Zachman Framework

THE ZACHMAN FRAMEWORK FOR AND ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ENABLING ENTERPRISE STRATEGY What Data Function List of Processes How Where Network Who People When Time Motivation List of Goals Why List of Things List of Locations List of Organizations List of Cycles Scope Planner ENTITY = Class of Business Entities PROCESS = Class of Business Processes NODE = Class of Business Locations PEOPLE = Class of Business Organizations CYCLE = Class of Business Cycles END = Class of Business Objectives Scope Planner The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture s a comprehensive classification scheme for descriptive representations (models) of an enterprise. First conceptualized nearly two decades ago by John Zachman, it has evolved to become a universal schematic for defining and describing today's complex enterprise systems and for managing the multiple perspectives of an organization's information and knowledge infrastructure. e. g. , Semantic Model e. g. , Business Process Model e. g. , Logistics Network e. g. , Work Flow Model e. g. , Master Schedule e. g. , Business Plan INTERVISTA INSTITUTEEXECUTIVE EDUCATION Business Model (Conceptual) Business Model (Conceptual) ENTITY = Business Entity RELATION = Business Relationship I/O = Business Resources PROCESS = Business Process NODE = Business Location LINK = Business Linkage PEOPLE = Organization Unit WORK = Work Product TIME = Business Event CYCLE = Business Cycle ENDS = Business Objective MEANS = Business Strategy Owner Owner Intervista's Enterprise Architecture courses provide you with an in-depth understanding of the Zachman Framework and the key success factors for implementation.Over 5000 IT and Management Executives from all sectors have chosen Intervista for their professional development and strategic advancement. To learn more about our Enterprise Strategy, Enterprise Architecture and Knowledge Management Executive Education programs call 1-800-397-9744 or visit us at: www. Intervista-Institu te. com e. g. , Logical Data Model e. g. , Application Architecture System Model (Logical) e. g. , Distributed System Architecture e. g. , Human Interface Architecture e. g. , Processing Structure e. . , Business Rule Model System Model (Logical) TIME = System Event CYCLE = Processing Cycle ENDS = Structural Assertion MEANS = Action Assertion Designer ENTITY = Data Entity RELATION = Data Relationship I/O = User Views PROCESS = Application Function NODE = IS Function LINK = Line Characteristics PEOPLE = Role WORK = Deliverable Designer Technology Model (Physical) e. g. , Data Design e. g. , System Design e. g. , Technology Architecture e. g. , Presentation Architecture e. g. , Control Structure e. g. , Rule DesignTechnology Model (Physical) Builder ENTITY = Table/Segment/etc. RELATION = Key/Pointer/etc. I/O = Data Elements/Sets PROCESS = Computer Function NODE = Hardware/System Software LINK = Line Specifications PEOPLE = User WORK = Screen/Device Formats TIME = Execute CYCLE = Compo nent Cycle ENDS = Condition MEANS = Action Builder www. zifa. com e. g. , Data Definition e. g. , Program e. g. , Network Architecture e. g. , Security Architecture e. g. , Timing Definition e. g. , Rule Specification Detailed Representations SubcontractorENTITY = Field RELATION = Address I/O = Control Block PROCESS = Language Statement NODE = Addresses LINK = Protocols PEOPLE = Identity WORK = Job TIME = Interrupt CYCLE = Machine Cycle ENDS = Sub-condition MEANS = Step Detailed Representations Subcontractor www. ZachmanInternational. com Example Example Example Example Data Function Network Organization Example Example Schedule Strategy FUNCTIONING ENTERPRISE For the Enterprise Architecture Executive Education schedule call Intervista Institute at 1-800-397-9744. www. Intervista-Institute. com Copyright 2003, Intervista Inc. All rights reserved. Framework by permission John A. Zachman.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Essay

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantitative and qualitative measures used to review an organization’s progress against its goals. These are broken down and set as targets for achievement by departments and individuals. The achievement of these targets is reviewed at regular intervals. KPIs are used to monitor the performance of a company, department, process or even an individual machine. They will also help shape the behaviors of employees within the company. KPIs need to be flexible and reflect the changing goals of the organization. Goals change as the organization changes in reaction to external factors or as it gets closer to achieving its original goals. Individual KPIs need to be directly linked to organization goals and objectives, or overall organization KPIs where they are used. They need to reflect organization culture and values, by indicating the types of behavior and performance the organization will recognize as ‘successful’ and reward employees for. KPIs need to be measurable and reflect a balance between operational and people orientated measures. KPIs are a fundamental component of sustaining a change process and maintaining a performance management culture. KPIs should be aligned with the organization’s vision and direction. When performance is measured, and the results are made visible, organizations can take action to improve. SMART KPIs The acronym SMART is often used to describe KPIs. Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Timely Specific KPIs need to be specific to the individual job and if possible expressed as statements of actual on-the-job behaviors. For example, a KPI should: Explain clearly to the employee what he/she has to do in terms of performance to be successful Have an impact on successful job performance, that is distinguishing between effective performance and ineffective performance  Focus on the behavior itself, rather than personality attributes such as ‘attitude to customers’. Terms such as ‘work quality’, and ‘job knowledge’ are too vague to be of much use. Measurable KPIs must be measurable, that is based on behavior that can be observed and documented, and which is job-related. They should also provide employees with ongoing feedback on their standard of performance. Achievable Performance management needs to be an open, collaborative communication process. KPIs must be seen by all that they are achievable. The KPI must be realistically achievable. If it is set too high for the circumstances (such as an ambitious production target), not only will it be irrelevant but it will ensure failure. Relevant It is essential that employees clearly understand the KPIs, and that they have the same meaning to both parties. Consultation is more likely to result in standards that are relevant and valid. Timely KPIs should have an appropriate time frame. It should be possible to collect the relevant information either ‘as it happens’ or within a short time afterwards, otherwise it will lose its relevance. As outputs of the performance management system, KPIs also need to be in alignment with other HR-related functions, including training and development, recruitment and selection, rewards and recognition, and career planning. Business aspects that require KPIs KPIs should cover every aspect of the business. Sample examples are Customer satisfaction Employee satisfaction Staff turnover Absenteeism Department/division specific measures Triple bottom line: financial, environmental and social responsibility Finance including revenue and costs OHS reporting including incidents and related costs Equipment usage and OEE Maintenance costs and effectiveness New product development & innovation Lead times and down times Quality KPI components KPIs should identify the required outcomes, for example: The minimum acceptable performance e.g. daily break even point Target performance eg desired daily output. KPIs should: Be communicated to all staff so that they are aware of how they are to be measured and how their KPIs impact on the organization as a whole Be aligned with the vision and direction of the organization Have relevant reward and recognition criteria linked to each KPI. When implementing new KPIs, having baseline data to measure improvements is very important. Progress on KPIs should be communicated at regular times to highlight emerging trends. As these trends emerge, corrective action can be implemented in a timely fashion. KPIs need to be communicated via multiple media. The measures that are selected must be carefully specified to ensure they do not cause non-lean behaviors. In many cases there will need to be a selection of measures that balance quality and quantity factors to ensure the correct behaviors are encouraged. Listed below are some examples of the behaviors and outcomes that measure in isolation can cause. Measure in isolation Behavior Outcome Production output Make more Overproduction Machine efficiency Run machine longer Run in most efficient sequence for machine Unnecessary stock Customer orders late Maintenance costs Reduction in maintenance activities to reduce costs Machine breakdowns Cash flow performance Pay suppliers as late as possible Supplier deliveries XX unreliable Creating KPIs KPIs must be designed for each proposed change to the production process so that: There is a base line measurement taken to establish a starting performance standard There are measures developed to track the team’s  performance There are measures established that can highlight any variability. This can assist in future diagnoses Reward and recognition can be effectively implemented. Before data is collected three questions need to be asked. What is the purpose of collecting this data? Will this data tell us what we want to know? Will we be able to act on the data we collect? The goal is to create an easy-to-use, accurate measurement system with as few measures as possible. The following questions need to be answered when setting up a data collection system: What type of metric is it (financial, behavioral or core-process)? Why was it selected? Where will the data be collected? How will it be collected? How often will it be collected? How often and where will the metric be displayed? Who will use it? KPI examples Some examples of measures that can be used to monitor the performance of a competitive manufacturing company are listed below. Financial Examples Costs Material costs Labor costs Operations costs Inventory Overtime Warrantee costs Cost of Sales Interest on overdraft Number of projects completed on time and on budget Revenue Sales Gross margins Return on assets or investment Product profitability Team metrics Overtime Material costs Revenue generated by team Inventory value in team’s area Number of projects completed on time and on budget Core metrics Examples OHS Lost time injuries Number of staff off work Length of time staff are off work DIFOT Delivery in full on time Quality First time through quality Yield Lead-time Order to cash in bank Raw material to dispatch Dock to dock Inventory Inventory turnover rate OEE Overall equipment effectiveness Schedule performance % Changes to the weekly schedule Value added ratio Ratio of value adding time to lead time Team metrics Turnaround time for jobs Output rates Quality rates Equipment OEE Attendance rates Schedule compliance Customer feedback Number of deadlines/milestones met Metrics relating to specific team tasks Behavioral metrics Examples Employee satisfaction Gained from regular Employee Satisfaction Surveys Staff turnover rates Participation levels in improvement activities Customer satisfaction Gained from regular Employee Satisfaction Surveys Retention rates Skill uptake Skill matrices Absenteeism Absenteeism Error rates Error rates Time spent on managing under-performing staff Team metrics Number of team meetings Members at team meetings Number of ideas generated Number of ideas implemented Total Savings generated

Marketing case analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Marketing case analysis - Essay Example The other decision to be made is on the promotion to be made. Previously, the lodge had a strategy whereby guests were given a free weekend, however, it is been proposed that the guests to be given a discount in one weekend in a month (Ali 13). According to the research carried out in the hotel industry, most of the guests in hotels are business people. The business people go to lodges mainly for seminars that are meant to educate them on some trending issues in business. The other business people are those who are travelling to a place that is far from home and they have to spend a night in a lodge. The research shows that the guests who visit for leisure are not many in number and they do not spend many days. In that case, the marketing dollars should be distributed between the two types of guests; however, most of it should be invested in business travelers. This is because they make the highest income to Astor lodge. The lodge should aim at its strong point before diverging its advertising to other centers. The lodge can go into a deal with many corporate in such a way that they will be given discounts for any time they host a seminar or event at the lodge. That will ensure that the lodge gets frequent visitors especia lly if the service delivery is perfect (Ali 12). In terms of the frontier strategy, the plan is a perfect one. The company aims at increasing the time of stay and increasing first time visits. The time of stay can be increased by the guests if the lodge gives them a discount for an extra stay at the lodge. That means that it will seem cheaper for the guests to spend an extra day at the lodge as opposed to cutting short their stay. The first time visits to the lodge can be increased if the lodge increases its marketing campaign. The marketing campaign should be aimed at ensuring that the customers encourage their friends to visit the lodge and that will lead to first time

Market Equilibration Process Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Market Equilibration Process - Research Paper Example On the hand, the suppliers take advantage of the situation and tend to increase the prices of the commodity but still produce less. When supply falls, the supply curve shifts to the left. At the initial equilibrium price P1, quantity supplied falls. This creates excess of demand over supply which causes the price to rise to a new equilibrium level P2 and also the quantity falls to a new equilibrium level Q2 It refers to the quantity of a commodity per unit time which consumers are willing and able to buy in the market at a given price other things held constant. The law of demand states that the lower the price of a commodity, the higher the quantity demanded by the customers and vice versa. As population increases, the population structure changes in a way that an increasing proportion of the population consists of the young people. This will lead to a relatively higher demand for those goods and services consumed mostly by the youth. It can be defined as the quantity of goods and services per unit of time which the suppliers are willing and able to produce to the market for sale at a given price other things held constant. The law of supply states that the higher the price off a commodity in the market, the more the supplies will produce and supply to the market but the lower the price, the lower the quantity produced and supplied. Surplus refers to a situation where the quantity produced and put by the suppliers in the market is more than the quantity required amount by the consumers. This is also referred to as excess supply and it pushes the prices down. Shortage or excess demand on the other hand refers to the state where the quantity of the commodity that is required by the consumers is in less than the amount that is supplied to the market by the producers. This pushes the prices above the equilibrium

Strategic Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Strategic Analysis - Case Study Example It was established by individual and merchant bankers in Hamburg in the year 1870 after consolidating with Berliner Bank. It is the second largest bank in Germany after the Deutche bank whose headquarters are in Frankfurt. The bank has several branches situated in Europe, London, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. The main banking services offered by the bank are commercial banking services, retail banking and mortgaging (Binder 2006). The management of the bank uses a financial information system known as the info broker. This system is used to ensure that strategic and content demands of the bank are met within the specified period of time. Its objective has been to ensure that current financial information, customers' data and banks internal information are consolidated into one single application in order to enhance proper delivery of services to the customers (Binder 2006). Business systems refers to the systems that are found in business organizations composed of large number of businesses, tradesmen in the same field of operation that combine resources, enhance sharing of information and also provide services that are beneficial to the organization. System Application Program (SAP) software is business software that consists of enterprise resource planning and related applications that enables the users to run the operations in the organization in an efficient manner. It also enables the bank to solve their core banking processes. System Application Program (SAP) software consists of tools and automated processes that assist the management of a company to manage the front office activities in the banking environment away from the transactional banking services, customer management systems, cost control, financial accounting and profitability and to undertake risk analysis of the bank (Laurentis 2005). The management of the Commerzbank implemented the System Application Program (SAP) software to centralize and optimize the business processes of the banks solutions portfolio. It also restructured systems such as the loan transaction business unit and the loan factory unit that can process over 1.2 million loans while using the System Application Program (SAP) solution portfolio. The other systems that were restructured were the enterprise -wide standardized and integrated processes. The features within the System Application Program (SAP) solution system enables the bank to have improved efficiency and enables performance of the bank to be carried out through using a high degree of workflow automation that has a shorter processing period (Laurentis, 2005). The banks factory loan system enables it to provide an integrated information technology system in business areas that are based on standard solutions to account for a high level of integrated workflow automation for the company. System Application Program (SAP) software also helps the company to serve many company's clients at reduced costs. Major Banks in the world are using the software because it leads to higher levels of productivity, agility and improves the way banks conduct their activities. The use of the balance sheet and risk systems has contributed to the success of the bank in matters such as; increased release of quality data, improved risk

Defining Terrorism is Difficult Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Defining Terrorism is Difficult - Research Paper Example Hence, defining and addressing the phenomenon of terrorism is in the preliminary stages (Ronczkowski 17). Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the difficulty in defining terrorism because of the different types of terrorist missions confronting governments. The Difficulty in Defining Terrorism There are numerous working definitions of terrorism. According to Jonathan R. White (7-11), terrorism is an abstract concept with no tangible presence; hence a true definition that accounts for all the potential uses of the term is not possible. At the same time however, two common characteristics are that terrorization is done, and terrorists have targets and victims. The definition changes according to the context of the violent activity. This weakness is taken into consideration when examining some popular defitions of terrorism (White 7). Of five official definitions from various United States government agencies, â€Å"three of the more commonly cited definitions come from the FBI, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Defense† (Ronczkowski 18). ... Further, it purposefully intimidates or compels a civilian population to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or terrorist acts affect the performance of a government by assassination or kidnapping. Similarly, the Department of Defense defines terrorism as the predetermined use of violence or threat of violence to create fear, â€Å"intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological† states Philip B. Heyman (3). The common elements among the above definitions are clear, but it is essential to find out whether only one definition is correct, to determine which is correct, and the reasons for one government having only one definition. The solution to these queries is simple; it is that the missions of the different types of terrorism vary. Hence, instead of an all-inclusive definition of terrorism it would be better to focus on an understanding of the elements that constitute terrrorism (Ronczkowski 18). Heyman (3) adds that numerous attempts to define terrorism as distinctly as murder, robbery, or rape have been unsuccessful. Analytical practitioners as well as law enforcement personnel should receive a foundation for performing their daily duties related to terrorism and terrorist activity, along with an understanding of its history. Donald M. Snow states that the root of the word terrorism is derived from the Latin word terrere which means ‘to frighten’. However, this meaning can also be applied to modern criminal statutes related to robbery and other crimes, consequently causing confusion and debate (Snow 1). Therefore, law enforcement agencies and analysts use a standardized, open definition. The U.S. Code of 22

Menu Selection Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Menu Selection - Research Paper Example This paper discusses some of the important ways to interact with App. Additionally, there are many other types of menus, which have their own advantages and disadvantages, for instance, the pop up menu saves space on the screen as they are not existed physically on the screen. In this way, it provides an advantage to the users that they need to know only the selected area options. Menu-driven interfaces have been becoming more popular due to a number of advantages they provide. Each strategy has its own advantages, however, all advantages of menus are related to the user interaction. In order to attract the user, menu-driven interfaces play their role, as they allow the user to select any option easily. If the user has not selected a right option, then it provides the facility to go back to the previous state. Menu-driven interfaces enhance the usability of the system. Each section has its own color, which helps the user to differentiate between different screens (BBC, 2014). A good user interface, along with the menus, enhance the usability, simplicity, attraction and other factors that become effective due to the presence of nice menu-driven right according to the user requirements as well as the user interests (Digital Zoo, 2014). Menu-driven interfaces basically follow some fundamental principles of a good interface, which are right according to the users’ demands and requirements regarding any type of menu strategy design. These principles are: the structure principles, visibility principles, feedback principles, tolerance principles, and reuse principle (Ward, 2013). Menu-driven interface hides the complexity in the background, and users can check only those options, which they want to check. And the most important thing is the aesthetic sense of these menus, as they are pleasing to eyes. As the number of websites and applications are resulting in an increasing number of users, where there are several kinds of users, like novice user and

The relationship between ethics and politics Essay

The relationship between ethics and politics - Essay Example Your duty is to weigh the benefits and the harm of your actions. For example, the majority believes that it is entirely wrong and unacceptable to take the life of another. But if you saw a child’s life in danger and the only way that you could save the child was to take the life of another, it would not be unethical to do so, although standards of behaviour dictate that taking the life of another is wrong. Barak Obama: I believe that taking the life of another to save a child does not set a bad example and it reinforces our responsibility to protect children. However, stealing when you can easily ask for food or work for it sets a bad example and would not be acceptable by any standards of conduct. Socrates: Again it is about knowing what is good for you. I cannot be good for you to fail to save a child from eminent harm. Nor can it good for you to steal to feed a child. Moral realism dictates that ignorance is the only form of unethical behaviour. Rational man determines what he thinks is best in each situation. In this regard knowledge motivates action that is appropriate and false perceptions and beliefs motivate inappropriate conduct. Socrates: Not necessarily. There is a human inclination to be corrupted by power so that political institutions tend to be susceptible to timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. None of these political institutions are capable of being impartial and are vulnerable to corruption. Socrates: Democracy gives that unsuitable ruler certain rights that permit him to remain in office longer than he should be. He has the right to insist upon a thorough investigation and he has the right to confront his accusers. Socrates: I would have thought that that fact that he was unsuitable would have already been a matter of public record. Still, I would have to say that democracy is the lesser of all the evils of politics. For instance, timocracy is authoritarian and can be compared to military

Vilademir propp and how his functions are related with hitchcocks two Essay

Vilademir propp and how his functions are related with hitchcocks two films that are north by northwest and spellbound - Essay Example He was responsible for multiple changes that have been experienced in literature, and especially in narratives (Hale 2009). Today, Vladimir’s ideas are still used in narrative plots, and most importantly, his ideas are more applicable to narratives. However, these today have been applied in the film and cinema industry. Different film theorists have equally studied on narrative structure and this is in conformity with Propp’s work (Bellour & Penley 2000). In this essay, I will address Propp’s findings in Morphology of Folk Tale, their contribution to the narrative theory of film, and how they relate with Hitchcock’s films â€Å"North by Northwest† and â€Å"Spellbound.† Propp in his Morphology of Folk Tale comes up a total of eight roles of the characters, and thirty-one functions of narratives, also called narratemes, which mainly defined the structure of the narratives. He was convicted that these narrative functions were existent in the classical fairy tale narrative (Hale 2009). The eight character roles, which Propp identified in his book, include The Helper, The Villain, The Donor, The False Hero, The Dispatcher, The Hero, The Princess, and her father. The functions of narratives by Propp exhibit more flexibility than the character roles. Propp made a categorization of these narrative functions to include six major groups, which are in coherence with the flow of the narrative. These include Struggle, Complication, Preparation, Recognition, Transference, and Return. The folk tales of different regions of the world are interconnected in one way or another, bearing a great deal of similarities in their themes. Hence, the Morphology of the folk t ale by Propp is not only applicable in Russian folk tales, but also to the folk tales of other different world regions (Propp 1928). Propp’s work has been credited for

Functions of Management Essay Example for Free

Functions of Management Essay United Health group is a major insurance company that provides medical and mental health coverage to its consumers. The organization manages Medicaid and Medicare accounts as well as commercial accounts from employers. Providing healthcare insurance is a competitive job, therefore, the management of the organization has to use the four functions of management to remain in the competition. The four function of management are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. In this paper, we will discuss the four functions of management and how it relates to the organization. The four functions of management is planning, organizing, leading and, controlling. Planning is for the goals of the organization, planning sets the stage for action and major achievements. Organizing is assembling and coordinating human, financial resources needed to achieve the goals. This could be organizing activities such as grouping jobs into work units, marshaling and allocating resources and creating conditions so that people and things work together to achieve maximum success. Leading is stimulating people to be high performers. Leading can take place in departments, teams as well as divisions. By encouraging high performers, you are increasing their inner moral, making them feel and believe they can complete their goals rather it is individual goals that coincide with the organization’s goals. Another management function is controlling, managers make sure the organization’s resources are being used as planned and that the organization is meeting its goals for quality and safety. The four functions of management have in common is to achieve the goals for the organization. The four functions all work together. There are three different levels in management; top level managers, middle level managers and, front line managers. Top level managers are typically the CEO, COO or CIO. Middle level managers are under the top level managers and, frontline managers are considered operational managers. The top level manager determines and identifies the goals that are needed for the entire organization. Once the CEO has identified the goals and what steps that are  needed to achieve the goal, the information is conveyed to middle management. Middle management takes those goals and determines what’s needed to achieve the goals such as organizing workloads, teams or units. Then convey to frontline managers. Front line management does most of the leading, their more hands on with employees or teams. Front line managers assist with establishing individual goals that will benefit the company and coincide with the company’s goals. Front line managers also use controlling by making sure the e mployees utilize company resources if needed. Also by making sure the company goals are being met. The organization uses all four of the management functions. There have been many cases of increased health issues within call center environments such as; obesity, high blood pressure, depression and anxiety issues. The organization created incentives to make the idea more appealing to the employees. The organization has decided to inspire and motivate their employees to take better care of their health. By creating the goals of decreasing the health issues within the office setting the organization set their stage for action so they could achieve these goals. Now that the goal has been established the organization needs to assemble humans, physical information to coordinate ways to achieve the goals. The organization started providing bonus incentives such has decrease in insurance if you’re passed a bio metric screening. The organization also begin to partner with Weight Watchers providing employee discounts, LA Fitness (discounted membership), provide stress management classes along, with providing ways to exercise in the office. There are different teams within the company with a goal of losing the most weight. The teams encourage one another and provide support during their weight loss journey. All teams support and encourage with the expectations of dropping the weight and defeating the other team. The teams have weekly check-ins where the members have to weigh in, report their meal plans. By utilizing the four functions of management, the organization has been able to lower their premiums for their employees, and increase better health within the organization. The organization identified the issue of health  concerns within the office setting, set the goals of prevention and reduction. With those plans of prevention and reduction the organization was able to organize employees and coordinate ways to achieve the goals. The staff coordinated and provided information to their employees to educate and prevent. The leaders promoted the resources and encouraged those to be active and participate in all the resources the organization has to offer. Reference Page: Bateman Thomas S., Snell Scott A. 8th edition, 2009 McGraw-Management: Leading and Collaborating in a Competitive World, Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. Sedentary jobs helping to drive obesity epidemic. (2011). Retrieved from http:// health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/fitness/articles/2011/05/26/sedentary-jobs-helping-to-drive-obesity-epidemic.

History Of Conducting Polymers Engineering Essay

History Of Conducting Polymers Engineering Essay Dr H. Letheby was the one to first initiate the study of conducting polymers, who was a known professor teaching at the College of London Hospital. In 1862, he first attempted to analyze the behaviors of the chemical reaction and to select them accordingly. His study of electropolymerized aniline sulfate was published in the Journal of the Chemical Society. The results showed the aniline sulphate turning to a bluish black solid layer, formed on a platinum electrode after its electropolymerization (1). It was between 1907 and 1911 that the Nobel Laureate Richard Willstatter characterized the oligomeric oxidation products of aniline through his methodic way of research (2). By using a starter Al(Et)3/Ti(OPr)4, the polymerization of acetylene in hexane rendered a polyacetylene for the first time in 1958 in the form of a polymer with a highly crystalline and a heavy molecular weight produced by Natta et al. The method did not attract any attention owing to the highly air sensitive, infusible and the insoluble properties of the compound obtained(3). The concept of iodine doping was established in the same time period of 1960s by the Czechoslovak researchers for polyaniline. This resulted in the conductivity of 1 S/cm for Polyaniline-iodine complexes. The attention of researchers was diverted towards organic conductors, in spite of the discovery of the inorganic explosive polysulfurnitride (SN)x in the 1970s, with its additional properties of conductivity at low temperatures. A silvery film of polyacetylene was created in 1974 by the usage of Ziegler-Natta catalyst which was not conductive although it was found to be the closest to metals in terms of appearance (5). The electronic conductivity of polyaniline was reaffirmed in 1974, a few years before the publishing of the polyacetylenes progress. The paper demonstrated interesting results of a parallel study with another conductive polymer also known as polypyrrole. The conductivity obtained was ranging from 5 to 30 S/cm (6). One of the important moments was the publishing of the doped polyacetylene in 1977. The modification of the polyacetylene film via a partial oxidation treatment with the oxidizing agents such as the halogens and the AsF5 was obtained by MacDiarmid, Shirakawa and Heeger which resulted in the film becoming conductive (5). Molecular Orbital and Molecular Structure of Conducting Polymers All the valence electrons are utilized in covalent ÏÆ'-bonds of the saturated polymers such as polyethylene. The material will show typical insulating properties owing to the gap between the valance band and the conduction band. Along the polymers supporting structure, a Ï€ system is formed in the conjugated polymers (8). A restricted alternation of double and single bonds is required in the conjugated bonds which is also apparent in the conducting polymers structure. The carbon atoms create 3 ÏÆ'-bonds with the adjacent atoms and the remaining p orbitals which is also explained as the pz orbitals. Nitrogen atoms are found to be involved in the conjugation path such as the polyaniline in some of the conjugated polymers (11). High energy orbitals are created as a result of this configuration in which the electrons are loosely bonded to their respective atoms. The conducting, semiconducting or the insulating properties of the material are determined by the distance lying between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and LUMO( the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital). The carrier movement or the jump from the HOMO to the LUMO creates the conduction mechanism. This becomes convenient if the distance between the HUMO and the LUMO energy is small. The sp2 hybridized linear carbon chains partially determines the conductivity of polyacetylene, which is the simplest form of semiconducting and metallic organic polymer. Six electrons are present outside the nucleus of the carbon atom, out of which 4 are valence electrons such as 2s and the 2p electrons, which takes part in the chemical bonds. The 1s and 2s orbitals of the carbon atoms are filled and the 2p orbitals are filled as well with 2 electrons in case of free space or where there is an existence of spherically symmetric distances. The creation of 3 sp2 and 1 p orbital is the result of hybridization. The bonding of 2 out of 3 sp2 orbitals on each carbon atom to another carbon atom adjacent to it and the bonding of last sp2 orbital with hydrogen or any of the side groups is the result. Covalent bonds are created between these atoms which in this case is referred to as ÏÆ' bond. It has a cylindrical symmetry around the internuclear axis. A Ï€ bond [10] is formed by the over lapping of unhybridized p orbitals of the adjacent carbon atoms. The fig 2.1 shows both the ÏÆ' and Ï€ bonds in the conjugated polymer structure. There is weak interaction between them creating weak bonds of the Ï€ electrons which exposes them to the risks of delocalization thus causing electrical conductivity of the polymer (10). According to Hà ¼nkel and Blochs simple free electron molecular orbital model theory, in case of a lengthy molecular chain showing metallic transport properties, the delocalization of Ï€ electrons over the entire chain forming a small band gap is seen. A conjugated polymer which has an alternation of double and single bonds, as a result, can be conductive in the right conditions. The delocalized electrons over the conjugated space are evenly distributed creating equivalent bonds (12). Differing bonding lengths of 1.54 nm, double bond: 1.34 nm) [9] are observed under simple conditions. The alternation of double and single bonds can also be observed. A typical conducting polymer matches an insulator in conductive properties without the need of doping or the orbitals being filled with electrically conductive particles. The transformation of the conductivity of a conjugated polymer from the insulating level to the conducting level is seen through the doping process. By the process of electrochemical oxidation and reduction doping can be obtained or it can also be attained by the direct exposure of the polymer to a doping material. Atomic or molecular species have been used as dopants which are either electron acceptors such as I2, Br2, AsF5, and LiClO4 or electron donors like Li, Na, and K (9, 10). 2.3. Conductor, Semiconductor and Insulator Solids such as metals have continuous orbitals. The electrons which are nearest to the filled levels can be excited and therefore move to the unoccupied levels without the requirement of any energy. As the temperatures increase the metals lose their conductivity in spite of the electrons being more excited. The electrons and the atoms colliding with each other result in the thermal motion of the atoms. The electrons lose their efficiency in transporting charges owing to the collisions. An energy gap separates the bands for transporting charges in semiconductors and insulators. Certain electrons gain enough energy as the temperature is increased, to move into the next unoccupied orbital. The metal becomes a semiconductor as the electrons are now mobile and create the electrical conductivity of the metal. In case of a large energy gap, the electrons may never be able to reach the conductive bands that will result in zero conductivity, such types of materials are known as insulators. Wh ile in semiconductor metals, the increase in the temperatures will also increase the conductivity as more electrons have the ability to reach the valence bands. 2.4Conductivity Mechanism High electron affiliation or low oxidation potentials are the characteristics of conducting polymers. This means that the polymers can be reduced and doped with electrons donors (n-type) and also have the potential to be oxidized and doped with electron acceptors (p-type). The HOMO-LUMO energy gap which has the semiconductor property of conjugated polymers as compared to conventional inorganic compounds, are owing to the additional charges associated to the creation of new and unfilled electronic energy states existing within the original HOMO-LUMO energy gap. A dopants role is either the removal or the addition of electrons. For instance in the case of iodine (I2) an electron will be taken for the formation of I3 ion. If the relocation of an electron in a semi conductor polymer by moving the electron from top most valence band such as the polyacetylene or polypyrrole, then as per the classical band theory, the creation of the vacancy hole as such will not be delocalized. A radical cation would be obtained in the case of the removal of an electron from a carbon atom. Owing to the Columbo attraction to its opposite ion (I3- ), the localization of the radical cation also known as the polaron takes place which in normal cases would be considered as having low mobility. This would be due to the local change in the geometrys equilibrium of the radical cation to the neutral molecule. The charge is moved along as shown in the fig 2.5 while the mobility of the polaron along the polyacetylene chain may be high. But a high concentration of opposite ions is necessary as the opposite ion (I3 -) to the positive charge is not very mobile, so that the polaron can move in the field of close opposite ions. The polymer which are mobile enough to conduct electric charges have the dopants generate polarons and bipolarons. The ionization of the conjugated polymer chain to a positive polaron (radical cation) is done by the dopants which is taken as an electron acceptor. These will further emerge as bipolarons or in some cases the two polarons may reversibly combine to create a bipolaron (16). Owing to its highly disordered structure the PPy can be given as an example for bipolaron formation. The formation of a bipolaron happens when two polarons are created on one similar chain (see fig 2.5)(17). 3.Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) 3.1. Introduction of PEDOT The research in 1967 indicates polythiophenes for the first time as a potential conducting polymers. Furan, pyrrole, and thiophene heterocycles acids catalyzed polymerization was studied by A. G. Davies. In 1982, Tourillon and Garnier first observed true electronic conductivity in polythiophenes. In the presence of perchlorate or tetrafluoroborate opposite ions, Thiophene was electropolymerized on platinum electrodes in acetonitrile. A conductivity of 10-100 S/cm was obtained in spite of the fact that highly conductive polythiophenes were possible from the start with Garnier and Tourillons fundamental work. It has gained long term stability against air and humidity while it failed to fulfill one of the requirements expected of as a truly conductive polymer not as a semiconductor. In 1930s was initiated the EDOT (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) chemistry when the corresponding 2, 5-dicarboxylic acid esters were synthesized. Thus biheterocyclic EDOT system consisting of one 1, 4-dioxane r ing and one thiophene moiety was explained which was annelated over the carbon single ([c]-) bond of the thiophene. The good chemical properties, high conductivity and good electro optical properties, the PEDOT has emerged as a promising compound (22). It has been used as an antistatic coating, photovoltaic technology, electroluminescent devices and biomedical sensors, etc (23). Electrochemical polymerization of PEDOT PEDOT was fabricated for the first time by Jonas et al (24) through anodical polymerization where the products showed high conductivity with enhanced chemical and thermal stability as compared to other polythiophenes. The polymerization occurs at the electrode in an electrochemical oxidative polymerization of a monomeric precursor of the conductive polymer. The ionic dopants in the process of polymerization, forming the electrolyte are induced in the polymer (25). The electrochemical polymerization is utilized in the case of EDOT monomer to create highly transmissive sky-blue, doped PEDOT film at the anode. The compatibility provided by the broad range of electrolyte solutions creates high stability of PEDOT films in different electrolyte solutions(26) Flexible PEDOT films were obtained, by Yamato et al in the presence of polyanions in the electrolyte solution, with an electrical conductivity as high as 400 S/cm. Several electrolytes were used in this research such as sulfonated poly (ÃŽ ²-hydroxy-ethers) (S-PHE), 1,3 bis(4-t-butylphenoxy)-2-propysulfate (BPS), poly (4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS), sulfated poly (ÃŽ ²-hydroxy-ethers) having trifluoromethyl groups (S-PHEF), sulfonated poly (ÃŽ ²-hydroxy-ethers) (S-PHE) and sulfonated poly (butadiene). However PEDOT film was deposited on the anode, in the presence of S-HPE, S-PBD and S-PHEF electrolytes. Numerous advantages are present in the electropolymerization technique such as: Materials required in small quantities. Characterizations and speedy analysis. Control of reactions is accurate. While the disadvantages are: In convenience in conducting standard analytical procedures owing to the small quantity of resultant with insoluble property. The electrical conductivity can be increased to a large extent through the electrochemical polymerization while the product obtained has poor transparency and the process must be applied on conducting substrates which will restrict the application purposes (28). 3.2.2 Oxidative chemical polymerization The deposition of a conjugated polymer by in situ oxidative polymerization on the surface is seen. Electrochemical polymerization has limited applications as compared to the chemical oxidation, which is more versatile. By coating the surface with a mixture of monomer and oxidant, chemical oxidation can be carried out with a mixture of the monomer and an oxidant where it enables the spreading of the mixture onto the surface first, owing to the suppression of the spontaneous reaction. These mixtures will have flexibility in their designing of the coating process with the separate application of the monomer and oxidant. These mixtures have a restricted pot life (29). A PEDOT with black, insoluble and infusible properties is obtained with the utilization of oxidizing agents such as the FeCl3 in the oxidative chemical polymerization (21). De Leeuw et al. [20 used iron(III) tosylate (FeIII(OTs)3) as oxidizing agents in the presence of imidazole as a base leading to the conductivity of PEDOT of 550 S/cm.(30). The classification of the reaction of EDOT with Iron (III) tosylate leading to in situ polymerization of PEDOT by Kirchmeyer and Reuter (31) into two categories were as: The monomer subjected to Oxidative polymerization to form neutral polythiophene. The neutral polymer subjected to oxidative doping to conductive polycation. The addition of Lewis acids or protic acids to the polymerization system will cause catalysis of the equilibrium reaction of EDOT to the relevant dimeric and trimeric compounds in the absence of further oxidation, (see fig 2.9)(31). Vapor Phase Polymerization Mohammadi et al(32) did the initial experiments named as Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process for polypyrrole polymerization. The oxidants used were FeCl3 and H2O2. In 2003 to 2005, J Kim et al first attempted to establish a new route for the highly conductive PEDOT layers with the process of vapor phase polymerization (VPP) (24). The evaporation of the EDOT and its polymerization on the substrate were done in the polymerization chamber where the deposition of the oxidant iron(III)-tosylate was found by bubbling the various types of gases like nitrogen, air and argon through the EDOT reservoir. FeIII tosylate was used as an oxidant and pyridine as a base-inhibitor, through the VPP process. By using oxidant, e.g., a butanol or ethanol solution of FeIII tosylate mixed with pyridine, the substrate coated with PEDOT film was covered. In a chamber flushed with air, nitrogen or argon gas, the EDOT monomers were heated into vapor phase. The polymerization process began and formed the PED OT coating, once they react with oxidizing agents on the substrates. To prove the concept of using a base inhibitor, pyridine, Winther-Jensen et al conducted the experiments. The compound was applied to PET and Pt coated PET substrates after mixing the ferric tosylate solution with pyridine in the respective molar ratio of 1:0.5. Winther et al investigated some of the liquids such as pyridine, pyrazine and quinoline. The materials and Fe (II) were void of any sort of crystal formation. The VPP of EDOT was best suited to pyridine (pKa 5.14, boiling point 115 C °) as the base, owing to quinolines low vapor pressure and the insufficient base characteristic of pyrazine [24]. Winther-Jensen et al measured the conductivity of PEDOT films as a function of temperature. A similar behavior as the semi conductors was observed as with the increase in temperature on which the conductivity also increased. Winther-Jensen et al studied the stability of conductive PEDOT layers in air and aqueous solutions. The creation of PEDOT layer on glass substrates was conducted in this experiment, and the examination carried out in the environments mentioned earlier. Till the constant point a speedy reduction in the water conductivity was seen. A slow paced decrease in the conductivity of air as compared to the water environment was observed. The pH level determines the conductivity of PEDOT. Lower pH values resulted in highest conductivities. The products acidity was observed in the range of pH 1, during the base inhibited VPP of EDOT. In water of pH7 the long term stability is lower as compared to air which takes more time to reach equilibrium with carbon dioxide (34). There is no aqueous transport medium in VPP process. During the PEDOT layer formation no agglomeration was seen. The need for dispersants and stabilizer additives is negated in high processability. The process of polymerization is fast and simple (35).

The Knee :: essays research papers

The Knee   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most doctors agree that the dehumanization in the clinical setting can lead to the loss of a patient because of the lack of respect they are given. That is a great incentive for doctors to try to get to know their patients and make them feel as comfortable as possible. When a patient attends a teaching hospital where aspiring doctors exam patients in groups, there is no real reward for them learning personal information about the patient. They will move on to start their own practice and probably never see the patient again. However, just because the patients are at a teaching hospital does not make them any less important, so how can medical school programs promote patient-physician relationships when the physician has nothing to gain?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Morals and ethics would tell a doctor to respect their patient’s privacy and keep the examinations discrete. Ideally doctors will know all their patients by name, not disease, know a little bit about their private life and find a point of contact with each patient. When in large groups, doctors and medical students don’t really have the opportunity to speak privately with the patients to get to know them, but should they disregard the patient all together and merely address the chief complaint? In Constance Meyd’s â€Å"The Knee,† â€Å"all eyes are on the knee; no one meets her eyes† and she is viewed by the students and teacher as â€Å"irrelevant† (167). The woman’s â€Å"embarrassment and helplessness are evident† to the examiners, but they disregard her emotions as they continue the leg maneuvers. Common courtesy would tell the group to close the door and allow the patient to cover herself more adequatel y, but the author emphasized that the door was open the entire time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is quite obvious that morals, ethics and common courtesy are not enough to encourage the respect of patients in the educational atmosphere, as is seen in the story. I believe it is the responsibility of the medical school to encourage their teachers to demonstrate ways to connect with patients rather than just teaching the anatomy of health care. Teachers are supposed to be role models for students and if they are not taught to treat patients with respect, the only way they can learn that kind of skill is the hard way; through the loss of patients because of their feelings of irrelevancy at the doctor’s office, or through the complaints of people who are unsatisfied with their quality of health care.

Character Analysis of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams A Streetcar

Character Analysis of Blanche Through Text and Symbolism in A Streetcar Named Desire      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tennessee Williams was once quoted as saying "Symbols are nothing but the natural speech of drama...the purest language of plays" (Adler 30). This is clearly evident in A Streetcar Named Desire, one of Williams's many plays. In analyzing the main character of the story, Blanche DuBois, it is crucial to use both the literal text as well as the symbols of the story to get a complete and thorough understanding of her.    Before one can understand Blanche's character, one must understand the reason why she moved to New Orleans and joined her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley. By analyzing the symbolism in the first scene, one can understand what prompted Blanche to move. Her appearance in the first scene "suggests a moth" (Williams 96). In literature, a moth represents the soul. So it is possible to see her entire voyage as the journey of her soul (Quirino 63). Later in the same scene she describes her voyage: "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields" (Quirino 63). Taken literally this does not seem to add much to the story. However, if one investigates Blanche's past, one can truly understand what this quotation symbolizes. Blanche left her home to join her sister, because her life was a miserable wreck in her former place of residence. She admits, at one point in the story, that "after the d eath of Allan (her husband) intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with" (Williams 178). She had sexual relations with anyone who would agree to it. This is the first step in her voyage-"Desire". She ... ...n. Boston: Twayne, 1990. Corrigan, Mary Ann. â€Å"Memory, Dream, and Myth in the Plays of Tennessee Williams.† Dialogue in American Drama. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971. Engle, Paul. "A Locomotive Named Reality," The New Republic, CXXXII (Jan. 24, 1955), 26, 27. Falk, Signi. Tennessee Williams. Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. New York, 1961. Jackson, Esther M. The Broken World of Tennessee Williams.   Madison and Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin, 1965. Quirino, Leonard. â€Å"The Cards Indicate a Voyage on A Streetcar Named Desire.† Modern Critical Interpretations: A Streetcar Named Desire. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1988. Vowles, Richard B. "Tennessee Williams: The World of His Imagery," Tulane Drama Review, III (Dec., 1958), 51-56. Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Viking Penguin, 1976.

The Holocaust :: essays research papers

"If we were not an eternal people before, we are an eternal people after the Holocaust, in both its very positive and very negative sense. We have not only survived, we have revived ourselves. In a very real way, we have won. We were victorious. But in a very real way, we have lost. We'll never recover what was lost. We can't assess what was lost. Who knows what beauty and grandeur six million could have contributed to the world? Who can measure it up? What standard do you use? How do you count it? How do you estimate it...? We lost. The world lost, whether they know it or admit it. It doesn't make any difference. And yet we won, we're going on." This quote is from the testimony of Fania Fenelon. The signs and symptoms that are among the Jews because of the Holocaust definitely characterize abnormality. These abnormalities include the physical effects, the spiritual effects, and the second generation. The physical effects were enormous among the Jews. The conditions of the camps defy description. The nutrition was worse than inadequate and the results being the well-known "musselmen": skeletons covered by skin. After the Jews in prison camps were freed, their diseases were treated as well as could be treated. Premature aging was one of the most prominent disabling effects of survivors. Digestive tract diseases were also very common because of the emotional disturbances and inadequate diet during their incarceration. The experience also placed them at risk of coronary diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and arteriosclerosis. All of this was consistent with the premature aging and the atrophy of the heart muscle due to the extreme undernourishment during captivity. Spiritual concerns also followed the survivors of the Holocaust. The Jews had to face up to one of the most painful realities of all...What it means to be a Jew. They had to decide whether or not to remain a Jew. The Holocaust had threatened the Jewish people near extinction. A anger directed towards the Non-Jewish world was intense because they had been persecuted by Gentiles. The Holocaust had caused an apparently irreversible rupture in the Jewish-Christian relations. Jews felt and still feel enraged because their expectations of a decent world were shattered into pieces by the most, supposedly, civilized people in the world. "Where was God?" wrote Elie Wiesel, a question asked many times among the Jews. They felt

Pretty Woman

The film Pretty Woman is a 1990 romantic comedy set in Los Angeles, California which takes place just following the 80’s era. The story of Pretty Woman centers on a Hollywood prostitute Vivian Ward who gets hired by a very wealthy businessman, (Edward Lewis), to be at his beck and call or escort for several business and social functions. During that time, they gradually begin to develop a relationship over the course of Vivian’s week-long stay in his suite. Edward then takes his lawyer’s exotic Lotus S4 Esprit and heads down Hollywood Boulevard where he took a detour to ask for directions.He has no other choice but to ask a nearby beautiful prostitute by the name of Vivian, who is willing to help him reach his point of destination. Edward hires Vivian to stay with him for an entire week as an escort for his social meetings and events. Vivian then makes a point that â€Å"it is going to cost him,† so in agreement he offers her three thousand dollars and acc ess to all his credit cards. He then tells Vivian that she needs to dress more appropriately so he sends her shopping on Rodeo Drive, only to be snubbed by saleswomen who disdain her because of her immodest clothing.Vivian runs into the hotel manager and he happily helps her buy a dress because she is with Mr. Lewis. When Vivian’s week is up, Edward tends to her and tries convincing her to stay. Vivian heads home with her friend Kit. Edward then travels to Vivian’s apartment and climbs up the fire escape, despite his fear of heights, with a rose between his teeth, to convince her. The film ends as the two of them kiss on the fire escape with a visual urban romantic metaphor being displayed.

Ethics and Financial Services Essay

Question A1 Outline the frauds identified in the case and explain the inconsistencies with proper accounting treatment. Relate your answer to broad accounting concepts and accounting standards where relevant. (8 marks; approximately 800 words) Answer: Livent Inc. is a theatre production corporation registered in Toronto, Canada. Therefore, all the accounting behaviours were subject to the General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) of Canada. In a broad sense, the GAAP imposes four main constraints on the accounting behaviours of companies – objectivity, materiality, consistency and conservatism. In the case of Livent Inc., there are several behaviours that was inconsistent with the proper accounting regulations in general. Large kickback scheme At the very beginning of the entire fraud by Livent, the two executives, Drabinsky and Gottlieb, fabricated transactions that did not exist at all, in order to transfer the revenue of the company secretly to their own pockets. They made the fake transaction on their balance sheet by colluding with their vendors. Drabinsky and Gottlieb received the money from vendors and asked them to fabricate evidences of charging fees. Manipulation of accounting records The kickback scheme sacrificed the net profit of the company, and as a result, Drabinsky and Gottlieb started manipulating the records. There were evidence from later investigation that Livent was exaggerating its revenue from the box office to show that it kept good income statement with good  profit. Also, they asked the accountants at Livent to modify the financial statements to hide the potential financial problems Livent had and to exhibit good operating performance to attract more investment. Drabinsky even used special software to manipulate the financial statements to make them as if they were the original record and hard to be detected. Keeping the fraud as secret to auditors With the help of the special software, Livent Inc. was able to keep two records of their financial performances, the phony one and the real one. And the outside auditors did auditing of Livent based on the phony financial records Livent provided. Therefore, the Deloitte, Livent’s outside auditing company, could hardly see signs of fraud during annual auditing. Significantly, the fraud of Livent Inc. broke the accounting principle of objectivity, which is also the primary standards companies should stick to. The objectivity principle basically requires that all kinds of financial statements the companies offer should be based on the facts. That is to say, every transaction and item recorded in the financial statements should be supported by unbiased and objective information. Under no circumstances are the managers, shareholders and accountants allowed to fabricate or distort any accounting reports and materials of the company. However, what Drabinsky and Gottlieb did at Livent went against the accounting standards. The fact that the two partners urged the internal accountants to modify the seasonal expenses and liability is definitely away from the proper professional behaviours. Livent benefited from manipulating its performance with additional investment and bank loans, which boosted aggressive expanding plans of Livent. It is even intolerable that the company invented the special software, which allowed unlimited arbitrary modification of all the accounting records of the company. This made the fraud much easier and less likely to be discovered because it enabled the manipulation looked as if they were the original data. Elrod and Gorhum (2010) made quantitative research on the way of detecting fraud by examine the extent to which the cash flow from operation and the earnings from continuing operations are correlated. Livent Inc. forced the accounting staff in the company to comply with the fraud behaviour without any doubt. The executives showed a â€Å"matter-of-fact† attitude toward the fraud. The accountants, independent auditors were not working independently and objectively as required by GAAP. On the contrary, they have been coerced or instructed to make fake accounting records, and did not show cooperation with the independent outside auditors. GAAP intends to ensure auditor independence. But Messina used her previous influence at Deloitte to disturb the independency of Deloitte auditors in examining the financial performance of Livent. The objectivity principle additionally restricts unreliable reports, materials and sheets offered to the auditors for annual auditing. Under the current accounting principles and standards in Canada and the United State, the auditors are responsible only for ensuring the preparation of all the accounting documents of the company align with the GAAP. But the outside auditors do not have access to the detailed daily record of the company. Therefore, the annual auditing is unable to prevent managerial collusion if the company provides counterfeit accounting materials. Livent was giving the fake balance sheet, income statement and other reports to Deloitte, which is not allowed by the accounting standards to a broad extent. Some companies correct their cheating behaviour when the situation improves, which makes it even harder to be detected. Nonetheless, such behaviours done by Livent are inconsistent with the standard professional ethics and regulations. Moreover, the aggressive developing strategy Livent had taken also violated the conservatism principle that the GAAP requires. This principle asks the accountants to exclude the uncertain income or revenue, while include the possible losses and risks in the financial statement. The conservative accounting behaviors are necessary because they can effectively prevent the shareholders and investors from potential losses. But in this case, Drabinsky is in such a haste to pursue aggressive development of the company, and obviously was exaggerating its revenue as well as concealing its losses. Question A2 Describe the corporate ethical culture at Livent Inc. How did this culture affect employee behaviour? Explain and justify your answer. (12 marks; approximately 1,200 words) Answer: Several researches supported the argument that the corporate ethical culture had large influences on the behaviours of the employees and their ethical judgements. The company does not have to have a specific code of ethics for the employees to constraint their ethical behaviours. The corporate environment in itself is enough for influencing the ethical behaviours inside the company. Nwachukwu and Vitell (1997)’s research found that the ethical culture in corporate has certain impact on the moral conviction of the employees upon what is right and wrong. Fraudulent behaviour was a very significant issue in the development of companies. It was because that it had tremendous impacts on the corporate, the employees as well as the public. Also, the difficulties in preventing such behaviours were to define, prevent and detect it. Schwartz (2013) made research and emphasized the three key factors in maintain an ethical corporate culture in the company. They are the set of ethical beliefs or values throughout the company, establishing â€Å"formal ethics program† and the ethical leadership throughout the development of the company. However, in the case of Livent’s fraud, all the three factors were lack in the system of the company. They had no clear ethical values, as the self-regulation mechanism, set and administrated inside the company to constraint the behaviours of not only the employees, but the senior executives as well. The unethical culture set by the top executives had not only influenced, but also forced all the staff, especially the accountants, to cooperate and to help conceal the fraud from being detected by the outsiders. This caused the company running under a set of very unethical corporate culture. It seemed to be routine to manipulate the financial records in Livent Inc. for quite a long time. As early as the year of 1990, Drabinsky, together with his best partner Gottlieb, began the kickback scheme to illegally create fake transactions to transfer money from the company to their own pockets. Then later Dranbinsky and Gottlieb had to tell even bigger lies and got more people involved in in order to make up for the expense losses from the kickback plan. The company lacked ethical leadership from the very beginning. To make the financial performance of Livent look promising,  Drabinsky and Gottlieb meddled in the daily accounting records as well as the preparation of the annual financial statements that were handed in and were examined by the auditing company, Deloitte. The executives and the senior level staff were not establishing positive example inside the company so as to maintain a positive ethical corporate culture. What’s even worse, they acted as the leading role in such fraudulent behaviours and arbitrarily got the other employees into the serious fraud scheme. Drabinsky and Gottlieb shouted at and coerced the staff and even the senior level managers to fulfil their ambition. They developed a specific computer software inside the company’s accounting system, so that they were able to take control of the financial status of the company. They could adjust any amount and transaction records in the system to make the quarterly, semi-annually and annually report of financial performance of Livent look promising to invest in. Even worse, by applying the software, Livent was able to cheat on the accounting records as if they were the raw figures, and avoid being discovered. It had also facilitated the fraudulent behaviours and motivated the employees and the executives to fraud continuously. Another serious issue inside Livent, besides the manipulation of the accounting records and financial statements, is the overwhelming attitude of viewing fraud as a matter of fact among executives as well as the employees. Even if some of the accounting staff including Messina and Webster questioned the unethical behaviours they got involved in, they were influenced by the overall environment and paid no attention to the fraudulent behaviours in Livent. They took for granted that what they did was to follow the instructions of the executives so as not to get fired. The employees would see Drabinsky shouting and bullying the accountants and even the senior level staff in the company if they had any different opinions against him. This was in fact establishing bad example for the employees and was to warn the other staff to just accept the deviant behaviours as a matter of fact. For a long time, employees were aware of the fraud happening, but were unwilling to avoid it. Llopis et al. (2007) argued that â€Å"effective communication is essential for the ethical message to be properly assimilated†. However, in Livent, the top two executives, Drabinsky and Gottlieb, were much too autocratic in the way of managing the company. There  were barely any information about the ethical culture passed to the employees, and the staff had little freedom to do their job but to listen to Drabinsky’s instructions. Last but not least, Livent Inc. lacked proper self-regulation mechanism to prevent the non-ethical behaviours. More often than not, self-regulation are considered as the last prevention of bad corporate ethical culture. Schwartz (2013) pointed out that the set of ethical value of the company was critical for making ethical decisions. Real self-regulation should not be independent of the public interest. Instead, the behaviours under self-regulation should be compatible with the social values and principles. In addition, as the ethical value of the company should not be arbitrarily decided by the executives or a few people in the company; instead the set of ethical value should gain the consent of the majority of the employees (Llopis et al. 2007). Yet, what the set of value acquiesced by the employees in Livent went against the public’s interest, and thus led to the unethical corporate culture overall. Formally, inside Livent, they did not have complete ethical programs including regulations on the professional operation of each position to prevent fraud. The ethical value of the company should be clearly stated in the policies and regulations, or even set incentive mechanism to encourage the employees to follow and to form good habits. In conclusion, there were three factors causing the unethical corporate culture inside Livent. The first is the long-standing fraudulent behaviours from the top executives, which were then passed down to the employees of lower levels arbitrarily. Second element of the unethical culture was the attitude of taking committing fraud as a matter of fact, and thus no one in the company were willing to discourage it. Finally, the lack of internal ethical corporate regulations or values established throughout the company accelerated the forming of unethical corporate culture. Working under such environment, the employees got involved in the fraudulent behaviours willingly or unwillingly forced by their boss. Moreover, their original ethical judgement became vague as they got used to the prevalent fraudulent working culture after a long time. They loss the sense of justice to judge the right and the wrong things. They might even rationalize what they had  done to be just and necessary. PART B Question B1 Why do you think Maria Messina become complicit in the fraud(s)? Explain your answer using the fraud triangle. (15 marks; approximately 1,500 words) Answer: The fraud originally started with the large kickback scheme by Drabinsky and Gottlieb, and finally Maria Messina, as the chief financial officer of Livent, got involved and helped in the huge fraud. Messina’s motivation to become complicit in the fraud can be explained by the theory of fraud triangle, which reveals much of the psychology of committing a fraud. The three key factors in the fraud triangle, considered as prerequisites of fraudulent behaviours, are the pressure, the opportunity and the rationalisation of doing it. Pressure The pressure of committing the fraud, according to the theory of fraud triangle, is more often than not â€Å"non-shareable† (Dellaportas 2013). The type of pressure may be related to financial issues, or may come from the job and working atmosphere. Dellaportas (2013) pointed out that the evil ideas can also be the source of pressure that causes fraud. People in Livent who joined in the fraud had different reasons of incentive to do illegal things as they had different kind of pressure. For example, for the two executives, Drabinsky and Gottlieb, they shared financial pressure. At first, their greed for money stimulated them to design the large kickback plan to secretly transfer money from the company to their own pockets. And later, just as Brenna and McGrath (2007) described in the paper, the executives had the motivation to fraud to keep the company at good performance so that they could gain high bonus as well as keep continuous outside investment for the company. But the motivation and pressure for Messina was a little different. Although as CFO of Livent, her bonus was linked with the performance of the company, the evidences in the  case and in the trial were insufficient to decide whether her fraudulent behaviour was directly motivated by financial pressure. However, it is clear that she was forced to involve in the fraud, like many other accountants at Livent, because of the coercion of Drabinsky and Gottlieb. Messina testified that the executives including Drabinsky would shout at the accountants and force them to cooperate in work. She worked under the pressure of the executives in the company. Messina would be at the risk of losing her job if she did not follow the instruction of Drabinsky. The financial situation was negative long before Messina joined Livent, meaning the fraud had already started before Messina was able to stop it. Taking over the responsibility of managing the financial performance of the company, she was faced with the situation out of her control. The environment of fraud and routine to manipulate the financial records had long been formed. The frequent use of software that enabled Drabinsky to easily manipulate the financial records and financial statements as much as he wanted was a common behaviour in Livent, acquiesced by everyone in the company. Under the threat of Drabinsky, Messina thus had no choice but to try her best to manage the fraud from being detected, making herself really exhausted by the daily work. The pressure Messina faced as the chief financial officer was unable to share with other colleagues and she was forced by the financial pressures to involve in the fraud. She could feel the threats from Drabinsky and the already very troublesome financial situation. And she could perceive that her subordinates and other staff in Livent were suffering the bully and coercion from their executives as well. Opportunity The factor of opportunity in the fraud triangle refers to the ability to commit the fraud and in the situations like the one in the case, such opportunity mainly results from having specific professional skills or knowledge. That is to say, the person was able to manipulate skilfully and knew how to avoid being discovered by his supervisors or regulations. In addition, the trust that the person is able to accomplish the job in accord  with laws also contributes to the opportunity. The trust existing in the relationship between the supervisor and the employees may contribute to getting authorized without careful screening. The trust caused the space of opportunity to fraud expanded. In case of Livent, Messina was an experienced accountants as well as a Chartered Accountant, who had been promoted to partner of the Deloitte &Touch, LLP in Canada. Her previous experience in the industry enabled her to have a good knowledge both in accounting and auditing. That is to say, Messina potentially knew how to manipulate the accounting records daily and prepare the fraudulent financial statement annually. Also, she understood the normal practice of outside professional auditors, who were responsible for examining the financial performance of the company and avoiding inconsistency with the GAAP. Thus, Messina could give professional advice to Drabinsky and Gottlieb so that their manipulation of the accounting records would not be detected in the annual auditing. Besides her professional knowledge and skills in assisting in the fraud in accounting, the opportunity for Messina to get involved also includes the trust on her and her influence in her previous company. Messina had worked at Deloitte Canada for quite a long time and had been promoted to position as partner before she left the company and became CFO of Livent Inc. She had therefore built broad relationship within Deloitte, who was the outside auditing firm for Livent at that time. As Dellaportas (2013) pointed out in the research, insufficient internal regulation and supervision upon such fraudulent behaviours prompted the fraud to continue without being detected by others. However, in the specific case of Livent, there was no self-regulation mechanism at all, since the entire company, from the executives to the employees of the lowest-level, got involved in the fraud. Thus, it was hopeless to discover and discourage such deviant behaviours by the people inside the company. This caused the fraud of Livent to continue to expand and to be very serious. Rationalisation The rationalisation is not rational, instead it is an excuse for the person  who commits the fraud to justify the behaviour to himself. Coleman (1987) discussed this factor of fraud within the context of white collar crimes, and he argued that rationalisation is not an â€Å"after-the-fact† excuse. In fact, people who commit the crime do not realize that their behaviours are deviant. A large number of white collar crime criminals argued that they considered the laws to be unjust or unreasonable, causing them to break the rules (Coleman 1987). The factor of rationalisation is more risky than the other two factors because the people who have violated the laws believed that they had the right reason to do so. He also mentioned other common argument of the fraudulent behaviours. They claimed that such behaviours were the only way for them to achieve the goal or to â€Å"survive† (Coleman 1987). Based on the research results from Dellaportas (2013), he identified the three most common way of denial that people think to justify their fraudulent behaviours. People would rationalize their behaviour as they deny the â€Å"responsibility, injury and victim†. First, the offenders will shirk responsibility and say someone else are supposed to be in charge of the fraud. Secondly, they justify what they have done by arguing that there is no victim in this situation. Finally, if there is victims, the offenders may consider that the victims deserve the sufferings. Thus, they are free from taking responsible or even committing their fraud is illegal. Definitely, there were rationalisation inside Messina that made her behaviour â€Å"just† according to her own value. After quitting the partner position at Deloitte, Messina believed it to be right or rational for her to help Drabinsky in the fraud. Or otherwise, she would lose her job and would be unable to survive. And the overall atmosphere inside the Livent, considering what they were doing as â€Å"matter of fact†, alleviated the employee’s sense of responsibility for the fraud. Messina could hardly feel guilty and never considered about the consequences of helping the company’s fraud. She might rationalize her efforts in the fraud as under the instruction of Drabinsky, instead of out of her own willingness. The above analysis clearly dissected the reasons why Messina became complicit in the fraud from the perspective of psychology. However, as Dellaportas (2013) discussed, the influence of each factor in the fraud triangle varied  from case to case, and was not often equally impacting the fraud behaviours. Recent researches intend to improve the fraud triangle by considering additional factors into the model to better understand the behaviour of fraud in current times. What Messina had done assisted the fraud in Livent to continue for quite a long time after she joined Livent. Messina became the complicit in the serious fraud due to the pressure she was facing, mainly financially, the opportunity she was able to take advantage of and the rationalisation she found for herself to justify her deviant behaviours. Dellaportas (2013) discovered, through case study from ten accountants’ committing fraud, that the opportunity of committing fraud was a much more important factor in dete cting fraud and to take control of it. The motivation and rationalisation contributed less in this kind of accounting fraud cases. Question B2 Comment on the adequacy of the disciplinary action taken against Messina. (5 marks; approximately 500 words) Answer: Finally, Messina was fined for $7,500 and was suspended from doing accounting practice for two years. It is adequate but not enough punishment for Messina’s violation to the accounting standards according to the facts already known. After joining Livent, what Messina did in the Livent’s case of fraud went against the code of professional ethics, which discourages cheating and manipulations. Also, her behaviours broke the securities law in the United States, where the trial of Livent was held. Her involving in the fraud conflicted the interest of the public, especially the investors, who were unable to judge the real performance of Livent from their financial reports. Messina abused her authority in Livent and her influence on Deloitte, for the interest of her own and the executives at Livent. At the very beginning of joining Livent, Messina faced coercion and threats from Drabinsky to keep decent records by manipulation. However, she did not take positive action to resolving the conflict of interest between Drabinsky and herself. Proper ways when one faces conflict of interest is to  quit the job or decline to do the fraud. Messina could have turned to a confidential counselling firm for advice so that she did not have to get involved further in the fraud. On the one hand, it is enough punishment for her involvement in the fraud. She helped the accounting department at Livent to conceal the manipulation of financial statements. Also, as former partner at Deloitte, she abused her influence on the outside independent auditors to comb the financial reports of Livent before they filed to ensure the fraud undetected. What she did violated the standard professional codes for accountants and auditors, and thus she should be subject to penalty. According to the documents from Securities and Exchange Commission (1999), Messina was involved in discussion and approval of every manipulated records. She helped to hide these materials from the auditors so as not to be discovered the inflation in the company’s revenue. On the other hand, the SEC is conservative in judgement because of lack of evidence in proving Messina’s role in the fraud. First, it requires further investigation of the case to identify what she really did and her attitude in the fraud supported with evidence. Moreover, Messina, according to the case material, did show adversarial attitude toward Drabinsky’s fraud plan at first. It means that she still sticked to professional discipline in the beginning, though she yielded to Drabinsky’s bullying later. Also, Messina showed humble attitude in investigation and trial, and cooperated with the commission to investigate the case. It is adequate that the judges punished Messina both financially and professionally. She not only has to give back the illegal money she gained from the fraud, but also should be prevented from doing the practice until she can finally reflect on her mistakes before returning to the business as chief financial officer. However, the amount of fine is too little for Messina to realize her improper behaviours, considering the massive consequences of the fraud and the amount of money they benefited from manipulation. But the judgement should after all based on the evidences and regulations. The judge should take the good and bad things Messina had done  throughout the fraud into account to decide. Also, the punishment against Messina requires further investigation of her role in the fraud, which is disputable. References Coleman, J W 1987, ‘Toward an integrated theory of white-collar crime’, American Journal of Sociology, vol 93, no. 2, pp. 406-439. Dellaportas, S 2013, ‘Conversations with inmate accountants: Motivation, opportunity and the fraud triangle’, Accounting Forum, vol. 37, pp. 29-39. Elrod, H & Gorhum, M J, ‘Fraudulent financial reporting and cash flows’, Journal of Finance and Accountancy, vol. 11, pp. 56-61. Llopis, J, Gonzalez, M R & Gasco, J L 2007, ‘Corporate governance and organisational culture: The role of ethics officers’, International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 96–105 Nwachukwu, S LS & Vitell, S J 1997, ‘The influence of corporate culture on managerial ethical judgments’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 757-776. Schwartz, M S 2013, ‘Developing and sustaining an ethical corporate culture: The core elements’, Business Horizons, vol. 56, pp. 39-50. Securities and Exchange Commission, 1999, Securities and Exchange Commission versus Garth H. Drabinsky, Myron I. Gottlieb, Robert Topol, Gordon C. Eckstein, Maria M. Messina, Diane J. Winkefein, D. Grant Malcolm and Tony Fiorino, 99 CIV.0239, Litigation Release No. 16022, retrieved 15 Aug 2013, .

Arabic Language in Learning Sahria and Islamic Law Essay

Language is very important in our daily life. It serves as the way in communicating and dealing with other people. There are many language used by different people in different places. In field of teaching, language is the most important factor to be considered. Arabic language was known to be the second most used language in the world second to Chinese. A good knowledge of Arabic language will greatly enhance one’s ability to work and interact effectively with Arabic-speaking people and that, the diligent study of Arabic can lead to exciting careers in various fields in that particular vicinity. In addition, Arabic is the language of Islam and to properly understand Islam, that is why Arabic should be learn and taught for every Muslims (Tamano 1996). In teaching Sharia or Islamic Law, Arabic Language should be highly encouraged as the fundamental medium used in the classroom. However, in the case of King Faisal Center most of the students taking up Sharia courses have only miniature background in Arabic field particularly Arabic language. As a result the teachers preferred to use Local language just to make the student understand the discussions of Sharia. Sharia Law or Islamic Law derives its legal rules to Quran and Hadith. The primary sources of Islamic law are the Quran and Hadith which is written in Arabic language. In order to understand the Quran and Hadith you should be knowledgeable in Arabic language. For Muslims, the Qur’an is the literal word of God received verbatim by the Prophet Muhammad in his native Arabic tongue, who passed it on his followers. Qur’an is the foundation of Islam and the primary source of guidance for Muslims in all aspect of life, whether spiritual, legal, moral, political, economic or social (Saeed 2006). Qur’an is the primary source of Islamic Law and it originally written in Arabic text. Sharia derives its law based on the Qur’an. That is why the students and teachers should give an importance in teaching and learning Arabic Language in order to help the students specially Sharia students in order for them to understand the Sharia clearly and to help them in their future job as a Sharia practitioner. In the case of KFCIAAS in Islamic Studies Department, they preferred to use English language in most of their Sharia courses. KFCIAAS should consider that Arabic language is the foundation of Islam and we should give importance for improving and enhancing their methods of teaching Arabic language. The focus of this study is to gather information on the importance of Arabic language in teaching Sharia in King Faisal Center for Islamic Arabic and Asian Studies and try to strengthen and improve the teaching of Arabic language in King Faisal Center.

Survey of Research Literature – Identity Theft

Research Analysis Survey of Research Literature in Information Technology Management Infrastructure Abstract: Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. There are many definitions of identity theft, however this type of crime typically involves illegally utilizing somebody else’s personal information for both personal and or financial gain. Thieves acquire personal information through different methods ranging from stealing physical documents all the way to hacking into corporate databases.The field of Information Technology is one of the fastest growing fields in the world. Daily innovations and discoveries are flooding our lives. The continual strive for speed and efficiency make the world move faster into the new era of digital information.In addition to advances in computing, many other fields are forced to innovate and comply with the demands of the new 21st century consumer. However with all the convenience and access to this digital inform ation the world faces those who use the technology to destroy information and control others for their own benefit. The two most evident industries that face such challenges are the health industry and the financial industry. Both consists of billions of dollars in revenue each year and pose a lucrative target for the digital underground.The finance industry is a more interesting topic when it comes to identity theft since it involves the financial system for businesses, financial institutions and consumers. By looking at this industry directly we can see how these affects influence each other and what can be done to protect the consumer and the business sector. This paper will be separated into consumer and business parts and then further divided into sub parts where the focus would be on specific sections on what is closely related to or can result in identity theft.Once such threats and security issues are identified and thoroughly described, the paper will also cover some of the existing solutions that are currently being implemented by, businesses, financial institutions and even consumers themselves. Looking at all sides of the problem, identity theft touches upon a variety of issues such as tools that are used to identify ones credentials, information that is stored on computers of thousands or retailers, financial institutions as well as taking into account the technology that makes authentication and financial transactions possible.The spectrum of this is so large that only a small part of it can be analyzed and covered in this paper. What is Identity Theft? According to numerous sources, identity theft is a way to take someone else’s identity and utilize it for either financial or gains of being accountable for certain actions or consequences. The term identity theft has actually came from the word impersonation or cloning which describes a process of making an exact copy of something or in this case assuming an identity of another person.In t his paper there is only one side to the identity theft and it is the financial loss or gain that occurs during the process. Looking at the identity theft from several prospective and analyzing how it affects the consumer, business, or financial institution is what this analysis is attempting to identify. â€Å"Each year, millions of consumers are victimized by identity theft—the practice of using the identity of another to obtain credit. After the identity thief defaults, lenders and credit bureaus attribute the default to the impersonated consumer. Sovern 2004)† According to Sovern 2004, the default that occurs between the lender and the pretend consumer, in the end falls upon the innocent consumer whose information has been stolen in one way or another and misused for financial gain. Typically there are numerous parts to what results in identity theft. First of all identity thieves typically obtain personal information that is used to identify an individual, as well as credentials that can be used to authenticate themselves.Then, they would utilize the credentials to impersonate other individuals and proceed to gain access to financial documents and finally actual monetary assets. â€Å"Identity theft—the appropriation of someone else’s identity to commit fraud or theft (Milne 2003)—is a serious consumer problem (Sovern 2004)†. Identity theft is a commission of fraud that not only poses a serious threat to consumers but is a very serious crime that has unlimited consequences for everyone involved in the process.Although it is a serious crime and a wide spread problem there are many different ways that thieves can approach this type of method. The initial process of acquiring personal information that is needed to impersonate another individual can consist anywhere from finding the information in public records at the library, all the way to stealing financial documents like credit cards, checks, and digital informati on by hacking computer networks. The spectrum of this problem is endless and continues to grow on the daily basis, while financial information becomes ore widespread with the innovation of technology. Before looking at the specific areas of theft and their origins, identifying the meaning behind identity as being part of identity theft would be beneficial to the true understanding behind impersonating someone else. â€Å"Identity is a means of denoting an entity in a particular namespace and is the basis of security and privacy -regardless if the context is digital identification or non-digital identification ( Katzan 2010 )†.Unlike theft, identity is much harder to describe especially when looking at how it can be stolen and utilized for personal and financial gain. Katzan 2010 illustrates how an identity can also be referred to as a subject, which have several identities and belong to more than just one namespace. Identity is part of the management system which can establis h a process to another system and therefore result in a trust that is facilitated by a third party and acknowledges the basis for the digital identity in the computer-based information systems.Another side is the information that’s provided by a third party that claims the identity of a person but can be biased based on how that information came about, and therefore might require additional information to provide clear evidence and confirmation. † Identity is primarily used to establish a relationship between an attribute or set of attributes and a person, object, event, concept, or theory. The relationship can be direct, based on physical evidence, and in other cases, the relationship is indirect and based on a reference to other entities ( Katzan 2010)†.Thieves acquire such attributes of the identity through resource such as customer service representatives, Trojan horse computer programs, dumpster diving, corporate databases, and physically stealing computers. To prevent such occurrences the author suggests implementing reponsibilized and individualized forms of risk management where individuals are encouraged to incorporate informational security practices into their daily lives and care for their virtual self in the digital world. Phishing Attacks Moving forward beyond what both identity and theft really mean, identifying he most popular ways of gaining access to individual identity data is the first step to preventing consumers from being the victims of such thefts. The first most common approach to gathering the necessary information to impersonate an individual is a Phishing Attack. A Phishing Attack is a way to deceive a consumer into revealing personal information to the attacker through digital communication. â€Å"Phishing has been a major problem for information systems managers and users for several years now. In 2008, it was estimated that phishing resulted in close to $50 billion in damages to U. S. onsumers and businesses ( Wright, Marett, 2010). This obfuscation method of both email and Web sites is how thieves are able to convince users into fulfilling requests for personal information. Once that information is obtained it can be used to stage theft of either company or personal intellectual property. â€Å"In the most common phishing scam, the â€Å"phisher† sends an e-mail disguised to look like it is from a financial institution or e-commerce site. To appear credible and to attract the recipient's attention, the e-mail uses the company's logos and trademarks and employs â€Å"scare tactics† such as threats of account closure (Lynch 2005)†This method of obtaining identity information carries a relatively low risk in both legality and cost. The phisher who is carrying out the crime usually resides in an international location to avoid authorities which makes the apprehension and prosecuting of the fraud that is committed to be far more difficult. One of the studies that utilized analytical approach to find the reasoning behind the success of such a technique concluded that there are four phases in studying behavioral factors, which influence the replies coming from the consumer in regard to answering emails that request them to provide sensitive information.The study covered 299 subjects and analyzed the percentage of those who responded to different methods within the study of phishing. The final factor to the study is the awareness level that the communicator posses in regard to the security threats that are currently present in the digital world. Security awareness training is important in teaching Web users how to appropriately utilize both network and system resources. Complete review of security policies and their congruency with current threats is crucial in identifying noncompliance of both users and systems.Once systems are updated and users are aware of the different tactics that can be used against them and the different ways they can protect th emselves from becoming victims the world can move closer to eliminating phishing as an urgent threat. Driver’s License Moving past the phishing technique on the consumer side, taking an in-depth look at how identification has become an essential part of identity theft and what are the different tools that we use as consumers to present that trust between our identity and the business entity from which we want to acquire services.The first and probably the most widespread tool of identification in United States of America is a driver’s license. A driver’s license is an identification document that corresponds to a Department of Motor Vehicles database record, therefore is considered to be a legitimate identification document. It is very valuable and the most circulated picture credential that gives one the ability to operate a vehicle as well. One of the reasons behind counterfeiting driver’s licenses is due to the broad spectrum of different types of lice nses that exist in the USA.These counterfeits vary from simple laminates that are created on matrix printers, all the way to sophisticated and authentic, 45 degree hologram based laminates utilizing the same materials and even printing equipment that is used by the DMV. â€Å" The typical criminal would use fungible credentials as an instrument to defraud because it offers reduced risk, minimal effort, and increased effectiveness. Financial frauds, money laundering, and identity theft are three common exploits that typically rely on fungible credentials.Fungible credentials are useful precisely because they simultaneously obscure the criminal’s real identity and facilitate any authentication that may be required. (Berghel 2006) This type of credentials is a way to shield the thief’s real identity while still utilizing the facial identification with different credentials. Typically financial transactions are the most common way to utilize fungible credentials to gain a ccess to the victim’s assets. Since the process involves getting several versions of identification based on the verification process, in the end the original counterfeit documents are disposable.This means that the final identifiers that are obtained, such as the drivers license are legitimate due to its issuance from the government agency. This type of a scheme makes the detection of the final credentials impossible to detect since it was acquired from a legitimate source. The only way to really prevent this from happening is by having all government agencies and law enforcement to authenticate all documents no matter where they came from. However currently due to the extreme overhead for such process, this is currently not possible to achieve. A threat analysis of RFID PassportsThe second and most widespread tool in the world is the passport. A passport is a document that is issued by a national government for the sole purpose of traveling between countries and having the ability to identify the nationality of the traveler as well as the identity of the holder. Since 2007 all passports that have been issued in USA, contain an imbedded RFID chip, which is valid for a time period of ten years. The reason behind such change in passport policy is to provide a safer way to store critical identification data on the chip as well as encrypt such data and keep it safe.However in the last few years there have been approaches that defy the design and the security of the chip and permit the identification information to be stolen. â€Å"this individual used a small antenna connected to a computer in his backpack to eavesdrop on the radio communication between the security agent’s reader, which has the capacity to decrypt the highly sensitive and secured data on the passport, and the RFID-enabled passport itself(RAMOS, A. , SCOTT, W. , SCOTT, W. , LLOYD, D. , O'LEARY, K. , ; WALDO, J. 2009)†The process that is described above creates a way to find a nd obtain the information that is contained on the RFID chip, however in order to do so the proximity of the listening device and the timing of the transition are critical to its success. In addition to acquiring the data, the ability to decrypt the information before it can be utilized is a process in itself. â€Å"Six pieces of information can be stolen from the RFID chip on a U. S. passport: your name, nationality, gender, date of birth, place of birth, and a digitized photograph. Numerous problems of identity theft could arise from someone taking that information, but this article focuses on the financial risk. (RAMOS, A. , SCOTT, W. , SCOTT, W. , LLOYD, D. , O'LEARY, K. , & WALDO, J. 2009)† The information that is acquired during the intercept process is sufficient enough to create a duplicate passport and utilize it for financial gain. However due to the difficulty of this attack, cost of the equipment involved and the limited financial return as opposed to the high cos t of blank passports, this type of scenario is not very likely.As a solution to this possible downside of RFID chips, integrating basic access-control and encryption using the secret key that is integrated right into the passport help mitigate the risk of data interception. Another approach would be to control the RF signals that occur between the reader and the passport during the verification process. This would help minimize the chances for eavesdropping on the RF signals and interception of all identity information. Identity CardsIn order to go beyond the complications of the passport and the specialization of the driver’s license there is another way to identify a person and verify their credentials. This tool is called an Identity Card and is utilized on the government basis in several different countries. The idea behind the identity card is very similar to what a driver’s license does, however it only focuses on proving that the person who presents the card mat ches the credentials that the identity cards holds, without granting driving privileges as does the driver’s license.This new concept of identity card consists of two components, one is the database identity and the other is token identity. Database identity is the gathering of all information about a certain individual and recorded into databases, which is then accessible by the government. Token identity on the other hand only comprises of very specific information about the individual. This information consists of name, gender, date and place of birth, date of death, signature, photograph and biometrics.In addition biometrics consists of a face scan, two iris scans and ten fingerprints. In the context of identity theft, token identity is considered to be more than just information about an individual. â€Å"Unlike the individual pieces of information that comprise it, token identity has the essential characteristics of intangible property. Its misuse by another person not only infringes the individual’s personal right to identity, it infringes the individual’s proprietary rights in his/her registered identity, particularly in token identity. Sullivan 2009)† Utilization of token identity for transactional purposes constitutes an individuals’ identity which is all the information that the token holds. This is the information that is most useful for an identity thief since it is all that is required to enable a transaction. Not all of the information in the token is used for every transaction and therefore depends on the nature of the transaction, therefore the required information is automatically chosen from the token to match the transactional requirements. The phrase ‘identity theft’ is a misnomer, as identity theft does not actually deprive a person of their identity. The offence of theft or larceny traditionally involves an appropriation of the personal property of another with the intention to deprive him or her of that property permanently. Wrongfully accessing and using a person’s personal information or forging proof of identity documents, without taking any physical document or thing, would not deprive the person of the ability to use that information. (Sullivan 2009)Although wrongfully accessing or forging of the documents does not deprive the person of access to such information, it does however fundamentally damage the integrity of the individual token identity by denying exclusive use of the identity. Personally Identifiable Information Utilizing tools that identify oneself are needed to acquire, obtain and steal financial information, however in addition to that and the rapid innovation of the digital world, all the information that identifies us is freely available on the internet.In the last several years the internet progressed so rapidly that it is being used for social interaction, product purchases and financial transactions. In addition to that many companies a re continuously collect personal information utilizing social networks, service providers, and retail sites. These companies claim that under the customer license agreements information provided will be safe guarded and released in a non identifiable form. This means that the information will be de-identified by changing the fixed set of attributes that it currently resides in.Once it is de-identified it will become safe enough to release to the public and will prevent others from using it for marketing or advertising purposes. â€Å"The emergence of powerful re-identification algorithms demonstrates not just a flaw in a specific anonymization technique(s), but the fundamental inadequacy of the entire privacy protection paradigm based on â€Å"de-identifying† the data. De-identification provides only a weak form of privacy. (Narayanan, A. , & Shmatikov, V. 2010)†This type of technique is only part of the solution when it comes to privacy protection. The ability to deve lop effective technologies to protect private information is being developed on continuous basis and there is still no definite answer as to what the best approach really is. Utilizing the de-identifying approach is a step in the right direction but it only patches the problem instead of solving it. Currently there are limitation to the way privacy is preserved and protected, therefore a better method of protection needs to be build and implemented.Security through Technology Now that we covered the outstanding issues with the identity tools and even ways of how to protect the personal identifiable information, next step is to identify technology flaws that jeopardize the security of the process. The technology plays a crucial role in how secure the data is both inside and outside the primary location. When it comes to computer systems and security, the weakest components are the end users, especially when they are accessing corporate information from their home location.With progre ssion of wireless based network technology, the adaptation rate has been enormous and is justified by the convenience that wireless technology provides for both basic and business consumer. Numerous applications have been developed to utilize the convenience of working from home for employee and to have them access databases of their organization using just the Internet browser. This scenario also works for those who are continuously traveling and therefore use wireless services at the hotels or other lodge places.Many of such systems only rely on passwords to authenticate users and pose a real threat when it comes to accessing corporate information. In such a case a hacker can intercept such credential information and utilize it to access the corporate databases and therefore conduct an intrusion which will go undetected since it relies on real user account information. â€Å"Hackers do not require specific hacking tools, as operating systems can find nearby routers and connect to them almost automatically.Hackers can then perform illegal operations such as hacking other computers, spreading viruses, organizing terrorist activities, and so on. (Loo 2008)† As the technology progresses and innovation takes place it would still be close to impossible to solve all security problems no matter what technology is in place. Security depends on several different factors including coordination between employers, end user and manufactures of the technology that is being used.It is up to the employees to be aware of security risks and protect the technology they are using no matter where they are. Investing time into learning about countermeasures is a worthy investment which can eventually prevent unrecoverable events such as an intrusion. Employers and providers of technology should focus on the usability and simplicity of the technology as well as establishing the necessary guidelines for usability and finding the right tools to address it. Protect Government I nformationIdentity theft has an enormous impact on both time and finance of a consumer who becomes the target of it; however it’s not only consumers that see the consequences of such thefts. Businesses are being impacted by this occurrence as well. Organizations need to protect their assets from cyber crime, web attacks, data breaches and fraud. Criminals utilize such attacks to harvest data through these means for financial, political and personal gain. Such actions are becoming firm motivators for adaptation of information system security approach to protect assets of companies.The ISS approach utilizes an accreditation process that mandates that all government agencies are complying with such standard. A unified security approach would have been ideal in the case of government agencies however even with proper accreditation and mandated requirements, more than half the agencies demonstrated resistance by their management to implement such rules. One of the reasons for such resistance was the norms and culture with the organizations which could not be unified by one system covering all the agencies.Secondly the management of the government branches that lacked the accreditation pointed out that it was due to the lack of resources that was being committed by Treasury to pay for the needed changes that were part of the compliance process. â€Å"The key lesson learned from this study was that a large-scale IS/IT project conducted across multiple government agencies and sites of varying sizes requires that the implementation be staggered and suited to agency size, thus breaking down the complexity of the tasks enabling resources (people and budgets) to be put in place and allocated to future project phases. Smith, S. , Winchester, D. , Bunker, D. , & Jamieson, R. 2010)† The authors point out that the failure of implementation was mostly due to the long term financial backing of the project and that adequate resources and senior management commitmen t is crucial to the success of ISS. Data Breaches and Identity Theft Data security is an ongoing process and affects both consumers and businesses, however retailers and financial institutions are responsible for storing and processing consumer financial data, and they are solely responsible for the security of it.One of the leading causes of identity theft is data breaches which are a process of loosing data due to a security or network flaw. This is why a proportionate combination of security vs. amount of data collected needs to be found. If there is too much data and not enough security than the potential cost of a data breach is very high. â€Å"Dollar estimates of the cost of identity theft do not by themselves indicate that too much identity theft is occurring.However, press accounts of data breaches suggest that personal identifying data (PID) is being stolen too frequently, and that the data thefts are unduly facilitating various kinds of identity theft. 2 (Roberds, W. , & Schreft, S. 2008)† Establishing policies that can ensure that the balance between data collection and security is properly maintained will be crucial in preventing data breaches. Data network can help prevent theft by securing its databases better as well as increasing the amount of PID compiled in order to identify possible fraudulent attempts on the network.The downside of over collecting is the spillover effect where the data can be stolen and used on another network, therefore breaching the other network. â€Å"†¦the approach here allows for explicit calculation of the efficient levels of data accumulation and data security, and for straightforward evaluation of policies meant to attain efficiency. More generally, it offers an illustration of how any such calculation should balance the costs associated with data misuse against the substantial gains afforded by the relaxation of anonymity. (Roberds, W. , & Schreft, S. 2008)†There are specific variables that nee d to be adjusted in order to achieve the highest possible degree of security and consider the costs that are associated with implementing this specific formula. Formal Identity Theft Prevention Programs As was already discussed previously, identity theft is a serious problem, and can take a very long time to even notice that it is taking place in our lives. Due to the amount of damage that is caused to the consumer’s life and financial situation, the government has taken steps to combat identity theft at federal, state and local levels therefore attempting to assist victims of this crime.There are several steps that have been taken in legislation, however there are still no laws in place that can regulate the general use of personally identifiable information in regard to government branches and both public and private sector. The key piece of information that is considered to be most valuable to the identity thieves is the Social Security Number (SSN), therefore one of the p revention initiatives is in regard to displaying and using Social Security Numbers in easily accessible laces. Other initiatives include securing the availability of personal information though information resellers, security weaknesses in the federal agency information systems, and breaches in data security. â€Å".. federal systems and sensitive information are at increased risk of unauthorized access and disclosure, modification, or destruction, as well as inadvertent or deliberate disruption of system operations and services. ( Bertoni, D. 2009)†.According to the GAO study it has been reported that federal agencies still experience a large number of security related incidents and that provides access to large amounts of personally identifiable information that reside in the federal records that could be utilized for identity theft purposes. Protecting personally identifiable information that is stored in the federal system is critical since its loss and unauthorized discl osure could result in devastating consequences for the individuals.The consequences could range from fraud, theft, embarrassment and even inconvenience in the cases of identity and financial related transactions. Results of identity theft have direct impact on the credit records of individuals and can also carry substantial costs related to this activity; in addition denial of loans and even convictions for crimes that an individual did not commit is a possible outcome of identity theft on the federal level. Solutions:Identifying all the sub categories of identity theft is outside the scope of this paper, however with a general understanding of how it affects consumers and business, as well as the severity of the issue; the next step is to see what can really be done to minimize the damage. One approach to combating identity theft is the implementation of smart cards into the financial system. These cards are designed to incorporate embedded computer chips that rely on encryption al gorithms to safe guard the information and aid in authorization of transactions and identity verifications.If the technology is properly implemented it can really aid consumers, merchants, banks and others in securing transaction and combating identity theft. In addition it will help lower the costs of fraud prevention and provide benefits in the form of creating a more efficient payment system. Such technology has already seen implementation internationally and have proven to be a much more secure and efficient method of payments. â€Å"Payment smart cards hold the promise to improve the security of payment authorization and help reduce the costs of identity theft and payments fraud.Smart cards allow a range of security options and some issuers have implemented the strongest upgrades, while others have not. (Sullivan 2008) The reduced infrastructure costs are yet another benefit that financial institutions can use in favor of implementing the system in United States. However there are some significant challenges moving forward with this system in regard to adaptation of smart cards by issuers, as well as having the whole industry agree on specific security protocols that will be used in the new smart cards.Identifying the true cost and both hardware and software limitation of the new product is also crucial in preventing adoption limitations. There is also the problem of having criminals shift efforts towards areas of weakness in the security of payments, however due to the lack of competitive advantage in the security standard there is a lack of willingness from the provider’s side in investing time and money. The complex network structure that is required to support the new standards is also a roadblock for implementation and development.Smart cards have the potential to become the new payment authorization standard but at this time they are facing a number of adaptation and development challenges that are discouraging financial institutions from mo ving towards them. Enforcement of physical identification cards to improve security is viable way; however a bigger issue of security and lack of it still takes places in many businesses. In the case of ID cards the outcome of implementing such a system would result in large databases of information that will utilize the technology for identification purposes.The problem here is what goes on behind the closed doors of the organization that houses such large amount of personal data. Part of it has to do with proper disposal of sensitive documents which most consumers don’t shred and even businesses that don’t properly take care of them. Once the information is housed in a database and is protected by firewalls and encryption routines, there is no clear process of how to prevent it from leaving the organization through unauthorized parties, computer theft, loss of physical media or records. †¦there is a significant need to widely implement measures for tracking and tracing identity thieves and fraudsters once a breach has occurred. There are various means of doing so, whether electronic or physical (Gregory, A. 2008). These undercover tracking and tracing agents can log all the activity that is taking place by phone or email and then can be used for verification purposes and zero out any anomalies or breach attacks. This type of tracking can help companies stay on top of the activities that are taking place and even intervene in the process in order to minimize the outcome of the breach or fraudulent transactions.It will also help prevent the amount of complains, loss of reputation and damage to the company and its brand. The database of personal data can become quite large and is continuously exposed to security threats and data corruption, that’s why companies hire consultants to investigate risk and exposures of the database information. Consultants check for compliance with Data Protection Act as well as other required transactional practices. In some cases the database can be subjected to quality assessment and data hygiene as to keep the information up to date and as accurate as possible.The results of the analysis can then be used to create an actionable strategy to manage the databases and maintain integrity and efficiency for both short and long term. An increasing amount of identity theft incidents have also provoked major changes in the financial industry, especially with banking applications and the way that they protect data and ensure legitimate transactions. To insure such security and integrity, financial institutions have integrated biometric technologies such as fingerprint and facial recognition that are mandatory for customers and ensure higher level of security. Biometric methods are based on physiological or behavioral characteristics. Since they take advantage of mostly unchangeable characteristics, they are more reliable than traditional methods of authorization (Koltzsch, G. 2006)† T he usage of such technology that can be so closely bound to a physical attribute of a person is very promising, especially in the financial sector and has been looked at it for the last 10 years. However due to the cost and the complexity on the implementation part as well as inconvenience to the consumer, it has not been as widespread as originally planned.Today this technology is mostly used for standalone applications, such as guarding vaults, high security areas and employee authentication. Customer oriented solutions are still in early development stages and are not fully implemented due to the fear of alienating customers and pushing them away from what they are used to. Another reason for the lack of implementation is the difficulty in standardizing this technology on the international scale. The fear of investing in technology that will not be supported by others is what is slowing the adaptation process down.However due to the rise in identity theft and phishing cases there has been a new movement towards the development of this technology to prevent loss of information and financial resources. Protecting the payment system depends on the adoption of industry standards for data security and implementation of the new digitally aware way to personally identify an individual. Currently the identification process depends on the Social Security Number as we discussed previously, which is one of the main reasons that identity theft still occurs.To be affective in protecting the payment system there needs to be a way to properly monitor the compliance of the system and enforce proper penalties in the case of its absence. Payment system participants can also hold each other accountable for the damage in the incompliance of contractual agreements in place. Due to high litigation costs in the event of identity theft, merchants are now implementing new policies that allow them to discard transactional information much faster in order to prevent its exposure to t heft. Another fairly recent step taken by the private sector is the development of insurance products to cover losses from identity theft. Coverage for consumers is available from several sources, at a cost of approximately $120 per year, and appears to provide minimal coverage against lost wages, legal fees for defending against lawsuits brought by creditors or collection agencies, and select out-of-pocket expenses (Schreft, S. 2007)†. The down fall of this type of coverage is its limitations. Neither type of uch insurances or proposed coverage will really protect against identity theft risk because the financial sector cannot ensure against systematic risk. This results in the loss of confidence in the system all together therefore creating the possibility of users accessing such services less frequently. Imperfections in the ability to protect the consumer against crime, results in having the government oversee the failures and driving it towards protecting the integrity an d efficiency of the financial system. Shortcomings of the SystemTo combat identity theft is an enormous task that even the government is struggling to achieve. The reason for this is time, money and consistency between financial providers and government levels. Several different attempts have been made to provide tools for consumers to identify theft and report it to the institutions. However even though such systems are in place, many consumers complain that even when such theft occurs and notices are placed on accounts, thieves are still able to steal money under fraudulent identities. They are even able to successfully apply for loans when there are errors in the information provided.In addition to that the Credit Bureaus have made it close to impossible for an everyday consumer to reach an actual human customer support representative due to the automated telephone systems that have been implemented. Another reason why the system just does not work the way it was proposed, is the cost that the credit bureaus are enduring with the escalation of identity theft cases. The actual costs of thefts are not reflected on the bureaus since they only provide credit reports and credit monitoring services which consumers buy in most cases even if they have been a victim of theft.The bureaus have no real incentive in helping consumers prevent identity fraud, which is in this case is a conflict of interest for one of the parties involved. This conflict of interests entails in the amount of early revenues that are generates from products such as credit reports and credit monitoring services. The latest offering from the bureaus is an email notification service that notifies the consumers if any changes in the credit records occur and charges a fee for it. One observer has estimated that credit bureaus received $600 million in 2003 from sales of credit reports, credit scores, and credit monitoring services (Hendricks 2003). In such a case the credit bureaus are profiting fr om the sales of preventive service that prevent the client from the theft that the bureau makes possible. Overestimation of losses is also a shortcoming of the system that is geared toward protecting the consumer in the business of financial transaction and identity information. A claim that identity theft is the fastest growing crime in U. S. is what the consumers are being told on the continuous basis.Lately the press coverage of this topic has grown significantly and provided a number of related events that claims an affected population of 4. 6% and losses of more than $60 billion dollars a year. What consumers need to take into account is the $50 maximum liability that is provided by the financial institutions, as well as the fact the media is taking into account information theft that did not result in financial losses to the institutions. Such overestimation are leading many consumers away from doing business on the internet and providing erroneous information, while forcing t hem to implement monitoring services that cost them money.As was covered before, smart cards is viable solution to the new identifiable information problem, however its shortcoming is the same problem as it exists with current financial tools. The exchange of personal information between the consumer and merchant can still result in letting an impersonator utilize the information to initiate a payment therefore making the smart card inefficient at securing the customer. Conclusion Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in United States, and the real reason behind that is the fact technology innovated at a much greater speed than businesses and consumers have been able to adapt to it.Because of that the tools that we use to identify ourselves are no longer safe and need to be updated. On the consumer side a variety of tools are available to protect oneself from identity theft. However the cost of such tools can be a draw back in their implementation. On the business side s tools such as high level encryption, RFID chips and transition standards are in development stages and are planned to be implemented in the near future. Identity cards and centralized databases can be the key to solving security epidemic but are not versatile enough and carry overhead cost during the implementation process.There are many viable solutions to protect both the consumer and the business; the path really depends on cost and time available to either one. Awareness is the best approach to keeping you data safe and secure.