Distribution Process of a Retailer Essay

A retailer may have an attractive store, well trained staff and even a distinctive brand reputation in the market. However, these factors don’t count for anything if products are not on the shelf when the customer is shopping. For that reason, ensuring products are available for the customer at all times is a very important process for retailers. The distribution process increases the need to improve quality service, ensures a shorter order cycle time and takes into consideration any environmental factors. The main function of the supply chain is to provide products and services required by end consumers. The supply chain extends from raw materials in some way through May process to reach to the final consumer; each link in the chain processes the material in some way or supports this by processing. It can also include the disposals of any associated waste. An efficient and responsive supply chain will be will be able to improve stock availability, improve choices, offer up to date products and reduce stock levels and mark down. But in the overall terms, costs will depreciate whilst sales and profits increase. UK and other countries within Europe have well developed road and rail infrastructures offering highly efficient and costs effective methods of transport, so road and rail are two of the most popular modes of transport used to move goods these transport could be by van or Lorries. One of the road working infrastructure as an example could be the By rail. The freight rail network is highly developed in the UK. It is very important that companies should think about the entire journey that the products and service take to ensure it efficient enough for the goods to arrive in time correctly. Transportation of goods, once in mainland Europe, could take some time and involve transhipment to a variety of different rail operators. It is better to ship large quantities of goods in one single shipment in order to be cost effective. Another different type of distributing and moving goods in the UK and mainland Europe is By road. It is the most popular method of transporting goods. By road is a good transport method because there are easier links and quicker access to find your current location on where the goods are supposed to be delivered and where you are trying to go. Thought must be given into the type of goods being transported. e. g. road transportation may not be quite suitable for consumable goods. By observation and assessment of the road UK and mainland Europe should determine whether the infrastructure is of high enough standard to verify that the products arrive on time and in excellent condition on time without any delays. By air transport is a quick option and allows retailers to hold smaller stock levels. The costs however for the majority of products are likely to be a sky high price and this means transport might be the best for emergency stock or in covering deadlines. There are various problems which may occur during the deliverance of goods to the location you are trying to reach for example delays at airports. Another way of transportation could be by water, By Water means goods being packaged in a ship and then sent to the UK and mainland Europe within 2 to 5 working days. When consumers purchase products online the goods are sometimes delivered by direct marketing e. g. transports by van, Lorries and etc. This way of transport is good if people wait for the product. A different way of transporting goods within UK and mainland Europe is by container. There is a good level of security which results in low insurance costs. Containers however are usually much expensive when producing and returning empty containers increases and raises the expenses. Special equipment is needed in order to handle the containers and this is a limitation to the number of transfer points. There are benefits for sourcing in The UK. These benefits include shorter lead times, shorter transit times, ability to monitor the total production processes more easily and lastly lower costs in terms of management time and communications. A retail store may think about accepting higher prices in exchange for the lower risk and costs associated with sourcing from the UK or a geographically close country. Costs will be greater when sourcing form distant or less developed country. However, some companies adopt a policy of sourcing form several different countries. These types of shops have a large and also successful private limited company. It is crucial that retailers have suppliers to deliver their products and services for the business. Retailers depending on the products they sell may need one, two or even several suppliers. Suppliers are often divided into four main categories these are retailers a majority of them purchase through company salespeople or independent representatives and also handle products from a variety of different companies who are manufacturers. Prices for these sources can be quite low although this will depend on a retailer’s location as an added cost of shipping freight might be incurred. Another category is Independent craftspeople they are likely to offer exclusive distribution of unique products and are usually offered by independent crafts people, sales representatives or through trade shows. A third category of suppliers are called the import sources, domestic importers operate in a similar way to a domestic wholesaler. A few retailers if familiar with the country will travel abroad to purchase products. Distributors, also known as wholesalers, brokers or jobbers, normally represent an international producer in one of their important overseas markets. The distributor purchases in quantity from a variety of different manufacturers and warehouses the products for sale to retailers. Commonly distributors will be distributed in the market which they have distribution rights, have the financial strength to carry sufficient stock levels, be ready to purchase in large amounts to minimise the expense of international transport, either be entirely or partly involved in promotion and any after sales service requirements of the product, be responsible for the business transactions in their market for the exporter’s products, accept the risks that are associated with trading in a particular market. The logistics process refers to the management of resources within the supply chain to ensure the right product is available, in the right quantity at the right time. There is a possibility of many costs involved in the transportation of goods and selecting the most reliable and accessible is important. Consideration must also be given to transit times, capability, security and to one of the most important elements cost. The supply chain is increasingly influenced by the use of ICT. Many of the developments are designed to raise the responsiveness of the supply chain to customer needs. Companies need to use ICT and information sharing techniques in order to focus on the reduction of responsive time, streamline logistic functions across the supply chain in order to reduce costs and improve efficiency, develop supply chain relationships, enhance customer services for a competitive advantage and also attain international standards and access to global markets. Distribution of eRail Products and Services – Fulfillment is the process of receiving, packaging and shipping orders for products. Any of eRetailer selling goods directly to customers through the e – commerce must deal with fulfillment. For eRetailer it is crucial to fulfill orders as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. There are two key methods used by eRetailer store picking and dedicating warehouse. Generally store picking involves using low levels of technology to assemble orders by picking up the good of the supermarket shelves. Retailers like supermarkets are for example Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s, Asdas, Somerfield these methods are used by Tesco’s direct and Sainsbury’s order online. The advantages and disadvantages of using the methods are there is a shorter delivery distances because stores cover a small, local catchment area, easy access to the target location by using transport modes (road) can reach your destination on time. And the disadvantages of using method includes for example this happen very often out of stock products, high picking costs meaning expensive products which some consumers are unable to pay or cannot afford that particular item and store customer disruption. These would be the advantages and disadvantages that may conclude of using this method.

Understanding AIDS and the Concept of Collective Effort (AIDS: A Bird’s Eye View)

Over the years, AIDS has been one of the most prevalent health problems worldwide. Various efforts by different organizations is being undertaken in order to arrest the disease’s continuous spread. However, given the complex nature of AIDS the whole world is left with more serious problems, which if not given proper attention and care may aggravate further the safety of the people.For the purpose of this paper, the author aims to discuss the nature of AIDS as a disease. Likewise, it is also the objective of the author to illustrate how the disease understudy can become a serious threat to an individual’s health as well as discuss how the occurrence of AIDS can be prevented if not minimized.What is AIDS?According to various lexicons, AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a health problem caused by a virus commonly known as HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus (NIAD, 2005). AIDS is actually considered a result of severe HIV infection. Hence, ot her references regard AIDS as the advance stage of HIV infection (NIAD, 2005).How does an individual acquire AIDS?AIDS and or HIV infection may be acquired by an individual in a number ways. Below are some examples of how AIDS or HIV is transmitted from one individual to another:1.    Blood Transfusion – during those years when techniques to easily detect HIV in the blood of a donor is not yet known, the recipient of the blood donor easily acquires HIV infection due to the transfer of infected blood.2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Contaminated needles, syringes, etc.- the use or sharing of medical instruments such as needles and syringes that have been used to extract blood   from an individual with HIV infection also contributes to the spread of the disease.3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Sexual Intercourse – engaging in unprotected sex can also cause an individual to acquire HIV infection or AIDS. HIV penetrates the lining the vagina, vulva, penis, rectum, or the mouth.4.  Ã‚  Ã ‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Breast Feeding- Mothers who has the infection can easily transmit the virus to its new born my means of breast feeding.Once HIV enters the body of an individual, it directly attacks the immune system of the human body. The AIDS- causing virus, once it enters the human body, disguises itself as an antibody- producing cell.It continues to attack the immune system until such time that the body can no longer produce an antibody to counter the disguised cells. This is made possible by the failure of the immune system to distinguish an antibody from the virus.Thus causing an HIV infected person to progressively weaken. Some of the symptoms exhibited by a person with HIV infections and or AIDS are as follows (Lecture Notes in Health Science IV):a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Feverb.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Headachec.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lack of energyd.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Enlarged lymph nodese.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Weight Lossf.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Short-term memory LossAdd ressing AIDS is a Collective EffortTaking into account the nature of HIV and the numerous ways it can be acquired by an individual, it cannot be gainsaid that the only way to prevent if not minimize the occurrence of AIDS-related cases is by means of refraining oneself from engaging in risky activities such as unprotected sex and by always observing proper personal hygiene.Addressing the spread of AIDS is actually a collective effort. It is necessary and imperative for each and every individual to become extra careful with things so as not to further aggravate the continuous spread of AIDS especially that there is no vaccine available in the market yet to readily curtail the spread of this pandemic disease.ReferencesJASMS-PWU. Lecture Notes in Health Science IV (1993).National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. HIV Infection and AIDS. Retrieved February 19, 2007 from the NIAID Website: http://niaid.nih.gov.

Western Art History class (AHIS 1) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Western Art History class (AHIS 1) - Essay Example Visual representation of an artistic work normally has numerous depictions and implication, which words may fail to relay or transmit. The Statuettes exemplified in Fig. 1 above and similar related three-dimensional works archeologists contend that they emanated from the excavating ,Eshnunna’s floor table3. Mainly, these statuettes their attires encompassed those of the priests’ and priestesses used approximately 2700 BCE. The statuettes clasped hands symbolize constant mood of prayer and complete embracing of their obligations to behold holy statutes besides being the mediators of the lay people4. According to the people’s notion by then, the statuettes were votive figurines. This implied that the faithful would leave the images in the temple as a form, worship, or prayer where in some incidents; the people attributed them to answered prayers. The keen observance of the statuettes’ faces bearing wide stares signifies vigilance regarding their prayerful obligations. The faithful besides leaving the statuettes in the temple, the human priests or priestesses, aroused amid them the utter as surance of receiving what they had inquired from the gods. This was during Mesopotamian period whose characteristics encompassed Warrior art besides narration in stone relief. Fig. 2 comprises of two artistic dimensional panels commonly referred as â€Å"war† and â€Å"peace† respectively, depicting the earliest Sumerian’s power5. War art panel depicts soldiers on donkey- drawn chariots at warfront besides utter termination of captive soldiers using axes.   The rest paraded before the king naked to face their death via spearing. Conversely, the peace panel comprises of numerous animals and fish besides other merchandises and gifts in a procession heading to a banquet6. The attire of the seated figures comprise of fringed skirts and fleece; implying they are top bureaucrats in the empire after the war and numerous such events that

MD4 Assgmnt 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MD4 Assgmnt 2 - Essay Example Our monthly meeting used to be sheer waste of time. He would never come equipped with necessary information or knowledge regarding the issues that were to be discussed. He would also often digress from the main agenda and go on talking to the white board, which were never actually required. His evasive tactics showed his poor capabilities and each of us would be looking at the clock to strike 5 so that we could all leave. The two cases of public speakers have been good examples from whom I have taken good tips. As a good public speaker, one should come equipped with knowledge as well as understanding of the audience. This way one not only earns respect of the people but is also able to inform the audience about the concerned topic. The eye contact with people is important because it inculcates personal bonding and trust. The occasional witty remarks and use of humor greatly strengthens the connection with the

Nursing Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nursing - Article Example The article maintains that the health industry has critical lapses in its implementation of modern technology in its leadership structures. In addition, the author acknowledges the static nature of work environment and the need to restructure leadership policies. Thus, the article compliments health management literature. My Analysis The modern business environment is characterized by scarcity of resources and, hence the need for effective management. Application of technological innovations has been identified as a significant aspect of management in the modern business environment. Although the health sector deals with the inherent problem of people’s health, it requires effective management. This indicates the existence of a legitimate research problem for analysis. The author utilizes both qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore the extent of the problem. In particular, the researcher utilizes quantitative techniques to measure the level of application of information technology in the health sector. This enables him to make a precise comparison of the health industry with other industries of equivalent interests. To complete his analysis, the researcher utilizes qualitative research techniques to establish factors that have contributed to lack of application of information technology in the health industry. ... To enhance credibility of his argument, the author cites primary articles from refereed journals and government publications. The paper concludes its analysis with recommendation that calls for speedy implementation of information technology in the health industry. Areas of first priority include prescription and patient’s progress records. Application I consider the article relevant to the current teaching and nursing practice. It is interesting to note that the health sector lags behind other industries in its application of information technology, despite its significance to the society. This signifies the need to have conclusive restructure of the entire system beginning with training programs for nurses. I consider the problem as a twofold problem due to patient’s contribution. The conservative nature of patients and other beneficiaries of public health services have contributed to the delayed implementation of information system in the health industry. Thus, the p ublic needs relevant training as a prerequisite for the implementation. In addition, there is need to create user-friendly systems that can be utilized by different categories of users. Integration of the newly developed systems into the current work environment should also involve all stakeholders. I consider the issue critical for the sustainability of the health sector and I recommend speedy reforms. Professional Organization â€Å"Factors Affecting Nurses' Decisions to Join and Maintain Membership in Professional Associations† Summary Professional organizations are effective tools in maintain professionalism and social welfare among workers. Although nurses comprise majority of health workers in a given country, most of have not discovered the values of joining

Research, Theory and Practice Cycle Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Research, Theory and Practice Cycle - Assignment Example The relationship between research theory, and practice should be well understood because research without theory gives discreet information or data with no value to the discipline. The relationships are direct and positive which enables the experts to put the facts together providing tangible information. The transformation of nursing practice is possible by the incorporation of theory into the practice showing the evident excellent nursing care that the researcher should provide the patients (Tailor & Ranpenning, 2011). Since all the elements of nursing theory and practice are related. It is justified that entry can be done at any point because one element leads to the other and the cycle rotates. Nursing can be perceived both as a discipline and as a profession. Understandably, both the two entities are inherent since they can be applied correspondingly. It is noteworthy that nursing discipline requires a qualified and well-trained expertise to carry out because all the practical elements of research, theory, and practice are applicable to the daily health

Business Letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Business Letter - Essay Example Dear Lauren, First, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you into the company. I have heard a number of your great accomplishment working as a chief financial officer and director of accounting for different firms. I am excited and looking forward to meeting you in the meeting scheduled for Monday, October 14 even though it will be a busy day for me. Tech-shield is a wonderful company, and the great success has always been a result of dedicated employees and teamwork and I believe that your expertise will propel the company too much greater success heights. Your supervision will be beneficial to my colleagues and I, following the success stories I have heard about you. Although the company has been doing well, some important issues are affecting the employees and may even affect the company at large. Some of the challenges the employees are facing include working for long hours and working over the weekends. There are serious consequences for working long hours and may have a negative impact on the company. I am looking forward to discussing this matter with you in the meeting scheduled for Monday. I believe we will find a way forward for the problem. I would also like to bring to your attention a presentation we discussed earlier this year with the former supervisor. The company had suffered a big loss. The team came up with a number of suggestions for the way forward, which included ways of lowering the expenses. Installation of auto sensors for the lights was a suggestion made to help cut electricity bills.

Proposal Preparation and Ethical Issue Research Paper

Proposal Preparation and Ethical Issue - Research Paper Example It is critical to use the Standard Form 33, provided with this RFP, as this is the format used by the DDC in solicitation. No further ethical concerns seem relevant to the completion of this particular form. II. List of Costs/Prices associated with requested Supplies/Services This response component requires a firm/fixed price (FFP) regarding the relevant contractual line items, with considerations made for additional or follow-on requirements relevant to each section as provided in the provided form, especially as regards the Base Period of one year and the Optional Period of three years. Section B of the form provides instructions for completion of the FFP relevant to each cost/price center for the line items, as commented upon below. Line items are as follows: 1. Sixty Day Start-up 2. Stock Transfer 3. Phase-In, Distribution Operation 4. Phase-In, Contractor Furnished Equipment for Distribution 5. Facilities (with Option for Office Space) 6. Mobilization 7. Preventative Maintenanc e 8. Material Support/Other Direct Costs (presented as cost reimbursement/no fees) 9. Phase-Out (optional) 10. Reporting Requirements and Exhibits. The ethical considerations for completion of this component include an accurate representation of the contractor pricing considerations, especially as regards subcontracts, fringe and other indirect costs, and profit. All pricing considerations should be done in accordance with general government procurement allowances and should accurately reflect contractor requirements and government specifications, except where and unless noted specifically by amendment concerns attached to the bid proposal. III. Specifications and Work Performance Statement This section of the proposal response should indicate that the contractor has read accurately the provided work specifications and performance statements relevant to this RFP and should indicate acceptance of the said requirement unless otherwise noted. The contractor has a required ethical oblig ation to comply with both the stated work specifications and scheduled delivery expectations, and the reporting requirements presented in an acceptable format as determined by the owner/agency. In the case of this specific RFP, one possible concern that must be addressed within the response is the acceptance of the Quality/Performance Evaluation system listed on page 14/87 of the RFP. Contractor has an obligation to meet these requirements throughout the award period, stated as from award date through one year (unless optional three year period is negotiated). IV. Schedule/Delivery of Performance This proposal component requires a full response to both the required and optional periods relevant to the performance of work. The RFP provides for a required base response and an optional three year response that may be exercised if agreed upon. Contractor must state compliance capability with regard to both approaches. The ethical considerations that the contractor holds with regard to t his section include a willingness and capacity to comply with stated fixed prices throughout the awarded period, whether the base period or optional period are exercised. V. Contract Administration

PostQuick Computing project Essay Example for Free

PostQuick Computing project Essay I designed my project on visual basics 6. 0, and the benefit I found in Visual Basics as compared to other software was that Visual Basics is user friendly. Anyone can use it by clicking certain buttons, and on the other hand other software packages such as Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel require a bit of knowledge before using them. To make my own project using visual basics, I first designed my form on the paper, which gave me a rough idea about how my project form would look like. This is also attached with my documentation. I designed my project by prototyping, and made my form using these things   A set of screen that shows the user what might be possible   A system with limited functionality An existing system that might be modified For my human-computer interface (HCI), I used graphical user Interface (GUI) which is used in Microsoft windows . My form had certain buttons which could be used by clicking the mouse and some text boxes in which data was entered using keyboard. I think that the advantage of this type of interface is this that It is easy to use   In my form no one needs special instruction The disadvantage of GUI is   It uses a lot of processing power   It requires good graphical display   It uses a lot of processing power   It uses a lot of memory and disk space 3. Method of Data Entry, including Validation As said before that my form had certain buttons and these buttons could be used by clicking the mouse and some text boxes in which data was entered using keyboard. I declared each data type with certain specific data type, and checked that if I entered wrong data type then it would not work. The method of data entry is also shown in implementation. The program contains three forms. The main form, which is named input form, is the start-up form. This is the data entry form for all the data, which is entered for a particular assignment. The method of entering data is as follows. Consignment No: These are self-generated. Numbers, its enabled property is false. User has no control on entering its data. Customer Name destination and client address will be entered in respective columns. Afterwards the information of the first parcel of the consignment will be filled (i. e. the whole form will be filled). If there are more then one parcel required to be entered for the same consignment then add new parcel button is pressed for the parcel, and after each parcel entry of the consignment data entry complete button will be pressed For a separate consignmentnew consignment button is required to be pressed. It was part of validation of the project that, the minimum weight of the parcel should not be less then 1 kg. If it does then the message box would appear saying that too less weight in the parcel. Second validation was that the weight of the parcels should not exceed 30 kg, if it does then the message box would appear saying, too much weight of the parcel The third Validation was that the maximum dimension of the parcel i. e. (length + breadth + height) must not exceed 3 m, if it does then the message box would appear saying too big Parcel to send. The fourth validation was that the maximum weight of consignment must not exceed 200 kg, if it does then the message box would appear saying too much weight of the consignment 4. Record structure, file organisation and processing:- The file for the database of the consignments for the Parcel Company is saved as a record structure and saved only for the consignments for one day. It includes the data and information required for the parcels in consignments. It is a record file so it cannot be changed, but the database is changed everyday because each day different consignments are sent to the Parcel Company. The database is linked with Visual basics form, and the file of database is stored as a Microsoft access file. For the backup the file is saved in the floppy so if the actual program in the processor is altered, we can bring back the old one. There are four files that I used for my project one was the form file, named as input parcel, and two forms were for the price list, the Access file linked to database, named as, payslip database which has two databases linked to each other. The actual processing carried out by the program is arithmetic operation, in other words calculation is being carried out, but the bigger companies can use CLOCK SYSTEM, which would be more economical for them. 5. Security and integration of Data Security is the most important thing, because if your data is not secured properly from unauthorised hands then anyone could change your data and could change your project; I therefore kept the project under a password So no one could change or alter my project. If someone did change my database then I could use my backup to restore it from the floppy in which Ive kept the backup file so if the actual program in the processor is altered, we can bring back the old one. I also protected my data, by using the menu button in the visual basics. If you go to the text box, u click on it and then click text box protect enable force and in this way I can protect my text. I also made sure that when data is entered it is entered accurately and I checked that when I was entering data, no one enters anything. 6. System design:- For documenting my project I used System flow charts-It describes the flow of data around the system. This method uses rectangle to denote some process that takes place, as descriptive symbols to describe the storage or input/output of data. An arrow describes the direction of flow of the data.   Structure diagrams-These are a mean of showing the design of a program or a systemic consists of charts showing the system or programs broken down into number of levels. * Hierarchy charts-these can be used to show menu hierarchy or a directory hierarchy Data model:- A data model represents the relationship between different parts of a database. It consists of entities (data items) and relationship. The entities are shown as rectangles and the relationship are drawn as lines that connect entities. System Flow Chart (describing the flow of data around the system) Parcelquick Company Aqsa Bano Raja 12 s Postquick Structure Diagram The hierarchy Hierarchy diagram 7. Implementation The project that I have made for PostQuick Company can be implemented either as a whole or in parts. The problem maybe that an organisation cannot change instantly to a new method of working as existing records will have to be entered into computer and this may take some time. There are two main approaches to this   Implement the system department by department   Dual run the new system alongside the old system The two databases below are linked to Visual basics6. 0 forms 8. Testing Length,width,height,weight Test Results Right/wrong.

History Is About the Past Essay Example for Free

History Is About the Past Essay History is the analysis of and interpretation of the human past that enables us to study continuity and change over time and space. Education on the other hand is about the present and concerned with improving the present individuals by appropriate studies. This relative difference between history and education raises the problem of whether history should have a place as curriculum discipline in modern Malawi. History entails a research, a narrative or an account that is commonly related to person, institution or place. The society of Malawi has people, institution as well as places that are historical and therefore to forgo the study of these things will bar the citizens to appreciate the social, cultural, political and economic events or changes happening in the country as well as the changes that have occurred. It has to be noted that change and continuity has been of human experience in every society including Malawi. History, as a curriculum discipline in modern Malawi is relevant if Malawi is to understand its role in Africa and the world at large in dealing with global realities such as limate change, gender relations, Pandemics among others. To begin with, history inclusion in the modern Malawi curriculum as a subject is also justifiable because it vital for good citizenship. Good citizenship is a common justification of placing history in a school curriculum. Other disciplines such as engineering, medicine and agriculture can really provide immediate solution to our daily problems their purpose cannot be an end in itself. There is need for a good citizen who will not avoid tax nor engage in corruption among others to ensure that every citizen benefits from the services. This is why history has to be taught so that people can learn good citizenship skills. History for instance accounts for why certain civilisations collapsed and why others triumphed. From this, students can deduce good traits of how citizen should act in order to develop his or her country. History provides information about the national institutions, problems and values. It is the storehouse of how nations have interacted with other nations. It provides comparative perspective essential for responsible citizens in a country. History would give Malawi essential habits of mind important for r public behaviour such as the importance of citizen participation in public activities, such as a community leader, an informed voter, and a well-informed petitioner. The second justification of history as a curriculum discipline in modern Malawi is that history will help Malawi as a country to recognise change and how our society must be channelled to meet the nation’s needs. For example, it is only when we notice that there is a change in the economic level of the people that we can stop subsidising some public services such as oil, water, education and farming tools. Likewise the changes that have occurred due to the scourge of HIV and AIDS pandemic has necessitated the abolition of some traditional practices Fisi,Kupimbira and Chokolo that increase the vulnerability of contracting the deadly disease. History can provide a historical analysis on why there is resistance from people as well as how people will be affected structurally if they alter their social institutions. History is able to trace things that have changed in a particular society including those that have resisted change and come up with the causes. This is because history is not just about some fixed or objective facts, as it perceived by many. Rather history is an interpretive discipline that forms the basis of confronting nearly every problem in the society. It promotes a wider understanding of both local and global affairs For instance, the problem of voter apathy during elections. While other social science may only present a description of the problem as regards the causes and inherent effects to the electoral results, history is able to come with a historical analysis as to when did the problem state since it can detect change. It can also figure out on whether the causes are the same factors over the years or are new reasons for voter apathy. The argument is that modern analysis of the problem is vital but a historical is clearly fundamental since it provides attention to complex processes of social change. History is also relevant to modern Malawi because it contributes to moral understanding. History challenges people to engage in moral contemplation. Through the study of ancient heroes and heroines such as Rose Chi ambo, James Sangala, John Chilembwe and Nightingale coupled with the situations in which they worked, students of history come to test their moral sense. History records individuals who for example sacrifice all they had to serve the destitute and this sets a good example to people who tend to emulate their moral sense. Some legendaries show people who were very patriot to their countries. These people portray great moral quality such as diligence, courage, constructive protests, active citizenship, heroism, self-sacrifice and devotion to duty and responsibility. This good morality tends to include the virtues of tolerance and empathy. The study of history lets students recognize the difference between what is good and what is evil. History instils in students the ability to understand and accommodate diverse views there by fleeing from bias and prejudice. The call to respect beliefs and practise of others is important in every society including Malawi to avoid conflicts such as civil wars. History as a curriculum discipline in modern Malawi is relevant in the sense that it helps citizens to understand people and societies. It is through the study of history that Malawi has come to understand the values and norms of different tribes that constitute the Malawi nation. If it were not for history, it would be hard to live harmoniously in Malawi. It is through learning of history that the people have come to find their identities as well as their values. History harbours all information about how the people have behaved, what values they have held in highest esteem and their norms over space and time. Among others, the knowledge of history has proven relevant when it comes to conflicts in boundaries both at village level and at national level. For instance, the current boarder dispute between Malawi and Tanzania calls for the stake holders who are handling such cases are to refer to history about the partition of Africa by the Europeans among others. In this case, it can be argued that history is relevant to Malawi as a curriculum discipline to e taught in schools. A number of other disciplines from social science may try to analyse the patter and operations of people’s values and structures but it may be hard. For example, sociology and anthropology will explain current behaviour using historical data. These disciplines at the end are tied to history as the source of their experiments. History in other words becomes their laboratory. For example to evaluate the values and beliefs of a Malawi, you need to appreciate the past experiences. Helps understand great complexities of the world so that that we better face them and challenge them. Another justification for history as a relevant curriculum discipline for modern Malawi is that it develops a number of skills required for career development, personal as well as public life of an individual. Studying history one learns the ability to asses proofs of statements and arguments. This in turn builds ones experience in handling evidence. Students learn to interpret statements of the facts about political leaders and distinguish between the objective and subjective statements of their leaders. They also learn to ask questions and put into use the evidence to arrive at conclusions of various matters that require them to make decisions for their own good or the society in general. These abilities can make good human resource for Malawi’s political , social-economic institutions . A good human resource must be able to bring together different types of evidences – public, private records, numerical data to develop coherent arguments for a decision based on variety of data. This is the skill students of history develop and can be applied to the daily life in decision-making, law, education and administration among others. History in modern Malawi curriculum is relevant as Malawian need to virtually gain access s to the laboratory of human experience from the infinity to the present. This will help them better confront the challenges they face since history will provide a big picture of those challenges and prevent them from making shortsighted decisions or solutions. History has to be studied and taught so that usable skills can e acquired to come up with relevant skills whish an enhance capacity for informed citizenship, critical thinking and simple awareness among other benefits that justify the relevance of history as a curriculum discipline for modern Malawi. It has been argued that history engages people in to a dialogue that removes prejudices that people carry always. People come to confront their own biases that create space in the mind for diverse viewpoints without conflicts. Excluding history in the school curriculum would be as dangerous as losing identify. To take the words of Nkrumah that people denied history are people deprived of dignity.

Effects of the Government on the Economy

Effects of the Government on the Economy This essay articulates the principles, relationship between micro economic and macroeconomic by doing research in regard to this essay we can assume that government play a major role in economics such as price control, policies, increasing wages of employees and making decision in the market place however we can also assume economic policies are not influenced if they are not almost generally determined by acceptance of some of these mistakes. Perhaps the shortest and surest way to an understanding of economics is through segmentation of such errors, and particularly of the central error from which they stem. In addition economics is all about policies how society decides what, how, and for whom to produce. INTRODUCTION Human being intend to be able to solve living basic problem such as what goods and services to produce, how to produce these goods and services and for whom to produce these goods and services. Economics is the study of how society decides what, how, and for whom to produce. Economics is also about human behaviour we also could describe it as a science rather than a subject within the arts or humanities. This reflects the way economics analyse problems, not the subject matter of economics. Economist aim to develop theories of human behaviour and to test them against the facts moreover good economics retains an element of art, for it is only by having a feel for how people actually behave that economists can focus their analysis on the right issues. But what exactly is economics? Task1: Most modern definitions of economics involve the notions of choice and scarcity. Possibly the earliest of these is by Lionell Robbins in 1935: Economics is a science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses. Virtually all textbooks have definitions that are derived from this definition. Although the exact wording differs from author to author, the standard definition is something like this: Economics is the social science that examines how people choose to use limited or scarce resources in attempting to satisfy their unlimited wants. Scarcity means that people want more than is available. Scarcity limits us both as individuals and as a society. As individuals, limited income (time and ability) keep us from doing and having all that we might like. As a society, limited resources (such as man power, machinery, and natural resources) fix a maximum on the amount of the goods and services that can be produced. b) Concept of opportunity cost: This concept of scarcity leads to the idea of opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of an action is what you must give up when you make that choice. Another way to say this is: it is the value of the next best opportunity. Opportunity cost is a direct implication of scarcity. People have to choose between different alternatives when deciding how to spend their money and their time. Milton Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize for economics is fond of saying there is no such thing as a free lunch. What that means is that in a world of scarcity, everything has an opportunity cost. There is always a trade-off involved in any decision you make. The concept of opportunity cost is one of the most important ideas in economics. Consider the question, How much does it cost to go to college for a year? We could add up the direct costs like tuition, books, school supplies, etc. These are examples of explicit costs, i.e., costs that require a money payment. However, these costs are small compared to the value of the time it takes to attend class, do homework, etc. The amount that the student could have earned if she had worked rather than attended school is the implicit cost of attending college. Implicit costs are costs that do not require a money payment. The opportunity cost includes both explicit and implicit costs. C) Microeconomics is the study of decisions that people and businesses make regarding the allocation of resources and prices of goods and services. This means also taking into income taxes and regulations created by governments. MicroeconomicsÂÂ  focuses onÂÂ  supply and demand and other forces that determine the price levels seen in the economy. For example, microeconomics would look at how a specific company could maximize its production and capacity soÂÂ  it could lowerÂÂ  prices and better compete in its industry. Macroeconomics, on the other hand,ÂÂ  is the field of economics that studies the behaviour of the economy as a whole and not just on specific companies, but entire industries and economies. This looks at economy-wide phenomena, such asÂÂ  Gross National Product (GDP) and how it is affected by changes in unemployment, national, rate of growth, and price levels. For example, macroeconomics would look at how an increase/decrease in net exports would affect a nationsÂÂ  capital account or how GDP would be affected by unemployment rate. While these two learning of economics appear to be different, they are actually interdependent and complement one another since there are many overlapping issues between the two fields. For example, increased inflation (macro effect) would cause the price of raw materials to increase for companies and in turn affect the end products price charged to the public. http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/110.asp Task2: In this particular task I am going to explain the existing relationship between demand and price also will be giving more detail related to market demand curve and factors affecting demand. According to some researchers demand can be defined as the quantity of a good buyers wish to purchase at each conceivable price, market demand could also be defined as a set of arrangements by which buyers and sellers are in contact to exchange goods or services. The relationship between demand and price describes the behaviour of buyers at every price at every particular price there should be quantity demanded the term quantity demanded makes sense only in relation to a particular price for example in everyday language we say that when the demand for a football match tickets exceeds their supply some people will not get into the ground. Demand curve shows the relation between price and quantity demanded the other things relevant to demand curves can usually be grouped under three groups: the price of goods, the income of consumers and consumer tastes or preferences. Price controls are government rules or laws that forbid the adjustment of prices to clear market for example high food prices mean considerable hardship for the poor the government would prefer to impose a price ceiling on food in order to help the poor to continue purchasing adequate food quantities. In order to be effective a price ceiling must be imposed below the free market equilibrium price therefore it is going to reduce the quantity supplied and lead to excess demand unless government itself provides the extra quantity required. The main factor affecting demand is consumer revenues; consumers intend to purchase a product in order to satisfy their due to their incomes however quantities of demand could increase as consumer incomes rise for example low income people satisfy their needs for clothes by buying low quality clothes as their incomes rise they switch to better quality clothes. Market demand curve is the sum of the demand curves of all individuals in that particular market by asking, at each price, how much each person demands. it also could the horizontal addition of individual demand curves Individual Demand Curve By looking at the graph we could what an important role price plays in the market therefore we can conclude in this demand of goods or services depend on the price and also on consumer incomes the graphs summarise the demand responses to changes in incomes it also show us the effect of income increases although income rises increase the quantity demanded of goods by consumers. Task 3: In this particular task I am going to explain how an equilibrium price and equilibrium quantity can be achieved and also the effects of excess supply, demand on market equilibrium. According to David Begg economic equilibrium is a state of the world where economic forces are balanced and in the absence of external influences the (equilibrium) values of economic variables will not change. It is the point at which quantity demanded and quantities supplied are equal, for example, refers to a condition where a market price is established through competition such that the amount of goods or services sought by buyers is equal to the amount of goods or services produced by sellers. Price controls are government rules or laws that forbid the adjustment of prices to clear market for instance we can assume that when price controls are maintained for many years they may have further repercussions. For example many countries have imposed rent controls limiting the rent a landlord can charge for accommodation. Countries such as the UK have had price ceilings for many years in the rental market in also failed to raise insignificant amount with the inflation therefore many private landlord have quit the business. There are many reasons why government wish to intervene in a free market to set prices as a result prices are set the market forces ( where demand and supply vary) but in some cases government will need to set prices for different products. For instance the European Union EU has used minimum prices for farmers it is also could be argued farmers incomes are too low therefore minimum prices can be used to increase prices above the equilibrium however the government decided to have price controls in farming to encourage farmers to supply as much as possible. This graph show us the existing relation between equilibrium price and demand and also how an equilibrium price and equilibrium quantity can be achieved however we could conclude on this task that equilibrium price is the price at which the quantity demanded by consumers and the quantity at which companies offer services and goods . Task 4: Perfect competition: Economist definition of perfect competition is different from the meaning of competition in everyday usage in economic theory a perfect competition can be defined as a description of markets such that no participants are large enough to have the market power to set the price of a homogeneous product. Because the conditions for perfect competition are strict, there are few if any perfectly competitive markets. Still, buyers and sellers in some auction-type markets say for commodities or some financial assets may approximate the concept. Economic markets in many sectors can be described by the term oligopoly this is where few producers dominate the majority of the industry and the market, perfect competition operate on a number of different assumptions. Economist also assumes there a number of a different buyers and sellers in the marketplace this could lead to a perfect competition in the market which could allow price to change in demand and supply. Perfect competition can be characterized by many sellers and buyers, many products that are similar in nature and as a result of many substitutes, for example in a perfectly competitive market a single firm decide to increase its selling price of a good, the consumers can just turn to the nearest competitor for a better price, affecting any firm that increases its price to lose market share and revenues. According to Stanley Fisher An oligopoly is a market dominated by a few producers, each of which has control over the market. It is an industry where there is a high level of market concentration. However, oligopoly is best defined by the conduct (or behaviour) of firms within a market rather than its market structure. Characteristics of oligopoly can be by competition other than price. Price wars , cutting prices in the market where all large firms tend simply to lead to lower profits, changing little market shares, instead , oligopolistic companies intend to charge relatively high prices but also compete through promotion and advertisement but existing firms can be safer from new companies entering the market because entry barriers to the market are high, for example existing successful brands have a number of a products considerably promoted in the other hand it will be difficult for a new company to establish its own new brand in the market. This graph show us how important perfect competition is in the market in order to launch new product firms will need to follow some entry barriers and have some requirements and follow government policies such price control. Task 5: In this particular I am going to give an explanation and evaluation of what is meant by Keynesian, Monetarist economics: According to Keynesian theory, some microeconomic-level actions if taken collectively by a large proportion of individuals and firms can lead to inefficient aggregate macroeconomic outcomes, where the economy operates below its potential output and growth rate. Such a situation had previously been referred to by classical economists as a general glut. Keynesian economics: during recession periods when aggregate demand is insufficient, monetary and fiscal expansion can boost demand, product and employment in 1930 Britain was partly pulled out the slump of Keynesian policy of government heavy spending on rearmament as the threat of war loomed however in the three decades after 1945 governments of both political parties in Britain attempted to implement the Keynesian policy in order to manage the level of aggregate demand but some of the policy did not work perfectly . In the decade after 1965 both inflation and unemployment grew fairly steadily which build up inflation proved to be a costly after effect Keynesian policies. Today we are more doubtful about the success of the activist period of 1950 and 1960. Keynesian economics proceeds on the assumption that price level given but what can happen if the price level change for example when the economy is near full employment and there is no longer space capacity to make companies think before raising price of products or increasing wages of their employees. On the other hand Keynesian government should be able to tackle unemployment issues otherwise effects of unemployment could reduce production of goods. According to Monetarism theory the governments proper economic role is to control the rate of inflation by controlling the amount of money in circulation. It is the view within monetary economics that variation in the money supply has major influences on national output in the short run and the price level over longer periods and that objectives of monetary policy are best met by targeting the growth rate of the money supply . Finally we can conclude that there is much about which all economists agree but there are some important differences of opinion, both in the positive economics of how the world we are living actually works and in the normative economics of how the government should behave in the market. Due to market power economist intend to play a role in the market by solving problem faced by consumers such as price rises therefore they intend to have price ceiling for each product and I have learn economic is just not a science subject it is there to reconcile the conflict between people virtually unlimited demand with society limited ability to produce goods and services to fulfil these demands.

History, Theory, and Applications of Capacitors :: capacitor electronics

Static electricity was discovered in 600 B.C., but it was not until the mid 1700's when energy storage properties were discovered. 'With the discovery of the first Leyden jar, it was referred to as a condenser because electricity was thought of as a fluid which could condense. The Lehden jar is a glass partially filled with water that has a wire inserted through the top of an insulating stopper (cork). When the wire is charged by static electricity, it holds the charge until the wire comes into contact with a conductor which will discharge the glass. It was roughly one hundred years later when Michael Faraday discovered a variable capacitor. He did this by measuring the varying capacitance of different dielectrics on capacitor.'(4) When the first aluminum capacitor was discovered, some thirty years after Faraday's work, the SI unit used measuring capacitance was named a farad (F) in his honor. 1F = 1 C / V In words: one Farad is equal to one Coulomb per Volt Since the farad is a large unit of capacitance, most capacitors have units of picofarads (pF) or nanofarads (nF). To this day only one type of capacitor has the ability to store enough energy to warrant measurements using a farad as the standard unit, and this is the super capacitor. A capacitor consists of two conducting surfaces separated by an insulator (dielectric). The value of capacitance depends not only on the geometry of the capacitor, but the dielectric as well. (1) "Since capacitance (C) of a capacitor is the ratio of the magnitude of the charge on either conductor to the magnitude of the potential difference (V) between them: " (1) : When a DC voltage source is applied to the 10 mF capacitor shown to the left, a charge is stored on each side of the electrode. A mulitmeter is used to measure resistance, it is shown that when the capacitor is charging, current is moving and when the capacitor is fully charged, the current will stop flowing, because there is no change in electric potenial, so the resistance goes to zero. You can see that when the electodes are switched, the resistance again goes to zero when the capacitor is fully charged. AC current is allowed to pass through the conductor continuously because it works similiar to the way the probes are switching, so the current is allowed continuos flow. The main function of a capacitor is for it to store energy and to act as a filter, passing current (AC) and blocking current (DC).

Personal Narrative: My Cat :: essays research papers

I have a love for cats. Ever since I was a teenager I always wished for a cat of my own. When I moved in a three story apartment in California, the Manager of the complex said that cats were allowed in the units. I mentioned to my Aunt at the time that I was searching in the newspapers under advertisements for cats wanted. One cool breezy evening, my Aunt called me and said that a friend of her's named Judy had a cat named Katie who did not get along with her other two cats. So I agreed to meet with Judy to see if I'd love to adopt Katie. As my Aunt and I entered Judy's house which was a fifteen minute drive from where I live, I noticed cut black and white cat long haired cat with a pink nose and mysterious slanted eyes sneaking up on me near the corner of the hallway of the house. Judy shared with me that Katie was spayed, what foods to feed the cat and that she was tramatized. Judy had shared with me that she took Katie to the Shelter to try to find the owners but to no aval. You see, Katie had showed up at Judy's arcadia door so Judy took her in and kept her for several months before deciding to give the cat away. When I bought Katie to my apartment, she was so frightened. She meowed all night. I called Judy to say that I didn't think I could care for her, but Judy encouraged me to give the cat time to adjust, because she was in a new surrounding. I started feeding my new cat fresh Purina One Special Care dry food and Friskies moist food along with a fresh bowl of water each morning and evening. I also bougth a cat brush to stroke her long luxurious black and white hair, plus I took her to the Vet for an annual booster and rabie shot so I could give the records of the shots to my Manager. I've discovered so much about cats since I adopted Katie. I decided to change her name to Sugar, because of her white tuxedo. I bought her a condo to sleep on plus a new littler box. I also give her a cat vitamin by chopping the vitamin up an placing the tiny pieces in her bowl. Personal Narrative: My Cat :: essays research papers I have a love for cats. Ever since I was a teenager I always wished for a cat of my own. When I moved in a three story apartment in California, the Manager of the complex said that cats were allowed in the units. I mentioned to my Aunt at the time that I was searching in the newspapers under advertisements for cats wanted. One cool breezy evening, my Aunt called me and said that a friend of her's named Judy had a cat named Katie who did not get along with her other two cats. So I agreed to meet with Judy to see if I'd love to adopt Katie. As my Aunt and I entered Judy's house which was a fifteen minute drive from where I live, I noticed cut black and white cat long haired cat with a pink nose and mysterious slanted eyes sneaking up on me near the corner of the hallway of the house. Judy shared with me that Katie was spayed, what foods to feed the cat and that she was tramatized. Judy had shared with me that she took Katie to the Shelter to try to find the owners but to no aval. You see, Katie had showed up at Judy's arcadia door so Judy took her in and kept her for several months before deciding to give the cat away. When I bought Katie to my apartment, she was so frightened. She meowed all night. I called Judy to say that I didn't think I could care for her, but Judy encouraged me to give the cat time to adjust, because she was in a new surrounding. I started feeding my new cat fresh Purina One Special Care dry food and Friskies moist food along with a fresh bowl of water each morning and evening. I also bougth a cat brush to stroke her long luxurious black and white hair, plus I took her to the Vet for an annual booster and rabie shot so I could give the records of the shots to my Manager. I've discovered so much about cats since I adopted Katie. I decided to change her name to Sugar, because of her white tuxedo. I bought her a condo to sleep on plus a new littler box. I also give her a cat vitamin by chopping the vitamin up an placing the tiny pieces in her bowl.

Gap’s History and Mission Statement and Vision Essay

Doris and Don Fisher opened the first Gap store in 1969. Today, Gap Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer with six brands – Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, Athleta and INTERMIX – about 3300 stores and 134,000 employees. The products include apparel, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, children, and babies. The Company operates in two segments: Stores, which includes the operations of the retail stores for Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic, and Direct, which includes the operations for its online brands, both domestic and international. Company-operated stores: About 3,000 stores across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Japan and Italy *Fun fact! The first Gap store outside the United States opened in the UK in 1987 Franchise stores:Over 250 stores in locations across Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. At its founding in 1969, and remains deep in Gap’s DNA today are: customer focus, community involvement and integrity. Since today, there are more than 134,000 people around the world – and company culture encourages each one to â€Å"Wear your passion.† Mission Statementâ€Å"Gap, Inc. is a brand-builder. We create emotional connections with customers around the world through inspiring product design, unique store experiences, and compelling marketing.†In addition to its mission statement, The Gap also has a purpose statement, which is designed to guide the daily actions of its employees. â€Å"Our purpose? Simply, to make it easier for you to express your personal style throughout your life. We have more than 150,000 passionate, talented people around the world who help bring this purpose to life for our customers.† Vision : Think: customers first – we consider the needs and value the diversity of thought, experience and perspectives among our customers. Inspire: creativity – we open ourselves to new ideas, tapping into our diversity of perspectives. Do: what’s right – we treat every customer, supplier and employee with respect. Deliver: results – we strive to create an inclusive environment where employees thrive and generate top performance.

When Harry Met Sall

Interpersonal Communication ‘When Harry Met Sally’ is a romantic comedy set from the mid 1970’s to the mid-to-late 1980’s. From the beginning the film seemed like the perfect example from Mark Knapp’s 10 stages of relational development. There was a plethora of talking and Harry was quite witty while Sally was very sweet and up-beat. As a personal opinion, at first the film seemed to be slightly boring plot-wise – a man and a woman meet to travel a ways to the city?Sounds like the perfect situation to ‘fall in love’ in and have a happily ever-after. Though, as more of the movie was watched, it became more interesting and less of an assignment requirement. In relation to Harry and Sally’s relationship regarding Mark Knapp’s 10 stages of relational development, they jump around from following the path with initiating and experimenting in the beginning of the film while they were driving to New York, to initiating to te rminating right away after their second encounter at the airport.After both characters find themselves apart from their wife and boyfriend respectively, they crashed into each other at a bookstore and skipped right back into the experimenting stage, where they spoke to each other about friendship and having dinner. After initiating their friendship they began to grow closer, stepping up to the intensifying stage – where they spend a lot of time with each other and where Harry confides in Sally about the girls he takes out for dinner and Sally in the odd dream or two she occasionally has – where no one would know she had unless they were told.Soon enough they casually went on to the intensifying stage as they spent the most of their time together than with their respective best friends (which they unwittingly got them into a relationship with each-other), and as it happens, Sally one night calls Harry crying about her ex-boyfriend getting married to a woman he had just met, the two main characters in the film intensify their relationship and relieve their desires.After that, they both freak out and jump, once again, to the terminating stage and end up avoiding each other for a good length of time. Self-disclosure played an intensely heavy role in the development of their relationship when Harry finally begins to attempt to speak to Sally once more after they both terminated their relationship. While the earlier attempts at self-disclosure (Harry telling Sally he was not ready to date again, etc. ), this makes a particular impact on their relationship when he tells Sally how much she means to him.Identifying the terms was easy enough throughout the entire film – initiating the relationship when they met through a mutual good friend of theirs, experimenting as they spoke to each other about different topics during their trip to New York. Terminating their relationship was especially easy to identify – Sally was always particularly happ y to terminate their relationship during the times that they seemed to grow apart (she also did not particularly enjoy his presence when they had just met).Identifying the Intensifying stage was easy enough when they met for the third time and they began to speak more without openly insulting each other and began to spend more time with each other and do certain domestic things with each other. This film, over-all, was actually very entertaining and humourous. The interaction between both Harry and Sally had me laughing more than once over the duration of the film and it had clear visuals of two people bonding and forming a friendship, and eventually a relationship, from the beginning to practically the end.

Sentimental plot Essay

During the 19th century many writers began to publish works with sentimental plots. Generally the sentimental plot is written to make the reader feel an excess of unnecessary emotions, by overemphasizing every work. In every sentimental plot there will always be the typical sentimental hereon that fits the stereotype of a young orphan, unmarried women with moral obstacles. In this plot there are only two types of women the ones that are considered good and the ones that are bad. In the sentimental plot the good will get rewarded by marrying a decent man and the bad will always die. Even though this plot was very popular among writers many women were not happy with how the women were being portrayed among men writers so they decided to go against this plot. With women writers some would tend to go against the sentimental romance plot and instead write about actual situations that were happening around them. One example of this would be in Kate Chopin’s story â€Å"The Storm† it featured a married women falling into the seductions of a old flame. Do you remember in Assumption, Calixta? He asked in a low voice broken by passion. Oh! She remembered; for in Assumption he had kissed her and kissed and kissed her; until his senses would well nigh fail, and to save her he would resort to a desperate flight. If she was not an immaculate dove in those days, she was still inviolate; a passionate creature whose very defenselessness had made her defense, against which his honor forbade him to prevail. † Pg. 59 Author Kate Chopin was unable to publish her works because of the featured adultery with no follow up punishment, in order for her to successfully publish she would have to follow the sentimental romance plot and kill Calixta in the end to prove that the decisions she made were wrong and had consequences. Mary E. Wilkins in â€Å"The Revolt of Mother† is another example that goes against the grain of the sentimental plot it deals with a mother that confronts her husband and goes against his say so which in the 19th century was something that was frowned upon. Now father, said she you needn’t be scared. I ain’t crazy. There ain’t nothing to be upset over. But we’ve come here to live, an’ we’re goin’ to live here. We’ve got jest as good as right here as new horses mind I wa’nt fit for us to live in any longer, an I made up my mind I wa’n’t going’ to stay there. I’ve done my duty by you for forty year, an’ I’m goin’ to do it now; but I’m going to live here. † Pg. 672 After this story was published many people thought that it was based on a true story but Mary E. Wilkins explained that no New  England women would ever dare confront her husband it was all just a fantasy. Another example of the reversed sentimental plot would be in Charlotte Perkins Gilman story â€Å"The Yellow Wall-paper† It is based on a women who is said to be having nervous breakdowns and is being taken care of by her husband a physician she later comes to relies that she will no longer be trapped or hide her emotions. â€Å"I’ve got out at last. Said I, in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most off the paper, so you can’t put me back! † pg 803. What all of these story’s have in common is that they tried to convey across the situations that the women were in and all of them one way or another expressed how the women felt trapped by the men. When it came to men writers they would always include a sentimental hereon in their stories. Henry James published â€Å"Daisy Miller† in 1978 and it dealt with a young unmarried woman somewhat considered an orphan because her parents were never around, who was seen in society as an outcast cause of the way she would conduct herself around men. Miss Daisy Miller was a flirt – a pretty American flirt. He had never, as yet, had any relations with young ladies of this category. He had known, her in Europe† pg. 427 since Daisy Miller was portrayed as an uneducated flirt Henry James followed the sentimental plot by giving Daisy a terrible case of the fever and later died. Later after the story was published Henry James stated that he believed that Daisy was innocent and that he did not kill her to state a point, it just so happened that she caught fever. So in some sort of way this story can sometimes be said that it was not your typical sentimental plot. Another male writer that followed the sentimental hereon was William Dean Howells â€Å"Editha† this was about a young unmarried woman who practically forces her boyfriend to enter the war in order to show off in front of others. â€Å"I shall always love you, and therefore I shall never marry any one else. But the man I marry must love his country first of all, and be able to say to me, I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more. In these two story’s It seems to me as if the men writers are trying to put women down by making them seem selfish and not following the norm of obeying the men’s commands or ways of lifestyle that they want them to follow. In all of these stories we can see that there is a big difference in how men and women respond to the sentimental romance plot. The women write about there own personal experiences and the things that they see happen around them and the men write about what they want the people to read for example the good will get a great husband and get married and the bad will get punished and die.

Data Masking

An Oracle White Paper July 2010 Data Masking Best Practices Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Executive Overview †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 The Challenges of Masking Data †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 Implementing Data Masking †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 Comprehensive Enterprise-wide Discovery of Sensitive Data †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Enforcing Referential Relationships during Data Masking †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4 Rich and Extensible Mask Library†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 Sophisticated Masking Techniques †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 High Performance Mask Execution †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 Integrated Testing with Application Quality Management solutions11 Oracle’s Comprehensive Solutions for Database Security †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 12 Customer Case Studies †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 13 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Executive Overview Enterprises need to share production data with various constituents while also protecting sensitive or personally identifiable aspects of the information. As the number of applications increases, more and more data gets shared, thus further increasing the risk of a data breach, where sensitive data gets exposed to unauthorized parties.Oracle Data Masking addresses this problem by irreversibly replacing the original sensitive data with realistic -looking scrubbed data that has same type and characteristics as the original sensitive data thus enabling organizations to share this information in compliance with information security policies and government regulations. This paper describes the best practices for deploying Oracle Data Masking to protect sensitive information in Oracle and other heterogeneous databases such as IBM DB2, Microsoft SQLServer.Introduction Enterprises share data from the ir production applications with other users for a variety of business purposes. Most organizations copy production data into test and development environments to allow application developers to test application upgrades. Retail c ompanies share customer point-of-sale data with market researchers to analyze customer buying patterns. Pharmaceutical or healthcare organizations share patient data with medical researchers to assess the efficacy of clinical trials or medical treatments.Numerous industry studies on data privacy have concluded that almost all companies copy tens of millions of sensitive customer and consumer records to non-production environments for testing, development, and other uses. Very few companies do anything to protect this data even when sharing with outsourcers and third parties. Almost 1 out of 4 companies responded that live data used for development or testing had been lost or stolen and 50% s aid they had no way of knowing if data in non-production environme nts had been compromised. 1 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices The Challenges of Masking DataOrganizations have tried to address these issues with custom hand-crafted solutions or repurposed existing data manipulation tools within the enterprise to solve this problem of sharing sensitive information with non-production users. Take for example, the most common solution: database scripts. At first glance, an advantage of the database scripts approach would appear that they specifically address the unique privacy needs of a particular database that they were designed for. They may have even been tuned by the DBA to run at their fastest Let’s look at the issues with this approach. 1.Reusability: Because of the tight association between a script and the associated database, these scripts would have to re-written from scratch if applied to another database. There are no common capabilities in a script that can be easily leveraged across other databases. 2. Transp arency: Since scripts tend to be monolithic programs, auditors have no transparency into the masking procedures used in the scripts. The auditors would find it extremely difficult to offer any recommendation on whether the masking process built into a script is secure and offers the enterprise the appropriate degree of protection. 3.Maintainability: When these enterprise applications are upgraded, new tables and columns containing sensitive data may be added as a part of the upgrade process. With a script-based approach, the entire script has to be revisited and updated to accommodate new tables and columns added as a part of an application patch or an upgrade. Implementing Data Masking Based on Oracle Data Masking , Oracle has developed a comprehensive 4-step approach to implementing data masking called Find, Assess, Secure, and Test (FAST). These steps are: ? Find: This phase involves identifying and cataloging sensitive or regulated data across the entire enterprise.Typically car ried out by business or security analysts, the goal of this exercise is to come up with the comprehensive list of sensitive data elements specific to the organization and discover the associated tables and columns across enterprise databases that contain the sensitive data. ? Assess: In this phase, developers or DBAs in conjunction with business or security analysts identify the masking algorithms that represent the optimal techniques to replace the original sensitive data. Developers can leverage the existing masking library or extend it with their own masking routines. ? Secure: This and the next steps may be iterative.The security administrator executes the masking process to secure the sensitive data during masking trials. Once the masking process has completed and has been verified, the DBA then hands over the environment to the application testers. 2 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Test: In the final step, the production users execute application proces ses to test whether the resulting masked data can be turned over to the other non-production users. If the masking routines need to be tweaked further, the DBA restores the database to the pre-masked state, fixes the masking algorithms and re-executes the masking process.Comprehensive Enterprise-wide Discovery of Sensitive Data To begin the process of masking data, the data elements that need to be masked in the application must be identified. The first step that any organization must take is to determine what is sensitive. This is because sensitive data is related to specific to the government regulations and industry standards that govern how the data can used or shared. Thus, the first step is for the security administrator to publish what constitutes sensitive data and get agreement from the company’s compliance or risk officers. A typical list of sensitive data elements may include:Person Name Bank Account Number Maiden Name Card Number (Credit or Debit Card Number) Busi ness Address Tax Registration Number or National Tax ID Business Telephone Number Person Identification Number Business Email Address W elfare Pension Insurance Number Custom Name Unemployment Insurance Number Employee Number Government Affiliation ID User Global Identifier Military Service ID Party Number or Customer Number Social Insurance Number Account Name Pension ID Number Mail Stop Article Number GPS Location Civil Identifier Number Student Exam Hall Ticket Number Credit Card Number Club Membership IDSocial Security Number Library Card Number Trade Union Membership Number Oracle Data Masking provides several easy-to-use mechanisms for isolating the sensitive data elements. 3 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Data Model driven: Typical enterprise applications, such as E-Business Suite, Peoplesoft and Siebel, have published their application data model as a part of their product documentation or the support knowledge base. By leveraging the published data models, data masking users can easily associate the relevant tables and columns to the mask formats to create the mask definition. ?Application Masking Templates: Oracle Data Masking supports the concept of application masking templates, which are XML representations of the mask definition. Software vendors or service providers can generate these pre-defined templates and make them available to enterprises to enable them to import these templates into the Data Masking rapidly and thus, accelerate the data masking implementation process. ? Ad-hoc search: Oracle Data Masking has a robust search mechanism that allows users to search the database quickly based on ad hoc search patterns to identify tables and columns that represent sources of sensitive data.With all the database management capabilities, including the ability to query sample rows from the tables, built into Enterprise Manager, the Data Masking a can assist enterprise users rapidly construct the mask definition – th e pre-requisite to mask the sensitive data. For deeper searches, Oracle provides the Oracle Data Finder tool during data masking implementation to search across enterprises based on data patterns, such as NNN-NN-NNNN for social security numbers or 16 or 15 digit sequences beginning with 3, 4 or 5 for credit card . numbers.Using the combination of schema and data patterns and augmenting them with published application meta data models, enterprises can now develop a comprehensive data privacy catalog that captures the sensitive data elements that exist across enterprise databases. To be clear, this is not a static list. This is a dynamic living catalog managed by security administrators that needs to be refreshed as business rules and government regulations change as well as when applications are upgraded and patched and new data elements containing sensitive data are now discovered. Enforcing Referential Relationships during Data MaskingIn today’s relational databases (RDBMS), data is stored in tables related by certain key columns , called primary key columns, which allows efficient storage of application data without have to duplicate data. For example, an EMPLOYEE_ID generated from a human capital management (HCM) application may be used in sales force automation (SFA) application tables using foreign key columns to keep track of sales reps and their accounts. When deploying a masking solution, business users are often concerned with referential integrity, the relationship between the primary key and the foreign key columns, in a database or across databases. 4Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices CUSTOMERS EMPLOYEES ? ? ? EMPLOYEE_ID FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME Database enforced Application enforced ? ? ? CUSTOMER_ID SALES_REP_ID COMPANY_NAME SHIPMENTS ? ? ? SHIPMENT_ID SHIPPING_CLERK_ID CARRIER Figure 1:The Importance of Referential Integrity Oracle Data Masking automatically identifies referential integrity as a part of the mask definition creation. This means that when a business user chooses to mask a key column such as EMPLOYEE_ID, the Oracle Data Masking discovers all the related foreign key relationships in the database and enforces the same mask format to the related foreign key columns.This guarantees that the relationships between the various applications tables are preserved while ensuring that privacyrelated elements are masked. In applications where referential integrity is enforced in the database, Oracle Data Masking allows these relationships to be registered as relate d columns in the mask definition, thereby applying the same masking rules as applied to the database-enforced foreign key columns. 5 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Figure 2: Automatic enforcement of referential Integrity Rich and Extensible Mask LibraryOracle Data Masking provides a centralized library of out-of-the-box mask formats for common types of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, phone numbers, nati onal identifiers (social security number for US, national insurance number for UK). By leveraging the Format Library in Oracle Data Masking, enterprises can apply data privacy rules to sensitive data across enterprise-wide databases from a single source and thus, ensure consistent compliance with regulations. Enterprises can also extend this library with their own mask formats to meet their specific data privacy and application requirements. Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Figure 3: Rich and extensible Mask Format Library Oracle Data Masking also provides mask primitives, which serve as building blocks to allow the creation of nearly unlimited custom mask formats ranging from numeric, alphabetic or date/time based. Recognizing that the real-world masking needs require a high degree of flexibility, Oracle Data Masking allows security administrators to create user-defined-masks. These user-defined masks, written in PL/SQL, let administrators create unique mask fo rmats for sensitive data, e. g. enerating a unique email address from fictitious first and last names to allow business applications to send test notifications to fictitious email addresses. Sophisticated Masking Techniques Data masking is in general a trade-off between security and reproducibility. A test database that is identical to the production database is 100% in terms of reproducibility and 0% in terms of security because of the fact that it exposes the original data. Masking technique where data in sensitive columns is replaced with a single fixed value is 100% in terms of security and 0% in terms of reproducibility.When considering various masking techniques, it is important to consider this trade-off in mind when selecting the masking algorithms. Oracle Data Masking provides a variety of sophisticated masking techniques to meet application requirements while ensuring data privacy. These techniques ensure that applications continue to operate without errors after masking. For example, ? Condition-based masking: this technique makes it possible to apply different mask formats to the same data set depending on the rows that match the conditions.For example, applying different national identifier masks based on country of origin. ? Compound masking: this technique ensures that a set of related columns is masked as a group to ensure that the masked data across the related columns retain the same relationship, e. g. city, state, zip values need to be consistent after masking. 7 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Deterministic Masking Deterministic masking is an important masking technique that enterprises must consider when masking key data that is referenced across multiple applications.Take, for example, three applications: a human capital management application, a customer relationship management application and a sales data warehouse. There are some key fields such as EMPLOYEE ID referenced in all three applications and needs to be masked in the corresponding test systems: a employee identifier for each employee in the human resources management application, customer service representative identifiers, which may also be EMPLOYEE IDs, in the customer relationship management application and sales representative IDs, which may be EMPLOYEE IDs in the sales data warehouse.To ensure that data relationships are preserved across systems even as privacy-related elements are removed, deterministic masking techniques ensure that data gets masked consistently across the various systems. It is vital that deterministic masking techniques used produce the replacement masked value consistently and yet in a manner that the original data cannot be derived from the masked value. One way to think of these deterministic masking techniques is as a function that is applied on the original value to generate a unique value consistently that has the same format, type and characteristics as the original value, e. . a deterministic funct ion f(x) where f(x1) will always produce y1 for a given value x1. In order for the deterministic masking to be applied successfully, it is important that the function f(x) not be reversible, i. e. the inverse function f-1(y1) should not produce x1 to ensure the security of the original sensitive data. Deterministic masking techniques can be used with mathematical entries, e. g. social security numbers or credit card numbers, as well as with text entries, e. g. , to generate names.For example, organizations may require that names always get masked to the same set of masked names to ensure consistency of data across runs. Testers may find it disruptive if the underlying data used for testing is changed by production refreshes and they could no longer locate certain types of employees or customer records that were examples for specific test cases. Thus, enterprises can use the deterministic masking functions provided by Oracle Data Masking to consistently generate the same replacement mask value for any type of sensitive data element.Deterministic masking becomes extremely critical when testing data feeds coming from external systems, such as employee expense data provided by credit card companies. In production environments, the feed containing real credit card numbers are processed by the accounts payable application containing employee’s matching credit card information and are used to reconcile employee expenses. In test systems, the employee credit card numbers have been obfuscated and can no longer be matched against the data in the flat files containing the employee’s real credit card number.To address this requirement, enterprises pre-load the flat file containing data using tools such as SQL*Loader, into standard tables, then mask the sensitive columns using deterministic masking provided by Oracle Data Masking and then extract the masked data back into flat file. Now, the application will be able to process the flat files correctly just as they would have been in Production systems. 8 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices High Performance Mask Execution Now that the mask definition is complete, the Oracle Data Masking can now execute the masking process to replace all the sensitive data.Oracle Enterprise Manager offers several options to clone the production database: ? Recover from backup: Using the Oracle Managed Backups functionality, Oracle Enterprise Manager can create a test database from an existing backup. ? Clone Live Database: Oracle Enterprise Manager can clone a live production data into any non production environment within a few clicks. The clone database capability also provides the option to create a clone image, which can then be used for other cloning operations.With the cloned (non-production) database now ready for masking, the Oracle Data Masking builds a work list of the tables and columns chosen for masking. Other tables that are not required to be masked are not touched. Furthe r, the tables selected for masking are processed in the optimal order to ensure that only one pass is made at any time even if there are multiple columns from that table selected for masking. Typically, the tables with the primary keys get masked first, followed by the dependent tables containing foreign keys.Once the mask work list is ready, the Oracle Data Masking generates mapping tables for all the sensitive fields and their corresponding masked values. These are temporary tables that are created as a part of the masking process, which will be dropped once all data has been masked successfully. Using a highly efficient data bulk mechanism, Oracle Data Masking rapidly recreates the masked replacement table based on original tables and the mapping tables and restores all the related database elements, such as indexes, constraints, grants and triggers identical to the original table.Compare this with the typical data masking process, which usually involves performing table row upda tes. Because rows in a table are usually scattered all over the disk, the update process is extremely inefficient because the storage systems attempts to locate rows on data file stored on extremely large disk s. The bulk mechanism used by Oracle Data Masking lays down the new rows for the masked table in rapid succession on the disk. This enhanced efficiency makes the masked table available for users in a fraction of the time spent by an update-driven masking process.For large tables, Oracle Data Masking automatically invokes SQL parallelism to further speed up the masking process. Other performance enhancements include using the NOLOGGING option when recreating the table with the masked data. Typical database operations such as row inserts or updates generate redo logs, which are used by the database to capture changes made to files. These redo logs are completely unnecessary in a data masking operation since the non-production database is not running in a production environment, requiring continuous availability and recoverability.Using the NOLOGGING option, the Oracle Data Masking bypasses the logging mechanism to further accelerate the masking process efficiently and rapidly. 9 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices In internal tests run on a single-core Pentium 4 (Northwood) [D1] system with 5. 7G of memory, the following performance results with reported. Criteria Baseline Metric Column scalability 215 columns 100 tables of 60G 20 minutes Row scalability 100 million rows 6 columns 1 hour 20 minutes Figure 4: Oracle Data Masking Performance scalability testsAs these results clearly indicate, Oracle Data Masking can handle significant volumes of sensitive data effortlessly both in terms of the number of sensitive columns as well as tables with large numbers of rows. Oracle Data Masking is also integrated with Oracle Provisioning and Patch Automation in Oracle Enterprise Manager to clone-and-mask via a single workflow. The secure high perfor mance nature of Oracle Data Masking combined with the end-to-end workflow ensures that enterprise can provision test systems from production rapidly instead of days or weeks that it would with separate manual processes.Optimized for Oracle databases Oracle Data Masking leverages key capabilities in Oracle databases to enhance the overall manageability of the masking solution. Some of these include: ? Flashback: Administrators can optionally configure Oracle databases to enable flashback to a premasked state if they encounter problems with the masked data. ? PL/SQL: Unlike other solutions, Oracle Data Masking generates DBA-friendly PL/SQL that allows DBAs to tailor the masking process to their needs. This PL/SQL script can also be easily integrated into any cloning process. 0 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Support for heterogeneous databases Oracle Data Masking supports masking of sensitive data in heterogeneous databases such as IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQLServer through the use of Oracle Database Gateways. Figure 5: Data masking support for heterogeneous databases Integrated Testing with Application Quality Management solutions The final step of the masking process is to test that the application is performing successfully after the masking process has completed.Oracle Enterprise Manager’s Application Quality Management (AQM) solutions provide high quality testing for all tiers of the application stack. Thorough testing can help you identify application quality and performance issues prior to deployment. Testing is one of the most challenging and time consuming parts of successfully deploying an application, but it is also one of the most critical to the project’s success. Oracle Enterprise Manager’s AQM solutions provide a unique combination of test capabilities which enable you to: ?Test infrastructure changes: Real Application Testing is designed and optimized for testing database tier infrastructure changes using r eal application workloads captured in production to validate database performance in your test environment. 11 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Test application changes: Application Testing Suite helps you ensure application quality and performance with complete end-to-end application testing solutions that allow you to automate functional & regression testing, execute load tests and manage the test process.Oracle’s Comprehensive Solutions for Database Security Oracle provides a comprehensive portfolio of security solutions to ensure data privacy, protect against insider threats, and enable regulatory compliance. With Oracle's powerful privileged user and multifactor access control, data classification, transparent data encryption, auditing, monitoring, and data masking, customers can deploy reliable data security solutions that do not require any changes to existing applications, saving time and money. Customer Case StudiesCustomers have had a variety of business needs which drove their decision to adopt the Oracle Data Masking for their sensitive enterprise data. These benefits of using Oracle Data Masking were realized by a major global telecommunications products company that implemented the above methdology. Their database administrators (DBAs) had developed custom scripts to mask sensitive data in the test and development environments of their human resources (HR) application. As the company was growing and offering new services, their IT infrastructure was also growing thus placing an increased burden on their DBAs.By implementing Oracle Data Masking, the organization was able to use the role-based separation of duties to allow the HR analysts to define the security policies for masking sensitive data. The DBAs then automated the implementation of these masking policies when provisioning new test or development environments. Thus, the telecommunications company was able to allow business users to ensure compliance of their non-production environments while eliminating another manual task for the DBAs through automation. The need for data masking can come from internal compliance requirements.In the case of this UKbased government organization, the internal audit and compliance team had identified that the nonproduction copies of human resource management systems used for testing, development and reporting did not meet the established standards for privacy and confidentiality. In joint consultations with their IT service provider, the organization quickly identified the Oracle Data Masking as ideally suited to their business needs based on the fact that it was integrated with their day-to-day systems management operations provided by Oracle Enterprise Manager.Within a few weeks, the service provider deployed the mask definitions for their Oracle eBusiness Suite HR application and thereby rapidly brought the internal non-productions systems into compliance. There are organizations that have internally d eveloped data masking solutions that have discovered that custom scripts ultimately have their limits and are not able to scale up as enterprise data sets increase in volume. This Middle East-based real estate company found that their data masking scripts were running for several hours and were slowing down as data volumes increased.Due to the stringent requirement to create production copies available for testing within rapid time-frames, the company evaluated the Oracle Data Masking among other commercial solutions. Upon deploying the Oracle 12 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Data Masking, they discovered that they were able to accelerate the masking time from 6 hours using their old scripts to 6 minutes using the Oracle Data Masking, an improvement of 60x in performance. ConclusionStaying compliant with policy and government regulations while sharing production data with nonproduction users has become a critical business imperative for all enterprises. Oracl e Data Masking is designed and optimized for today’s high volume enterprise applications running on Oracle databases. Leveraging the power of Oracle Enterprise Manger to manage all enterprise databases and systems, Oracle Data Masking accelerates sensitive data identification and executes the masking process with a simple easy-to-use web interface that puts the power of masking in the hands of business users and administrators.Organizations that have implemented Oracle Data Masking to protect sensitive data in test and development environment have realized significant benefits in the following areas: ? Reducing Risk through Compliance: By protecting sensitive information when sharing production data with developers and testers, organizations have able to ensure that non -production databases have remained compliant with IT security policies while enabling developers to conduct production-class testing. ?Increasing Productivity through Automation: By automating the masking pro cess, organizations have been able to reduce the burden on DBAs who previously had to maintain manuallydeveloped masking scripts. 13 Data Masking Best Practices July 2010 Copyright  © 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved . This document is provided for information purposes only and the Author: Jagan R. Athreya contents hereof are subject to change without notice. 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