sketch maps: 4 MARKS ONE of the site (showing immediate environs), and ONE (usually of territory) showing its location in relation to other features (for example, roads, rivers, settlements within the parish or region or district); BOTH maps accurately drawn and properly labelled. Between the two maps: (Indication of scale, directional arrow, key or labels, title (1 mark each to maximum 4 marks) (4) Methodology A clear statement on HOW data were collected and an example of the instrument used or a brief outline of how observations were made and tests done. 2 MARKS EITHER A clear statement on HOW the data were collected. 1 MARK OR Little or no mention of HOW the data were collected, but an example of the instrument used is included. 1 MARK (5) Presentation of Data Illustrations: variety, for example, graphs, tables, labelled photographs (at least three illustrations to be used). These should be generated from field observation and tested by candidates and not copied from secondary sources (that is, they should be the candidates’ original work). 4 MARKS Accurate, appropriate, neat, fully labelled, and titled (Excellent presentation) (6) Quality of Data and Illustrations Accurate, appropriate and relevant 4 MARKS (7) Analysis of Data and Discussion of Findings Very well organized, coherent, points well developed, well sequenced and supported by comprehensive data (Excellent) 7 8 MARKS Integration of Illustrations Well integrated discussed and distributed (placed) 2 MARKS (8) Conclusion Is related to the purpose of the study, and provides an appropriate summary and conclusion consistent with the data obtained; may include assessment of methodology. 5 6 MARKS (9) Communication of Information No grammatical errors or flaws (2) and extensive use of appropriate geographical terms (2) 4 MARKS (10) Bibliography Alphabetical order by author with title, publisher, place and date with relevant and up-to-date references 1 MARK (11) Penalty for Exceeding Word Limit (Where the word length exceeds 1650 words, 10% of the candidate’s earned score is deducted.) 4 MARKS Create a free website with

Securing Restful Services With Token Based Authentication Computer Science Essay

Securing Restful Services With Token Based Authentication Computer Science Essay Enterprises are increasingly deploying RESTful services for two reasons 1) to enable Web 2.0 integrations with data stores and backend systems 2) to allow RPC-style communication between client side web frameworks like GWT or YUI and backend systems. In addition, there are multiple frameworks to develop these services that are consumed internally and externally by different endpoints in different contexts. Hence, it is vital to provide simple and adaptable security that both integrates seamlessly with enterprise security and brings authentication, authorization and integrity to the services. This paper covers the pros and cons of various approaches of RESTful services security: 1) Transport level security (TLS/SSL) provides secure peer-to-peer authentication, but this technique is inadequate when requests for authentication are based on delegation (allowing sites to authenticate on behalf of the user). 2) The OAuth protocol enables consumers to access services through an API that doe s not require consumers to disclose their service provider credentials to access services. This is the most commonly followed approach used by Google AuthSub, AOL OpenAuth, and the Amazon AWS API. However, not all REST frameworks provide support to this protocol. 3) Token-based authentication developed for CA Technologies Unified Connector Framework (UCF) to expose services over REST or SOAP combines the advantages of these two without compromising standards and simplicity. Introduction Since RESTful web services are exposed using standard HTTP protocol and methods, they can easily be consumed in multiple ways, such as with direct access from browsers using URLs; through programmatic interface using HTTP client libraries; and from client side frameworks such as JavaScript,. If enterprise systems provide RESTful access to their data and functionality, the open nature of REST requires a strong security solution to prevent access by unintended users; to prevent sniffers on the network from reading messages; and to control the users who are allowed to interact with specific services and disallow certain actions for certain users. The question is what should be the strong security solution? The REST protocol itself does not specify any predefined security methods. Many people believe that HTTP security practices can be successfully applied for securing REST services. This can be true, depending on the scenarios where RESTful services are consumed. HTTP security may be ad equate if the RESTful services are intended for internal use only. One example is web applications using Ajax frameworks. Since they need RPC over HTTP or RESTful services for backend interactions, invocation of services is internal to the UI and transparent to clients who interact with the UI. In such a scenario, HTTP security may be adequate.. However, greater security is required when RESTful services are intended for external use, For example, CA Technologies Catalyst integration platform provides RESTful services that can be consumed by such mechanisms as mashups, ESBs, Ruby scripts, and many more, and requires a higher level of security. Although the security requirements greatly vary for these two scenarios, we need a simple and adaptable solution for both. This article describes the commonly used security methods for RESTful services and suggests a solution that mostly fulfills the security requirements for externally published services, including REST, SOAP over JMS, SOAP o ver HTTP, and other protocols. This approach was developed for and is used in the RESTful services of the Core API of CA Technologies Catalyst integration platform. Commonly available methods for securing RESTful services Container-Managed Authentication and Authorization: As RESTful web services are HTTP-centric, the most natural fit for authentication and authorization is container based authentication and authorization. The concept of realm places a central role in the Tomcat approach. A realm is a collection of resources including web pages and web services, with a designated authentication and authorization facility. The container approach to security also is declarative than programmatic that is details about the security realm are specified in a configuration file rather than in code. The container also provides option to enable wire level security. Refer [1] [2] for information about configuring realms for authentication and authorization and SSL/TLS for wire level security. The advantages of this method need not be specified explicitly here as they are proven and widely used. However, it has the following limitations when applied to RESTful services for enterprise use: With user credentials based authentication, the security solution is confined to identity silos. It does not support the Actas scenario. An Actas scenario involves multi-tiered systems to authenticate and pass information about identities between the tiers without having to pass this information at the application/business logic layer. Mutual Authentication: HTTPS with client certificate enabled performs two-way authentication. In addition to the client receiving a signed digital certificate representing the server, the server can receive a certificate that represents and identifies the client. When a client initially connects to a server, it exchanges its certificate and the server matches it against its internal store. Once this link is established, there is no further need for user authentication. Mutual authentication is perhaps the most secure way to perform authentication on the Web. This approach has the same drawbacks mentioned in the previous section. Another disadvantage of this approach is the managing of the certificates. The server must create a unique certificate for each client that wants to connect to the service. From the browser/human perspective, this can be burdensome, as the user has to do some extra configuration to interact with the server. Shared Key based authentication: This is the common method used by Amazon web services and Microsoft Azure services. In this method initially the client registers with the service provider. As part of registration, the service provider sends the client an Access Key ID and a Secret Access Key. When a client wants to invoke services, it prepares the request, performs a hash on the request using its Secret Access Key, attaches the signature (hash) to the request, and forwards it to the service provider. The service provider verifies the signature is a valid hash of the request and, if authenticated, processes the request ([3] [4]). This achieves requester authentication as well as integrity without SSL The problem with this authentication schemes is that the contents and ordering of the string to sign are different from one service provider to another service provider. For instance, though Amazons and Azures mechanisms are very similar, their differences make them incompatible. Perhaps due to this issue, the OAuth approach covered in the next section is gaining popularity as a standard security mechanism for RESTful services. OAuth Oauth is an open protocol allowing secure API authentication and authorization in a simple and standard method for web applications. OAuth allows users of a service to provide limited access to a third party account of theirs to the service without sharing credentials. OAuth is often described as a valet key that users can give to a service to access their accounts on other services. For example, a user of Flickr (the service provider) would provide Snapfish (the consumer) with read only access to their Flickr account. This lets Snapfish access photos in the users Flickr account so they can order prints. Refer [5] for more details about OAuth specification. OAuth has some distinct advantages: It doesnt require certificates By choosing the right token format, it can support claims based Token. A claim is a statement about a subject; for example, a name, key, group, permission, or capability made by one subject about itself or another subject. Claims are given one or more values and then packaged in security tokens that are distributed by the issuer. It supports the SAML token. SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is a standard for exchanging authorization and authentication data between between an identity provider and a service provider regardless of their platforms or security systems. OAuth with SAML enables federated authentication and authorization. The only drawback is that not all RESTful services frameworks provide native support for dealing with OAuth based authentication. For example, Apache CXF does not support OAuth. Token based Authentication CA Technologies Catalyst4 integration platform includes the Unified Connector Framework (UCF) that provides a Java-based solution for connectivity and integration among CA and third-party products UCF has distinct security requirements: It should be able to support Actas scenarios; the platform should be able to invoke services from 3rd party providers on the behalf of clients Catalyst exposes services in several different protocols, including RESTful, SOAP over HTTP, SOAP over JMS, etc. Its security solution should work consistently in all the forms of the services. Its security solution should be extensible, simple and adaptable in different scenarios. To accommodate these requirements, UCF introduced the token based security solution using public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificate for authentication and authorization of its services. This solution has the following components:. Domain Trust Certificate (DTC) is an X.509 v3 certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) or self signed owned by the DomainManager that controls the UCF domain. Trusted Certificate (TC) is a X.509 v3 certificate signed by DTC. A Node is either a service provider or service consumer who owns that TC signed by the DTC. Security Service is available per container2 which hosts several connectors1. This service issues a Token, validates the Token and sets claims retrieved from Token to the context so that they can be used by connectors or other entities in the container for Authorization or Actas scenarios. CertAuthService is an independent entity provides services like signing Certificate Signing Request CSR 5 and providing the DTC public key Token consists of set of claims signed by security service. Interactions on the Client side: The client generates a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) using keytool 6 and obtains a X.509 certificate signed by DTC from the CertAuthService. The signed CSR is called a Trusted Certificate (TC) in UCF domain. The client makes an addTrust() request to the Security Service at the service provider by passing its public key certificate. This step enables the Security Service to validate the certificate and add provided certificate to its trust store. Steps 1 2 are performed only once per client. The client makes a getToken() call with tokenRequest to the Security Service. The tokenRequest consists of claims and a signature computed using the clients private key. If client is using UCF API to make remote calls, then steps 1 2 are transparent to the client at the time of proxy creation to the service endpoint. The client prepares the request and adds the Token to the request header. If client is using the UCF API to make remote calls, then adding the Token to the request header is transparent to the client. The client makes a remote call Interactions on the Service side: The Security Service is hosted from a Catalyst container so that it is available to both external users and inside the container for security token validations. For addTrust() calls, the Security service validates the provided certificates signature to find whether it is signed by DTC or not. If it is DTC signed then the Service adds the certificate to its trust store. For getToken() calls, the Security service checks the signature against the available keys in its trust store. If it succeeds then a token is prepared and returned to the client. The token consists of claims, lifetime and the signature of the Security service. For all incoming calls to the services available in the Catalyst container, calls are intercepted at CXF handlers and the token is verified with Security service. If it is from a valid client then claims are extracted out of the token and sets to thread local context so that it may be used by connector implementation for further authorization or authentication with other service providers. Finally, the call is forwarded to the service. If the Security service is unable to validate the token, an unauthorized exception is returned to the client. Authorization is handled by any provider on service using claims. As described above, this solution supports authentication based on X.509 certificate and authorization is done by any provider using claims. The same set of claims is used for Actas scenario. For instance, services running in Catalyst container can use claims to talk to another services or endpoint on the behalf client. Conclusion The solution described in Section 3 is a better fit for platforms/products like Catalyst that need to make services available in more than one form such as REST, SOAP over HTTP and SOAP over JMS. It is a security solution that works consistently in all forms of services. Also, the solution is extensible to other modes of authentication like user credentials other than certificate based. This solution needs additional work to replace custom Token format to SAML based so that tokens can be consumed in third party software which understands SAML. This. Acknowledgments The solution described in Section 3 was contributed by entire UCF team which includes Sijelmassi, Rachid, me, GVN, Anila Kumar and Koganti, Naga. . Actas