Information Security Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Information Security - Assignment Example Conversely, network security refers to any activity that is designed to protect an organizations network. This specifically includes activities protecting usability, integrity, reliability the safety of the network and data. Communication security systems are found to relate to information security in a health care organization in that they aid in protecting the leakage of confidential information pertaining to a healthcare organization’s patients. Network security relates to information security in a healthcare organization as it helps prevent the information contained in a healthcare organization’s network from threats such as spyware and adware, hacker attacks as well as viruses, worms and Trojan horses (Kim and Michael, 96). On networks such as Facebook that require that each account be associated with only one person, a number of approaches can be used to uniquely identify individuals and the necessary data access for this to happen. These validation approaches can either be human assisted or online approaches. In a network such as Facebook a number of approaches can be used including the use of passwords and biometric authentification (Kim and Michael, 147). When choosing passwords users often select things that they will easily remember, this includes options such as the date of birth or age. It may be possible for hackers to easily obtain this information and use it to access the system. On the other hand, the issue of false acceptance on secure biometric system is relatively small. People often create long and complex passwords in a bid to try and maximize security. When entering these passwords, it becomes relatively easy for them to make typing errors causing rejection. On the other hand, biometric systems rarely experience these kinds of errors. The notion of bring your own device has in recent times become a hot topic across the entire

Early Human Evolution Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Early Human Evolution - Research Paper Example This particular species is the longest lived and most recognizable of all human ancestors, they lived between, approximately, 3.85 and 2.94 million years ago In fact, the species may have lived for nearly 900,000 years, which makes them a prominent species for 4 times longer than modern man has existed (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History). Australopithecus afarensis was only a 1/3 the size in comparison to modern human’s today. It has characteristics of both human and ape ancestry. They possessed flat noses, thick, protruding lower jaws, a small brain, long curved fingers, and long legs that had adapted to upright walking. By studying their dentition we can learn about the kinds of foods they were adapted to eat and what foods they may have actually been eating. Researchers are confident that Australopithecus afarensis survived on a primarily plant-based diet, consisting mostly of leaves, seeds, roots, and nuts, however they might occasionally consume insects and small vertebrates like lizards. (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History). Australopithecus afarensis represented a unique bridge between the times when human ancestors began to walk upright. They had the ability to both walk bipedally, but also the ability to efficient climb and maneuver in the trees (Choi 1). In 1974 the first nearly intact sk eleton of Australopithecus afarensis was discovered. The female fossils, found in the Hadar region of Ethiopia, were given the name Lucy and she became the quintessential example of human evolution, inspiring a book, â€Å"Lucy: The Origins of Mankind† that introduced the ideas of human evolution to the mass public. (Hirst). Other famous finds have included the â€Å"Dikika,† or child skeleton and the Laetoli find, which included fossils, but, also, the first bipedal footprints ever found. Like human beings today, our most ancient ancestors were highly adaptable to their environments, so

Epidemiology Of Cholera John Snow Health Essay

Epidemiology Of Cholera John Snow Health Essay It has been over a century and a half when John Snow undertook the study of the Cholera epidemic of 1854 in London. His work, which was published in the 1855 book On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, is considered a milestone in epidemiology. The observations by Snow of the water-born transmission of cholera and the handle of the Broad Street pump was a work of genius that continues to inspire epidemiologists. Appearing before the local body of government on September 7, 1854, John Snow argued that the source of the outbreak of a cholera epidemic was water from a communal water pump. His investigation identified the pump at Broad Street near its intersection with Cambridge Street as the source of contaminated water. Cholera which is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, causes significant morbidity and mortality in many developing countries. This paper examines the cholera epidemics (and pandemics) in recent history i ncluding the outbreak of 1854 in London and the role played by John Snow which had laid the foundations for the modern principles of epidemiology. Introduction It has been over a century and a half when John Snow undertook the study of the Cholera epidemic of 1854 in London. His work, which was published in the 1855 book, On the Mode of Communication of Cholera is considered a milestone in epidemiology. The observation by Snow of the water-born transmission of cholera, and the handle of the Broad Street pump was a work of genius that continues to inspire epidemiologists. Appearing before the local body of government on September 7, 1854, John Snow, an anesthetist in London, argued that the source of the outbreak of a cholera epidemic was water from a communal water pump. Working with the data reproduced in table 1 (Bingham et al., 2004), Snow identified the pump at Broad Street near its intersection with Cambridge Street as the source of contaminated water. What followed is best told in his own words: I had an interview with the Board of Guardians of St. Jamess parish on the evening of Thursday, 7th September, and represented the above circ umstances to them. In consequence of what I said, the handle of the pump was removed on the following day (Snow, 1855). Each year, outbreaks of cholera to cause death estimated at 120,000 worldwide, with the vast majority occurring in children (WHO, 1995). Epidemiology of cholera is characterized by several key principles including (i) Cases tend to be concentrated in specific location and occur during a specific season (ii) the highest infection rates in children of 1-5 years in areas where infection is endemic (iii) antibiotic resistance patterns often change from year to year, (iv) pathogen strain often exhibit clonal diversity, and (v) prevention measures against the disease include sanitation, hygiene and immunity improvement. Cholera has been ranked as one of the emerging and reemerging infections (Satcher, 1995) facing many developing countries. Several recent events highlight the importance of epidemiological disease include the 1991recurrence of cholera in Latin America (Levine, 1991) ( Ries et al., 1992); the 1994 outbreak of cholera which took place in a Rwandan refugee camp in Goma, Zaire, which resulted in approximately 70,000 cases and 12,000 deaths in (Siddique, 1995), and the outbreak of V. cholerae O139 in the India subcontinent from 1992 to 1993, possibly marked the start of the eighth cholera pandemic (Ramamurthy et al., 1993)(Swerdlow et al., 1993). Pathogenesis and transmission of Cholera Vibrio Cholerae are comma-shaped, gram-negative bacteria that have been the cause of several great long-lasting epidemics and pandemics of diarrheal disease. Many of these pandemics began in the Ganges Valley of India and Bangladesh, which is never free from cholera. Although there are 140 serotypes of V. cholera, until recently only 1 stereotype was associated with several diarrhea. Beginning in 1992, a new V.cholerae stereotype (0139, also known as Bengal) has been associated with sever, watery diarrhea (Faruque et al., 1998) The vibrios never invade the epithelium but instead remain within the lumen and secrete an enterotoxin, which is encoded by a virulence phage. Flagellar proteins involved in motility and attachment are necessary for efficient bacterial colonization, as has been described for Campylobacter. The vibrio hemagglutinin, which is a metalloprotease, is important for detachment of Vibrio from epithelial cells. The secretory diarrhea characteristic of the disease is caused by release of cholera toxin. Cholera toxin is composed of five binding peptides B and a catalytic peptide A (McKenzie et al., 1984). The B peptide, serving as a landing pad, bind to carbohydrates on GM1 ganglioside on the surface of epithelial cells of the small intestine, enabling calveolar-mediated endosomal entry of toxin subunit A into the cell (Laloi et al. 1996). Reverse transport of the subunit A from endosome into the cell cytoplasm is followed by cleavage of the disulfide bond linking the two fragments of peptide A (A1 and A2). Catalytic peptide A1 is generated, leading to the following sequence (Dertzbaugh et al., 1993): A1 interacts with 20-kD cytosolic proteins called ADP-ribosylation factors (ARF). The ARF-A1 complex catalyzes ADP-ribosylation of a 49-kD G-protein (called GsÃŽÂ ±) (Randazzo et al., 2000). Binding of NAD and GTP generates an activated GsÃŽÂ ±, which in turn binds to and stimulates adenylate cyclase. ADP-ribosylated GsÃŽÂ ± is permanently in an active GTP-bound state, resulting in persistent activation of adenylate cyclase. The activated adenylate cyclase generates high levels of intracellular cAMP from ATP. Cyclic AMP stimulates secretion of chlorides and bicarbonate, with associated sodium and water secretion. Chloride and sodium reabsorption is also inhibited. The reabsorptive function of the colon is overwhelmed, and liters of dilute rice water diarrhea containing flecks of mucus-up to 14 L/day, equivalent to the circulating blood volume, causing dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. Because overall absorption in the gut remains intact, oral formula can replace the massive sodium, chloride, bicarbonate, and fluid losses and reduce the mortality rare from 50% to less than 1% (Sharma et al., 1997) Epidemiology of Cholera Early Pandemics Since the beginning of the first pandemic in 1817, seven cholera pandemics have occurred (Pollitzer,1959), excluding the seventh pandemic, which took place on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in (65), pandemics occurred in the Indian subcontinent in the Ganges delta and spread to other countries over many years (Snow, 1855). In 1830, the epidemiological and public health approaches to cholera developed in the context of some understanding of the nature of certain infectious diseases, including smallpox and syphilis, with little agreed differentiation of the fevers. In his late 18th century doctrine, Benjamin Rush describes there was but one fever in the world (Shryock, 1936) had received broad support. Exciting factor in the cholera epidemic was sometimes considered as shaping existing fevers into its own image, and the arrival of cholera coincided with an increase in mortality and/or transferred deaths between categories was questioned. The second cholera pandemic of the early 1830s invaded the British Isles, and was marked by epidemiological observations made by John Snow on the waterborne cholera transmission in London between 1847 and 1854(Snow, 1855). Ships carrying Irish immigrants caused the second pandemic in Canada (Marian, 1957). During the third pandemic (1852-1859), cholera was raging in the United States, and during the 1870s at the end of the fourth pandemic, towns and villages along the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi, rivers experienced cholera (Billings et al., 1975). The fifth pandemic mainly affected South America; causing large epidemics in several countries with Argentina, Chile, and Peru suffering high casualties. (Gil et al. 2004). Robert Koch isolated the cholera bacterium, known as comma bacilli during the fifth pandemic in feces of patients in Egypt in 1883 and India in 1884(Koch, 1884). Between 1899 and 1923, the sixth pandemic involved populations expanded in the Balkan Peninsula and the Middle East (Pollitzer, 1959). Apart from a large epidemic in Egypt in 1947 (Shousha, 1947), cholera was confined to southern and Southeast Asia since the mid-1920s until the 1961 outbreak of the seventh pandemic in. Both the sixth pandemic and possibly the fifth pandemic were caused by V. cholerae of classical biotype. The Seventh Pandemic The seventh pandemic is considered the largest of the pandemic in the geographical distribution, and was caused by V. cholerae O1- biotype El Tor (Table 2). The 1961 pandemic first invaded the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia and spread to other islands, including Borneo, Sarawak Java, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Sabah. It affected the entire archipelago of South Asia at the end of 1962 (Kamal, 1974). , In Asian mainland, from 1963-1969, the pandemic affected Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Burma, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Cholera reached Pakistan shortly after El Tor, and outbreaks were reported in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and in the neighboring republics of the Soviet Union (Kamal 1974). By 1970, El Tor cholera had reached the Arabian Peninsula, Syria and Jordan, and to a lesser degree, in Israel (Cohen et al., 1971). The seventh pandemic was in sub-Saharan West Africa in early 1970, causing explosive epidemics as a result of more than 400 000 cases of high mortality, attributed mainly a lack of background immunity of the population, and lack of healthcare infrastructures (Goodgame et al., 1975). During this epidemic, cholera invaded the coast and the interior through waterways and continued to spread to the interior of the Sahel countries by land to travel to nomadic tribes. During the 1970 cholera epidemic, 28 were newly affected were reported and 16 are in Africa (Kaper et al., 1995). In South America, the seventh pandemic which began in Peru in January 1991 caused a return of cholera to the continent after more than a century in an explosive epidemic (Levine, 1991) (Ries et al., 1992). Subsequently, neighboring Ecuador and Colombia also reported cholera epidemic. In each of these countries were people of low socio-economic status, lack of clean water and sanitation, the most affected (Pan American Health Organization, 1991). In April 1991 a small outbreak was reported in Santiago, the capital of Chile (Levine, 1991). Cholera then invaded more countries in South and Central America along the Pacific coast. The Pan American Health Organization estimated that during 1991 and 1992 there were 750,000 cases of cholera and 6,500 deaths in the Americas (Pan American Health Organization, 1991). Recently, the July 1994 outbreak in Goma, Zaire, (Siddique, 1995), is considered one of the worst outbreaks in recent history. Nearly a million people were displaced to Zaire and sheltered in refugee camps as a result of Conflicts between tribes in neighboring Rwanda. Outbreak of cholera in refugee camps affected by poverty caused an estimated 12,000 deaths among Rwandan refugees during a period of three weeks (Siddique, 1995). The seventh pandemic was active causing seasonal outbreaks in several developing countries. However, in 1992, V. cholerae belonging to serogroup non-O1 (now known as O139) caused massive epidemics of cholera in Bangladesh and India and spread to other countries, which could represent the beginning of the eighth pandemic Conclusion John Snow achievement was based on the logical organization of his remarks. He recognized a natural experiment, and its quantitative approach to the analysis of the occurrence of disease in human populations, which is actually a summary of the views of modern epidemiology. It has been over a century and a half since Dr. Snow had published his findings. And in spite the medical and epidemiological advancement in combating the disease, yet, the threat of cholera remains very real and cholera continues to be a global threat to public health and an important indicator of the lack of social development, especially in developing countries which suffer from lack of access to drinking water and lack of sanitation. The disease continues to challenge the increasing proportion of vulnerable populations living in unsanitary conditions, such as slums and refugee camps. The treatment centers and water purification units in poor nations are only interim measures, and steady decline in the spread of the illness should not be seen as a complete victory.

Cloning Essay -- essays research papers fc

Cloning For many years, the cloning of adults, animals or humans has been mostly the object of science fiction, something unforeseen by man. However, â€Å"The world was shocked in February of 1997 when British scientist, named Ian Wilmot announced that his research team successfully cloned lamb named dolly from an adult sheep at the Roselyn Institute in Scotland†.(1) For what seemed like a dream for many years quickly turned into reality. The newest and possibly the most controversial phenomena in curing human disease, a phenomenon better known as cloning, was born. Through out the history of man, human disease has been considered a leading cause of death. Since antiquity, physicians explored assorted remedies in order to cure various maladies. Ancient physicians made enormous contributions to modern medicine. Even though, immaculate progress has been made in modern medicine, there are numerous cases of fatal diseases, for which modern medicine has no cure. Granted today’s technological advancements, general practitioners are still using several of the ancient techniques and ideas in order to make progress in today’s research and development. Scientists observe historical data and ideas in order to help generate new ones. A well known belief to man, the belief of reincarnation came from the ancient Egyptians who believed that there was life after death and preserved the body of their rulers through a process of mummification. This is a process of preservation that kept the original body and shape of the ruler for his/her return to earth. Although, this may seem a bit anomalous to the western man, contemporary technology brings this the idea of reincarnation or recreation to life, creating new ways to fight disease. Modern science takes the idea of human life and it’s regeneration and brings it to life through the process of cloning. In 1938 a German scientist Hans Spemann proposes a "fantastical experiment" to transfer one cell's nucleus into an egg without a nucleus, the basic method that would eventually be used in cloning. Fourteen years later in 1952 Briggs and King clone tadpoles. Another scientist John Gurdon clones frogs from differentiated cells in 1962. In 1969 Shapiero and Beckwith isolate the first gene. By 1973 Cohen and Boyer create first recombinant DNA organisms. 1978, the release of David Rorvik's book, In His Image: The Cloning of a... ...reproductivecloning.net/hosting/waite/#1: 5) CNN.COM February 28, 2002 Posted: 6:24 AM EST (1124 GMT) ACCES DATE APRIL 18 202 C:Documents and SettingsRafaelMy DocumentsCNN_com -Superman star hails cloning move - February 28, 2002.htm 6) http://www.bioexchange.com/news/news_page.cfm?id=11426 Outline Topic/Thesis: The newest and possibly the most controversial phenomena in curing human disease, a phenomenon better known as cloning, was born. 1) Origin of human cloning a) Reincarnation b) From 1938-dolly c) Feb. 1997 Ian Wilmont announces the birth Dolly 2) Pros/cons + Treating disease + Benefit economy + Feed the needy - Violates animal rights - Took 277 attempts to clone Dolly - Expensive 3) Three types of cloning a) Embryo cloning b) Adult DNA cloning c) Therapeutic cloning 4) Recent development a) January 2001-An endangered Asian ox called a gaur dies two days after birth of an ordinary disease after it was cloned and gestated in the womb of a cow.

Human Rights Act 1998 Essay

â€Å"The HRA 1998 provides powerful protection for individuals in many aspects of their lives.† * To what extent is this statement true? Illustrate your answer by reference to areas of law with which you are familiar. Before 1998, the United Kingdom did not have a piece of document that specified the basic rights of the English people. However, in the year 1950, the United Kingdom Government signed the European Convention on Human Rights, to protect people’s rights from abuses seen under Hitler’s rule, following the Universal Declaration on Human Rights made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. Even so, the European Convention on Human Rights had not ratified and incorporated itself into law until 1998 when Parliament enacted the Human Rights Act. The Human Rights Act 1998 states that when judges are deciding cases in which a question about a Convention right has been brought forward, the court must take into account any judgment, decision, declaration or advisory opinion of the European Court of Human Rights. This means that instead of a conflicting decision by the United Kingdom court, the court must follow decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. An example of this was seen in the case of Re Medicaments (No 2), Director General of Fair Trading v Proprietary Association of Great Britain (2001). The Court of Appeal had refused to follow the decision of the Supreme Court in the earlier case of R v Gough on grounds that it was slightly different to decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. Some Convention rights involve the right to life and liberty. Article 2 of the Convention states that the law shall protect everyone’s right to life. It also recognizes that Member States have the right to impose the death penalty to those convicted of particular crimes. Article 3, on the other hand, states that no one shall be tortured or suffer inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. Moreover, Article 4 declares that slavery is not allowed. Other examples include Article 5, which sets out that everyone has the right to liberty and that no one shall be deprived of it, except where the law allows arrest. In its subsection, the article provides that ‘everyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be speedily decided by a court’. The Convention rights that cover a person’s right to a fair trial are Article 6 and Article 7. The former states that people have the right to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time, for both civil and criminal cases. A case that conflicted this Article was the Sander v United Kingdom (2000) case whereby the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a defendant had not a fair trial because a juror was making racist remarks. Article 7, however, states that no one shall be found guilty of a criminal offence if his act was not a crime at the time it was committed. This means that the law may be changed to make acts of the type prohibited criminal offences in future. Nevertheless, it cannot look back to acts that have already been committed and declare them criminal offences. On rights to privacy, Article 8 states that every person has a right to respect his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. Articles 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14, alternatively, provide rights to other freedoms. For example, Article 9 states that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Article 10 states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression in the form of words. Article 11 states that people have the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom to associate with others. Article 12 states that everyone has the right to marry, whereas Article 14 states that all rights and freedom should exist without any discrimination on any ground. The archetypes would be sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, national minority, property, birth or status. However, despite the fact that courts have to read legislation and give it effect in a way which is synchronized with the rights in the European Convention of Human Rights, the Human Rights Act 1998 recognizes that some legislation may be worded in a way that makes it impossible to give effect to the Convention. In such a case, the court has to apply the legislation as it stands but may make a declaration of its incompatibility with the Convention. This was the case in H v Mental Health Review Tribunal (2001) in which it concerned the fact that the burden of proof was on a patient applying for release instead of being on State to justify the continuing the detention of a patient. It was a breach of Article 5 because it involved the liberty of a person. However, the domestic law was incompatible with the Convention. Therefore, the court could not give it effect. It could only declare its incompatibility. Usually, after a declaration of incompatibility is done, the Government will change the law. However, it is unnecessary for the Government to do so. In actuality, if Parliament wishes, it can pass new legislation which conflicts the Convention. This is done by replacing the incompatible Act with a new Act of Parliament. If only a small part is incompatible, a remedial order may be done. This order acts as a statutory instrument, which amends the incompatible provision in order to comply with Convention rights. Such an example would be in the case of A and another v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2004) The Supreme Court had declared that the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was incompatible with the Convention. The Act allowed foreign nationals to be detained without trial indefinitely, where there was suspicion of their involvement in terrorist activity. The Court held that this breached both Article 5, which states the right to liberty, and Article 14, which states that there should be no discrimination on basis of nationality. This forced the Government to change the law and release the detained foreigners, however on strict conditions. The reality of this is that while the Human Rights Act 1998 does indeed protect individuals, its power is fickle and can be overridden at any time. For example, for the Bill of Rights to be entrenched, a requirement of 75% or three quarters majority is needed. However, in the case of the Human Rights Act 1998, only a simple majority of 51 votes is required for the law to be amended or abolished.

Causes of homelessness Essay

This essay will focus on two causes of homelessness, financial problems and family issues and illustrate some effects. In the first place, one of the main reasons that people become homeless is financial problems. As a result their physical condition will be very vulnerable. The personal bankruptcy causes their house to be repossessed, forcing them leave home and sleep anywhere they can find. No permanent house to live, no shelter, no bed, leaving them with a poor and unpredictable life. It will be a great danger especially in winter when many homeless people can sometimes freeze to death. Another thing that can affect homeless people’s health is lack of food. Their financial problems mean that they only have little money to live on. They do not even have enough money to buy basic food, not to mention high quality nutritious food. Only the cheapest food can be afforded which usually has very low nutrition and is bad quality. According to the scientific research we know long term insufficient intake of nutritious food can cause people to have a low immune system which makes them vulnerable to disease and that can lead them to another serious problem which is they do not have enough money to see doctor. Due to the financial problem they have to ignore the disease no matter how badly they are suffering. This kind behavior can cause many serious consequences because without medical care even a disease like a cold can be deadly. Although financial difficulty is a common reason for homelessness and has a serious influence on their physical health, family issues, like divorce or domestic violence, is also a significant factor that can lead to homelessness, especially among adolescents. Because teenagers have not developed maturity, in this period they need their parents’ company and guidance to develop psychological health like self-esteem, but homelessness forces them to go out into society when their m ental state is still very fragile. Since human beings have evolved into intelligent and emotional beings, self-esteem has always played a very important role in sustaining people’s mental health. Because homeless people’s living condition is very poor, they always look sloppy and that causes other people to be unwilling to talk to them. As a result the homeless people feel alienated by other people and feel no one cares about them anymore. At first they may become very angry, then they fell frustrated, and finally they quit on themselves and cannot feel their value to this society hence they start to see themselves as a burden to the  society. In this process their self-esteem becomes lower and lower and finally they may suffer severe mental damage.