Open Source and Open Standards in Ecommerce Assignment

Open Source and Open Standards in Ecommerce - Assignment Example These types of services are offered to cover against system problem, help, mitigation and training. The revenue generation is offered through presenting some contractual aspects (GBdirect Ltd, n.d). 8 Saint-Andre (2009) has answered the question and stated that open source technology and products often rely on open protocols standards, for example Mozilla with HTML/JavaScript/CSS, Apache with HTTP, Sendmail with SMTP. In this scenario we can assess that the proprietary products and systems are also doing the similar job. In this regard the open source technology developers need to confirm the platforms efficiency to offer the user a better and enhanced experience. Therefore open source developer need to fulfill all the quality standards of the open standards. However small development firms and software houses are restricted to construct a closed implementations as well as consequently they are not fixed to limitations of licenses for example GPL (Saint-Andre, 2009). Saint-Andre (2009) has stated that a number of people thought that, the W3C or IETF supports a format or protocol; it consequently turned out to be a standard. However standardization is not an issue of authorization ; however it is a concern of recognition in the marketplace. Not the entire of standards are open (for instance, PowerPoint or MS Word). Despite the fact that, when formats as well as protocols are coming under the open standards, then open standards applications are technically strong typically be liable to be established through the marketplace like a standard. Certainly, a certain application or protocol turns out to be not simply a standard however the leading marketplace maker. For instance, Apache is the leading web server. It new protocol HTTPng was unsuccessful to grab sufficient market because it was not fully supporting Apache community. A powerful open source "anchor" facilitates to guarantee the openness of

Person Centred Care for Dementia Patients

Person Centred Care for Dementia Patients Ingrid Joy Moreno Castaneda Abstract This paper presents the different aspects of person-centred approach in the promotion of health to the elderly with dementia and other geriatric health conditions. The principles of individuality, rights, choice, privacy, independence, dignity, respect and autonomy are discussed. Impacts of equality, culture and diversity in the provision of person-centred approach are also presented within the scope of public health, health promotion, attitudes toward health and the demand for healthcare. The non-person-centred approach namely institution perspective and bio-medical perspective are also reviewed. By gathering information through the internet, other approaches to the provision of healthcare to the elderly are also discussed and presented so as to give us a better view of the different approaches that facilities might be using and help us understand the structure of care available. Introduction We are all unique in every way, although we may come from one cultural background and even from the same family, we possess our own set of traits that make up our identity. Similar yet different in many ways. Regardless where life takes us, I believe that each and every one of us has the right to be respected and as we grow older, we continue to live life with dignity. Health providers are continuously looking for ways to make the provision of health be of quality. With dementia and elderly care, a number of approaches are being practices in order to make their services suit to the needs of the clients trying to put into account the complexity of each person. The Task Person-centred approach puts the elderly with dementia the centre of care. It is a holistic approach where the elderly works in partnership with the care giver and the family in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing a quality of life for the elderly with dementia. Question 1 Person-Centred Approach is the manner of care that focuses on the person as a whole and as an individual. Its care recognizes the uniqueness of the person, his personality and personal identity which all contributes to the person’s identity. It supports the person with dementia in all aspect of his or her needs and not just on the physical aspect of care. There are a number of principles that are inter-related with each other in this approach. One principle co-exists with the other and the absence of one will make it difficult for this approach to be a success. This approach allows personal growth of the elderly towards self-actualization leading to proper coping with the changes that comes with old age. Individuality is what sets a person apart from others. It is that set of qualities or characters that distinguishes a person’s uniqueness. This is an approach that focuses on dealing with the person’s subjective view of life. Basing care from the elderly’s achievements, abilities and desires at the same time treating them with respect and dignity as a person. A right is what is due to the person. The approach focuses on the elderly’s right to make his own choices on how to live life. It also supports the person to make his own decisions regarding his care and even allowing him the right to experience â€Å"bad decisions.† Choice. In person-centred approached the elderly is empowered to make informed choices on how to deal with things and on what they want to do and face the consequences after each decision. Privacy is of great importance in this approach. Confidentiality is kept at all times. The elderly’s principles and views of something are not to be discussed with others without the consent of the person involved. This also includes the person’s personal date even past experiences. This is also the reason why when rendering care to residents the doors of the room are kept closed to provide privacy for the client. Independence is having the capability to do things on your own. In this approach it supports the person to be on his own and in order to allow this, the care provider safeguards the environment and puts out assistive devices like handrails to allow movement with a level of independence. And if capable the elderly is allowed to go out of the facility provided with proper identification. Dignity is being worthy of respect. In here the person with dementia is viewed beyond the disease and his views and principles are honoured. This approach allows the elderly to live according to his moral principles. Respect in person-centred approach gives high regard for the elderly putting into consideration the person’s achievements, abilities and qualities. The elderly is allowed to uphold his own beliefs and values without being judged. Autonomy is letting the elderly in full control of his care. This principle is possible in a healthcare facility when the elderly is given the right information about his diagnosis and give them the chance to understand fully their health condition in order for them to make informed decisions about their care. Question 2 Institution perspective focuses on the set of rules and guidelines by the institution. In here the care providers patterns their plans of care abiding to the set of rules of the facility or institution. Like for instances when the client is still capable of going out, he will not be allowed to do so if it is not allowed in the facility promoting safety for the client. Also in cases when the rule is for residents to have their meals in the dining area, then all clients will have to be there during mealtime and will not have the option to have it in a tray in their room not unless if they are not well enough to do so but their nutritional needs are met by a prepared well balanced meal. Institution perspective puts the laws and rules of the institution and its adherence to it as top priority rather than the desires and needs of the clients but still addressing the health, social, emotional and physical well-being of the elderly. Bio-medical perspective deals with the medical aspect of dementia. It starts with setting the medical diagnosis of the disease basing it from the signs and symptoms manifested by the client. Signs and symptoms of dementia vary from one person to another but in order to diagnose it as dementia, it must have at least two impairments from the core elements namely: memory, communication and language, ability to focus, reasoning and judgment and visual perception. This perspective emphasizes that the disease is progressive in nature with minimal hope for the future and intervention is focused of drug treatment. Question 3 Reality-Orientation Approach is presenting information to the person with dementia, re-orienting the person with the date, time, his or her current location and the person and the situation to bring him back to reality. For those with dementia, there is a need for constant re orientation and reminder of the now. It is important to ask them if they know where they are, and tell time the date, the day, time of the day and even sharing information about what is happening in the society to keep them up to date to issues. Care providers can all build a conversation by asking the elderly about his family, their whereabouts, and how they are, this can also be a way to assess the extent of memory loss of the elderly and provide updated information should there be a need. Pictures, clocks, calendars and reading materials can also be used to help the client be oriented of important things and be a clear indication of ‘today.’ Validation approach is acknowledging what the elderly with Alzheimer’s disease is experiencing. Usually this approach is used with people in the late stage of Alzheimer’s. In most cases, when an elderly is on the late stage of the disease they manifest certain gestures or behaviour that may seem abnormal and incomprehensible. These mannerisms are indications of what the elderly is trying to convey. Unlike the reality-orientation approach where there is the reorientation of facts, here the thoughts of the elderly are accepted as it is no matter how bizarre it may be, it is seen as a reality either one belonging in the present or in the past. The care provider empathizes with the elderly by putting oneself in the shoes of the elderly and seeing things with the eyes of the client, at her or his level and stand point. The approach does not deny nor judge the thoughts of the elderly no matter how abnormal it is thus, reducing the elderly’s stress, enhancing dignity, p romoting happiness for the elderly and understanding the meaning of the behaviour for the elderly. When the care giver steps into the shoe of the elderly they may get to understand that this abnormal behaviour may be a manifestation of the elderly’s unfinished issues and somehow can help in resolving these issues. Since the elderly’s thoughts are not denied and rejected by the care giver, he or she is able to build trust thus encouraging good communication. Assistive technologies are devices or gadgets that are products of technology that are beneficial to the elderly with dementia. These are gadgets that can be used to make the elderly’s life easier and near to normal as can be and live a life with dignity. To name a few of these devices, we have the hearing aids to help those who are experiencing hearing loss to help them in proper oral communication. Even items which have censor like faucets and lamps make it easy for the elderly to use these items. Digital clocks are even of great help for them to tell the time. Radio and television sets make it easy for them to know the currents events through the news. In some instances the elderly can also be track using tracking devices to know their whereabouts should they be out of the vicinity. Phones are also a product of technology which allows constant communication of the elderly with the family no matter the time and distance. There is also what it called telecare, which are gadge ts that help the care provide in rendering care, like hoist to help in mechanically moving the elderly. There are also gadgets like digital thermometer and blood pressure to make vital signs monitoring easier and convenient. Holistic Approach focuses on four aspect of care for the elderly, the environment, the communication between the recipient of care and the provider, nutrition and the activity of the client. The care provider should make the environment or living space of the elderly free of clutter and with safety features like hand rails so as to allow maximum movement for the client with less anxiety. The environment should also be free of unnecessary noise for sometimes this can make the elderly agitated. The care provider should also nurture a good verbal and non-verbal communication with the elderly. If the elderly is not a native of the country and has limited vocabulary then it is just necessary that someone should stand as an interpreter so as for interactive communication to take place. In cases when the elderly cannot talk but can read and comprehend, then care provider can make use of visual materials for communication like pen and paper. The health of the client is also given importance by establishing a nutritional plan starting with the assessment of the nutritional demands of the client and then structuring the diet of the client according to his or her nutritional needs. The care provider should also organize a series of activities for the client may it be physical or mental in nature. Activity like show and tell is an opportunity for the client to show something and express his or her thoughts about it. Then there are also board games or memory games that will help the client put their thinking capabilities to use. There also a number of activities that require a little physical movement like pin bowling which can also be a source of exercise for the client. Alternative therapy: Music and Art Therapies. Music therapy makes use of music to set the mood of the client and to connect emotions and feelings between the client and care provider. Mellow tunes can help soothe the emotion of the client and music of different eras can also evoke feelings from the client by reminiscing past life experiences. Here the client may also be given the option to choose the kind of music he or she wants to listen to. Clapping and dancing are also encouraged to add in the enjoyment. Art therapies should be that which are not too childish to avoid demeaning the clients. Care givers can assist the clients to start their art work and then they can put their feelings and thoughts into the art activity then they are encouraged and asked to tell the stories behind their work. The activity should give clients the ample time to do their art work putting into consideration capabilities of the elderly and that they don’t have to finish everything in one sitting to prevent putting stress and anxiety on the clients. Question 4 Public Health and Health Promotion Public health focuses on the promotion of health and the enhancement of life by taking measures and interventions that will prevent and treat dementia and other geriatric health conditions. This is a combined effort by the private and government health sectors, communities and individuals. In New Zealand, the ministry of health allots a budget for the health promotion of the aging citizens. This benefit is for all New Zealand citizens regardless of culture. The health care providers stand by the principle of equality in rendering care. They give the same kind of care to their clients treating them all as equals. In the provision of person-centred approach to individuals with dementia within public health and health promotion, there might be an issue with regards to cultural diversity. Yes, there is equality in the sense that every citizen of the country is given the right to have access to this health benefits regardless of cultural background and with this in mind, it is safe to say that these services are assumed to be what the general population needs not putting into account that this is a country with a diversity of culture. Attitudes to health and demand for healthcare The attitude we have towards health greatly varies on the cultural background that one has. And thus how we value health will also relate to the demand for healthcare. How we live out life during the younger years will result to the health condition that one will have in the aging years. The family and the cultural preferences play a great role in the choices of food that we eat even in people with dementia or other geriatric health conditions. According to the Ministry of Health (2003), a significant issue for Pacific households here in New Zealand is the affordability of food. They are most likely to report that they sometimes run out of food due to financial strains compared to the Maori and the Europeans. This would only mean that the elderly will not have the sufficient amount of nutrients in their day to day diet. Question 5 The different health sector standards and codes of practice basically set the guideline for the person-centred approach in the sense that it covers the entirety of the approach. As what these codes of practice states, every person has the right to be treated with respect. Just like the approach it has it emphasis on the person as an individual who has every right to respect. These codes practice also recognizes the individuality and uniqueness of every one and states that one should not be discriminated for his age, cultural background, religious and political opinion, etc. Just like that in the person-centred approach towards people with dementia and with other geriatric health conditions they should be from discrimination. Privacy and safety are of great importance also as stipulated in the various codes of practice and in the person-centred approach. Although with dementia or other geriatric health conditions, the elderly should viewed as an individual pass his or her health condi tion that comes with age. Recommendation: I highly recommend that for facilities who offer services to the elderly with dementia and with other geriatric health conditions they must try to group their elderly accordingly, those with similar principles, personal backgrounds and traits, in this manner they can somehow establish the necessary routines and activities that would suit the group’s personalities. Even with the distribution of food, they can group this in a way that would give them the right nourishment at the same time giving the clients the opportunity to eat the kind of food that they have grown with for this too is a part of their identity. When healthcare providers try to give a personal level in the provision of their services it somehow shows that they acknowledge the individuality and uniqueness of their clients. In the provision of health services, I suggest that services should be pattern to the character of the said community, in this way, the needs of the members will be provided with their healthcare needs accordingly. I also suggest that there should be teams who will visit the communities on a regular basis to continuously assess the health needs of the society and make ways to give the people easy access to their services. Conclusion: In conclusion, there are a number of approaches that can be used in the provision of healthcare services. These approaches cannot be a success without the dedication of the healthcare providers. There are many aspects to consider when deciding on the kind of approach to practice with people with dementia and other geriatric health conditions but we must not forget that although old and frail they are still individuals with a respective identity who are worth of our respect and should be given the due right to live their remaining days with dignity. Bibliography Mcleod, Saul (2008). Simply Psychology. Person-Centred Therapy. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/client-centred-therapy.html Career Force. 2 Person Centred Care. Retrieved from http://ilearn.careerforce.org.nz/mod/book/view.php?id=266chapterid=188 Department of Health. Victorian State Government. Australia (2014). Minimising Functional Decline of Older People in Hospital. Best Care for Older People Everywhere. Retrieved from http://www.health.vic.gov.au/older/toolkit/02PersonCentredPractice/ MemoryMatters. Reality Orientation. Retrieved from http://www.memorymatters.co.uk/resources/therapeutic-approaches/interactive-reality-orientation Alzheimer’s Disease: Causes, symptoms, treatment (2011). Validation Approach to Alzheimer’s Patients. Retrieved from http://alzheimers-review.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/validation-approach-to-alzheimers.html Dementia Services Development Center. An Educational Resource to Support Early Interventions for People Receiving a Diagnosis of Dementia. Retrieved from http://library.nhsggc.org.uk/mediaAssets/dementiasp/DementiaEducationResource.pdf The Ministry of Health (2014). Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act. Retrieved from http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/regulation-health-and-disability-system/certification-health-care-services/health-and-disability-services-safety-act WORKSAFE NEW ZEALAND (2013). Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (HSE Act). Retrieved from http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/legal-framework/hse-act-1992 Citizens Advice Bureau (2012). Discrimination and Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.cab.org.nz/vat/gl/roi/Pages/DiscriminationandHumanRights.aspx

Julius Caesar :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Julius Caesar Brutus displays the traits of a tragic hero through out this play but being a good person but makes an error in judgment, and when this error occurred it causes his own downfall. First off is that Brutus makes an error in judgment by joining the conspiracy to over throw Caesar. But the only reason that Brutus had joined was because his tragic flaw was honor; he lived his life on the guidelines of honor and loyalty. Now lastly Brutus had caused his very own downfall when after killing Caesar all of Rome has now turned against the conspirators. Those are some of the reasons that display Brutus is a tragic hero.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Brutus had joined the conspiracy for honor and for the good of Rome. Yet by joining this group his honor is really being put to the test because when he joined the conspiracy he pledged to take part in the murder of Julius Caesar. Brutus and Caesar are best friends, so now how is it honorable to kill one of your friends? But Brutus and the other conspirators had claimed that Caesar was just about to claim himself the king of Rome. When one has claimed themselves the king of Rome the people of Rome have the right to kill that person. So by saying this when the conspirators knew that Caesar was about to claim the thrown they strike and kill him. But another one of Brutus’ traits has now appeared, loyalty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Loyalty and honor are the only tragic flaws that Brutus has but these are the reason that he has killed Caesar. Brutus had said that he had killed Caesar for the good of Rome and that his ancestors would have wanted this. Which is true that his ancestors had said that if any man were to claim themselves the king of Rome to kill them, but Caesar had never claimed himself king. The conspirators had only assumed that. So in reality by killing Caesar it wasn’t displaying loyalty and honor it was really showing stupidity. But Brutus’ tragic flaws are the real reason of his own downfall, as well as Rome’s.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Unfortunately Rome’s downfall was because Brutus had caused his own downfall. It first started when the conspirators killed Caesar, but what had made the situation worse was allowing Antony to speak at Caesar’s funeral. After the funeral the locals of Rome was so moved by Antony’s speech that they were in a blind fury and had to kill any conspirator that they had found, which ended up in the death of Cinna the poet.

Example Essay for Primary Research

OUTLINE I. Introduction * Definition of young adults: Take responsibilities for their own action (Newman, B. M & Newman, P. R, 1983) * Young adults should live with their parents. II. Body 1. Save money * Affected by economic crises: Number of youth unemployment (Barnes, 2012) * Save the daily expenses ( Vander Zanden, 1997) 2. Close relationship among family members * Parents: + Support emotion (Philip, 1998) + Take care of each other (Logan & Spitze, 1996) * Siblings: + Share every day routines (Newman, B. M & Newman, P. R, 1983) + Confide each other (Newman, B. M & Newman, P. R, 1983) . Reduce bad effects for personal development * Evidences: + Unexpected pregnancy (Philip, 1998) + Less successful marriages and work lives (Berk, 1998) + Increased depression (Rosenfeld, 2010) * Role of family: Safety net (Berk, 1998). 4. Counterargument and refutation: * Counterargument: Young adults will gain experience when they leave home * Refutation: + Parent’s opinions are better than peer’s opinion (Newman, B. M & Newman, P. R, 1983) + Important role of social support from parents (Philip, 1998) + Free to go out to get experience because of democracy parents (Turner & Helms, 1989) III.Conclusion Young adults should remain to co-reside with their parents because of the lack of advices, financial and emotional support from their family (Berk, 1998). Young generations play an importance role for the future generation in their country. The government always gives priority to these generations including children, adolescents, and young adults. However, young adults acknowledged to have rights to take responsibilities for their own action (Newman, B. M & Newman, P. R, 1983) possess the best for developing the country.Whether early adults should live at home with their parents or leave their parental home is still controversial. In our opinion, early adults should co-reside with their parents for several reasons. The first reason why early adults should live wit h their family is that they have an opportunity to save money. Economic circumstances present many challenges for young adults because most usually graduate from high school, they find a place in college and start a job (Crandell, T. L, Crandell, C. H & Vander Zanden, 2009).Besides, economic crises have led unemployment for â€Å"75 million† young people between the ages of 15 to 24 years old (Barnes, 2012). Due to the low starting salaries, many young adults struggle to pay their daily expenses (Vander Zanden, 1997). Furthermore, according to Hartley (1993), in Australia, 45% of surveyed people said the main reason for returning home in the first time is financial problems. Secondly, early adults who do not make a residential transition have a closer relationship with family members than those leaving home do.Beside financial support, children will receive love and moral support from their parents (Philip, 1998). Parents, moreover, are willing to provide guidance for their c hildren that help them make better choices and decisions. As a result, the relationship between parents and children is more valuable than young adults and peers (Logan & Spitze, 1996). In addition, the siblings are typically the first peer group in both childhood and adulthood. Young adults living at home benefit from sharing every day routines ith their siblings like joining he meal, splitting dress or taking care of one another, especially, when they are ill (Newman, B. M & Newman, P. R, 1983, p. 231). Furthermore, when young adults cope with problems to express themselves with their parents, teachers and social peers, the siblings are likely to be appropriated people to confide (Newman, B. M & Newman, P. R, 1983). Thirdly, early adults living at home will reduce bad effects on personal development. Young people are likely to become self-indulgent including the temptation of drugs and alcohol when there is no parental supervision.According to Philip (1998), negative economic and social effects leading to a great number of dangers as â€Å"teen-aged motherhood† are the results of leaving home at very early young age (p. 557). In addition, detaching themselves from their net at young age make early adults hard to succeed in marriage and work (White as cited in Berk, 1998). Nevertheless, young adults presume that the goal of leaving home is to have an independent life, which makes them easily anxious and depressed (Olds & Schwartz as cited in Rosenfeld, 2010). Bruch et al. Cheek & Busch (as cited in Berk, 1998) said that â€Å"socially anxious people report more loneliness† (p. 461). Therefore, the family is the best address to release stress and decrease social dangers for early adults because â€Å"the parental home serves as a safety net and base of operation for launching adult life† (Berk, 1998, p. 463). The opponents of co-residence with parents say that young adults will get experience when leaving home. However, gaining experience does not depend on who they live with and young adults can get valuable experiences while living with their parents.In fact, peer’s advices are not always as reliable and effective as parents’ in some cases (Newman, B. M & Newman, P. R, 1983). Moreover, the necessity of social support from their parents for the maturity of young adults was the conclusion of a study of 175 18 and 19-year-old college students (Philip, 1998). According to Turner and Helms (1989), 83% of the adolescents have â€Å"democratic parents† (p. 288) because they still have the freedom to participate in social activities and do part-time jobs to broaden knowledge when living at home.Additionally, they also can help their parents with household chores, which narrows the generation gap and helps them learn essential skills for an independent life later. In conclusion, due to the current economic crises and dramatic changes in society, especially the increase of social dangers, young adults sh ould live in their parental home to avoid harmful influences on themselves and their family as well. By contrast, young adults who decide to leave home at an early age may face difficulties for a long time because of the lack of advices, financial and emotional support from their parents (Berk, 1998). Words: 769REFERENCES Barnes, H. (2012). Global Youth unemployment: Making sense of the numbers. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/business-19745115. Berk, L. E. (1998). Development through the lifespan. The USA: A Viacom Company. Crandell, T. L. , Crandell, C. H. , Vander Zanden, J. W. (2009). Human Development. (9th ed. ). New York: The McGraw-Hill Company. F. Philip Rice. (1998). Human Development. (3rd ed. ). The USA: A Viacom company. Hartley, R. (1993). Young Adults living at home. Australian Institute of Family Studies. Reproduced from FAMILY MATTERS no. 36 December 1993, pp. 35-37. Retrieved from http://www. ifs. gov. au/institute/pubs/fm1/fm36rh1. html. Loga n, J. R. , Spitze, G. D. (1996). Family Ties: Enduring Relations between Parents and Their Grown Children. The USA: Temple University. Newman, B. M. , Newman, P. R. (1983). Understanding Adulthood. The USA: CBS College Publishing. Rosenfeld, M. J. (2010). The Independence of Young Adults, in Historical Perspective. Journal of Family Therapy Magazine, 9 (3), 17-19. Turner, J. F. , Helms, D. B. (1989). Contemporary Adulthood. (4th, ed. )The USA: Saunders College Publishing Vander Zanden, J. W. (1997). Human Development. (6th ed. ). The USA: The McGraw-Hill Company. .

Data Masking

An Oracle White Paper July 2010 Data Masking Best Practices Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Executive Overview †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 The Challenges of Masking Data †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 Implementing Data Masking †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 Comprehensive Enterprise-wide Discovery of Sensitive Data †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Enforcing Referential Relationships during Data Masking †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4 Rich and Extensible Mask Library†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 Sophisticated Masking Techniques †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 High Performance Mask Execution †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 Integrated Testing with Application Quality Management solutions11 Oracle’s Comprehensive Solutions for Database Security †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 12 Customer Case Studies †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 13 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Executive Overview Enterprises need to share production data with various constituents while also protecting sensitive or personally identifiable aspects of the information. As the number of applications increases, more and more data gets shared, thus further increasing the risk of a data breach, where sensitive data gets exposed to unauthorized parties.Oracle Data Masking addresses this problem by irreversibly replacing the original sensitive data with realistic -looking scrubbed data that has same type and characteristics as the original sensitive data thus enabling organizations to share this information in compliance with information security policies and government regulations. This paper describes the best practices for deploying Oracle Data Masking to protect sensitive information in Oracle and other heterogeneous databases such as IBM DB2, Microsoft SQLServer.Introduction Enterprises share data from the ir production applications with other users for a variety of business purposes. Most organizations copy production data into test and development environments to allow application developers to test application upgrades. Retail c ompanies share customer point-of-sale data with market researchers to analyze customer buying patterns. Pharmaceutical or healthcare organizations share patient data with medical researchers to assess the efficacy of clinical trials or medical treatments.Numerous industry studies on data privacy have concluded that almost all companies copy tens of millions of sensitive customer and consumer records to non-production environments for testing, development, and other uses. Very few companies do anything to protect this data even when sharing with outsourcers and third parties. Almost 1 out of 4 companies responded that live data used for development or testing had been lost or stolen and 50% s aid they had no way of knowing if data in non-production environme nts had been compromised. 1 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices The Challenges of Masking DataOrganizations have tried to address these issues with custom hand-crafted solutions or repurposed existing data manipulation tools within the enterprise to solve this problem of sharing sensitive information with non-production users. Take for example, the most common solution: database scripts. At first glance, an advantage of the database scripts approach would appear that they specifically address the unique privacy needs of a particular database that they were designed for. They may have even been tuned by the DBA to run at their fastest Let’s look at the issues with this approach. 1.Reusability: Because of the tight association between a script and the associated database, these scripts would have to re-written from scratch if applied to another database. There are no common capabilities in a script that can be easily leveraged across other databases. 2. Transp arency: Since scripts tend to be monolithic programs, auditors have no transparency into the masking procedures used in the scripts. The auditors would find it extremely difficult to offer any recommendation on whether the masking process built into a script is secure and offers the enterprise the appropriate degree of protection. 3.Maintainability: When these enterprise applications are upgraded, new tables and columns containing sensitive data may be added as a part of the upgrade process. With a script-based approach, the entire script has to be revisited and updated to accommodate new tables and columns added as a part of an application patch or an upgrade. Implementing Data Masking Based on Oracle Data Masking , Oracle has developed a comprehensive 4-step approach to implementing data masking called Find, Assess, Secure, and Test (FAST). These steps are: ? Find: This phase involves identifying and cataloging sensitive or regulated data across the entire enterprise.Typically car ried out by business or security analysts, the goal of this exercise is to come up with the comprehensive list of sensitive data elements specific to the organization and discover the associated tables and columns across enterprise databases that contain the sensitive data. ? Assess: In this phase, developers or DBAs in conjunction with business or security analysts identify the masking algorithms that represent the optimal techniques to replace the original sensitive data. Developers can leverage the existing masking library or extend it with their own masking routines. ? Secure: This and the next steps may be iterative.The security administrator executes the masking process to secure the sensitive data during masking trials. Once the masking process has completed and has been verified, the DBA then hands over the environment to the application testers. 2 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Test: In the final step, the production users execute application proces ses to test whether the resulting masked data can be turned over to the other non-production users. If the masking routines need to be tweaked further, the DBA restores the database to the pre-masked state, fixes the masking algorithms and re-executes the masking process.Comprehensive Enterprise-wide Discovery of Sensitive Data To begin the process of masking data, the data elements that need to be masked in the application must be identified. The first step that any organization must take is to determine what is sensitive. This is because sensitive data is related to specific to the government regulations and industry standards that govern how the data can used or shared. Thus, the first step is for the security administrator to publish what constitutes sensitive data and get agreement from the company’s compliance or risk officers. A typical list of sensitive data elements may include:Person Name Bank Account Number Maiden Name Card Number (Credit or Debit Card Number) Busi ness Address Tax Registration Number or National Tax ID Business Telephone Number Person Identification Number Business Email Address W elfare Pension Insurance Number Custom Name Unemployment Insurance Number Employee Number Government Affiliation ID User Global Identifier Military Service ID Party Number or Customer Number Social Insurance Number Account Name Pension ID Number Mail Stop Article Number GPS Location Civil Identifier Number Student Exam Hall Ticket Number Credit Card Number Club Membership IDSocial Security Number Library Card Number Trade Union Membership Number Oracle Data Masking provides several easy-to-use mechanisms for isolating the sensitive data elements. 3 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Data Model driven: Typical enterprise applications, such as E-Business Suite, Peoplesoft and Siebel, have published their application data model as a part of their product documentation or the support knowledge base. By leveraging the published data models, data masking users can easily associate the relevant tables and columns to the mask formats to create the mask definition. ?Application Masking Templates: Oracle Data Masking supports the concept of application masking templates, which are XML representations of the mask definition. Software vendors or service providers can generate these pre-defined templates and make them available to enterprises to enable them to import these templates into the Data Masking rapidly and thus, accelerate the data masking implementation process. ? Ad-hoc search: Oracle Data Masking has a robust search mechanism that allows users to search the database quickly based on ad hoc search patterns to identify tables and columns that represent sources of sensitive data.With all the database management capabilities, including the ability to query sample rows from the tables, built into Enterprise Manager, the Data Masking a can assist enterprise users rapidly construct the mask definition – th e pre-requisite to mask the sensitive data. For deeper searches, Oracle provides the Oracle Data Finder tool during data masking implementation to search across enterprises based on data patterns, such as NNN-NN-NNNN for social security numbers or 16 or 15 digit sequences beginning with 3, 4 or 5 for credit card . numbers.Using the combination of schema and data patterns and augmenting them with published application meta data models, enterprises can now develop a comprehensive data privacy catalog that captures the sensitive data elements that exist across enterprise databases. To be clear, this is not a static list. This is a dynamic living catalog managed by security administrators that needs to be refreshed as business rules and government regulations change as well as when applications are upgraded and patched and new data elements containing sensitive data are now discovered. Enforcing Referential Relationships during Data MaskingIn today’s relational databases (RDBMS), data is stored in tables related by certain key columns , called primary key columns, which allows efficient storage of application data without have to duplicate data. For example, an EMPLOYEE_ID generated from a human capital management (HCM) application may be used in sales force automation (SFA) application tables using foreign key columns to keep track of sales reps and their accounts. When deploying a masking solution, business users are often concerned with referential integrity, the relationship between the primary key and the foreign key columns, in a database or across databases. 4Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices CUSTOMERS EMPLOYEES ? ? ? EMPLOYEE_ID FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME Database enforced Application enforced ? ? ? CUSTOMER_ID SALES_REP_ID COMPANY_NAME SHIPMENTS ? ? ? SHIPMENT_ID SHIPPING_CLERK_ID CARRIER Figure 1:The Importance of Referential Integrity Oracle Data Masking automatically identifies referential integrity as a part of the mask definition creation. This means that when a business user chooses to mask a key column such as EMPLOYEE_ID, the Oracle Data Masking discovers all the related foreign key relationships in the database and enforces the same mask format to the related foreign key columns.This guarantees that the relationships between the various applications tables are preserved while ensuring that privacyrelated elements are masked. In applications where referential integrity is enforced in the database, Oracle Data Masking allows these relationships to be registered as relate d columns in the mask definition, thereby applying the same masking rules as applied to the database-enforced foreign key columns. 5 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Figure 2: Automatic enforcement of referential Integrity Rich and Extensible Mask LibraryOracle Data Masking provides a centralized library of out-of-the-box mask formats for common types of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, phone numbers, nati onal identifiers (social security number for US, national insurance number for UK). By leveraging the Format Library in Oracle Data Masking, enterprises can apply data privacy rules to sensitive data across enterprise-wide databases from a single source and thus, ensure consistent compliance with regulations. Enterprises can also extend this library with their own mask formats to meet their specific data privacy and application requirements. Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Figure 3: Rich and extensible Mask Format Library Oracle Data Masking also provides mask primitives, which serve as building blocks to allow the creation of nearly unlimited custom mask formats ranging from numeric, alphabetic or date/time based. Recognizing that the real-world masking needs require a high degree of flexibility, Oracle Data Masking allows security administrators to create user-defined-masks. These user-defined masks, written in PL/SQL, let administrators create unique mask fo rmats for sensitive data, e. g. enerating a unique email address from fictitious first and last names to allow business applications to send test notifications to fictitious email addresses. Sophisticated Masking Techniques Data masking is in general a trade-off between security and reproducibility. A test database that is identical to the production database is 100% in terms of reproducibility and 0% in terms of security because of the fact that it exposes the original data. Masking technique where data in sensitive columns is replaced with a single fixed value is 100% in terms of security and 0% in terms of reproducibility.When considering various masking techniques, it is important to consider this trade-off in mind when selecting the masking algorithms. Oracle Data Masking provides a variety of sophisticated masking techniques to meet application requirements while ensuring data privacy. These techniques ensure that applications continue to operate without errors after masking. For example, ? Condition-based masking: this technique makes it possible to apply different mask formats to the same data set depending on the rows that match the conditions.For example, applying different national identifier masks based on country of origin. ? Compound masking: this technique ensures that a set of related columns is masked as a group to ensure that the masked data across the related columns retain the same relationship, e. g. city, state, zip values need to be consistent after masking. 7 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Deterministic Masking Deterministic masking is an important masking technique that enterprises must consider when masking key data that is referenced across multiple applications.Take, for example, three applications: a human capital management application, a customer relationship management application and a sales data warehouse. There are some key fields such as EMPLOYEE ID referenced in all three applications and needs to be masked in the corresponding test systems: a employee identifier for each employee in the human resources management application, customer service representative identifiers, which may also be EMPLOYEE IDs, in the customer relationship management application and sales representative IDs, which may be EMPLOYEE IDs in the sales data warehouse.To ensure that data relationships are preserved across systems even as privacy-related elements are removed, deterministic masking techniques ensure that data gets masked consistently across the various systems. It is vital that deterministic masking techniques used produce the replacement masked value consistently and yet in a manner that the original data cannot be derived from the masked value. One way to think of these deterministic masking techniques is as a function that is applied on the original value to generate a unique value consistently that has the same format, type and characteristics as the original value, e. . a deterministic funct ion f(x) where f(x1) will always produce y1 for a given value x1. In order for the deterministic masking to be applied successfully, it is important that the function f(x) not be reversible, i. e. the inverse function f-1(y1) should not produce x1 to ensure the security of the original sensitive data. Deterministic masking techniques can be used with mathematical entries, e. g. social security numbers or credit card numbers, as well as with text entries, e. g. , to generate names.For example, organizations may require that names always get masked to the same set of masked names to ensure consistency of data across runs. Testers may find it disruptive if the underlying data used for testing is changed by production refreshes and they could no longer locate certain types of employees or customer records that were examples for specific test cases. Thus, enterprises can use the deterministic masking functions provided by Oracle Data Masking to consistently generate the same replacement mask value for any type of sensitive data element.Deterministic masking becomes extremely critical when testing data feeds coming from external systems, such as employee expense data provided by credit card companies. In production environments, the feed containing real credit card numbers are processed by the accounts payable application containing employee’s matching credit card information and are used to reconcile employee expenses. In test systems, the employee credit card numbers have been obfuscated and can no longer be matched against the data in the flat files containing the employee’s real credit card number.To address this requirement, enterprises pre-load the flat file containing data using tools such as SQL*Loader, into standard tables, then mask the sensitive columns using deterministic masking provided by Oracle Data Masking and then extract the masked data back into flat file. Now, the application will be able to process the flat files correctly just as they would have been in Production systems. 8 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices High Performance Mask Execution Now that the mask definition is complete, the Oracle Data Masking can now execute the masking process to replace all the sensitive data.Oracle Enterprise Manager offers several options to clone the production database: ? Recover from backup: Using the Oracle Managed Backups functionality, Oracle Enterprise Manager can create a test database from an existing backup. ? Clone Live Database: Oracle Enterprise Manager can clone a live production data into any non production environment within a few clicks. The clone database capability also provides the option to create a clone image, which can then be used for other cloning operations.With the cloned (non-production) database now ready for masking, the Oracle Data Masking builds a work list of the tables and columns chosen for masking. Other tables that are not required to be masked are not touched. Furthe r, the tables selected for masking are processed in the optimal order to ensure that only one pass is made at any time even if there are multiple columns from that table selected for masking. Typically, the tables with the primary keys get masked first, followed by the dependent tables containing foreign keys.Once the mask work list is ready, the Oracle Data Masking generates mapping tables for all the sensitive fields and their corresponding masked values. These are temporary tables that are created as a part of the masking process, which will be dropped once all data has been masked successfully. Using a highly efficient data bulk mechanism, Oracle Data Masking rapidly recreates the masked replacement table based on original tables and the mapping tables and restores all the related database elements, such as indexes, constraints, grants and triggers identical to the original table.Compare this with the typical data masking process, which usually involves performing table row upda tes. Because rows in a table are usually scattered all over the disk, the update process is extremely inefficient because the storage systems attempts to locate rows on data file stored on extremely large disk s. The bulk mechanism used by Oracle Data Masking lays down the new rows for the masked table in rapid succession on the disk. This enhanced efficiency makes the masked table available for users in a fraction of the time spent by an update-driven masking process.For large tables, Oracle Data Masking automatically invokes SQL parallelism to further speed up the masking process. Other performance enhancements include using the NOLOGGING option when recreating the table with the masked data. Typical database operations such as row inserts or updates generate redo logs, which are used by the database to capture changes made to files. These redo logs are completely unnecessary in a data masking operation since the non-production database is not running in a production environment, requiring continuous availability and recoverability.Using the NOLOGGING option, the Oracle Data Masking bypasses the logging mechanism to further accelerate the masking process efficiently and rapidly. 9 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices In internal tests run on a single-core Pentium 4 (Northwood) [D1] system with 5. 7G of memory, the following performance results with reported. Criteria Baseline Metric Column scalability 215 columns 100 tables of 60G 20 minutes Row scalability 100 million rows 6 columns 1 hour 20 minutes Figure 4: Oracle Data Masking Performance scalability testsAs these results clearly indicate, Oracle Data Masking can handle significant volumes of sensitive data effortlessly both in terms of the number of sensitive columns as well as tables with large numbers of rows. Oracle Data Masking is also integrated with Oracle Provisioning and Patch Automation in Oracle Enterprise Manager to clone-and-mask via a single workflow. The secure high perfor mance nature of Oracle Data Masking combined with the end-to-end workflow ensures that enterprise can provision test systems from production rapidly instead of days or weeks that it would with separate manual processes.Optimized for Oracle databases Oracle Data Masking leverages key capabilities in Oracle databases to enhance the overall manageability of the masking solution. Some of these include: ? Flashback: Administrators can optionally configure Oracle databases to enable flashback to a premasked state if they encounter problems with the masked data. ? PL/SQL: Unlike other solutions, Oracle Data Masking generates DBA-friendly PL/SQL that allows DBAs to tailor the masking process to their needs. This PL/SQL script can also be easily integrated into any cloning process. 0 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Support for heterogeneous databases Oracle Data Masking supports masking of sensitive data in heterogeneous databases such as IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQLServer through the use of Oracle Database Gateways. Figure 5: Data masking support for heterogeneous databases Integrated Testing with Application Quality Management solutions The final step of the masking process is to test that the application is performing successfully after the masking process has completed.Oracle Enterprise Manager’s Application Quality Management (AQM) solutions provide high quality testing for all tiers of the application stack. Thorough testing can help you identify application quality and performance issues prior to deployment. Testing is one of the most challenging and time consuming parts of successfully deploying an application, but it is also one of the most critical to the project’s success. Oracle Enterprise Manager’s AQM solutions provide a unique combination of test capabilities which enable you to: ?Test infrastructure changes: Real Application Testing is designed and optimized for testing database tier infrastructure changes using r eal application workloads captured in production to validate database performance in your test environment. 11 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Test application changes: Application Testing Suite helps you ensure application quality and performance with complete end-to-end application testing solutions that allow you to automate functional & regression testing, execute load tests and manage the test process.Oracle’s Comprehensive Solutions for Database Security Oracle provides a comprehensive portfolio of security solutions to ensure data privacy, protect against insider threats, and enable regulatory compliance. With Oracle's powerful privileged user and multifactor access control, data classification, transparent data encryption, auditing, monitoring, and data masking, customers can deploy reliable data security solutions that do not require any changes to existing applications, saving time and money. Customer Case StudiesCustomers have had a variety of business needs which drove their decision to adopt the Oracle Data Masking for their sensitive enterprise data. These benefits of using Oracle Data Masking were realized by a major global telecommunications products company that implemented the above methdology. Their database administrators (DBAs) had developed custom scripts to mask sensitive data in the test and development environments of their human resources (HR) application. As the company was growing and offering new services, their IT infrastructure was also growing thus placing an increased burden on their DBAs.By implementing Oracle Data Masking, the organization was able to use the role-based separation of duties to allow the HR analysts to define the security policies for masking sensitive data. The DBAs then automated the implementation of these masking policies when provisioning new test or development environments. Thus, the telecommunications company was able to allow business users to ensure compliance of their non-production environments while eliminating another manual task for the DBAs through automation. The need for data masking can come from internal compliance requirements.In the case of this UKbased government organization, the internal audit and compliance team had identified that the nonproduction copies of human resource management systems used for testing, development and reporting did not meet the established standards for privacy and confidentiality. In joint consultations with their IT service provider, the organization quickly identified the Oracle Data Masking as ideally suited to their business needs based on the fact that it was integrated with their day-to-day systems management operations provided by Oracle Enterprise Manager.Within a few weeks, the service provider deployed the mask definitions for their Oracle eBusiness Suite HR application and thereby rapidly brought the internal non-productions systems into compliance. There are organizations that have internally d eveloped data masking solutions that have discovered that custom scripts ultimately have their limits and are not able to scale up as enterprise data sets increase in volume. This Middle East-based real estate company found that their data masking scripts were running for several hours and were slowing down as data volumes increased.Due to the stringent requirement to create production copies available for testing within rapid time-frames, the company evaluated the Oracle Data Masking among other commercial solutions. Upon deploying the Oracle 12 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Data Masking, they discovered that they were able to accelerate the masking time from 6 hours using their old scripts to 6 minutes using the Oracle Data Masking, an improvement of 60x in performance. ConclusionStaying compliant with policy and government regulations while sharing production data with nonproduction users has become a critical business imperative for all enterprises. Oracl e Data Masking is designed and optimized for today’s high volume enterprise applications running on Oracle databases. Leveraging the power of Oracle Enterprise Manger to manage all enterprise databases and systems, Oracle Data Masking accelerates sensitive data identification and executes the masking process with a simple easy-to-use web interface that puts the power of masking in the hands of business users and administrators.Organizations that have implemented Oracle Data Masking to protect sensitive data in test and development environment have realized significant benefits in the following areas: ? Reducing Risk through Compliance: By protecting sensitive information when sharing production data with developers and testers, organizations have able to ensure that non -production databases have remained compliant with IT security policies while enabling developers to conduct production-class testing. ?Increasing Productivity through Automation: By automating the masking pro cess, organizations have been able to reduce the burden on DBAs who previously had to maintain manuallydeveloped masking scripts. 13 Data Masking Best Practices July 2010 Copyright  © 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved . This document is provided for information purposes only and the Author: Jagan R. Athreya contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error -free, nor subject to any other Contributing Authors: arranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchant ability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are Oracle Corporation formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by a ny W orld Headquarters means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior wri tten permission. 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective U. S. A. owners. W orldwide Inquiries: AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. 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Writing English Drama Scripts in ESL Class

Writing English Drama Scripts in ESL Class English learners need to use their English in productive settings to improve their communicative skills. One of the most fun ways to do this is by working on collaborative projects. Students work together towards some tangible goal such as a business presentation, creating a powerpoint slide or by performing a short work for each other. This lesson plan focuses on helping students write a short script, practice the dialogue and perform for fellow students. Having students perform a short drama script that theyve developed combines a number of production skills through working in groups. Some of the territory covered includes: Writing skills - writing up the scriptPronunciation - working on stress and intonation when actingFocus on specific terminology depending on subject - including target vocabulary taken from previous lessonsNegotiation skills with other students - working together to choose a romantic film, choosing appropriate language for linesImproving confidence - acting in front of others This activity is especially useful after students have been studying a particular topic area over a period of time. In the example lesson, Ive chosen romantic films for classes that have been developing their understanding of relationships. Its best to start off by exploring related vocabulary through the use of vocabulary trees and related exercises. Once students have expanded their vocabulary knowledge, they can work on speaking about relationships through the use of modal verbs of deduction for giving advice. Finally, students can put together their newly won knowledge by putting it all together creating a script on their own.   Drama Script Lesson Plan Aim: Building conversational and team working skills in English Activity: Creating an English drama script based on a romantic film Level: Intermediate to advanced level learners Outline: Ask students to name a romantic film. Make sure that most if not all of the students are familiar with the film.As a class, have the students choose a film with a limited (best two, three, or four) number of characters that are crucial to the overall plot of the film.Write the characters up on the board as in a dialogue between the characters.Solicit lines from the class for a short portion of the scene. Encourage students to use vocabulary theyve learned throughout the course of the past few lessons.Read the lines dramatically, have students practice the lines in their own small groups. Keep the focus on the acting to help focus on stress and intonation in pronunciation.Explain the project to the class. Stress that students should create the lines themselves, rather than try to find a clip from the film and reproduce the lines individually.Pass out the project worksheet.Have students access the internet to find the plot outlines on the site suggested below or another movie spoiler s ite. Once students have found the plot outlines, print out the outline so students can work together in groups to choose the appropriate scene.Follow the directions below in the handout for the students. Project: Writing a Drama Script You’re going to write your own script for a scene from a movie about a romantic relationship. Here are the steps: Go to themoviespoiler.com.Choose a romantic movie that you already know.Read through the movie description and choose one short scene (or paragraph) from the description to write a script for.Choose your characters. There should be one character for each person in your group.Write the script using the description as your guideline. Try to imagine what each person would say in that situation.Practice your script in your group until you feel comfortable with your lines.Get up and perform! You’re a STAR baby!! Next stop: Hollywood!

Germany and the Treaty of Versailles essays

Germany and the Treaty of Versailles essays World War I ended on November 11, 1918, and the Treaty of Versailles was written soon after. The Treaty of Versailles, often known as the Peace Treaty, marked the beginning of a great period of poverty in Germany. The diplomats attending the Versailles Peace Conference intended to draft a general peace treaty to end the state of war and to redraw the map of Europe. To represent the United States at the Peace Conference was Woodrow Wilson. Representing the United Kingdom was David Lloyd George. France was represented by George Clemenceau. These three people were referred to as the 'Big Three.'1 Italy's role was quite limited. Other leaders of other nations came to this grand meeting in Versailles that is located near Paris, France. By November 11, when the truce that marked the end of the war was signed, eight million soldiers lay dead; twenty million more were mutilated or spitting blood from the gas attacks. At the end of World War I, twenty-two million civilians had been killed o r wounded. By the end of the war, four mighty empires, the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Turkish, and the Ottoman, had fallen.2 The leaders of the many nations led by the 'Big Three' labored for six months, from January to June of 1919. Finally, these people signed the Peace Treaty at the Palace of Versailles. The principal aim of the Peace Conference was to create conditions favorable to the progress of civilization on new lines such as economic policy and political structure.3 Almost immediately, the 'Big Three' began to quarrel. The Germans had thrown themselves on the mercy of the Allies: they depended upon the Allies' promise to base the final peace settlement applied impartially to all, including Germany. Clemenceau and Lloyd George were primarily concerned with punishing Germany. Lloyd promised, "We shall squeeze the orange (Germany) until the pips squeak." Wilson was obsessed with creating the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson marked major ...

15 Easy Part-Time Jobs for College Students That Pay Well

15 Easy Part-Time Jobs for College Students That Pay Well College students are often in need of extra money. Part-time jobs are great in this situation, as having a lot of classes each day cant allow students to work full time. To make your choice of a part-time job a little easier, we have created a list of 15 easy part-time jobs that will perfectly suit a busy student life and bring you extra cash. 1. Barista Mmm, a coffee scent in the air and tasty drinks for every coffee lover out there! Baristas at Starbucks, Stumptown, Tullys Coffee, etc., have pretty beneficial packages, opportunities for further career growth and competitive salaries. Coffee chains gladly hire students and provide a flexible schedule. You can also choose the working place that will be suitable for you. 2. Dog Walker/Pet Sitter Students who love animals will definitely enjoy trying themselves as pet sitters. You can give an advert at local bulletin boards or freelance platforms and take as much working hours as you need. Moreover, you can take care of a few dogs at the same time, walking them, bringing to a vet, playing and feeding them. This way, you will increase your hour payment. 3. Merchandiser A lot of shop items are stocked by merchandisers – brand representatives who restock shelves and set up promotions. College students often work as merchandisers because they can choose the location of work and working hours according to the classes. The only thing you need to consider before searching for this type of job is that you have to lift and move heavy boxes when working as a merchandiser. 4. Call Center Worker Many companies have call centers, hotlines or customer service teams and regularly hire people for full-time or part-time jobs. Call center employees might do cold sales calls, survey calls or provide service support. Anyway, you dont need to be a professional speaker to work there as you will be given a script to follow. So, you just need to be polite and have a distinct utterance. 5. Brand Ambassador Have you ever been approached by the representative of some brand (Avon, Monster Energy, Red Bull, etc.) and given free samples or asked to take participation in a survey? Thats what a brand ambassador does. Basically, your job would be to collect people opinions about the company or distribute products of the brand. 6. Cashier Cashiers are one of the most common positions among the working students. Its a more demanding job than others as it implies excellent attentiveness. But this position is easy to find as you can turn to the nearest local supermarket, mall or grocery store. Moreover, this is an example of a part-time job that pays well. 7. Retail Worker A retail worker is also a common job position. A lot of girls prefer to work in clothes or make-up stores as consultants or assistants as it is a pleasant and easy job for all fashionistas. This job will suit any college student who is polite, friendly, communicative and patient. Retail shops usually provide a convenient schedule of the shifts, proper payment, discounts for their products or even free products for employees to try out (for example, Sephora has monthly free products for each employee). To keep up with the industry, check out our list of fashion blogs. 8. Photographer If you have a particular talent, for example, you are an eager photography amateur, you can try different freelance jobs which you can find on platforms like Freelancer or Upwork. You can choose which order you want to take or when you want to work. You can also sell your photographs to photo stocks or magazines, websites, designers, etc. You can arrange photoshoots in a studio or provide your services at weddings, graduation ceremonies, birthday parties or conferences. 9. Writer If you have a writing talent, you can try yourself as a freelance writer. As well as a photographer, you can find clients online and take their orders to work from home. This is a great job as you dont even need to leave your home as you can send finished pieces through email and get paid. A writer can be helpful to online stores, publishing companies, online magazines and small businesses who need freelance writing help. 10. Social Media Assistant A lot of bloggers and brands require assistance in the social media posting process. If you are an addict to social media scrolling through – this is a job for you. You will be asked to create engaging content, answer to comments, and follow the posting plan. Such a job doesnt require specific skills and is one of those higher paying vacancies that many students want to get because they can work for this part-time job from home. The competition is intense and finding a part-time job in this area might be challenging, so be sure to check the job posting frequently. You can also write to your favorite brand or influencer (for example, YouTube blogger) and offer your help. Who knows, you might become an assistant of the future millionaire or a specialist in this sphere, which, actually, doesn’t require an academic degree. 11. Library Worker You can also search for a job at your college. There are usually job positions for students inside your learning institution such as a library worker, technical assistant, a cafeteria worker, etc. Its a good chance for those who dont want to leave the campus. You will also love a job in a library if you are an eager reader as you will have free access to the books, scientific works, and other sources. By the way, do you know which books are in the â€Å"must-read† list for college students? 12. Data Entry Clerk Data entry clerk positions dont require any specific skills except attentiveness and fast speed of typing. Data entry clerks usually work with statistics, medical or financial information. However, there are a lot of scams in this sphere. So, be sure to check out testimonials or find a person with experience of working for the company. 13. Babysitter What is more common than a student working as a babysitter? This job is without any doubts one of the most popular positions among high school and college students. It requires you to be attentive, caring, and patient towards kids. Students who work as babysitters or tutors make good money and also have an opportunity to get a permanent position for a long time. 14. Delivery Driver Check out companies that sell any products or offer food delivery in your location – they might be hiring. Delivery is usually beneficial as you can be provided with a car or a bicycle to drive and also get tips from satisfied customers. You will also be able to get a discount on the products that this company sells. 15. Waiter Many students work in restaurants as waiters or hosts. A part-time job in a restaurant has certain benefits: Decent tips Flexible schedule Friendly atmosphere An opportunity for career growth And the main advantage is that finding jobs in this sphere is as easy as pie. In a restaurant, you also can choose the most convenient time and days of the week when you want to work. Wrapping Up A lot of successful businessmen started as baristas, waiters or dog walkers. Dont be ashamed of the place you work for and choose the option that would be the best for you. Let us know what other easy part time job ideas for college students you can suggest and read our guide on how to choose a part-time job for more ideas.

Post-Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Post-Globalization - Essay Example One’s personal contention of globalization is parallel with the focus on â€Å"the process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology† (The Levin Institute, 1). My search for other meanings of the term give credence to my belief that globalization consists of systems and operating processes that aim to ultimately be interrelated with global protocols on a continuously growing exchange of transactions among diverse countries and regions (Marzui, 2001, 1). As a process, globalization is more prominent in today’s generation due to technological advances that provided the impetus for improved intercultural interaction traversing borders, distance and time. The United States (US) continues to provide direction and significant influence to other countries in terms of applications on globalization. As the world’s most devel oped industrialized nation, the US has continued to support democratic ideals in terms of foreign trade, intercultural communication, preservation of the environment, adherence to ethical and moral standards, as well as promotion of human rights: all critical elements for sustained globalization efforts.

Salave Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Salave Project - Assignment Example The company has also secured an investigation permit of up to 2765ha for a total of 3198ha of highly potential gold deposits (Asturgold, n.p). The area has already been developed, and access roads, power lines, water and telephone lines are available in the area. The area is just 10 kilometers from Tapia within the province of Galicia. This region has a long coal mining history that boosts confidence on future mine developments the Salave Project. This project is viable since it has a strong geological evidence to support it. Gold deposits are in the main Salave granodiorite and surrounding regions. The deposit contains gold mineralization along numerous north to northwest irregular lenses. Salave gold deposit is one of the biggest and premier grade undeveloped gold deposits in Western Europe. It is an investment that is worthwhile and lucrative. This report will show the predicted future of the Salave project investment in such a way that the investor will see the value of investing in such promising project. Since gold is a precious stone, investing into this project is also extremely precious to both the investor and the company taking up the Salave project. All the data and relevant analysis confirm the viability of this gold mine project. Introduction The Salave project has a basis on the preliminary economic analysis of the project. This economic analysis shows the financials of the project for the next eighteen (18) years. These projections are subject to alterations in the economy and, therefore, the rational of this statement is to take into account the changes and incorporate them for investors to have total confidence in the project. The analysis of the project indicates that, over the next 18 years, the project will generate a NPV of $576 million (Asturgold, n.p). Previous metallurgical studies and tests indicate that recoveries are in the order of 90%. The region has 1.7 million oz Au and indications show that 338 thousand oz Au inferred. This is g ood news to any investor who wants to have the most value for their investments. The robust economy demonstrated in 2011 placed the gold price at an attractive $1,100/oz. The local community is in total support of the project and shows confidence in the mining process. Currently the drive to put Salave to production as soon as possible is enormous. This project is the best investment in Western Europe. Significance of the Salave Project The Salave project is tremendously significant in the economy of Spain and to investors and share holders of the company that runs the Salave project. The project has vast possibilities and positive rewards in the end. Many investors always seek to increase their share value. This is the business that Salave project focuses on among other key goals like to be the largest gold mine in the whole of Western Europe. This project is resistant to the economic dynamics that will make investors shy to invest in the gold business. The gold business is never l ow due to the constant and steady rise of the prices of gold over the years especially when inflation strikes. This analysis will show how the value of the share holders will be on the increase, and the success of the project is the main purpose of the call for investor input from all over the globe. Cash flow Analysis In the forecast of the project’s cash flows for the next two decades, the following assumptions hold: A. All factors remain

Social media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social media - Essay Example There is a perception that non-users of social media are timid, scrupulous, and unsocial. Murat reveals that students who are extrovert use and stay longer on the social media sites in comparison to the introverts. Interestingly, people who are shy and anxious are frequent users of these sites though despite them having fewer following or friends. There is a trend that individuals who exhibit honesty in these sites tend to get social support from users of the social sites in discussion. However, it can be argued that individuals with smaller social friends in these sites have little motivation to use the networking sites hence it can be argued that the relationship between shyness and how frequently the sites are used has no significance. It is for these reasons that it can be stated with absolute certainty that the purpose of using social media sites; the methods incorporated; time spent; and on the sites have a relationship with individual traits of the users (Murat 77). The big five model of personality can be effectively and efficiently validated to illuminate the above conviction. Report from ProQuest (1) lists that the big five model constitutes of contentiousness, openness to experience, agreeableness, neuroticism, and extroversion. Extroversion encompasses either an individual possessing the trait of being an outgoing individual and energetic or the converse where one exhibits the traits of being reserved and solitary. On the other hand, neuroticism includes how sensitive or nervous individuals can be or how secure and confident they are while agreeableness tends to focus on friendliness and compassionate and conversely unkind and cold nature of some persons. ProQuest report (1) also asserts that conscientiousness attempts to categorize traits in terms of how efficient and organized a person can be or being easy going but careless. The last of the big five entails traits that certain kind of people exhibit by being open to experience.

Primary and Secondary Sources Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Primary and Secondary Sources - Coursework Example It is the strongest source identified. The agreement represented the actual plans and activities of United States government and her allies on the World War II. It is a strong source written by an important agent in the war. Nevertheless, it just provides the final copy of the agreement. The author wrote several articles as the wars progressed. It stated the way the Prime Minister of Britain announced the war against Germany on September 3, at 11: 15 AM. The article is unedited and represents a very strong source. However, the copy obtained was not original and published on eyewitness online source. A very credible source written in 1943 as the war progressed. It covers the Japan plan to evacuate its soldiers from regions occupied. The US, army wrote the report and it may contain elements of bias. Albert wrote the letter to Franklin on the plan to use uranium in the war. The copy of the original letter obtained contained actual communication and it is not biased. Nonetheless, Albert wrote the letter three years before the actual use of the atomic bomb. New Yorker magazine first published the interview with Hallock. He described the use of B-17 planes in the war against Germany. It a very strong source because Hallocck took part in the bombing against Germany as a lieutenant. Nevertheless, the writings were not obtained in the original source. The book critically links the way the World War II generated from the results of World War I. It also covers all the activities carried out by all the continents in the World War II. The coverage of the events of World War II is more comprehensive. The book incorporates the elements of religion during and after the Second World War. It explores the structure of religion during the World War II. Wuthnow also shows the changes that occurred after the war. It incorporates a very important element in the

Art Exhibition - What Lies Beyond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Art Exhibition - What Lies Beyond - Essay Example The annual art exhibition allows children to experience the beauty that lies beyond our world. By participating in this exhibition, learners will be able to broaden their scope of thinking and be more attentive to the daily occurrences in the world. In addition to this, they are able to integrate what they experience from their friend s who may be from different ethnic groups. It is also a way of inculcating an imaginative nature into their developing minds. It is important as a teacher to encourage originality and creativity. Most of these children have wide imagination, most of which is derived from watching cartoons every day. With this kind of perceptions the learners are able to draw various cultural examples in terms of religion, ethnicity, art, political and economic backgrounds into realizing what lies beyond. Therefore children such as those of K-3 can use the themes they see every day on television and come up with cultural findings. Due to their age, the teacher can inspire their imagination by encouraging personal right ups and diagrammatic representations that represents what lies

How We Could Use Alternative Dispute Resolution To Settle Civil Essay

How We Could Use Alternative Dispute Resolution To Settle Civil Justice Matters More Efficiently - Essay Example The Arbitration Act 1966 and 19965 provided full court application of one of the ADR procedures, following the lead of UNCITRAL's 1958 Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards paving the way to acceptance of arbitration in international trade dispute resolution. The methods were taken up by the public after they have been officially encouraged in Lord Woolf's 1996 "Access to Justice" report.6 The Police (Northern Ireland) Act 20007 is one of the more recent statutes applying ADR to administrative tribunal cases following PACE 1984, infra. The cost effectiveness of ADR has been fully demonstrated in commercial litigation. It has also placed or misplaced false hopes on the alternative methods application in civil cases. Civil case application of ADR encouraged the proliferation of profit and non-profit ADR providers and services with fully trained and accredited ADR practitioners, most of whom are also solicitors. The CPR required active management of cases by judges, including encouragement of litigating parties to use ADR. For the purpose of facilitating ADR use by litigants, CPR allows the court to stay its proceedings while the parties concerned try to settle the case. Pre-action protocols were also installed, requiring parties to let each other know the basis of their proposed claims and defences. The importance of ADR is emphasized in several judicial decisions. In Cowl vs. Plymouth9, the Court of Appeals imposed cost sanctions on a party for unreasonable failure to use ADR. Solicitors are also required to apprise clients of ADR, otherwise, they will be considered professionally negligent. Apart from judicial initiative, the executive also introduced ADR in government departments and administrative tribunals, particularly in clinical negligence claims, employment and legal services. Mr. Justice Lightman, a Justice of the High Court Chancery Division, presented ADR with high hopes as a necessary alternative to "extravagantly expensive and unpredictable exercise"10 of litigation. It must be recognized that ADR is "an ever evolving process."11 Newer methods are being introduced and legislation, including rules of court would tend to be left behind. Current consensus among law practioners tend to limit ADR use to arbitration and mediation. The failure of the use of inappropriate ADR method force the parties to incur needless expenses. On this note, the observations of Sir Anthony Evans triggers a painful spot when he pointed out that it is the agreement of the parties to come to a settlement that is responsible for the supposed success of ADR and not ADR processes themselves. In fact, he emphasized that "a settlement agreement is always to be preferred to any of the [ADR] processes which may result in a binding decision".12 He meant that solicitors and judges should look at the nature of the case before influencing the parties to undergo ADR procedures that could be inappropriate and ineffective. He also pointed out

Art Exhibition - What Lies Beyond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Art Exhibition - What Lies Beyond - Essay Example The annual art exhibition allows children to experience the beauty that lies beyond our world. By participating in this exhibition, learners will be able to broaden their scope of thinking and be more attentive to the daily occurrences in the world. In addition to this, they are able to integrate what they experience from their friend s who may be from different ethnic groups. It is also a way of inculcating an imaginative nature into their developing minds. It is important as a teacher to encourage originality and creativity. Most of these children have wide imagination, most of which is derived from watching cartoons every day. With this kind of perceptions the learners are able to draw various cultural examples in terms of religion, ethnicity, art, political and economic backgrounds into realizing what lies beyond. Therefore children such as those of K-3 can use the themes they see every day on television and come up with cultural findings. Due to their age, the teacher can inspire their imagination by encouraging personal right ups and diagrammatic representations that represents what lies

Amercian History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Amercian History - Essay Example And, of course, as there are with any widespread political movement, there were economic reasons why the Revolutionary vanguard declared independence. Legislation passed by the British Empire made it increasingly difficult to operate apart from the state itself. Taken together, all of these factors comprised what Americans now characterized as â€Å"tyranny†, as it is phrased in the Declaration of Independence, put to the pen of Thomas Jefferson in 1776. Any account of the American Revolution will inevitably say there was no one true cause, or reason, for the Declaration; instead, a broad array of social, economic, ideological, and philosophical reasons can be described as contributing factors to what led to the creation of the United States. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, sentiments against Great Britain seemed to center on ideological and philosophical shifts away from desires to remain attached with the mother state. But in the decades before the Declaration, shifts seemed to occur on the political and even economic level. The Seven Years War drained the financial reserves of the British Empire, and the Navigation Acts, designed to alleviate this pressure, caused resentment among the American Colonies. Additional political and economic burdens on the colonies by the financially downtrodden Empire, such as the Sugar Act, Currency Act, Stamp Act, and Revenue Act between the years 1764 and 1766, led to a rift in political interests. Stories like that of Ebenezer Macintosh, and his protests against the British Parliament’s passage of the Stamp Act, illustrates for historians and students of history alike what direction American feelings for British were going in, even a decade before the Americ an Revolution officially began. Today, American historians look back as far as 1763 to see the earliest examples of strong Parliamentary interference in the

Service User And Care Involvement Analysis Social Work Essay

Service User And Care Involvement Analysis Social Work Essay This review will consist of an introduction, aims of the review, and methods of data collection, findings on a series of questions and answers on the extent of service user involvement in the discharge process, conclusions, and possible recommendations for change. It will conclude with a reflection piece. The following review will discuss the issue of service user involvement in the discharge/transfer procedure. The review was compiled by the author within a nineteen bedded Forensic Mental Health unit. The ward was at full capacity at the time of writing this review. The service users all had different levels of mental illness, each with a different history, level of cognitive awareness, degree of institutionalisation and willingness to adapt and change. This review will assess to what extent service users are involved with the discharge planning process in the ward, if any, and give possible recommendations on how this process may be improved. Aims of the Review During this placement the author decided on a subject to review, this subject was service user involvement in discharge planning. While collating information for the review some questions arose these questions were: Does the service user feel included in decision making? How does the staff involve the service user in the decision making if at all? Has discharge been discussed with the service user? These questions lead to the author constructing some key questions to carry out in the review these will be discussed further in the findings. 91 Methods used to construct review The data for the review was collected over a ten week period within the ward. The author consulted service users notes, attended multidisciplinary team meetings and conducted a series of semi-structured, one to one interviews with service users and staff, including a consultant, doctors, ward manager, nurses, nursing assistants and occupational therapists. A literature search was also carried out using accredited databases including CINAHL and the British Nursing Index. Relevant journal articles were found on these databases using keywords such as service user, involvement and mental health services. Nursing research books were also used to gather information along with web sites underlining national policies and models for mental health nursing. 110 Findings How are decisions made within the placement area regarding discharge planning? A Forensic Mental Health Unit is not part of the prison services it is a service that specialises in the assessment and treatment of people who have a Mental Disorder. According to the Mental Health Care and Treatment Act 2003 a mental disorder is an illness such a personality disorder or learning disability defined by the act, whereby the mental disorder has been a contributing factor to the person offending. Throughout the weeks on this placement research was carried out by the author on policies and procedures for discharge planning. The one in particular that was found to be relevant was the Care Programme Approach (CPA). CPA is about early identification of needs, assignment of individuals or organisations to meet those needs in an agreed and co-ordinated way and regular reviews of progress with the service user and care providers. CPA is also about involving family or carers at the earliest point. The Care Programme Approach requires that service users should be provided with copies of their care plans and it has been increasingly common for service users who have been the responsibility of forensic psychiatrists to have copies of documents relating to their care. (DOH 2008). Systems were in place for comprehensive care planning. There was evidence to show that the service users social, educational and occupational needs were taken into account in the care planning process and other specialist interventions were available. In addition to this, in some cases, discharge/transfer planning was evident from an early stage (not long after admission), although in other cases a few months had elapsed before any document noted those discussions. Discharge planning is enhanced by the Care Programme Approach (CPA) a multi-disciplinary care planning systematic approach that involves service users and their carers. Care Programme Approach is the framework for care co-ordination and resource allocation in mental health services. Decisions for discharge are made through the multi-disciplinary team which consists of consultants, ward manager, nursing staff, occupational therapy and social workers. discharge guidance 4. This will go forward to a tribunal where the service user will be invited to take part, here all the evidence will be put forward and a decision will be made. If the service user is restricted then the decision will be made by the First Minister. When a service user is restricted it means an order has b een applied to them as they are seen by the act to be a more serious offender, this then means that the Home Office is responsible for granting discharge and a representative will be invited to the Tribunal (MHCT Act 2003 SECTION 37/41). Most service users have long term mental health problems and complex social needs and have been in contact with mental health services for more than twenty years so never think about discharge. Being in hospital for so long has become part of their lives so service users see it as pointless being discharged, what would I do. 488 SECTION 117 AFTER-CARE Prior to 1983, no statutory provision was made for the after-care of patients discharged from hospital. Section 117 introduced and defined formal after-care. In particular it stated: It shall be the ditty of the health authority and the local authority to provide in conjunction with voluntary agencies after-care services for any person to whom this Section applies, until such time that the health authority and local authority are satisfied that the person concerned is no longer in need of such services . Section 117 of the 1983 Mental Health Act applies to patients who have been detained under Section 3,37, 37/41, 47/49, 48/49. Before a decision is taken to discharge or grant leave to a patient, it is the responsibility of the RMO to ensure, in consultation with other members of the multi-disciplinary team, that the patients needs for health and social care have been fully assessed, and that the care plan addresses them. The Section 117 meeting The aim of the meeting is to draw up an after-care plan, based on the most recent multi-disciplinary assessment of the patients needs. During the meeting the following areas should be covered as appropriate: Housing Finances Relationships/family Employment Social needs Psychology/mental health difficulties Relapse predictors Known risk factors When the care plan is agreed the team should ensure that a key worker is identified to monitor the care plan. The Care Co-Ordinator can come from either of the statutory agencies, and should not be appointed unless they are present at the meeting, or unless they have given their prior agreement.. The process for Sec 117 can be found in Trust Policy and Procedure and applies to all patients accepted by psychiatric services. What decisions/involvement does the service user have in this process? Within this placement the care and treatment plans are reviewed on a regular basis. Service users are expected to meet with their key worker and other team members on a regular basis, care plans are reviewed at these meetings and a mutual agreement will be decided, on the best way forward, once the care plan has been agreed by all the service user has to adhere to the care plan.(discharge guidance)no.16 Rights, Relationships and Recovery (2006): The Report of the National Review of Mental Health Nursing in Scotland Service users are encouraged to be fully involved in all aspects of their care as far as they are able to. Service users past and present wishes should be taken into account, their views and opinions with regards to their treatment plan must also be recorded, as stated in the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Act Scotland 2003. These wishes and aspects will be turned into a care plan that is individual to the service user. The principles of the act underpin any decision made relating to a detained service user in Scotland. The Milan Committee devoted a chapter in the act that referred to high risk patients it stated that service users should have the right of appeal to be transferred from a high or medium secure facility to that of a facility with lower security conditions. (Mental Health Care and Treatment Scotland Act 2003). This however seemed to be the problem across the board, lack of medium/low secure facilities to discharge /transfer appropriate service users to. Service users have the opportunity for regular one-to-ones with their key workers (weekly basis) or more regularly if they require. Service users have the opportunity to put forward their thoughts on discharge and any other aspect of their care at the review, such as their rights, beliefs and their right to a tribunal. The author attended these independant tribunals while on this placement and at these tribunals people had stated that their human rights had been violated (The Human Rights Act 1998). They felt they were still being discriminated against for offences they had committed 20-30 years ago and feel they were being held under excessive security hence the reason for the tribunal to appeal against this level of security. this would mean they would be granted grounds access on a trial period which may be supervised, then become unsupervised for a trial period to see how the service user would cope, this in turn will lead to a further tribunal taking place in a set time agreed f or example 4 or 6 months away, where the service user may be granted discharge/transfer to a lower secure unit depending that all provisions that had been put in place had been adhered to, for example, risk assessment reviewed, treatment regime being followed, attend all social/therapy/strategy groups that were agreed. The review takes place every four months, again this is a multi-disciplinary meeting and service users are invited to attend with the support of advocacy or someone of their choice. The Human Rights Act 1998 gives legal effect in the UK to certain fundamental rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). These rights not only affect matters of life and death like freedom from torture and killing, but also affect your rights in everyday life: what you can say and do, your beliefs, your right to a fair trial and many other similar basic entitlements. During the time spent on this placement it was noted that service users and key workers met at the beginning of the week to discuss how they felt things had been for them, the service user has the opportunity to discuss what changes they would like to happen, this is then recorded in the service users notes and taken forward to the clinical team that week where it would be discussed if any changes in care and treatment would take place, the service user is then informed of any changes and decisions made which they have the right to appeal against (The Human Rights Act 1998). The opportunity arose for the author to take part in these weekly reviews, during this one-to-one time most service users were able to express their thoughts and feelings about issues they had encountered that week and describe what therapeutic strategies they used to get through it. The service user will be provided with a copy of the Treatment Plan Objectives, or informed in detail of the contents of the treatment plan, in the event that any learning or specific reading or language difficulty information should be provided in a way that is most likely to be understood. Arnstein (1969) constructed a ladder of participation which described eight stages of user participation in services, including mental health. These stages ranged from no participation to user controlled services. The above service users would be placed on the sixth rung of the ladder in the partnership range as they agree to share planning and decision-making responsibilities. Partnership Partnership, like community, is a much abused term. I think it is useful when a number of different interests willingly come together formally or informally to achieve some common purpose. The partners dont have to be equal in skills, funds or even confidence, but they do have to trust each other and share some commitment. In participation processes as in our personal and social lives building trust and commitment takes time. discharge guidance 16.6 908 Does this placement area reflect its practice on local or national policies regarding service user involvement in discharge planning? (Mental Health Care and Treatment Scotland Act 2003). (The Human Rights Act 1998). When asked their views on the subject the Ward manager and senior nursing staff presented documentation which reaffirmed current practice within the ward. The Ten Essential Shared Capabilities (ESCs) DOH (2004) he explained was the model now being followed on the ward, has just been implemented into this area of placement within the last two years, which the ward staff have adopted well by providing a person-centred approach as much as possible. This new person-centred model embraced the ethos of the above, and senior staff stressed that good practice dictated that service users have the opportunity to appropriately influence delivery of care and support. A review of policies and procedures as well as discussions with staff provided evidence that the policies were actually in place. Throughout the placement, the author noticed that efforts were being made all the time to nurse according to the new model. Included were regular one to one sessions between nurses and service users to hear their views and thoughts, these already took place before the ESCs were introduced. Moreover some staff do find it difficult to adopt the ESCs and the mental health act due to the restraints of the environment (secure ward); however they are prepared to embrace the opportunity for further education and support. 211 Identify barriers and constraints. Before a decision is taken to discharge or grant leave to a patient, it is the responsibility of the RMO to ensure, in consultation with other members of the multi-disciplinary team, that the patients needs for health and social care have been fully assessed, and that the care plan addresses them. Section 117 of the 1983 Mental Health Act applies to patients who have been detained under Section 3,37, 37/41, 47/49, 48/49. While on placement and conducting this review the author noted that one of the barriers to effective involvement came from some of the service users, due to the complex nature of the area the service users had become institutionalised and found it difficult to be thinking about discharge at this stage in their lives, so they just accept the way things are and do not get too much involved as far as care plans are involved and just say what they think the staff want to hear. In secure settings engagement of service users in assessment and treatment can be difficult, as there is a potential risk of perceived coercion. Moreover with the lack of medium secure facilities around this can hinder service users from moving on within the specified time limit agreed, as there are no provisions. 138 Recommendations for Development SMART Most service users were more concerned about their futures and life post discharge. They wanted their time between now and then to be concerned with preparing them for discharge. It was frustrating for many service users that they felt that little in the way of such preparation was taking place. Continue to provide service users with support and skills needed appropriate to their function and skills already held, for example cookery groups, IT groups. Provide groups that enhance social skills such as coping strategy groups, anger management, alcohol/drug treatment/groups. High secure units should ensure that at the point of discharge patients have a copy of their discharge care plan in a suitable format which includes appropriate information about the circumstances that might result in their return to a secure mental health provision such as However a recommendation that high secure units should ensure that factors to be weighed in assessing relapse are part of the risk assessment included in the discharge plan of all service users. The National Service Framework for Mental Health states that Service users and carers should be involved in planning, providing and evaluating training for all health care professionals (Department of Health, 1999). This is the case in most health care provisions but for more education, training and information to be more readily available. Strengthening the user perspective and user involvement in mental health services has been a key part of policymaking in many countries, and also has been encouraged by World Health Organization (WHO) in order to establish services that are better tailored to peoples needs and used more appropriately. 265 Reflection In this review, I need to reflect on the situation that took place during my clinical placement to develop and utilise my interpersonal skills in order to maintain the therapeutic relationships with service users. In this reflection, I am going to use Gibbs Reflective Cycle Gibbs (1988). This model is a recognised framework for my reflection. Gibbs (1988) consists of six stages to complete one cycle which is able to improve my nursing practice continuously and learning from the experience for better practice in the future. During the first week of placement I was encouraged to work closely with my mentor. This gave me the opportunity to orientate myself to the ward and get an overview of the needs and requirements of the service users. This also provided me with the chance to observe how the nursing team worked on the ward. During this time I had learned that if the concept of inter-professional working is to succeed in practice, professionals need excellent team working and communication skills. Good communication, as we have staged in our group work theory, (skills for practice 3) is crucial in the effective delivery of patient care and poor communication can result in increased risk to the service users. I have learned the valuable skills required for good communication and will transfer these into practice by adapting to the local communication procedures (expand). The NMC advices that at the point of registration students should have the necessary skills to communicate effectively with colleagues and other departments to improve patients care (NMC, 2004). 256