Computer Forensics Essay Example for Free

Computer Forensics Essay Computer forensics, also called digital forensics, network forensics, or cyberforensics, is a rapidly growing field that involves gathering and analyzing evidence from computers and networks. Because computers and the internet are the fastest growing technology used for criminal activity, the need for computer forensics specialists will increase in years to come. A computer forensics specialist examines computer media, programs, data, and log files on computers, servers, and networks. Many areas employ computer forensics specialists, including law enforcement, criminal prosecutors, military intelligence, insurance agencies, and information security departments in the private sector. A computer forensics specialist must have knowledge of the law, technical experience with many types of hardware and software products, superior communication skills, a willingness to learn and update skills, and a knack for problem solving. When a problem occurs, it is the responsibility of the computer forensics specialist to carefully take several steps to identify and retrieve possible evidence that may exist on a suspect’s computer. These steps include protecting the suspect’s computer, discovering all files, recovering deleted files, revealing hidden files, accessing protected or encrypted files, analyzing all the data, and providing expert consultation and/or testimony as required. A computer forensics specialist must have knowledge of all aspects of computers, from the operating system to computer architecture and hardware design. There are three main areas of law related to computer security that affect computer forensics and those come from the fourth and fifth amendment, the U. S. federal rules of evidence and hearsay and finally the three U. S. statutory laws. Computer forensic specialists must be very careful when doing any type of investigation and be sure to follow the laws, if the laws are broken in any way they can be charged with a felony. In conclusion to sum up what computer forensics is in a short it is simply the application of computer investigation and analysis techniques in the interests of determining potential legal evidence.

The God Of Small Things

The God Of Small Things Intertextuality signifies the inter connectedness of one text with other texts and it reveals the presence of one text within the other and highlights the fact that no text can have an independent meaning. Every text takes something from the previous texts, and lends something to the future texts. Every text takes something from the previous texts, and lends something to the future texts. Intertextuality is the shaping of texts meanings by other texts. It can refer to an authors borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a readers referencing of one text in reading another. (Wikipedia). The term intertextuality was coined by the poststructuralist theorist Julia Kristeva in her article Word Dialogue which was published in 1966. Intertextuality generally signifies that the literary works are not a closed network and are not autonomous in nature. Today, intertextuality is used frequently and it has become a part of our notion as one watching film or TV, reading novel , or experiencing art. Graham Allen describes the concept of intertextuality as one of the central ideas as he argues: Texts, whether they are literary or non-literary, as viewed by modern theorists, as lacking in any kind of independent meaning. They are what theorists now call intertextual. The act of reading plunges us into a network of textual relations. To interpret a text, to discover its meaning, or meanings, is to trace those relation [. . .] Meaning becomes something which exists between a text and all other texts to which it refers and relates (Allen, Graham., Intertextuality: New Critical Idio m Series. Rutledge Publications, London, 2000, p.1) The theory of intertextuality is developed by poststructuralist and postmodern theorists, has become an effective appropriation strategy for postcolonial writers. Postcolonialism is chiefly characterized by questioning and subverting the authority. Pramod K. Nayyar defines postcolonial literature as: Postcolonial literatures seek to address the ways in which non-European (Asian, African, South American, but also settler colony) literatures and cultures have been marginalized as an effect of colonial rule, and to find, if possible, modes of resistance, retrieval and reversal of their own pre- colonial pasts. (Nayyar K, Pramod., Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction., 2008, Dorling Kindersley publications, Delhi). The sense of interconnectedness between different cultures is particularly significant in the postcolonial context, a context which arises due to the meeting of cultures. Arundhati Roy uses global referenced intertextuality to such a great extent in her novel. Intertextuality as a device in literary texts can be deployed at different levels. Roy makes intertextuality a conscious motif and device. The remark made on the twins in the context of the Kathakali performance: Trapped in the bog of a story that was and wasnt theirs. That had set out with the semblance of structure and order, then bolted like a frightened horse into anarchy (Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New Delhi: India Ink, 1997, p.236). Similarly, a rewriting of texts is suggested in the description of the twins as Hansel and Gretel in a ghastly fairy tale in which their dreams would be captured and re-dreamed (Roy, p.293). Roy makes extended references to texts as different as the popular film The Sound of Music (Roy, p.105-11), Heart of Darkness (Roy, p.125-26,199-200,305-06), Chemmeen (Roy, p.218-20), the Kathakali man and his Great texts like Kama Shabadam (Roy, p.218-20) and Duryodhana Vadham (Roy, p.229, 234). Many passing allusions are made to texts as disparate as popular soap operas like WWFs Hulk Hogan and Mr.Perfect (Roy, p.28), Shakespea res The Tempest, The Jungle Book, The Adventures of Susie Squirrel (Roy, p.58-59), Sinbad the Sailor (Roy, p.80), Julius Caesar (Roy, p.82-83), Ulysses and Penelope (Roy, p.157), the fairy tales about the Three Bears (180) or the Ugly Toad who turns into a handsome prince, Rumplestiltskin (Roy, p.182), Hansel and Gretel, and even literary texts like The Tale of Two Cities (Roy, p.61), The Scarlet Pimpernel (Roy, p.182) and so on (Roy, p.187), a recipe for making jam (Roy, p.195), and the boatsongs of Kerala (Roy, p.196-97). The contexts in which these texts are used are, in general, negative or pessimistic. Roy in her novel especially in the first few chapters used intertext to create an atmosphere of 1960s. She concentrated on fashion and culture to create that atmosphere. But the skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins was still parked outside.. (Roy, p.2). The reader will eventually realizes that the attributes from the 1950s belong to Kerala and its inhabitants and that many of the attributes from the 1960s the arrival of Sophie Mol with her mother Margaret. And then they were there, the Foreign Returnees, in washnwear suits and rainbow sunglassesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.Maxis and high heels. Puff sleeves and lipstick. Mixy grinders and automatic flashes for their cameras(Roy,140). Chackos exwife Margaret and daughter Sophie Mol arrival to Kerala is a turning point to the novel. Ammu, Chacko, Estha, Rahel and Baby Kochamma get into the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Roy, p.2) to pick them up at the airport. The Plymouth car has many symbolic values. The Plymouth used to belong to Pappachi, Rahel and Esthas grandfather. Now that he was dead, it belonged to Mammachi, their grandmother (Roy,35). The grandfather was a man who lived according to the British colonisers rules. He was also a patriarch and harassed his family. However, Chacko has taken Pappachis role of being the man in the house. The fact that the car is now driven by Chacko, who is a self proclaimed Marxist, which symbolises the new Marxist rulers of Kerala. The car is thus a symbol of entrapment and also it symbolises the delay in modernity in Kerala. This delay in modernity is emphasised at the airport when the family waits for their guests from London. Estha, Rahel and Ammu are being resistant and suspicious of their guests. This is emphasised by the smell of London and the prosperity brought with the newcomers: Then, there, among the washnwear suits and shiny suitcases, Sophie Molà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦She walked down the runway, the smell of London in her hair. Yellow bottoms of bells flapped backwards around her ankles. Long hair floated out from under her straw hatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.(Roy, p.141). Sophie is a symbol of freedom and therefore a threat to old Keralan values. She represents a breath of fresh air with flapping trouser legs and floating hair. Uncle Chackos daughter is only a young girl and still a threat to Esthas and Rahels world. Estha was wearing his beige and pointy shoes and his Elvis puff. His Special Outing Puff. His favourite Elvis song was  ´Party ´.  ´Some people like to rock, some people like to roll,  ´he would croon, when nobody was watching, strumming a badminton racquet, curling his li p like Elvis.  ´But moonin ´an ´a- groonin ´gonna satisfy mah soul, less have a pardyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Roy, p.37). In order to make a good impression on Margaret and Sophie, Baby Kochamma is showing off, pretending she is not as behind the time as the rest of the family:  ´Elvis Presley, ´ Baby Kochamma said for revenge. ´ Im afraid were a little behind the times here. ´ Every one looked at Estha and laughed (Roy, p.145). However, the childrens attraction to Sophie Mol and the modern world is there: And the three of them, led by Sophie Mol, sashayed across the airport car park, swaying like fashion models, Eagle flasks and Made-in-England go-go bags bumping around their hips (Roy, p.152). Further on, in the tragic story, Sophie Mol drowns and at her funeral she is still surrounded by her London-ness: She lay in it (the coffin) in her yellow Crimplene bellbottoms with her hair in a ribbon and her Made-in-England go-go bag that she loved (Roy, p.4). Now her hair is in a ribbon. Modernity and change will perhaps never survive in Kerala. Estha and Rahels fear of losing their place in the family is partly explained by the The Sound of Music intertext. Before picking up Margaret and Sophie at the airport in Cochin, the Ayemenem family went to see The Sound of Music. However Chacko and Ammu had different views on the film: Chacko said that going to see The Sound of Music was an extended exercise in Anglophilia, while, Ammu said,  ´Oh come on, the whole world goes to see The Sound of Music. Its a World Hit( Roy, p.55). Rahel and Estha were on their way to Cochin to see The Sound of Music for the third time. They knew all the songs and to know all the songs is also imp ortant to the reader. this time the film would mean something special to the children. Estha and Rahel are scared of loosing their uncle to Sophie Mol and Margaret. They feel as if they are not good enough. In comparison with the children in The Sound of Music, no child would be good enough: Captain von Trapps seven peppermint children had had their peppermint baths, and were standing in a peppermint line with their hair slicked down, singing in obedient peppermint voicesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Roy, p.110). Estha is definitely not peppermint clean and he has been molested by the Orangedrink Lemondrink man. Shocked by this experience, Estha wonders if ever a Captain von Trapp, an uncle Chacko or a father could love him and Rahel. Estha imagined that Captain von Trapp had some questions of his own. (a) Are they clean white children? No. (But Sophie Mol i s.) (b) Do they blow spit bubbles? Yes (But Sophie Mol doesnt.) (c) Do they shiver their legs? Like clerks? Yes (But Sophie Mol doesnt) (d) Have they, either or both, ever held strangers soo-soos? Nà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Nyes (But Sophie Mol hasnt.) (Roy, p.106). Apart from Esthas comparison between him and the peppermint children in the film, there are also several images connected to Baby Kochamma. Baby Kochamma was in her youth very much in love with a Father Mulligan, working in Ayemenem. She decided, at a young age, to become a nun, while waiting for her love for him to be returned. However, the love was never returned and Baby became disillusioned. In The Sound of Music Julie Andrews or Maria is also a nun. The life in the convent does, however, not fit Marias personality and neither did it fit Baby Kochammas. They both escaped the convent life. Still, Baby Kochamma liked the early nun bits best in the film. Ammu explained to Estha and Rahel that people always loved best what they identified most with (Roy, p.98). Although Baby Kochamma escaped the convent life, she somehow still identified with the nuns. She is jealous of other peoples love and happiness, and especially Ammus: They [the nuns] had complaints to make to their Reverend Mother. Sweetsinging complaints. About Julie Andrews, who was still up in the hills, singing The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music and was, once again, late for mass: She climbs a tree and scrapes her knee, Her dress has got a tear. She waltzes on her way to Mass And whistles on the stairà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ And underneath her wimple She has curlers in her hair! (Roy, p.99-100) These lyrics will lead the reader back to Baby Kochammas feelings about Ammu and Ammu, a divorced woman, who should feel shame and guilt over her failures, does the contrary and is in love. She subscribed wholeheartedly to the commonly held view that a married daughter had no position in her parents home. As for a divorced daughter according to Baby Kochamma, she had no position anywhere at all. And for a divorced daughter from a love marriage, well, words could not describe Baby Kochammas outrage. (Roy, p.45). Thus, within the interpretation of The Sound of Music the reader also has to know the intertext Let it Be by The Beatles in order to link Baby Kochamma to the nuns, Julie Andrews to Ammu and jealousy to love. Ammu is in love with the untouchable man Velutha. She has known him all her life and although he is untouchable, Ammus family has treated him with a certain amount of respect. However, this does not mean that they would accept a relationship between her and Velutha. Therefore, on some days , Ammu cannot help feeling happy, although sad about the fact that he is untouchable for her. She sometimes wakes up to the sound of music, just as anyone being in love does. Still, Ammu knows that the laws say Let it Be. However, as the reader delves further into the plot, Ammu is touched by the untouchable Velutha. Thus, the line I wake up to the sound of music, Mother Mary comes to me refers to their nightly meetings. Mother Mary is Baby Kochamma, speaking for the rules given by Christianity and Caste systems and yet, Mother Mary is also love, in the shape of Velutha. Through this maze of imageries the reader can understand how Baby Kochamma hates Ammu. The novel eventually develops into several tragedies where one of them is the horrifying ending of Ammus and Veluthas relationship and Veluthas death. There are many coinciding circumstances, although it is Baby Kochammas jealousy and personal disappointments that will have the most devastating consequences. In the film, Rolf is the oldest peppermint daughters boyfriend. He is a trustedperson, as if he belonged to the family. He becomes, however, a Nazi and betrays the family von Trapp. Sadly, a parallel between him and Baby Kochamma can be found. Baby Kochamma also becomes a betrayer, although she is one in the family (Roy, p.313-320). She turns from a nun into a betrayer. This imagery, it is also linking Baby Kochammas betrayal with a negative view on Christianity. There are again a multitude of messages cooperating on different levels in the intertext The Sound of Music. Uncle Chacko, the self proclaimed Marxist, who in a way is a betrayer as well. From being almost as a father to Estha and Rahel, he turns his back on them when Margaret and Sophie arrive. Uncle Chacko is thus a symbol of Marxist ideas and the Marxist government ruling Kerala at that time, a government picking the best apples from the basket of Marxism, just as Chacko does. The Love in Tokyo intertext was a successful Bollywood film released in 1966. The film plot involves forbidden love affairs just as in The God of Small Things. However, the most important symbol from this intertext is the two beads on a rubber band holding Rahels hair together: Most of Rahels hair sat on top of her head like a fountain. It was held together by a Love-in-Tokyo two beads on a rubber band, nothing to do with Love or Tokyo. In Kerala Love-in-Tokyos have withstood the test of time, and even today if you were to ask for one at any respectable A-1 ladies store, thats what youd get. (Roy, p.37) Rahel and Estha are twins. I get the impression from Roy that twins form a unit, and that when they are separated, they are just halves. They are Two beads on a rubber band (Roy, p.37). One of the many tragedies in this story involves Estha being sent away to live with his father, while Rahel stays in Ayemenem. The children do not understand the causes of all the tragedies and as children often do, they blame themselves. When they meet in Ayemenem again, they have not seen each other for twenty years. They have therefore not bean able to deal with their complexes of guilt and separation. As Rahel saw her brother in the bathroom, she thought of him: He was a naked stranger met in a chance encounter. He was the one that she had known before life began. The one who had once led her (swimming) through their lovely mothers cunt (Roy, p.93). Now, imagine the two beads, Rahel and Estha, being pulled apart as much as it is possible. As the rubber band is at its breaking-point and the puller has to let go, the beads will slip out of hands and by the force of the pulling, crash into each other: They were strangers who had met in a chance encounter. They had known each other before Life began. There is very little that anyone could say to clarify what happened next. Nothing that (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) would separate Sex from Love. Or Needs from Feelings (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) Only that there were tears. Only that Quietness and Emptiness fitted together like stacked spoons (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) Only that what they shared that night was not happiness, but hideous grief. (Roy, p.327-328) Roy uses intertextuality to a great extent in order to give the story a deeper meaning than what it encompasses on a surface level. However, since a deeper meaning can be found in most fictional work when analysing images and metaphors.

ETHNICITY IN TODAY?S SPORTS :: essays research papers

Armstrong, K. L. (2000). African-American Students’ Responses to Race as a Source Cue in Persuasive Sport Communications. Journal of Sports Management, 14, 208-227.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is important to think about all of the campaigning, advertising, and announcing that goes into sport communication. The article explains how when dealing with sports communication they always relate back to race. The study was to examine students and try to figure the response one might receive from the students from the role that was being portrayed. When the results came in they showed that African Americans held race at a higher value when dealing with the sports communication process. Armstrong, K. L. (2000) race and sport consumption motivations: A preliminary investigation of a black consumers’ sport motivation scale. Journal of Sport Management.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this article sports consumption is explained. In this article Armstrong gives rise to the question, why do different races eat up the sports world in different ways and fashions? The article suggests that African Americans consume the sports world based on previous hardships. The article also suggests that Caucasian people eat up the sports world for the excitement of the game. The article also spoke a little about the differences between men and women and how their motivation toward sports are similar in some Ethnicity in today’s sports 3 aspects. The fact that women are raised to be â€Å"girly† and men are raised to be â€Å"manly† makes their eagerness and motivation different. Davis, H. & Stacia, L. (2001). Career maturity and the Black college student-athlete. The Sicence & Engineering Journal, 63, pgs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This article studied the differences between black student-athletes, white student-athletes, and non student-athletes. . There is now talk of placing athletes in a comprehensive career planning intervention program before entering college to help with their career planning skills. The reason for implementing this program is due to the percentages that came from the study done. The study showed that a higher percentage of African American student athletes chose majors that had little or nothing to do with their chosen career path. The study also showed that more often than not African Americans had dreams of pro sport careers. The outcome of the study was the exact opposite when dealing with white student athletes. Most white student athletes chose majors that reflected their chosen career path and a low percentage had dreams of a pro sports career. Goldsmith, P.A.

Continuous Sexual Trajectory Essay -- Essays Papers

Continuous Sexual Trajectory In his Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Freud works inductively towards a theory of the (sexual) mind. The lectures consider years of psychoanalytic experience and try to fit them into a framework, in the process always slightly altering both the data and the theory. His primary interest lies in the competitive interplay of libido - the pleasure seeking unconscious part of the mind - and the ego - the rational and socially constituted character who internalizes norms and tries to tame the libido. The pleasure that the libido presses for is firstly sexual, but for Freud this expansive term indicates any kind of pleasure derived from physical contact. Working from these terms, he tries to consider the relationship between the normal, the neurotic and the perverted. Freud defines the pervert as one who lives out her or his desires for sexual pleasure despite the desires’ deviance from societal norms, and despite the fact that they do not lead to heterosex ual sex (377). The neurotic, on the other hand, shows symptoms created by the active and ongoing conflict between the ego’s demands and the libido’s desires (466). The question then becomes how this deviance relates to â€Å"normal† and why subjects become deviant. Ultimately, Freud’s attempt to establish a trajectory of human development taking the subject from childhood sexuality to adult life founders on the faulty basis of a presumed continuity. In order to explain his experiences as a psychoanalyst with patients and their myriad bizarre symptoms, Freud infers the structure of human development in general, with a focus on the sexual life of children. For adults to be sexual beings with particular symptoms, fix... ...man development grounded in an inferred childhood sexuality that is itself somewhat questionable. The circularity of his method, by itself, certainly does not prove it wrong. He could indeed be correct in the assumptions he makes, and thus their reappearance in and as his conclusions could be for the best. However, that the argument leaves so much space for alternate routes for the origin of what are labeled forms of deviance does at least indicate its incomplete correctness, if not its complete incorrectness. The important question becomes, as it began whether his thoroughly political reading of the nature of the sexualized individual is useful, as opposed to â€Å"True†. When the conclusions he reaches from this troubled theory contradict our sense of justice and reason, it may well be prudent to assume error lies in his ratiocinations rather than in our own agenda.

Cognitive Biases in Entrepreneurial Strategies

The view of the human as a rational being is nowadays heavily questioned (Simon, 1959), UT in science a lot of models and theories still are based on this assumption. When looking at research on entrepreneurship, we notice that it is considered a relatively new field of study, though practice has shown that entrepreneurial activities have a great influence on the market. Schumacher (1934) already linked entrepreneurial Initiatives of Individuals to the creation and destruction of Industries, as well as to economic development.More research has been conducted about entrepreneurship, which questions the classical picture of the economic man – Homo economics – and he classical concept of rationality. This might be because the entrepreneur himself Is one of the most crucial factors of either the success or failure of an entrepreneurial business. This has caused the entrepreneur to be a hot topic and so a lot of research has been dedicated to the phenomenon. An Shame to (200 0) for example different argues that the underlying factor that causes entrepreneur knowledge. Other research has focused on the traits of entrepreneurs.In general, entrepreneurs are considered overconfident (Cooper et al. , 1988), which is a good thing if you want to start-up a company. Without this trait, start-ups would probably not take place as often as we observe (Goodness & Lecher, 2013). However, research has also showed that this overconfidence is associated with failure (Camera & Lovable, 1999). Nobel (2011) argued that although we know 30 to 40 per cent of entrepreneurial firms fail, many other are bought out or never bring expected return on investment, meaning that the real failure rate can be up to 70 or 80 per cent.Overconfidence is one of the known biases that influence human beings in decision making. There are, however, a lot of more biases which an entrepreneur can encounter. This raises the question of whether being aware example of such of the biases could help the bias, entrepreneur in his activities. If we look at the overconfidence overconfidence can lead to wrong decisions. Awareness thus, could be helpful. On the other hand, if the entrepreneur is aware of this bias he could become too careful in the decision making process. This can result in no action being taken when the ‘moment' arrives.Or it could result in the entrepreneur even deciding not to continue due to the risks being too high. This leads us to the question: 3 The following questions will help us answer the main question by shedding some eight on the biases that are out there: Theory of Bounded Rationality As mentioned in the introduction, we assume Homo economics appears to be perfectly rational and has complete knowledge, while the economic choices one makes are clandestine in the economic sphere without affecting other aspects of the individual such as emotions or being influenced by the environment.This is in line with the neoclassical economic theory that assum es full What is a cognitive bias? Why does this article address cognitive biases? What kind of cognitive biases could an entrepreneur encounter? Theory In this section the previously stated substitutions will be answered based on theory of decision-making, cognitive biases and the application to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship We accept the definition of entrepreneurship as suggested by Stevenson and Carillon (1990): ‘Entrepreneurship is about individuals who create opportunities through various modes of organizing, without regard to resources currently controlled. Sevens and Carillon moved away from the view of the traits school' which tried to describe how entrepreneurs differed from other people by control, leadership, or propensity for risk-taking. When studies showed that entrepreneurs are as different from one another as they are from school' non- entrepreneurs, the ‘behavioral rationality. This view has been criticized by Simon (1959) who developed an approach based on bounded rationality and problem solving. Simon stated that the assumption of full rationality is unrealistic.In his view, the rationality of individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds and the finite amount of time they have to make decisions. The theory of bounded rationality states that individuals face uncertainty about the future and costs in acquiring information in the present. What is a cognitive bias? Biases and heuristics (mental shortcuts) are decision rules, cognitive mechanisms, and subjective opinions people use to help them making decisions. This is a deviation of the benchmark Cognitive of biases rational prevent decision-making. Individuals to accurately understand reality and interfere with the ability to be impartial, unprejudiced or objective (Goodness and Lecher, 2013). Taverns and Keenan (1974) state that people rely on ‘heuristic principles which reduce the complex tasks of assessing probabilities and predicting values to simpler Judgmental operations. There are specific and systematic biases that move the Judgment away from the perfect rationality of individuals. Argued that the process of creating a new venture, should be the fundamental part of defining someone as an entrepreneur. (Gideon, 2010).This is why we agree on the definition by Stevenson and Carillon, which also implies we will not discuss entrepreneurial traits in this article. 4 Drawing on aspects of both psychology and economics, the operating assumption of behavioral economics is that cognitive biases often prevent people from making rational decisions, despite their best efforts. Why do we focus on cognitive biases? The general opinion about entrepreneurs is that they are risk takers. However, research showed that if entrepreneurs have to choose, they prefer to take moderate risks instead of taking decisions where there is high risk involved (Keenan and Lovable, 1994).This seems a contradiction, because the decision to become an entrepreneur is statistically a highs decision since over half of new ventures fail. In a study conducted by Cooper and colleagues their (1988), 95 per cent of the The interviewed entrepreneurs venture would did not entrepreneurs were convinced succeed. Where there is a complex interplay between feelings and thoughts which have awoken intense emotions. He concludes deal with that these entrepreneurs frequently situations that are new, unpredictable and complex. What kind of cognitive biases could an entrepreneur encounter?When we look at what kind of biases an entrepreneur can encounter, it needs to be known what kind of biases exist. There are dozens of known biases but not all an entrepreneurs will meet. We would like to discuss the biases that came across the most in research of cognitive threats of entrepreneurs. Optimism bias. The decision to become an entrepreneur is a crucial step that only can be taken if the entrepreneur is feeling optimistic about the chances of success. Because the chance of failure is statistically higher than success, entrepreneurs usually have an optimism bias.As mentioned before, 95 per cent of the entrepreneurs perceive the future of their new venture as being successful, while past studies of business survival suggest poor prospects for long-term survival for most new businesses (Cooper et al. , 1988). The optimism bias makes because entrepreneurs they see perceive less risk, more everything receive the new venture as a risk and their perception, rather than objective reality, explained the decision to start a current or future venture. That is why entrepreneurs do not necessarily have a higher risk propensity than other people (Keenan and Lovable, 1994).They simply perceive existing risks smaller than they are which shows that entrepreneurs are biased. Baron (2004) suggests that entrepreneurs are more often exposed to situations that test the limits of their cognitive capacities than other people. This i ncreases their susceptibility to various forms of bias or error. Baron argued that biases occur more frequently when individuals are confronted with more information than they can process at a given time, they face situations that are new to them and involve high degrees of uncertainty, and optimistically.In ‘The Evolution of Cognitive Bias', (2005) Hasten, Nettle, and Andrews state that where biases exist individuals draw inferences or adopt beliefs where the evidence for doing so in a logically sound manner is either insufficient or absent. In the case of 5 entrepreneurs however, we see that even if logical sound manner is sufficient still an entrepreneur can be biased. In the experiment by Cooper and colleagues (1988) 95 percent of the entrepreneurs was thinking that their venture would be a success, disappear when they knew about the objective chances.Business and Barney (1997) have stated that the optimism bias of an entrepreneur could also influence the stakeholders arou nd them as well. If the stakeholders wait until they attain all additional information, the opportunity they seek to exploit could be gone by the time this data is available. This means that the optimism bias of an entrepreneur can even overrule the rationality of other persons involved. Illusion of control The illusion of control gives the entrepreneur a sense of control that increases the likelihood of them acting on an opportunity, but at the same time it may blind them to genuine risks. Simon et al. 2000) The illusion of control states that decision makers often overestimate the personal control they have over the outcomes. This type of bias influences the ability for decision makers to actually make a decision. This could also be the reason many entrepreneurs fail even though they thought they had made a right decision. Belief in the Law of Small Numbers The belief in the law of small numbers is the use small off limited sample of to draw rim are conclusions. The bias makes peo ple believe samples information representative of the entire population from Overconfidence bias.Overconfidence refers to an unwarranted, high level of confidence (Forester and Scratchy, 2007). It is interesting that overconfidence can only be determined in retrospect, after an evaluation of knowledge, predictions and outcomes. Therefore, it will be difficult to notice beforehand if an entrepreneur is dealing with an overconfidence bias. Because of overconfidence, people do not take into account other factors and information that they need for decision-making. Goodness and Lecher optimism (2013), bias and argued distrust. Hat They the overconfidence bias is influenced by both the see overconfidence as a central theme in the failure of entrepreneurial firms with its effects magnified in combination with other cognitive biases. Which they are drawn (Simon et al, 2000). Simon and Houghton (2002) argued that belief in the law of small numbers may explain why entrepreneurs often overesti mate demand. The success of a small number of people in their own environment can make entrepreneurs think that they will also be successful, while the objective probability of success may be very low.Business and Barney (1997) mint out that entrepreneurs often use biased samples from a small number of friends or potential customers. Decision-makers versus Entrepreneurs Business and Barney mentioned that entrepreneurs are influenced by the sorts of cognitive biases that we all as individuals encounter (1997). However, they found that the extent to which people deviate from rational thinking may not be constant and that different individuals may utilize biases and heuristics to different degrees.They argued, and Baron (2004) agrees, that entrepreneurs in general are more susceptible to the use of biases and heuristics in decision-making. For entrepreneurs, the level of uncertainty in making decisions is higher than for general decision-makers (Humpback and Cozier, 1985; Covina and Sl iven, 1989). Also, general managers can approximate the rational ideal more closely because they usually have access to historical trends and past performance, while entrepreneurs do not. Several studies (Covina and Sliven, 1991; Garner et al. 992; Miller and Ferries, 1984) have shown that the context faced in decommissioning by entrepreneurs tends to be more complex than the context faced by managers. Pitfalls, biases and heuristics are likely to have more utility in hose highly complex decision settings faced by entrepreneurs, compared to the less complex context that managers face (Business and Barney, 1997). We find that entrepreneurs in general encounter, and until now no attempt has been done in making such a list. Simon et al. (2000) did make a selection in their research towards risk perception and the start of a new venture.They selected three biases that may lower risk perception when starting a new venture. Their research focused on the overconfidence bias, the illusion o f control and the belief in small numbers (see table 3). In their research optimism did not have a significant relationship with the decision to start a new venture, therefore they left this bias out of the model. Striking is that they left optimism out of their model, because they found a lack of significant relationship between optimism and the decision to start a venture.They mentioned however that other studies did encounter optimism affecting both cognition and behavior and explain that their outcome may have occurred because their survey measured optimism in a specific context. Further research on at least the optimism bias therefore is necessary. What influence can biases have on the success or failure of an entrepreneurial firm? Biases can have great impact on the success or failure of a company. Goodness and Lecher (2013) argued that their research shows that overconfidence can lead to disastrous effects in the entrepreneurial domain.In fact, they even found a strong relati onship between overconfidence and company failure, especially if overconfidence was linked with other biases. Also they found that optimism bias has a negative effect on firm survival, strengthening arguments on low risk perception and resultant propensity to fail. However optimism bias also acted positively on opportunity orientation. This is an important encounter more biases than other types of decision-makers, but no specific research has been done on framing the most common biases faced by entrepreneurs.In the field of strategic decision-making however, Hogwash described the 29 most common separate biases (1980). The ones that he considered most likely to affect strategic decisions are listed in table 1. An overview like this is missing in the field of entrepreneurship. One reason for this might be that most entrepreneurship common biases is hard to frame. Previous research did not mention a list of the that 7 finding, as one of the important aspects of entrepreneurship is find ing opportunities. Effective decision-making by entrepreneurs with respect to actions involving risk could play an important role in the success of new ventures.Empirical findings in literature about entrepreneurship offer support for the possibility that successful entrepreneurs are more effective at this task. Simon et al. (2000) found that effectiveness at decision making is an important factor in the performance of new ventures. Lovable and Keenan (1993) prescribed corrective measures to overcome the biases and achieve optimal behavior in every situation. Also Russo and Shoemaker (1989) reasoned that decision biases can be corrected through training.They have indicated that every decision-maker must, consciously or unconsciously, go through each phase of the decision-making process. They have stated ten most common barriers that entrepreneurs encounter in making good decisions. These barriers show resemblance with the biases described by Hogwash (1980). The availability bias, â €˜Judgments of probability of clearheadedly events are distorted', can be linked to the trusting shortsighted the most shortcuts, readily ‘relying or inappropriately on rules of thumb such as information anchoring too much on invention facts'.Both of them trust the most readily available information and thus the Judgment of probability may be distorted. Conservatism, which is the failure to sufficiently revise forecasts based on new information, can be linked to fooling ourselves about feedback, since in both cases the feedback will not be taken into account when forecasting new decisions, which can also emerge from being overconfident in making a Judgment. Russo and Shoemaker (1989) indicated that good decision-making can be broken down into four main elements: (1) framing; (2) gathering intelligence; (3) coming to a conclusion; (4) learning from feedback.Entrepreneurs have to keep track of what they expected to happen while guarding and against Lecher self-serving (2013) also explanations. Goodness agreed with the effectiveness of training on biases. They stated that for example the training of unrealistic optimists should stimulate the motivation to manage finances, to take advice, not to leave matters up to chance, and to understand the value of healthy distrust in oneself and others in non-routine situations.However, they also warned that training programs for entrepreneurs are not always a good idea. If it was not for the cognitive biases, start-ups would not occur as often as we observe now. Their advice for entrepreneurs is to balance the organization with people that are aware of these biases and can correct the entrepreneur where necessary. As well, Taverns and Keenan (1974) do not consider the biases as something that always should be eliminated.They argued that under conditions of environmental uncertainty and complexity, biases and heuristics sometimes also can be an effective and efficient guide to decision-making, simply because in such settings comprehensive and cautious decommissioning is not always possible. They state that biases and heuristics may even provide an effective way to Training When a bias causes harm, it is of critical importance that it can be addressed properly. Errors in decision-making can be extremely costs at not only the personal but also at the professional and societal level.As this article indicates, there does not seem to be an easy fix. Building further upon his previous work, Fishhook (1982) reviewed four strategies for reducing bias: (1) warning subjects about the potential for bias, (2) describing the likely direction of bias, (3) illustrating bias to the subject, and (4) providing extended training, feedback, coaching and other interventions. Fishhook concluded that these first three strategies yielded limited success, and that ‘even intensive, personalized feedback and training produced only moderate improvements in decision making. This model, derived from Wilson and Breake r (1994), shows how Judgmental biases are created and how they can be reduced. Awareness should first be created, there must be motivation to correct this bias and the direction and magnitude of the bias should be understood. As a final step, the bias should be removed or countered. But what is interesting is to see which techniques can be used to mitigate the bias of concern. We believe this can be done by applying a counter bias or by structuring the decision-making process.If decision makers rely less on intuition and emotion when making a decision, and more on deliberate and structured thinking processes, a decision can be made which approximates rationality. Analysis A list of the most common biases among decision-makers (note this it is not a list of the most common among entrepreneurs) have been framed earlier in this paper by Hogwash (1980). It is known that entrepreneurs are more susceptible to the effects of biases, but it is doubtful whether the most important biases for decision-makers are also the most important ones for entrepreneurs.The optimism bias and overconfidence decision-makers, bias do not appear on in the Hogwash's list of most common biases for while research cognitive biases of entrepreneurs mentions them often. The problem with making an analysis on the cognitive biases that entrepreneurs encounter is that there is no such a list of most common biases among entrepreneurs. Earlier in this paper, we accepted the definition by Stevenson and is Carillon several to (1990) modes that of entrepreneurship opportunities organizing without about creating resources through rage rd currently controlled.This made us not look at the traits of an entrepreneur, but at the processes of decision-making and biases that can occur. There are biases that every person encounters, but there are certain biases that have a more effect on decision-making but also have to be aware of different sorts of biases that can influence their perception of the world. Th is can be of great influence on the future of their new ventures. As Abide (1994) argued, there are three critical elements of successful entrepreneurial approaches.Entrepreneurs 9 have to screen opportunities quickly to weed out unpromising ventures, they have to analyze ideas in which they focus on new important issues and they have to integrate taking action and analysis. His most important conclusion is that entrepreneurs must reflect on the adequacy of their ideas and their capacities to execute them. This comes back to what we are addressing in this article. Can entrepreneurs be aware of adequacy of their ideas? And is it recommendable to create this awareness among entrepreneurs?To be able to have a better perception of the world and thus be better capable of reflecting and making decisions, biases are of great importance. Hen reflecting on the environment of the new venture and when making decisions based upon those reflections. Training programs to become aware of bias do e xist. Russo and Shoemaker (1989) proposed a training system in which good decision- making can be broken down into four main elements. In each element the person involved is encouraged to take the different barriers (table 2) into account so that he or she is guarded against silvering explanations.However, Goodness and Lecher (2013) argued that when entrepreneur are aware of biases, probably less start-ups will be realized. They advise that not the entrepreneurs will follow a raining program, biases. But rather people around the entrepreneur should be aware of existing Conclusion Although there are frameworks of individual cognitive biases in the literature of decision making, like the barriers by Hogwash (1980), there is no clear framework which cognitive biases entrepreneurs commonly encounter and how and if the effects of these biases should be reduced.The biases studied showed however that they can have big influence on the success or failure of a new venture. Goodness and Leche r (2013) found a strong relationship between overconfidence and company failure. Also positive biases strengthen low risk reception and increased the chance of failure. On the other hand, a positive bias in the startup phase of the company could be of great help because it strengthens the entrepreneur in motivation and opportunity finding.If entrepreneurs are aware of their biases, they could take this knowledge into consideration Taverns and Keenan (1974) pointed at the fact that not always should be eliminated. Under conditions of environmental uncertainty and in complexity, biases and simply heuristics because sometimes also can be effective and efficient decision-making, comprehensive and cautious decision-making is not always possible. Being aware of cognitive biases contributes towards obtaining optimal behavior in every situation.However, when we want to answer the question if awareness helps entrepreneurial firms perform better we would like to advise to also create awarenes s among the people around the entrepreneur and not the entrepreneur himself. The bias of an entrepreneur can be crucial in the start-up of a company and the motivation of other people. However, when a bias is harmful people around him can undertake action to 10 eliminate this bias and therefore reduce the chance of a company's failure. As a radical note we would like to mention that research on biases that an entrepreneur can encounter still has not been done.

Facebook Case Study Essay

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A firm that has been floating on the stock exchange has been selected and evaluated and the firm I have chosen was Facebook. In my report I have included the recent history of Facebook as to how the social networking site started and the developments from the introduction until recently. I furthermore went on to evaluate the source of finance with a brief explanation as to what source of finance is and the different type of sources available to business i.e. Short term , medium term and long term. This explains the type of finance business need starting from day to day transactions to long term purchasing of assets and investments. After my understanding of what sources of finance are, I done some research on Facebooks source of finance and came to a conclusion that the firms sources of finance is long term source of finance as they earn money through shares(IPO). The reason for Facebooks floatation was simply because at the time they decide to go public the firm was already valued as one of the top companies around, however even though the firm was highly valued there was still negative stories about the firm. Facebook continues to grow and to try and keep the 200 million users entertain there are now talks of a Facebook phone that is due to be released this year. INTRODUCTION I am required to select a firm that has floated on the stock exchange in the last 4 years analyse and critically evaluate the firms decision to go public. The firm I chose was Facebook and in my report I will be discussing the following about the firm. Recent history of the company The firms sources of finance/ Capital structure of the firm Reason for flotation Implications of the flotation Performance of shares since flotation Future prospects for the firm Recommendations as to the future financing ABOUT FACEBOOK Facebook is a popular social networking website whose name originated as a nickname of directories handed out to university students that aided in them getting to know their fellow students. The social networking site was invented by Harvard computer science student Mark Zuckerberg, along with a few class mates. Facebook officially started off in October 2003 when Zuckerberg launched â€Å"Facemash.com† to allow visitors to compare pictures of two students and say who’s hot and who’s not. The website became popular as people enjoyed going on the internet and checking out pictures of their friends. In January 2004 an article in the Harvard Crimson stated that Zuckerberg registered the Facebook.com domain as he was now inspired by the success of Facemash. Shortly after the launch of Facebook the website eventually grew as it was now discovered by Sean Parker (Former Co Founder of Napster) who informally advised the student on what to do, and by June 2004 Facebook received its first private investment from Peter Theil [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrUea0gLlY], the founder of PayPal who gave $500 000 in exchange for 10.2% of the company. Sean Parker later became president of the newly incorporated company Facebook. Facebooks domination continued to grow until it became the second most visited web property online. In August 2009 Facebook acquired the real time new aggregator site friends feed and in 2012 Facebook made a huge splash in the market by acquiring instragam for approximately $1 billion. This year Facebook has introduced a graph search to help users find out more about their friends and connections. This feature lets you search through data shared by friends to discover people their interest, restaurants, much and much more. This is the first major step Facebook has taken towards competing with Google. SOURCES OF FINANCE Business needs money to support investment and finance their day to day activities. A company may choose to raise money internally (by retaining and investing profits) or externally. Each source of finance has a risk attached to it, the risk that the business will not meet the financial commitments related to the source. The mix of all the financial sources is known as the financial risk of the company. An essential requirement in raising finance is that business should meet repayments and other expenses, as the fall due. This is generally achieved by ensuring that there is a good match between _cash inflow generated by the use of money and cash outflows to the service payments to the finance raised_. TYPES OF SOURCES OF FINANCE. Short term finance- Usually needed for a business day to day operations e.g. paying wages, ordering suppliers etc This is usually the cheapest one to use as it is easier for a lending institution to asses lending risk for shorter loan periods. Types of short term finance include the following: Overdrafts Short term loans Trade credit Accrued expenses and deferred income Factoring Medium term finance- This source of finance can be used to finance the acquisition of Motor Vehicles, Machinery, Computers, etc. Three main types of medium term finance are: Hire Purchases Leasing Term Loans Long term finance- In financing the purchase of a building (major investments), long term finance would be appropriate. There are two alternative methods of raising long term finance Debt-Bank loans and Bonds Equity-is an important source of long term finance and consists of: Preference shares, Ordinary Shares and Retained Profits (internally generated cash flow). Equity finance is raised through the sale of ordinary shares to investors and can be raised either via: A new share IPO ,Placing or Introduction A rights Issue. FACEBOOK’S SOURCES OF FINANCE/CAPITAL STRUCTURE. Facebook’s source of finance is the long term finance as the firm makes its money through sale of ordinary shares from investors such as IPO (Initial Public Offer) which is the first offering of shares to the general public. The social networking site officially filed for an IPO on February 1 2012. The preliminary prospectus declared that Facebook was seeking to raise $ 5 billion in investment at the time the company announced that they have 845 million users active on the site with close to 2.7 billion likes and comments daily. After the IPO, Mark Zuckerberg planned to retain 22% ownership stake in Facebook with 57% of voting shares which was valued by the underwriters as being worth $38 each and pricing the company at 104 billion, the largest valuation ever to date for a new company going public. Facebook selected Morgan Stanley as the lead advisor for the IPO as the company had earlier lead the IPO of internet giants like Group on, Zynga and other banks such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merril Lynch,Barclays Capital and JP Morgan. According to AllFacebook , shares have been actively trading between $25-$40 which gives Facebook a valuation of approximately $17000, more than Microsoft which was valued at $15000.Most of Facebooks trades takes place through secondmarket a company responsible for generating a market around typically illquid assets while while the value of the trades is unkown.While Facebook stock is not the type of thing you can trade in a day due to the fees and time involved in transactions ,however most investors see a great return in just 6 months. BELOW IS A GRAPH WITH FACEBOOKS SHARE PRICE IN MAY 2012 WHEN FACEBOOK DECIDED TO FLOAT.GRAPH 1.1 REASON FOR FLOTATION The reason for Facebook’s flotation was due to the fact that the company’s IPO was valued as one of the best amongst top companies. When Facebook made its long expected debut as a public company, the social networking company linked up with the largest public companies in the world alongside Mc Donalds , Amazon.com and Bank of America. The wall street journal reported that Facebook was prepared to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion. As the news about Facebook spread worldwide and it later became the most popular and influential global website, Investors now started to flock to acquire shares in Facebook. Articles stated that even though Facebook was valued a high price there was still a debate within business and media circles on the true value of the company. The social networking site also made money through advertising allowing other companies to advertise about their business on the website. In May 2012 Mark Zuckerberg and other executives began a road show to persuade institutional investors to buy shares before the flotation. One of the underwriters JP Morgan along with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were included in the road show. IMPLICATIONS OF THE FLOATATION FOR THE FIRM Even though there is a great amount of effort in the flotation of Facebook there are still some negative views on the social site. An article in the guardian called â€Å"_Facebook flotation: three reasons to avoid it†_ it states that Facebook is not worth $100 billion and that Zuckerberg has not put a price tag on his creations so it’s still early to say that he will attempt to achieve that amount when the flotation started. Below are the three reasons given in the article: Zuckerbergs first letter to the potential investors was a strange dispatch. As it stated that Facebooks ambition was to build a service that gives people the power to share and help them once again to transform many of the core institutions and industries. Facebook has no need to float as it does not need to invest as the firm is profitable and generates enough cash to pursue its current objective. Zuckerberg is keeping control of Facebook by adopting a dual voting structure with him and investors. In response to the negative publicity about the website , Facebook opposed by saying that the main reason for floating is to allowing longstanding investors to cash in a portion of their winnings and to help Facebook grow. The float promoters were then seeking to emphasize that the investments obtained were potentially for a profitable growth and to play down the risk faced by the firm. PERFORMANCE OF THE FIRMS SHARES SINCE FLOATATION Zuckerberg has called the stock performance â€Å"disappointing†. The social networking leaders stock has lost nearly half its value since flotation. More than $50 billion has been cut off Facebooks market value as the companys shares have fallen from $38 to $19.43. The CEO has lost the most as the value of his facebooks holdings falls more than $9 billion which questioned his skeptics and guess his ability to lead a company. The performance of the shares has obviously been disappointing and has caused some demotivated employees, however Zuckerberg motivated them and they believed that things will improve as time goes go on. After numerous up and downs and significant critics from the public the share prices started showed a highly volatile behaviour with prices as low as $17.73. The prospective performance of the company did not impress the investors and therefore had a impact on the company as a whole. In November 2012 Facebook shares has shown a significant rise in value reaching the highest price in months, As the value it continued rising the company witnessed an increase of 15% each month to date. The major factor that has pushed the social networkings markets performance is the increase in investors’ confidence in the companys potential to earn a higher revenue in the prospective periods. The confidence is directly linked to the increasing success of the performance as the number of business advertising on the website increased which means higher revenue and higher revenue means higher returns for investors. FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR THE FIRM Facebook has and always will be the king of the social media sites , as the site is still growing worldwide. To date the social networking website has more than 200 million registered users. Researchers believe that Facebook can evolve another google as they are also relying on advertising for their revenue. The social networking sites goal now is to create a personalized digital newspaper through the newsfeed that has everything a person would want to know about people. This will be perfectly customized just for the users. Mobile will be the key to Facebooks future growth said the head of advertising as only 30% of users access through desktops and 70% through mobile devices every day. A plan to invest a huge amount of money will be the target for Facebook in the future as talks on creating a Facebook smartphone continues. Facebook is also targeting other continents like Asia, Latin America and Africa as users in these areas have grown by 33% each year. Even though they introduce the mobile device Facebooks ultimate goal will  still remain to get more users online and to improve current features that will keep current users entertained. CONCLUSION /RECOMMENDATION TO THE FIRM’S FUTURE FINANCING Facebook is available to everyone all over the world and there still huge potential for growth for the firm. My recommendation to the firm regarding their finance would be to focus on their advertising model, improving it and allowing business to advertise more on their website. By doing that they will do enhance their chances of doing better than search engine giant Google and revenue will increase which will benefit both the firm, current and potential investors. With the introduction of the new Facebook phone they have to ensure that the phones are better then other smartphones. Facebook has to earn the general publics confidence in them by coming up with new ideas on their IPO, if the public is satisfied they will invest more in the company. However with the introduction of the new phone I believe share prices will increase.

Persuasive Communication Essay

When trying to persuade the boss it is important to state the facts and make sure to check the validity of these facts that will be presented before it is put forward. Remember to quote your credible sources, as you may be asked about where your data arrived from. Analyze the persuasive effectiveness in terms of its logos, pathos, and ethos, if applicable, on what you are trying to convince your boss on. Use statistics and data that are current and choose reputable publications. Try to avoid logical fallacies. Presenting something that you want the boss to accept and give you the â€Å"wow† effect is important. You must make an effective entrance into a room. Walk tall and enter the room with a purposeful, confident stride. Give a firm handshake and smile. Having a positive attitude is a good way to start off a conversation. You must first find common ground with your boss by sharing a common view of the problem, issue or goal. Confirm with the boss that you are on their side and want this idea to help better the company. When trying to persuade a peer a mixture of facts and feelings may be used because you should have an indication of the person’s personality. This can benefit you to use what you know about how that your peer thinks when trying to persuade this person. Usually, a peer will listen to you much deeper than a person who does not you well. When dealing with a challenging person it is important to use techniques to grab their attention. Challenging people have self-interest and may want to argue an issue. Use those self-interests to break down the facts and use sentiments to make them understand. If you are trying to persuade an open minded person you can explain your side of an issue by inflating the data. Open minded people are willing to listen to all sides of the arguments. Whether you are trying to persuade your boss, a peer, a challenging person, or an open minded person, all people think, and have personalities, that differ from you. Knowing who your audience is can be very important when it comes to persuasion.