Expert Systems and the Collision regulations Essay

Expert Systems and the Collision regulations - Essay Example Port corridors have become so congested that it is even tough to row through let alone guide a huge vessel to its berth. The upswing in the accident curve has made scientists sit up and think about safer modes to navigation. Application of technology has certainly made it possible for us to have a safer travelling and transport environment. This paper examines the various devices that have been devised to assist navigators and empower them to make knowledgeable decisions in the event of a crisis. Advance warning is a key area in which these radar based electronic devices have managed to improvise leaving the human element to play a vital role to decide on the final course of avoidance action. The International and Inland Maritime Navigation Rules were formulated in the Convention on International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea Treaty in 1972 and became effective on the 15th of July, 1977. The rules were intended to codify the standard behaviour of vessels of all the nations to substantially reduce the possibility of mid-sea collision by promoting orderly and predictable responses to a variety of frequently occurring situations. In the case of aircrafts, they too require such laws and international standards. In the initial days of flying, the pilots trusted their eyes and ears to do the job. All through World War I and later mail aviation happened without any sophisticated navigation equipment except for a front mounted compass. Later as technology developed, wireless communication systems were installed and during the Second World War, an airborne radar was fitted to the aircrafts -not initially to assist navigators to fly, but to hunt down submarines and ships and to shoot at them. Later, as civil aviation grew in volume and planes were taking off airstrips more often than earlier a combination of these two systems - the wireless and the radar helped pilot make decisions that avoided mid air collisions. These systems had their risk. If the pilot was not experienced enough, he could not make the knowledge calculations to prevent a collision in a crisis situation. Huge efforts were being made to train pilo ts to retain their sanity at the time of a crisis. The introduction of the jet age compounded the situation. Aircrafts were now flying higher and faster. The pilots had less response times at hand. Research showed that the aircraft would easily travel a mile along its horizontal displacement vector between the time the pilot pulled the stick and the aircraft even begins to climb. This is a huge gap for error. Needle line consciousness of pilots prevented accidents from occurring. But more planes were lost due to mid air collisions than at landing and take off - most of them quite unjustly described as pilot errors. The complications of aircrafts were constraining to both the regulators and the

Discussion Board criminal justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discussion Board criminal justice - Essay Example It is well known that most people tend to retain more of what they see than what they hear. This lends to what some see as an advantage for the prosecution, but demonstrative evidence must pass several tests before admission in a trial. First, there are specific rules pertaining to each type of demonstrative evidence. For instance, if presenting a police sketch as evidence, there is a possibility that it may not be admissible because it is ruled to be hearsay. Second, there are rules for demonstrative evidence in general. For instance, an accident reconstruction chart presented as evidence must be necessary in order to demonstrate another piece of evidence, such as oral testimony. According to an internet article about evidence, (â€Å"Demonstrative Evidence†, n.d.) foundation rules for demonstrative evidence involve authentication, representational accuracy and identification. The article also states that demonstrative evidence â€Å"must pass the ‘three hurdles’ of admissibility: relevancy; materiality; and competency.† (â€Å"Demonstrative Evidence†, n.d.) Documentary evidence is another form of evidence used in many trials. It can be described as any evidence presented through a written document. In most cases, this involves a contract or confession. Some of the rules an attorney must consider when using documentary evidence are the rules of parol evidence, best evidence, authentication, and hearsay. The best evidence rule deals with the originality of the document being offered for admission. If the document being presented for evidence is not the original, in most cases it will not be allowed as evidence. Courts do not usually allow a copy of a document as evidence. According to an internet encyclopedia, â€Å"the best evidence rule states that when the contents of a written document are offered in evidence, the court will not accept a copy

The Future of Books Essay Example for Free

The Future of Books Essay 1. Introduction Books have evolved greatly since the first writings in clay tablets a thousand years B. C. to nowadays with the digital versions of most books that were, not long ago, only available in paper. Even though stories have been carried and passed from generation to generation since the emergence of language, only until around the fifth century has it been heard about books and their use. In the antiquity, primitive materials in which to carve such as stone and wood were replaced by finer and more portable materials like scrolls, papyrus and manuscripts, which allowed the writing of longer texts with less effort, and which lead the reading experience reaching an elite minority until the invention of the print. The history of books in modern times is directly related to the creation of the print, in the mid 15th century, by Gutenberg. This invention allowed texts to be translated and diffused, reaching much wider audiences and narrowing the knowledge gap between different social classes. The first book that Gutenberg printed was the bible, which completely revolutionized the way in which religion was regarded by the then illiterate masses, and which’s impact was then followed by a series of not only religious, but also more general cultural transformations when all types of books were reproduced and made accessible for the people. Printing made it possible for stories and knowledge to be materialized and kept throughout the years. With the advancements of the printing industry, books became easier to publish, cheaper and more attainable to people. The first printing machine had been made of wood and required a lot of hand labor and time to print, so the available copies of a book were still relatively limited. However, as the years passed, innovators sought better alternatives to wood and created metal and later on iron printing machines, which later on became mechanized, speeding up the printing process and not depending on an extensive hand labor to function. In 1867 the typewriter was invented, facilitating the typing process. With this invention, the price of books became more affordable and an increased number of readers appeared. The paper book trend lasted for centuries, gaining more audience and strength with each print innovation that was made. From Gutenberg up to the late 20th century, print books had an enormous success and growing popularity. However, with the raise of computer technologies, in 1971 the first digital library was finally created. 2. From Papers to Screens Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 by Michael Hart, who created the first electronic book ever, with the principle of making literature accessible to everyone and to decrease the levels of illiteracy in the world. The project gathered the most important books in history in various languages, converted them into an electronic form and made them available to the public for free. This was a turning point in the history of books, since books were no longer read only by those who could afford their price in bookstores, but also by those who did not have the means to buy hardcovers and who now had easy and free access to literature and knowledge. Without knowing, Project Gutenberg started what would become the digital age of books by leading the transition from print books to digital books. When the advantages and the success of digital books were seen, a whole new market of online retailers began to take place. The emergence of e-books attracted other authors as well as electronics businesses that saw an opportunity for innovation and big profits. Electronic readers were created, facilitating the electronic reading experience and allowing people to read mobile e-books instead of being fixed to big heavy screens. However, during the 70’s and the 80’s, e-books were mainly specialized, and they attracted segments of the population who were interested in a few available topics. As the internet progressed in the 70’s and the 80’s and e-book electronic reading devices hit the markets, the 90’s Internet advancements allowed the easy spread of e-books from computer to computer through the web, and also the digitalization of a wide variety of genres. This meant that books were made available for people with all tastes and not only for a specialized audience. Reading was able to become a means of entertainment and not only of education and knowledge for the less favored classes, like it had been up to then. Books went from being expensive and unaffordable by many, to being a commodity of which everybody could enjoy. The higher number of genres and of books in the Internet created an increasing demand for e-books, from which online retailers, such as Amazon, took advantage in the mid 1990’s. Businesses took the opportunity to digitalize books and sell them online for cheaper prices than those of their original paper formats. Another big player in the internet was Google, which decided to pay publishers to digitalize books and make certain parts, if not all of them, available for free. Apart from the digitalization of books, reading devices such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes Noble’s Nook, and Apple’s Ipad show the huge market that was created due to e-books, and the competition that took and still takes place in the digital world for the monopoly of e-books. 3. Reading experience As mentioned above, thanks to the invention of the print, reading became a common activity and was no longer reserved for a privileged majority. As books spread, illiteracy levels dropped and the audience for books became so diverse that it allowed for the distribution of books of all genres for all cultures and tastes. It was probably thanks to the digitalization of books that sub-genres gained popularity and were not left and forgotten in the shelves of bookstores and libraries. E-books, therefore, revived dead genres and gave an advantage to the ones that already enjoyed from a big demand in paper format. The reading experience has thus changed regarding new audiences reached and more genres available for cheaper prices. Another way in which e-books have benefited the audiences has been through the creation of digital libraries by physical libraries as well as online libraries. Since e-books do not occupy shelf space and they need only to be stored in databases, it is easy for libraries to organize their digitalized books and for customers to find specific topics and authors. In this sense, the process of finding books has been simplified compared to the regular library systems for non-digital versions. The process of digitalization is a long one but once all books become part of the digital library, they are easier to manage and to distribute when people look for them. Electronic libraries allow the storage of large numbers of books in a small memory space, without the need of bookshelves, space and a large staff. Thanks to this storage advantage, libraries can have more books readily available and people have a larger choice and are not limited by the physical space of libraries. At the same time, bookstores with e-book archives can save customers time by giving a faster service and avoiding queues and waiting lists for books that for instance, have no yet arrived to the bookstore or due to distances or to a large demand. Apart from the storage aspects, an important part of the transition from paper to screens has been the unwillingness of certain people to adapt to the electronic forms of books. Hardcover books have been part of cultures for so many centuries that for some people it is not so easy to accommodate to e-readings. The modern world is incredibly digitalized, from music to movies, so the digitalization of books appears to be natural, particularly to the youngest generations. The reading experience between paper books and e-books is clearly different since paper books offer the possibility of reading with more senses alert. For instance, when reading a handcover book, the reader can feel the pages’ texture and the smell of the book, and can see traits that are not present in e-readers, such as worn out and bended pages, which could be seen as a disadvantage, but they can also give a rewarding sensation to the reader who makes his way through the book and can perceive and appreciate how he gets closer to the end. Another element of the charm of paper books is the unhurried reading experience that they offer. This implies the easiness with which books can be transported and the little it matters where the reader is in order to be able to do his reading. Contrary to e-readers, paper books do not require battery charging, careful care from bad weather conditions, uploading or downloading of stories, among other factors. Thus, paper books can be said to be simpler to read and to offer a genuine reading experience that only requires a book and a reader. Despite these reading experience factors, future generations will very probably grow being increasingly familiar with e-books, which will be in favor for the expansion of the e-book market and will result in a further shrinking demand for print books. Children born in the digital age are not be aware of the long way that print books have come from if they are not taught about it, and they probably regard e-books as the initial state of books. Therefore, the reading experience is linked by large to former reading experiences and to the capability to compare e-books to non-digital books from an intellectual and also sentimental or sensorial point of view. 4. Writers and Cost Reductions For writers, the digitalization of books does not necessarily imply negative consequences, since there are several points which are in their favor. These include the possibility of self-publishing, no need for paper, easy editing, and no surpluses. Self-publishing is a great advantage for writers since publishing houses usually get most of the gains, leaving the authors with minimal profits from their own books. By skipping the intermediary, which in this case is the publisher, writers can put their books up in the internet for sale and get all the profits. This approach does have its risks since the advantage of going public through publishers is that they know about the business and they take care of all the steps. There is also the advantage of not needing paper, which again means fewer costs and thus, more gains for the authors. Writers can decide to publish their books directly online without having a print version if they do not wish to. This saves writers from the long lasting period of printing and book assembling before their book is launched. Also, no printing means one intermediary less in the process of book publishing. Working with publishers already costs a lot of money, so cutting any price, in this case paper, printing and assembling prices, is helpful for authors. Related to the paper advantage, is easy editing. Contrary to print books, e-books can be easily edited even if they have been already published; they do not face the inconvenience of having typos that would cost a lot of money to correct. In the case of print books, once the book is printed in big numbers, typos are not possible to correct until the next printings, but by then the public will already have the version with the typos in their hands. Editing also refers to bigger editing other than typos, such as whole passage modifications, which are possible to make in digital versions but not in paper. Writers can also benefit from the lack of book surpluses that result in money put into the rental of warehouses. Surpluses are very common for print books since at the moment of publishing, authors and publishers make an estimate of the books that will be sold, but they might not always be right or even approximate, due to the quality of the writing or of other external factors. In the case of e-books, no printing is necessary and purchases are done digitally so no warehouses are needed. This saves the authors money and allows for investment in other areas such as the advertising of their books. 5. More Readers for Writers. Concerning the readers, they have easy access to books and do not depend merely on the prices offered, since paper books usually cost a lot of money. Even if some digital books can be more expensive than others because of publishers, they are considerably cheaper than paper books. Another advantage for the readers is that they do not need to physically move if they need or want to get an e-book. As mentioned before, they have the advantage of avoiding long library and bookstore queues and waiting lists, and they can have access to the book they want directly from the comfort of their home or computer. These advantages mean that readers look for their books online more readily than they look for physical books, since these require more time, money and efforts. Therefore, writers can benefit for a wider, or at least more active, audience. 6. E-books and Different Genres In the case of the genres affected by the digitalization of books, academic books most probably will not increase their sales and will not be reaching a wider audience, since these books have a specialized audience that does not increase or decrease its demands with the availability of e-books. On the other hand, novels and books of popular genres like science fiction will most probably increase their demand numbers, since they do not require a specialized audience, but can entertain people from all social strata. Science fiction alone accounts for around 20% of all e-book purchases. At the same time, since digital readings offer the possibility of hyperlinks, search engines, and so forth, within or around the text, these distractions affect the reading quality of novels, but not so much the reading quality of dictionaries and cookbooks, for instance. 7. Concerning Publishers. Some of the players who are the most affected by the digitalization of books are publishers, since moving to digital forms has reshaped in the way in which books are marketed and also the costs involved and profits earned. Some of the advantages to publishers are the liberation from the constraints of printing and from surpluses of inventories. Another advantage is that older books that stopped selling on print can be published again in their digital form and reach wider audiences because of the cheaper prices, so profits can be made from book print inactive books. Despite these advantages, the disadvantages are also great. One of the biggest threats of publishing online is piracy, since pirates can easily take the book and distribute it illegally. Another disadvantage is the pricing for e-books in the internet, since different retailers and sellers have at times prices that differ greatly from one another and while big retailers can afford to cut costs and increase sales with some profit losses, small publishers cannot afford such a move. One more important disadvantage for publishers is that there are no more book displays in bookstore shelves that help advertise books. Publishers try, however, to create advertising for their clients through the social web in order to make up for this downfall. A technique used by publishers in order to keep their print sales alive is called â€Å"windowing† and it consists of publishing first the print version of a new book and delaying the e-version to increase the print sales. The idea is not to let people know when the e-version will be available so that they buy the print version and do not wait for the e-book to be published. However, this technique can go wrong and can create losses if the time length between the print and online publishing is not well foreseen. For instance, if the print book is sold out after a week, when the planned time was two months, then people will quickly forget about the book and once it is finally published digitally, it will not have the same effect it had back when there was expectation for the two publishes. A second technique that publishers are using is the publication of segments of a book, which the public can read, and if they like what they see, they are encouraged to make donations so that the author can finish writing the book and that it can be published. This is a very innovative idea, since it allows publishers to avoid surpluses, as well as printing if they decide to do this only with e-books. 8. Libraries Libraries are one of the most important stakeholders of the digitalization of books since they are usually decades all and have invested great sums of money on the local, the books, the maintenance, and so forth. For libraries, the conversion of books into e-books is very expensive because even though it is cheaper than storing physical books, there are far more e-books and therefore, the storage in a digital form is more expensive in the long run. Fortunately for libraries, literature will still be literature and regarded as such, no matter if it’s stored in bookshelves or in databases. This means that library clients would still frequent the library when looking for books, and also because libraries are not just places where books are stored, but also cultural places where people can gather and talk about literature or intellectual topics. At the same time, due to the creation of digital databases, libraries will have to start cutting down personnel and spaces in order to be able to afford the transition to digital forms. 9. Bookstores: Borders In the case of bookstores, they suffer more than libraries from e-books, since bookstores are not a place of consultation but of selling, and when money is involved, customers tend to turn where they can spend the least for the same service. One of the main concerns of bookstores is the low price that is charged for books in e-form, since for the same content there are significant price differences that clearly draw clients away from bookstores to the internet. Another main concern of bookstores is that the space that is used for storing and displaying print books will not be of any use, and even if they create digital databases to sell e-books in their stores, they cannot compete with online venders since they still need to cover local costs such as electricity, personnel, rent, maintenance, etc. Some of the strategies tried out by bookstores in order to survive the digital age is to host book clubs and social gatherings, as well as selling goods other than books. In the case of smaller bookstores, since they cannot compete with the others’ prices, have opted for offering writing classes, for instance, in addition to selling books in their stores. These strategies work in some cases but in others they have not been able to save bookstores from collapsing. On July 2011, the American bookstore giant, Borders, liquidated all of its stores after it went Bankrupt in February 2011. Next with its end went 11,000 lost jobs. In an interview to Border’s President Mike Edwards, he says, Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development. We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the head winds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now. It is clear that Borders was not prepared for the digital wave that hit the book industry, and when it tried to react it was already too late. Borders had big stores and advanced equipment to locate books clients looked for. However, when the digitalization of books started taking place, Borders did not focus on building its own e-book market, but instead it used one of the above mentioned techniques, which was selling other goods, such as CDs and DVDs. It also invested on the infrastructure of its shops instead of taking action in the digital book market. Its main competitor was Barnes Noble, which has managed to survive and keep up by focusing on the promotion of e-books and on the release of its own e-reader, the Nook, which put it directly into the digital market and which allows it to better promote its own digital books. There is still much to be achieved and much competition to achieve from the part of Barnes Noble, but if it continues to accommodate to the digital flow then it is very likely that it will manage to sustain itself. For Borders, for Barnes Nobel, and for all bookstores nowadays, the big competitors are online retailers, especially Amazon, which is considered to be the biggest e-retailer on the web. 10. Online Retailers: Amazon Amazon was founded in the mid 1990’s and started off as an online book seller. With the years, it started expanding its market to multiple areas such as music, software, videogames and toys. Today, it sells an infinite variety of products and covers an international market as one of the biggest online retailers in the world. With the emergence of e-books and the enormous competition that surrounded Amazon, it decided not only to sell digital versions of its books but also to launch its own e-reader, the now famous Kindle. Its main adversary in terms of e-readers was and still is the iPad. In order to keep up with the competition and be the number one on the e-book market, Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle to a level where it was making no profits and was in the contrary, creating losses. The reasoning behind this strategy was to encourage people to buy the Kindle instead of other e-readers, and by buying the Kindle they would be likely to buy the e-books from Amazon too. Up to now, Amazon has been able to keep on competing with Apple, however, both are directed at different customers, since Apple’s iPad is more about design than about e-books, while Amazon’s Kindle is all about the e-books Amazon offers with it. The online retailer has the advantage on making its profits from a wide variety of products and not having to rely completely on e-books only. However, it is today the biggest e-retailer online and its e-books account for an important part of its success, and thanks to its Kindle and its prices it continues its way to dominating the e-book market. The future of Amazon is tightly related to the future of Bookstores and the future of print books. While Amazon continues to offer low prices for digital books, people will keep on turning to the cheaper digital versions and the demand for print books will keep on decreasing. At the same time, the international scope of Amazon and its prices make it difficult for bookstores to compete with it, since they rely on books mainly, while Amazon relies on many other products that it sells successfully online. 11. Conclusion The future of books seems to be as e-books mainly, even though the print versions will most probably continue to play an important role in society due to the historical and emotional charge that they carry. The generations  that grew up with print books are not likely to turn to digital forms too quickly, but as every year since the late 1990’s a new digital generation is born, print books will not have the same meaning they have today, just as they do not have the same meaning today as they had before the rise of the internet. In order for print books to survive, prices need to be lowered, and the most successful way to do this for authors is by self-publishing and reaching the audiences directly. This entails risks, but if print books continue to cost as much as they do today, the demand for them will decrease further with time. In the case of bookstores, for the moment they have no other alternative than to adapt to the digital market and to try to find other sources of income. Perhaps in the future, once the world is used to e-books, just like it is used to CD’s and not to cassettes today, people will look back and start turning to print versions which will be seen as unique and which might gain back the initial prestigious status that they once had when the print was first created. Works Cited Adam, Nabil R. Digital Libraries: Research and Technology Advances : ADL 95 Forum, McLean, Virginia, USA, May 15-17, 1995 : Selected Papers. Berlin: Springer, 1996. Print. Amazon: The Walmart of the Web. The Economist [San Francisco] 1 Oct. 2011: 57-58. Print. Amazons 15th Anniversary: A History of Online Shopping. Time. 16 July 2010. Web. http://www. time. com/time/business/article/0,8599,2004089,00. html. Archiving the Web: Born Digital. The Economist 23 Oct. 2010: 67. Print. Auletta, Ken. The IPad, the Kindle, and the Future of Books. The New Yorker. 26 Apr. 2010. Web. http://www. newyorker. com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_auletta. Background to Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg Australia. Web. http://gutenberg. net. au/background. html. Barnett, Emma. Self Publishing Writer Becomes Million Seller Telegraph. The Telegraph. 21 June 2011. Web. http://www. telegraph. co. uk/culture/books/booknews/8589963/Self-publishing-writer-becomes-million-seller. html. The Books Business: Great Digital Expectations. The Economist 10 Sept. 2011: 63-64. Print. Brooks, Sofie C. Publishing Words: The Future of Books | Arts | The Harvard Crimson. The Harvard Crimson. 20 Sept. 2011. Web. http://www. thecrimson. com/column/innovation-and-art/article/2011/9/20/publishing-books-amazon-new/. Cohen, Dan. The Fight Over the Future of Digital Books Dan Cohen Technology The Atlantic. The Atlantic. 23 Sept. 2011. Web. http://www. theatlantic. com/technology/archive/2011/09/the-fight-over-the-future-of-digital-books/245577/. Crowd-funding Books: A Novel Idea. The Economist 23 July 2011: 58. Print. Eliot, Simon, and Jonathan Rose. A Companion to the History of the Book. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. , 2007. Print. The Endangered Bookstore: Edited Out. The Economist 3 Apr. 2010: 60. Print. The Future of Books: Not Bound by Anything | The Economist. The Economist. 24 Mar. 2007. Web. http://www. economist. com/node/8881446. The Future of Publishing: E-publish or Perish. The Economist 3 Apr. 2010: 59-60. Print. The History of the Internet. Investintech. com. Web. http://www. investintech. com/content/historyinternet/. Howard, Nicole. The Book: the Life Story of a Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2009. Print. Kovacs, Maureen G. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. , 2004. Print. Menn, Joseph. Alliance Helps Google Finally Go into Print with 2m Books. The Financial Times [San Francisco] 18 Sept. 2009: 13. Print. Michael Hart. The Economist 24 Sept. 2011, Obituary sec. : 102. Print. Montgomery, Kathryn C. Children in the Digital Age. Media Awareness Network. Web. http://www. media-awareness. ca/english/resources/special_initiatives/wa_resources/wa_shared/backgrounders/digital_kids. cfm. Noguchi, Yuki. Why Borders Failed While Barnes Noble Survived. National Public Radio. 9 July 2011. Web. http://www. npr. org/2011/07/19/138514209/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived. Postrel, Virginia. Amazon vs. Apple: What Should E-Book Prices Be? The Atlantic. 2 Feb. 2010. Web. http://www. theatlantic. com/business/archive/2010/02/amazon-vs-apple-what-should-e-book-prices-be/35131/. Printing Yesterday and Today. Harry Ransom Center. Web. http://www. hrc. utexas. edu/educator/modules/gutenberg/books/printing/. Project Gutenberg. Web. http://www. gutenberg. org/wiki/Gutenberg:About. Spector, Mike. Borders Forced to Liquidate, Close All Stores. The Wall Street Journal. 19 July 2011. Web. http://online. wsj. com/article/SB10001424052702303661904576454353768550280. html. Sutter, John D. The Future of Libraries, with or without Books. CNN. 04 Sept. 2009. Web. http://articles. cnn. com/2009-09-04/tech/future. library. technology_1_metropolitan-library-librarians-books? _s=PM:TECH. The Transformation of the Book Industry: Disappearing Ink. The Economist 10 Sept. 2011: 15. Print. Wong, Jackie. Genre-fiction Fans Quell Hunger with E-books. Straight: Vancouvers Online Source. 7 July 2011. Web. http://www. straight. com/article-402353/vancouver/genrefiction-fans-quell-hunger-ebooks. [ 1 ]. Kovacs, Maureen G. The Epic of Gilgamesh (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. , 2004) 13. [ 2 ]. Eliot, Simon, and Jonathan Rose. A Companion to the History of the Book (Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. , 2007) 87. [ 3 ]. Howard, Nicole. The Book: the Life Story of a Technology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2009) 31. [ 4 ]. Printing Yesterday and Today. Harry Ransom Center. . [ 5 ]. Background to Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg Australia. . [ 6 ]. Michael Hart. The Economist 24 Sept. 2011, Obituary sec. : 102. Print. [ 7 ]. The History of the Internet. Investintech. com.. [ 8 ]. Menn, Joseph. Alliance Helps Google Finally Go into Print with 2m Books. The Financial Times [San Francisco] 18 Sept. 2009: 13. [ 9 ]. Cohen, Dan. The Fight Over the Future of Digital Books Dan Cohen Technology The Atlantic. The Atlantic. 23 Sept. 2011. . [ 10 ]. Adam, Nabil R. Digital Libraries: Research and Technology Advances : ADL 95 Forum, McLean, Virginia, USA, May 15-17, 1995 : Selected Papers (Berlin: Springer, 1996) 244. [ 11 ]. The Future of Books: Not Bound by Anything | The Economist. The Economist. 24 Mar. 2007. . [ 12 ]. Montgomery, Kathryn C. Children in

Secure Data Retrieval Based on Hybrid Encryption

Secure Data Retrieval Based on Hybrid Encryption SECURE DATA RETRIEVAL BASED ON HYBRID ENCRYPTION FOR DISRUPTION-TOLERANT NETWORK Kollipara Durgesh, Dr.P. Sriramya I. ABSTRACT Military network is one of the most important network in any country but this network mostly suffers from intermittent network connectivity because of the hostile region and the battlefield. To solve the network problem faced by the military network we use Disruption-tolerant network (DTN) technologies which is widely becoming the successful solution. This technology allows the people to communicate with each other to access the confidential data even in the worst network by storing the data in the storage node. Some of the most challenging issues in this scenario are the enforcement of authorization policies and the policies update for secure data retrieval. Two types of encryption are used for the security. The two algorithms are Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Java Simplified Encryption (Jasypt). These two algorithms are combined to provide the secure data which is even more difficult to decrypt the confidential data by unauthorized people. In this paper, we propose a secur e data retrieval scheme by generating a new secret key each time when the user sends a secure data to the destination, this proposed method enhances the security of the confidential data. We demonstrate how to apply the proposed mechanism to securely and efficiently manage the confidential data distributed in the disruption-tolerant network. Keywords: Disruption-tolerant network (DTN), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Java Simplified Encryption (Jasypt), secure data retrieval II. INTRODUCTION In most of the military network it is very difficult for the soldiers and majors to communicate with each other because of the  difficult network environment and even if there is no proper to end-to-end connection between the sender and the receiver. Disruption-tolerant network (DTN) are widely used in the networks were there is no proper end-to-end connection between the sender and the receiver. In this paper we choose DTN to communicate between the soldiers and the others. Initially, if the end-to-end connection is missing between the source and destination pair the data from the source node has to wait until the network is recovered in the intermediate node which can be easily hacked by the third party user hence to solve this critical problem we use storage node which is introduced in the Disruption-tolerant network where in only the authorized users can access the respective data. Most military data are said to very confidential and hence we use confidential access control methods that are cryptographically enforced. Here we provide different access services for different users that is the admin decides in who access the data based on the respective designation of the users. The registration of the user is completed only if the admin accepts and verifies the users’ account to be valid but if the user is not authorized he will not be allowed to access the data in spite of the registration. For example if the â€Å"user 1† sends a data to the â€Å"user 2† the data will be encrypted by combining two algorithms such as AES and Jasypt and the resulted data will be encrypted and stored in the storage node where even if there is no end-to-end connection between the source and the destination pair the data will be secured in the storage which can be accessed by the respective authorized person. 111. ALGORITHM A. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm is used in this paper to provide secure data retrieval scheme. AES algorithm is chosen to be used in this paper because it is said to be more secured which supports most of the secure retrieval scheme. This algorithm is considered to be more secured because it is more widely used by the U.S. government to protect classified information and is implemented in hardware and software throughout the world to encrypt secure and confidential data. AES comprises three block ciphers, AES-128, AES-192 and AES-256. Each cipher encrypts and decrypts data in blocks of 128  bits  using cryptographic keys of 128-, 192- and 256-bits, respectively. (Rijndael was designed to handle additional block sizes and key lengths, but the functionality was not adopted in AES.) Symmetric or secret-key ciphers use the same key for encrypting and decrypting, so both the sender and the receiver must know and use the same  secret key. All key lengths are deemed sufficient to protect classified information up to the Secret level with Top Secret information requiring either 192- or 256-bit key lengths. There are 10 rounds for 128-bit keys, 12 rounds for 192-bit keys, and 14 rounds for 256-bit keys a round consists of several processing steps that include substitution, transposition and mixing of the input  plain text  and transform it into the final output of  cipher text. Various researchers have published attacks against reduced-round versions of the Advanced Encryption Standard, and a research paper published in 2011 demonstrated that using a technique called a biclique attack could recover AES keys faster than a brute-force attack by a factor of between three and five, depending on the cipher version. Even this attack, though, does not threaten the practical use of AES due to its high computational complexity. In this paper AES is used along with the DTN technologies because of the many security and privacy challenges. Since some users may change their associated attributes at some point (for example, moving their region), or some private keys might be compromised, key revocation (or update) for each attribute is necessary in order to make systems secure. For example, if a user joins or leaves an attribute group, the associated attribute key should be changed and redistributed to all the other members in the group. B. Java Simplified Encryption (Jasypt) The other algorithm used in this paper is Java Simplified Encryption (Jasypt), it is chosen for the hybrid encryption for a full secured mode to provide secure data retrieval of confidential data. This algorithm is combined with the AES algorithm to provide hybrid encryption. The final challenge in this paper is to provide a new secret key each time a user sends a secret data to the receiver. The secret key generated is unique and it generates a new key each time, which is even more secured for the secure data retrieval. The admin plays a vital role here to manage the overall source and destination pair but the admin is not authorized to access the information because the secret key is generated automatically which is sent to the receiver’s personal account which is not managed by the admin. Fig 1. Architecture of secure data retrieval in Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN) IV. EXISTING SYSTEM The existing system comprises a concept of attribute-based encryption (ABE) is a promising approach that fulfills the requirements for secure data retrieval in DTNs. ABE features a mechanism that enables an access control over encrypted data using access policies and ascribed attributes among private keys and ciphertexts. Especially, ciphertext-policy ABE (CP-ABE) provides a scalable way of encrypting data such that the encryptor defines the attribute set that the decryptor needs to possess in order to decrypt the ciphertext. Thus, different users are allowed to decrypt different pieces of data per the security policy. The problem of applying the ABE to DTNs introduces several security and privacy challenges. Since some users may change their associated attributes at some point (for example, moving their region), or some private keys might be compromised, key revocation (or update) for each attribute is necessary in order to make systems secure. However, this issue is even more difficult, especially in ABE systems, since each attribute is conceivably shared by multiple users (henceforth, we refer to such a collection of users as an attribute group). V. PROPOSED SYSTEM In the proposed system we use hybrid encryption by combining two algorithms and hence we enhance the security of confidential data. Here the admin keeps in track of all the users account hence even if the attribute of the particular user is changed, the admin makes the notification of the changes. Thus, the disadvantages of the existing system is solved. Unauthorized users who do not have enough credentials satisfying the access policy should be deterred from accessing the plain data in the storage node. In addition, unauthorized access from the storage node or key authorities should be also prevented. If multiple users collude, they may be able to decrypt a ciphertext by combining their attributes even if each of the users cannot decrypt the ciphertext alone. VI. MODULES Key Authorities module The key generation module generates secret key where the hybrid encryption occurs using AES and Jasypt algorithm. This key generation is very efficient because it combines the two encryption and produces the secret code. In this paper to increase the security of the military network, the secret key generated by the hybrid encryption is sent to the users personal email id, so that even the admin who manages the entire network will not be able to access the confidential data. Storage node module In the storage node module, the data from the sender is stored even when there is no stable network between the sender and the receiver since, we use Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN). The storage node consists of the encrypted data where only the corresponding receiver can access the respective data. To access the data from the storage node the receiver has to specify the secret code which is generated by the hybrid encryption and is secretly mailed to the receiver. Sender module The sender module is the one who holds the confidential data and wishes to store them into the external data storage node for ease of sharing or for reliable delivery to users in the extreme networking environments. A sender is responsible for defining (attribute based) access policy and enforcing it on its own data by encrypting the data under the policy before storing it to the storage node. Fig 2. Hybrid Encryption of secret message User Module This the last module which tends to access the confidential data from the sender which is stored in the storage node. The receiver has to provide the correct secret key which will be sent to his corresponding mail id. If a user possesses a set of attributes satisfying the access policy of the encrypted data defined by the sender, and is not revoked in any of the attributes, then he will be able to decrypt the cipher text and obtain the data. VII. CONCLUSION DTN technologies are becoming successful which allows for the communication between devices which do not have stable network and hence this can be more efficiently used in the military network. AES and Jasypt are scalable cryptographic solution to the access control and secure data retrieval. In this paper we proposed efficient data retrieval method using hybrid encryption by combining two algorithms. The encrypted data is then stored in the storage node which can be accessed only by the corresponding user by providing the respective secret key. In addition admin monitors all the attributes of the users which allows fine-grained key revocation for each attribute group. We demonstrate how to apply the proposed mechanism to securely and efficiently manage the confidential data distributed in the disruption-tolerant military network. VIII. REFERENCES [1] J. Burgess, B. Gallagher, D. Jensen, and B. N. Levine, â€Å"Maxprop: Routing for vehicle-based disruption tolerant networks,† in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, 2006, pp. 1–11. [2] M. Chuah andP.Yang,â€Å"Nodedensity-basedadaptiveroutingscheme for disruption tolerant networks,† in Proc. IEEE MILCOM, 2006, pp. 1–6. [3] M. M. B. Tariq, M. Ammar, and E. Zequra, â€Å"Mesage ferry route design for sparse ad hoc networks with mobile nodes,† in Proc. ACM MobiHoc, 2006, pp. 37–48. [4] S.Roy and M.Chuah,â€Å"Secure data retrieval based on cipher text policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) system for the DTNs,† Lehigh CSE Tech. Rep., 2009. [5] M. Chuah and P. Yang, â€Å"Performance evaluation of content-based information retrieval schemes for DTNs,† in Proc. IEEE MILCOM, 2007, pp. 1–7. [6] M. Kallahalla, E. Riedel, R. Swaminathan, Q. Wang, and K. Fu, â€Å"Plutus: Scalable secure file sharing on untrusted storage,† in Proc. Conf. File Storage Technol., 2003, pp. 29–42. [7] L. Ibraimi, M. Petkovic, S. Nikova, P. Hartel, and W. Jonker, â€Å"Mediated ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption and its application,† in Proc.WISA, 2009, LNCS 5932, pp. 309–323. [8] N. Chen, M. Gerla, D. Huang, and X. Hong, â€Å"Secure, selective group broadcast in vehicular networks using dynamic attribute based encryption,† in Proc. Ad Hoc Netw. Workshop, 2010, pp. 1–8. [9] D. Huang and M. Verma, â€Å"ASPE: Attribute-based secure policy enforcement  in vehicular adho cnetworks,† AdHocNetw.,vol.7,no.8, pp. 1526–1535, 2009. [10]A.LewkoandB.Waters,â€Å"Decentralizing attribute-based encryption,† Cryptology ePrint Archive: Rep. 2010/351, 2010. [11] A. Sahai and B. Waters, â€Å"Fuzzy identity-based encryption,† in Proc. Eurocrypt, 2005, pp. 457–473. [12] V. Goyal, O. Pandey, A. Sahai, and B. Waters, â€Å"Attribute-based encryption for fine-grained access control of encrypted data,† in Proc.ACMConf.Comput.Commun.Security,2006,pp.89–98. [13] J. Bethencourt, A. Sahai, and B. Waters, â€Å"Ciphertext-policy attributebased encryption,† in Proc. IEEE Symp. Security Privacy, 2007, pp. 321–334. [14] R. Ostrovsky, A. Sahai, and B. Waters, â€Å"Attribute-based encryption with non-monotonic access structures,† in Proc. ACM Conf. Comput. Commun. Security, 2007, pp. 195–203. [15] S. Yu, C. Wang, K. Ren, and W. Lou, â€Å"Attribute based data sharing with attribute revocation,†in Proc.ASIACCS,2010,pp.261–270. [16] A. Boldyreva, V. Goyal, and V. Kumar, â€Å"Identity-based encryption with efficient revocation,†inProc.ACMConf.Comput.Commun.Security, 2008, pp. 417–426. [17]M.Pirretti,P.Traynor,P.McDaniel,andB.Waters,â€Å"Secure attribute based systems,†inProc.ACMConf.Comput.Commun.Security,2006, pp. 99–112. [18]S.RafaeliandD.Hutchison,â€Å"A survey of key management for secure group communication,† Comput. Surv., vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 309–329, 2003. [19] S. Mittra, â€Å"Iolus: A framework for scalable secure multicasting,† in Proc. ACM SIGCOMM, 1997, pp. 277–288. [20] P.Golle, J.Staddon, M. Gagne,and P. Rasmussen,â€Å"A content-driven access control system,† in Proc. Symp. Identity Trust Internet, 2008, pp. 26–35. [21] L.Cheungand C.Newport,â€Å"Provably secure cipher text policy ABE,† inProc.ACMConf.Comput.Commun.Security,2007,pp.456–465. [22] V.Goyal, A.Jain,O.Pandey, and A.Sahai,â€Å"Bounded cipher text policy attribute-based encryption,†inProc.ICALP,2008,pp.579–591.

The Giver :: essays research papers

The Giver Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Have you ever felt like starting all over again? Many people would like to have the opportunity to make a new beginning. In the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, Jonas is making a new beginning by making an end.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jonas is making an end by leaving the community. He leaves with Gabriel because he wants to experience true things outside the community. He was very hurt in the community because he could not share his feelings. He wanted to be able to share and experience his feelings with other people. He feels the community does many things that are bad or wrong. Jonas doesn’t seem to like what happens to people when they are released. He wants to change many ways people in the community are treated. Jonas makes a great a choice by leaving the community.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jonas opens up many opportunities and choices when he leaves the community. â€Å"Jonas sobbed and shouted and pounded the bed with his fist† (Lois Lowry pg 152). Jonas is obviously angry in the situation he is in and with the choices he is given. He wants to have the privilege to make his own choices which he will be able to do outside the community. He can now find peace since he was able to leave and make his own choices . The choices will give Jonas a chance to find a job and other things that are important to his life. Jonas would finally be able to be happy with himself and what he has. It is good for Jonas to be able to have opportunities and choices.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jonas is making a beginning outside of the community. â€Å"Soon there were many birds along the way, soaring overhead calling† (Lois Lowry pg 172). Jonas can finally make his own decisions. Jonas could have all the privileges the community took away.

The Decoherence Of Measurement :: essays research papers

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknin's Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web Sites Arguably the most onerous philosophical question attached to Quantum Mechanics (QM) is that of Measurement. The accepted (a.k.a. Copenhagen) Interpretation of QM says that our very act of conscious, intelligent, observable measurement – determines the outcome of the measurement in the quantum (microcosmic) realm. The wave function (which describes the co-existing, superpositioned, states of the system) collapses following a measurement. It seems that just by knowing the results of a measurement – we determine its outcome, determine the state of the system and, by implication, the state of the Universe as a whole. This notion is so counter-intuitive that it fostered a raging debate which has been on going for more than 7 decades now. But, could we have turned the question (and, inevitably, the answer) on its head? Is it the measurement that brings about the collapse – or, maybe, we are capable of measuring only collapsed results? Maybe our very ability to measure, to design measurement methods and instrumentation, to conceptualize measurement and so on – are thus limited as to yield only the collapse solutions of the wave function? Superpositions are notoriously unstable. Even in the quantum realm they should last but an infinitely split moment of time. Our measurement apparatus is not as refined as to capture a superposition long enough to justify the title of â€Å"measurement† or â€Å"observation†. By contrast, collapses are sufficiently stable to last, to be observed and measured. This is why we measure collapses. But in which sense (excluding longevity which, anyhow, is a dubious matter in the quantum world) are collapse events measurable, what makes them so? Collapse events are not the most highly probable – some of them are associated with low probabilities and still they occur and are measured. Ex definitio, the more probable states will tend to be measured more (the wave function will collapse more often into high probability states). But this does not exclude the less probable states of the quantum system from materializing upon measurement. The other possibility is that the collapse events are carefully â€Å"selected† for some purpose, within a certain pattern and in a certain sequence. What could that purpose be? Probably, the extension and enhancement of order in the Universe. That this is so can be easily substantiated: it is so. Order increases all the time. This is doubly true if we adopt the anthropocentric view of the Copenhagen Interpretation (conscious, intelligent observers determine the outcomes of measurements in the quantum realm).

Examine the Ideas of Manliness, Hostility and Aggression in a View from the Bridge. How Are These Ideas Connected?

Examine the ideas of Manliness, Hostility and Aggression in A View from the Bridge. How are these ideas connected? A View from the Bridge: a tragic drama piece, written by Arthur Miller and first published in 1955. Curtained by the never-ending dramatics of the play, is quite basically a fight for an unconditional love, portrayed by a man of whom perplexes his emotions like no other (Eddie Carbone). The play itself is set in the 1950’s; times when masculinity and dominance we’re vital for a man to obtain, and therefore prove to be key concepts during A View from the Bridge. Due to the constant battle to be the top of the hierarchy, a hostile atmosphere is continuously present within the circle of male characters. To be the more predominant man proves highly important; it gives them authority over the female characters, and status over the other males. The play has been written as a Greek Tragedy: a storyline of where a certain person is destined for disastrous misfortune (the Hero). Linking to this, is the opening narration spoken by Alfieri. Alfieri is a lawyer, and as he quotes â€Å"I am a lawyer .. We’re only thought of in connection with disasters†, you are automatically signalled that something bad is bound to happen at some point during A View from the Bridge. Eddie Carbone works as a longshoreman in New York. He lives with his wife Beatrice, and his niece Catherine. Eddie proves to be the protagonist within the first page of A View from the Bridge, of which is chorused by Alfieri (an ageing lawyer). From this, it is rather easy to acknowledge that Eddie is going to play a domineering role, and quite obviously the hero in this Greek Tragedy comparison. As I have previously mentioned, masculinity is highly important, and particularly important to Eddie. Being the utmost respected and powerful man proves rather essential to him during the play, as gives him domination over the household females. An example of this would be in Act Two, just after Eddie rings the immigration bureau. â€Å"Get them out the house†¦ Not tomorrow, do it now. †. Here he is giving Catherine orders in a rather authoritative manor, and this is a prime example of the way he speaks to the female characters. Eddie has incestuous desires for his niece, Catherine. This continues to be an ongoing problem throughout the entire play. It is quite clear to recognise Eddie’s feelings toward Catherine from the opening scene. When Catherine enters, Eddie is overly keen to know where she is going due to the way she is dressed (short skirt etc); he questions her before becoming complimentary about her appearance, because he is obviously panicking that she has dressed herself specifically to impress another male. Eddie quite clearly feels that as a man, he has a right to inquire when he feels necessary; possibly using this to conceal the fact he wants nothing more than direct control of Catherine’s life. â€Å"Beautiful† he quotes Catherine when observing her new hairstyle. Through the whole of A View from the Bridge, Eddie does not pay Beatrice one single compliment, which seems rather obscure, suggesting he has more admiration for his niece than his wife. Catherine constantly seeks Eddie’s approval, repeatedly asking him â€Å"You like it? about the way she looks. This tells the audience that Eddie has brought Catherine up to believe his opinion is always necessary, relating to the idea of masculinity and the dominance possessed by the household male. The actual reason Catherine dressed herself differently was due to the fact that she has been newly employed as a stenographer: somebody who specializes in the transcription of speech. Yet again, Eddie has something to sa y about the fact that Catherine has a job. â€Å"You can’t take no job. Why didn’t you ask me before you take a job? are his exact words when telling her rather directly how he sees the situation. He is implying that she should of asked for his permission before taking the job, and has disobeyed him by not doing so. This goes back to the idea of him being manly and sustaining his authorities. However, I do not think this is the only reason he doesn’t want Catherine taking the job. It is quite clear to see Eddie has more feelings for his niece than he should have, although during the first half of A View from The Bridge I don’t think he has discovered this for himself. From pinpointing that Eddie was overly bothered about the length of Catherine’s skirt, and her getting a job, it is clear for the audience to absorb that he does not want her to grow up, as this could possibly mean letting go and giving Catherine more independence than preferable. Although Eddie beholds a rather harsh identity, he proves himself a warm and welcoming man when his wife’s cousins immigrate to America in search of employment. Marco and Rodolfo are introduced into the household: quoting â€Å"You’re welcome Marco, we got plenty of room here†, Eddie comes across as a very considerate person. Marco greets Eddie with a firm shake to the hand, however Rodolfo does not. A hand shake is a typically manly gesture, and throughout the play it soon becomes clear that Rodolfo does not fit the stereotypical figure of a man. Eddie expects a man to be a breadwinner, to have obvious physical strength, power and domination. Rodolfo appears to not possess any of these qualities, of which soon proves a serious problem to Eddie. â€Å"Paperdoll.. chorus girl.. kid.. hit-and-run-guy†: these are just a minority of the nicknames given to Rodolfo throughout A View from the Bridge. Rodolfo shows himself as a man that does not fit all the categorical standards of a typical male, and as the play goes on we see how this controversial character shines a negative reflection onto Eddie, bringing him nothing but utter aggravation. Rodolfo likes to cook, sing, dance, and even make dresses. These feminine qualities that he possesses cause Eddie to become suspicious about his sexuality, although Miller makes it quite clear that Rodolfo is not a homosexual, when his relationship with Catherine begins to bloom. To Eddie’s dislike, Catherine takes an immediate shine to Rodolfo. When she asks him â€Å"You married too? †, it is quite clear she’s interested in him. Eddie is not in favour of Catherine becoming close to Rodolfo, and he clearly tries to discourage what he does by calling him petty nicknames. Underneath the front that Eddie puts on about hating Rodolfo, I think ,secretly, he is particularly jealous of him. The play is set in the 1950’s, and therefore there was a lot of pressure on men to live up to the expectations and be the typical male. Rodolfo is not afraid to be himself, even if it does go against all rules of typicality. In my opinion, Rodolfo is a very brave character for doing so: he has no fear of being judged, and I think Eddie is intimidated by this. Eddie has never known any different, and so he is automatically against this new idea of a man being slightly feminine. This tells us Eddie cannot cope with change, relating back to when I mentioned how he is unable to come to grips with the fact Catherine is maturing and becoming less reliant on him. In Act Two, a drunken Eddie makes the ridiculous decision to kiss both Catherine AND Rodolfo. He clearly does this in an attempt to clear all cobwebs, and try to see through to the truth about Rodolfo’s sexuality. Unfortunately for Eddie, he only comes to discover that Rodolfo is nothing more than a heterosexual . I also believe this was an act of bare desperation; Eddie could not think of any other way of getting through to Catherine how he feels, and obviously believed this was the only way to put a stop to her and Rodolfo’s relationship once and for all. However, the scene proves Rodolfo to be more manly than Eddie thought, when Rodolfo demands â€Å"Stop that! Have respect for her! †. Respect is an important quality for a man to have , especially in A View from the Bridge. Although saying this, when Eddie â€Å"pins his arms† (Rodolfo), it again goes back to the idea that Rodolfo fails in the physical department of manliness. This scene is a turning point for the audience, as from this they now know rather exactly how Eddie feels towards Catherine, and how insanely jealous he truly is of her and Rodolfo’s relationship. This is a serious downfall for Eddie, telling you that he is getting progressively closer to his Greek Tragedy ending. As an audience, it is evidently apparent that Marco is in complete contrast to his brother, Rodolfo. Straight away he is thought of as a real man: â€Å"Marco goes round like a man; nobody kids Marco†. This is quoted by Eddie, who quite obviously knows where he stands with Marco, and seems rather threatened by the fact that there are now two dominant male figures in the household. This goes back to when I mentioned how there is always a secret fight to be top of the hierarchy: it is just never made official. It is unnecessary for Marco to prove his manliness verbally, due to the fact that his physicality speaks for him. He demonstrates his strength in a rather protective manor, when he strains to lift a chair directly above Eddie’s head. He does this as a discrete warning, cautioning Eddie to leave his brother alone. When Eddie punches Rodolfo at the end of Act One, he makes it out to be a joke, but Marco is not silly, and clearly knows that it was nothing more than a camouflaged threat made toward Rodolfo. Marco uses physical communication; alerting Eddie that if need be, physically, he will always come out on top. When Marco does this, the other characters are oblivious to the fact that it was meant as a threat. However, the audience would be able to recognise exactly what Marco was implying; the staging would portray the shadowed aggressiveness of the gesture, and build serious tension. It would also add to the hostile atmosphere, that had been previously created by Eddie. Alfieri is another example of a conventionally masculine character. His predominate role in the play proves him an honest, helpful and firm man. The fact that he is a lawyer also tells you as an audience, that he possess a lot of power. I think the title of the play (A View from the Bridge), was in fact based around the role of Alfieri. It is as if he is playing God in this tragedy; he has the ability to look over and judge the situation, but remains un-bias and uninvolved (possibly a skill he has developed from his job). Alfieri has a view from the bridge, and is looking down on a fateful occurrence (Greek Tragedy) that he cannot prevent from happening. Just after Eddie’s death, Alfieri quotes â€Å"something perversely pure calls to me from his memory†. Due to the fact that Alfieri has been such an honest and trustworthy character throughout, this line could sway the audience into realizing that maybe there was a good side to Eddie, as well as bad. Eddie had a rather double-sided personality. Although his love for Catherine got the better of his character, underneath it was quite recognisable that he was generally a caring man that looked after his family very well. He was born poor, and worked hard as a longshoreman to ensure he was able to provide for his wife and niece. The background of the author himself (Arthur Miller), most probably had strong influential effects on the way A View from the Bridge was written. For example, his mother and father were polish immigrants; this relates to the storyline of A View from the Bridge, as Marco and Rodolfo are also immigrants. Miller obviously has a clear view of what he expects a man to be. He has made the main character (Eddie) a very typical man: domineering, strong, and respected by all. If Eddie’s death was a tragedy, then in Millers eyes he was obviously the hero of the play. Miller was born in 1915, and therefore raised around people who too, believed that these qualities were necessary if you were to be considered a real man. A View from the Bridge is a play largely involved in the historical/cultural context of the early 20th century. The ‘American Dream’ correlates directly to the storyline of A View from the Bridge. The American Dream is basically the idea that all humans are of an equal worth, and that all people should do things that give them a quotably â€Å"better, richer, and happier life. â€Å". Eddie’s perception of Rodolfo goes against this idea of the American Dream, because he believes that Rodolfo deserves to be lower in status than him, just because he is not the typical man. When Catherine begins to take an interest in Rodolfo, Eddie does his best to prevent their relationship progressing. â€Å"Don’t lay another hand on her unless you wanna go out feet first† are his exact words when thinking only of oneself. He is very selfish by doing this, and is potentially forbidding Catherine from living the American Dream (happier life). The Sicilian code of honour is another historical policy that relates to A View from the Bridge. The Sicilian code is basically a firm rule of extreme loyalty, solidarity and justice. The Mafia in the early 1900’s followed this code rather closely, for example: if someone was to hurt or even threaten a member of your family, you were to honour them and take an immediate action of revenge. The mafia’s law would justify the murder of Eddie Carbone, due to the fact Marco killed him purely because he posed a threat to Rodolfo. The female characters in A View from the Bridge are the main victims of hostility, manliness, and aggression in this play; Catherine in particular. Due to the fact that Eddie highly dislikes Rodolfo, there is a constant hostile atmosphere present within the household. Catherine is made to feel like she must choose between Eddie and Rodolfo, which again causes hostility. This is not a typical father/daughter relationship; it is clear for the audience to see this from the way Eddie behaves when Catherine and Rodolfo are together. Eddie lives in denial about the fact that he is in love with Catherine, and uses fury to disguise it. When Alfieri figures that Eddie has these strong feelings for his niece, he says â€Å"She can't marry you can she? â€Å"; Eddie does not know how to respond to this and again attempts to hide how he feels for Catherine by getting overly angry, â€Å"I don't know what the hell you're talkin' about! â€Å". The audience are affected by this as, making you pity Catherine and the awkward position she is in. Beatrice suffers from this also, as Eddie is her husband. In one scene they argue about sex, because Beatrice is receiving hardly any attention from Eddie due to his aggression and confidentiality throughout the play. Eddie is constantly taking his anger out on Beatrice, yet she never complains. However, in one scene she has clearly had enough and decides to stand up for herself and go against Eddie. â€Å"I want you to cut it out now, you hear me? I don’t like it! Now come in the house. † To this I think Eddie is quite startled, and replies with â€Å"I’ll be in right away†. Beatrice knows full well that Eddie has more feelings for Catherine than he should: â€Å"You want somethin' else, Eddie, and you can never have her! â€Å". In this quote I think jealously is getting the better of Beatrice, as she describes Catherine as a thing, rather than a person.