What is Food - Free Essay Example

Food. What is food? Most consider food to be the one constant in our lives. It has played a significant role in human society and culture. Even specific foods are associated with specific regions. For example, tomatoes originated in the Andes in South America. Rice originated in Southeast Asia and wheat was first grown in Southeastern Turkey. Food culture can often be seen as a way to understanding society, history and the world. According to Dr. Siu Yau-ho of the Linguan University in Hong Kong, China; food culture can be broken down into two types of knowledge: material and intellectual knowledge. Material knowledge involves experience through the tangible sense, particularly through taste and smell. Intellectual knowledge involves experience through history, customs/traditions, religion, culture, geography, etc. â€Å"Dr. Siu said that food culture is not only close to life, but also an entry point and important channel of cultural communication, helping people understand the world.† Food Culture, 2018 Food has also played a significant role in religion. It is considered the basis of human culture. Not only does it play a significant role on the body but also the spiritual body. In most religion, food is considered sacred and doesn’t have a monetary value. Often the value of food is linked to identity. For example, rice in Japanese culture holds great significance. The emperors were considered incarnations of the god of mature rice. In Hopi Indian tradition and culture, corn represents the cycle of life and perseverance. Many are familiar with anthropologist Ludwig Fuerbach’s famous quote, â€Å"man is what he eats.† Ludwig conducted extensive research on the connection between the human psyche and the body and emphasizes the importance of nourishment and diet. In modern day society and culture, food has a considerably different ethic. Often food is received through secondary and tertiary sources (supermarkets, fast food, restaurant, etc.). There is a prominent trend among the U.S. population where people don’t really know where their food comes from. This is one of the biggest questions concerning food security. According to the USDA, food security can be broken up into four basic categorical levels: high food security, marginal food security, low food security and very low food security. High food security characterizes residential areas where there isn’t food access limitation. Marginal food security focuses on areas that have little indication of food access limitation and there is only â€Å"anxiety over food sufficiency or shortage.† Low food security denotes the reduction of quality, variety, desirability of diet and food intake. Very low food security shows multiple indications of lack of food access and reduced food intake. In 2006, the Committee of National Statistics (CNSTAT) classified â€Å"food security† as household-level economic and social condition. The USDA additionally revised its definition of â€Å"food desert† as â€Å"parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. Largely due to lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets and other healthy food providers.† Essentially food deserts are classified as low-income residential areas and communities where the closest supermarket or grocery stores is within a one-mile radius. Research and study have shown that there the lack of access to nutritional food has a severe impact on overall community health. Additionally, there are several factors that contribute to the stigma of food deserts such as lack of access to transportation, location, socioeconomic status, cultural, shopping/dietary habits, time/availability, etc. RESEARCH QUESTION I am studying food security within an urban environment because I want to find out how lack of food security can impact a community’s health in order to help my reader understand the topic of food deserts within the United States and create sustainable solutions to this issue. This question is feasible due to the abundance of information regarding nutrition and health. Additionally, several studies have been conducted regarding the topic of food security globally but particularly within an urban environment. I’m also researching several articles that analyze a multitude of sustainable solutions to the issue of urban food deserts. Before analyzing the topic of community health within an urban setting, we have to examine certain concepts that fuel this issue. One of these concepts is community food security (CFS), which suggests the main issue: food deserts. According to Meenar (2017), community food security is â€Å"having access to affordable, safe, culturally appropriate, and nutritionally adequate food† (Meenar, 1). This occurs through environmentally and economically stable food systems, which promote community involvement and active participation. CFS is often associated with the three main driving factors of food access: geographic, economic and informational (Meenar 2017). This concept plays a key role in the interconnection between socioeconomic status and accessibility to basic necessities. â€Å"Due to lack of food access, many lower-income families in U.S. urban neighborhoods are forced to seek assistance from federal programs and local food cupboards (Nord et al. 2009); however, many face challenges in doing so because of eligibility issues, lack of food availability, and poor quality of food† (Meenar, 2). Most low-income residence rely on cheap, non-nutritious food mostly due to convenience, abundance, and affordability. This additionally often pose threats and negative changes to health. When examining the definition â€Å"food desert† given by the USDA, this concept of community food security becomes validated. According to the USDA (2012), food deserts are classified as low-income residential areas and communities where the closest supermarket or grocery store is within a 1-mile radius. This implies that regardless of the food source or quality of food, a community is considered to be economically and socially adequate in accessibility to â€Å"safe† food. However, both Meenar and Pascale et al. argue that this is misleading and provides a false pretense of food accessibility. Meenar argues that the â€Å"urban-food† paradigm is much more than an issue of accessibility. He mentions several overlapping topics such as racial inclusion, food habits, including nutrition and health; therefore, scrutinizing the administrative definition of â€Å"food desert† and â€Å"accessibility.† â€Å"†¦this study argues that the concept of food environments in urban neighborhoods goes beyond typical food access and food desert analyses, which primarily use GIS data, including locations of supermarkets or grocery stores, median household income, population density or car ownership†¦ Food environment research [U.S] has relied heavily on†¦ U.S Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) food desert maps or The Reinvestment Fund’s (TRE) low-access maps†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Meenar, 2). The maps and data taken by the USDA and TRE display information that negates the official USDA definition, as many disenfranchised areas have access to small local grocery stores but the â€Å"quality or quantity of fresh and healthy food is not guaranteed, and these foods are usually more expensive† (Meenar). Meenar also noted that even though people may have â€Å"food† access, they aren’t guaranteed â€Å"economic† and â€Å"cultural† access. However, Pascale et al. approach this discrepancy from a slightly different angle. Unlike most studies, Pascale et al. analyze communities that are considered food deserts due to lack of mainstream markets but consists of local ethnic markets, as food deserts shouldn’t necessarily indicate the absence of or limited access to food in â€Å"poor and racially diverse communities† (Pascale et al. 2017).

Hobbyist Short Story and Druggist Essay - 786 Words

Summary The short story, â€Å"The Hobbyist written by Frederic Brown is about a man named Sangstrom. Sangstrom was at a prescription pharmacy secretly talking to the Druggist about buying an undetectable poison to kill his wife. The Druggist asks to follow him into the back room and puts some coffee into the boiler. The Druggist informs Sangstrom that he feels that he deserves the poison for free but must pay for the antidote. This is when Sangstrom realizes that the Druggist had poisoned his coffee. Sangstrom panics and pulls out his gun and points it at the Druggist. The Druggist continues to explain that if Sangstrom hands over $1000 and writes a confession of the murder of his wife and the Druggist in case he did kill either one of them,,†¦show more content†¦Please help spread the word about my undetectable poison, will you? One never knows, Mr.Sangstrom. The life you save, if you have any enemies, just might be your own.† This proves how through blackmailing people he tries to save lives. The Druggist is brave because the text says, â€Å"Or if you think I’m bluffing, that you’re really not poisoned, go ahead and shoot.† This proves that he wasn’t scared of the gun. The Druggist is a careful man because the text says, â€Å"Whom do you want to kill and why?† This proves that he wants to know everything in the mind of the murdered before he gives anything to him. Sangstrom is the antagonist in the short story, â€Å"Hobbyist†, written by Frederic Brown. He is the person that opposes the Druggist. Sangstrom like the Druggist is also a mixture of both rounded and dynamic characters since he has many sided and complex personalities that you would expect of actual human beings but also has a personality that changes for the better and worse by the end of the story. For example, at the beginning of the story Sangstrom is reflected as a typical bad or villainous type person wanting to kill his wife. However right after the climax, just like a villainous character, his reaction to being blackmailed was pointing his gun at the Druggist. Sangstrom was forced into not killing his wife in the fear of getting caught by the police if the confession letter was mailed.

Essay on A Cure for Alzheimers - 1614 Words

A Cure for Alzheimers In February of 2000, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimers disease. She was diagnosed with the disease just less than two years prior to her death. Throughout that time, I watched changes in my grandmother that made her seem like an entirely different woman to me. She gradually began losing her short-term memory and we began to see signs of her long-term memory degrading too. It began to get harder and harder to take her out into public without being afraid of what would happen next. Her emotions would fluctuate with the changing of each minute it seemed. Physically she became weaker and weaker and would often scare us with falling while she would be walking. Eventually she had to be moved into the†¦show more content†¦Often times this disease has been called â€Å"the long good-bye† because the symptoms progress so gradually. Most often the disease shows itself in the elderly around the age of about eighty, and is rarely seen in people under the age of sixty-fi ve. One of the characteristics of this disease that makes it so hard for scientists to find a cure, are the numerous factors that present themselves in different patients. It seems as if no two cases of Alzheimer’s can be exactly alike. In 1906 a physician, named Alois Alzheimer, cared for a fifty-one year old patient with severe dementia. Upon her death, he was able to examine her brain at autopsy. Dr. Alzheimer was able to take advantage of recent innovations in microscopy and histological techniques that allowed him to study in detail the cellular components in nervous tissue. He found that the brain of his patient had severe cortical atrophy and described the neurofibrillary bundles and plaques that are now the hallmark for definitive diagnosis of what he at that time called â€Å"presenile dementia†. An account of his first patient was published in 1907. It is a little ironic that reevaluation this case has lead some to believe that this first patient did not s uffer from the Alzheimer’s disease at all. Instead they believe she suffered from a different, rare disease called metachromatic leukodystrophy (Izenberg, 2000). The termShow MoreRelatedThe Pursuit Of A Cure For Alzheimers1047 Words   |  5 Pagespublished research. In the time since earning my masters’ degree, I have been employed at a cognitive neuroscience company conducting research in the pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer’s. I began as an assistant, but advanced to become the leader of the research team. Ultimately, our efforts were successful and we identified a potential cure. Although it is still in its early stages, we believe it is an authentic approach and will put an end to this horrific disease. I began the speech that I had rehearsedRead More Searching for the Cure for Alzheimers Disease Essay1763 Words   |  8 Pagesbrains. They let us speak, move, see, feel emotions and make decisions. Inside a normal healthy brain billions of cells called neurons constantly communicate with one another.Healthy neurotransmission is important for the brain to function well. Alzheimers disease destroys memory and thinking skills over time by compromising the ability of neurons to communicate with one another (Jannis).The disease triggers as two abnormal protein fragments called plaques and tangles accumulate in hippocampus, theRead MoreAlzheimers Disease945 Words   |  4 PagesAlzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s Disease is a progressive neurological disease; it often attacks the brain tissues causing memory loss of one’s identity and regular behaviors. Statistics indicates that the rate of predicted people to get Alzheimer’s will increase briskly as time goes on. 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Yet, the scariest t hing about Alzheimer’s, is not just the memory loss, but also the fact that it has no cure and is irreversibleRead MoreAlzheimer s Effects On The Brain1133 Words   |  5 PagesAlzheimer’s is a disease where neurotransmitters, acetylcholine, or the brain’s chemicals break connections with other nerve cells causing the cells to die off, the effects of this are irreversible. The loss of these cells result in loss of thinking and language skills, unpredictable behavioral changes and eventually the inability to carry out the simplest tasks. Although there is no known cause for Alzheimer’s, researchers have found a genetic link. Alzheimer’s first symptoms usually appear whenRead MoreAlzheimer s Disease Is The Most Common Form Of Dementia1684 Words   |  7 Pages Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, which slowly and steadily impairs the mental function and psychological competence. Even though there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, current treatment patterns and research aim to delay the progression towards dementia and the associated symptoms. The strongest risk factor for this disease is increased age, typically seen in individuals over the age of 65, but it must be noted that Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of the aging process. AlzheimerRead MoreCellular Research : Alzheimer s Disease1118 Words   |  5 PagesCellular Research - Alzheimer s disease Alzheimer’s is a life-threating disease that affects many elderly. This tragic disease affects parts of the brain, severely damaging and hampering the neurons. However, researcher are continually searching for a cure for this disease. In the toxic disease of Alzheimer’s, neurons are the cells that are affected. The neurons connect together in one’s brain to form the â€Å"neuron forest.† These neurons send electrical signals that are sent throughout the brainRead MoreAlzheimer s Is The Most Common Form Of Dementia948 Words   |  4 PagesAlzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. â€Å"Dementia is a general term that describes a group of symptoms-such as loss of memory, judgment, language, complex motor skills, and other intellectual function-caused by the permanent damage or death of the brain s nerve cells, or neurons.† Alzheimer’s is not a part of aging even though increasing age is a risk factor but Alzheimer’s occurs in people 65 and older. Alzheimer’s worsens over time. In the early stages memory is lost and then graduallyRead MoreAlzheimer s Disease : A Progressive Mental Deterioration1109 Words   |  5 Pages Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive mental deterioration that can happen in middle or old age, due to generalized degeneration of the brain. Alzheimer’s disease is one form of dementia that gets harmful over time. Dementia is a loss of brain function that occurs with other diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Scientists believe that Alzheimer’s disease results from genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors that impact the brain. Alzheimer’s disease damages and kills brain cells and it also leadsRead MoreA Brief Note On Fighting Alzheimer s Disease1038 Words   |  5 PagesResearch Paper January 18, 2017 Fighting Alzheimer’s â€Å"So now, we feel it is important to share it with you. In opening our hearts, we hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition. Perhaps it will encourage a clearer understanding of the individuals and families who are affected by it.† This was part of the fortieth president Ronald Reagan’s speech announcing the start of his battle with Alzheimer’s Disease that would last ten years (Adams 21). Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects millions

Fast and accurate palm prints recognition - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: 1. Research into the different types of biometric systems which are currently available for access control systems. 2. Other than security concerns, privacy is considered a core value and is recognized either implicitly or explicitly as a fundamental human right. Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) can be defined as technologies that enforce legal privacy principles in order to protect and enhance the privacy of users of information technology. Research and discuss three PETs which can be used on the Internet. 3. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be described as a network of nodes that makes a collaborative effort in sensing data around its periphery and its surrounding environment. Research into the area of WSNs and understand the WSN architecture and protocol stack. Discuss three different types of threats and vulnerabilities which can be used to attack the WSN. Give your recommendations on how the threats and vulnerabilties can be mitigated for the WSN. Answer: Answer 1 Biometric system is a technology-based system that uses some distinct information of a person to identify that person. These systems mainly rely on a specific data or biological traits of a person. The statistical analysis of peoples physical and behavioral characteristics is used as an identity of a person. These systems control the access of the restricted areas or systems by allowing only the authorized person to access the system or the area. Biometric access control systems ensure that right level of security is enforced within a specific system or place. The components of the biometric system include a metal oxide semiconductor or a charged coupled device for some particular systems (Banerjee Woodard, 2012). A biometric access system helps to transfer a biometric trait of a particular person in electrical signal that helps in identifying a person. The biometric access control system is mainly of two types, physiological and behavioral biometric system. The physiological biomet ric system consists of fingerprint recognition, face recognition, iris recognition, voice recognition, palm print recognition, gait recognition and so on. Out of these, face recognition, palm print recognition and gait recognition are discussed in the next section. Face Recognition Face recognition captures the digital image of the person and verifies the identity of the person by comparing and analyzing the different patterns of the image. This is one of the most commonly used biometric systems for security (Beveridge et al., 2013). The data of the nodal points of a digital image is captured, which is then used for verification. The advantages and disadvantages of face recognition are as follows- Advantages The advantages of using face recognition biometric system are as follows- It is a user-friendly biometric recognition system It is one of the most inexpensive techniques of verifying the identity of a person. It is a non-contact technology, as cameras are used for collecting the necessary information for identifying a person. Offers high speed identification in comparison to other biometric system Disadvantages The working principle of the facial recognition algorithm is largely dependent on the quality of the image. The relative angle of the targets face largely influences the recognition score. It requires a significantly larger storage space. Palm-print Recognition Palm print recognition is another biometric access control system that makes use of a scanning device to process an image data of a users palm and compare it with a stored record (Cappelli, Ferrara Maio, 2012). The advantages and disadvantages of palm print recognition are as follows- Advantages The advantages of Palm print recognition are as follows- The palm area is much larger and therefore it helps in capturing and analyzing the features of human hand more distinctively as compared to a fingerprint. Palm print recognition system can be easily integrated into other systems and devices. Disadvantages The disadvantage of palm print recognition is as follows- The system requires a large surface area and therefore, the entire device becomes larger in size. This increases the cost of the system as well. Gait Recognition This is a biometric method that deals with unique biological and behavioral characteristics of a user such as fingerprint or face. It is s systemic study of human motion and makes use of instruments in measuring the body movements and body mechanics. The advantages and disadvantages of gait recognition are as follows- Advantages The advantages of gait recognition are as follows- It is a contact less method as a gait recognition system can recognize a person from a distance Effective in use even in low-resolution image It is a non-invasive biometric technology Disadvantages The disadvantages of gait recognition are as follows- It may not work properly if a person changes or modifies its style of motion Even the surface of motion largely influences the gait recognition system. Answer 2 Privacy enhancing techniques refers to standardized methods of protecting the privacy of the stored data over internet. It considerably helps in protecting the privacy of the online users. It enforces legal privacy principles for protecting and enhancing the privacy of the users (De Cristofaro Wright, 2013). The three different Privacy Enhancing Techniques that can be used on internet are discussed below- Email Anonymity The email anonymity systems ensure that a particular email is sent without revealing the personal information and identity of the user. Use of remailer is prominent in achieving the email anonymity (Rainie et al., 2013). The working principle of the remailer is that, when a user sends an email, it at first goes to the remailer. The remailer in turn strips off the identification information of the user and re-mails the message to the intended recipient (Froomkin, 2015). Type-III remailer is an advanced remailer that provides efficient protection against the replay attacks. Interactive Anonymity With the advent of technology and internet, real time online interaction is increasing as well. An attacker can intercept these communications thus leading to the information loss or modification of the information (Larsson et al., 2012). An information can be modified during its transmission. Different internet applications such as, remote login and voice over IP posses significant threat to data privacy. In order to eliminate such risks, different systems are implemented over the years that provide practical security and privacy to the users. The examples of different systems that maintains the privacy of the of the users data over internet includes use of onion routing, freedom network, Java Anon Proxy, Tor and so on (Li et al., 2013). Communication Privacy Systems The communication privacy systems ensure that the identity of a user communicating over internet is kept private. The aim of this Privacy Enhancing Technique is to keep any information flow private from the third parties. Different techniques are applied to protect the information if a user wishes to keep the contents of a particular communication private (Wessels et al., 2012). Examples of different communication privacy systems include use of SSL and TLS, off the record messaging and so on. SSL or secure socket layer protocol is a privacy enhancing technology in which the web browser by default encrypts all the web requests while undergoing a communication with an SSL web server. TLS is the later version of SSL, while its application is similar to SSL (Bhargavan et al., 2013). One of the most striking features of SSL is that, no human intervention is needed for encryption. Off record messaging on the other hand, is a technology to protect the contents of the instant messaging and communication over the internet. This PET system encrypts all the instant messages so that no third party can access the information. Off record is used by many communication applications such as iChat and Trillian. Apart from these, there are other different privacy enhancing techniques such as private payments and use of anti phishing tools further helps in protecting the privacy of data over internet. Answer 3 Wireless sensor network can be termed as a network of the spatially distributed devices that are interconnected with each other. It is used for providing a wireless connection to the different devices. Sensors are used to monitor the physical and environmental conditions of the sensors. WSN consists of different base stations and nodes or the wireless sensors. The different layers of WSN protocol stack include application layer, transport layer, network layer, data link layer and physical layer. The different types of threats on which the WSN network is exposed to are as follows- Spoofing Attack Spoofing is one of the common attacks in the wireless sensor networks. It makes use of a malicious program disguised as a legitimate program in order to gain an illegitimate advantage. This as a result can corrupt the network traffic extensively (Singla Sachdeva, 2013). Furthermore, continuous alteration in messages can result in loss of data packet during its transmission. Sybil Attack Sybil attack is another prominent attack in the wireless sensor network. There are cases where the sensors of a particular network might need to work together. In such cases, the entire task is distributed into a number of sub tasks (Venkatraman, Daniel Murugaboopathi, 2013). Presence of a malicious node in the network often tunnels the information or data to a complete different location. Network Flooding It is often seen that a malicious code present in a WSN can generate a large number of useless traffic thereby flooding the entire network. This causes congestion in the network leading to the exhaustion of the nodes. This attack is much similar to denial of service attacks. Apart from these, there are certain other threats and vulnerabilities in WSN. These include sinkhole attack, node replication attack, wormhole attack and so on. The threat mitigation techniques for these attack is discussed in the following section. Threat Mitigation The different thereat mitigation techniques that can be employed in order to ensure a safe operation of wireless sensor network are as follows- Only the authorized nodes are allowed to communicate over the network. The attack can be avoided by verifying the identity of the different nodes of a WSN by a trust worthy node. The flooding attack can be prevented by limiting the number of requests a node can handle in a set amount of time. Use of a proper intrusion detection system in the network can help in identifying the presence of malicious nodes (Alrajeh, Khan Shams, 2013). References Alrajeh, N. A., Khan, S., Shams, B. (2013). Intrusion detection systems in wireless sensor networks: a review.International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks,9(5), 167575. Banerjee, S. P., Woodard, D. L. (2012). Biometric authentication and identification using keystroke dynamics: A survey.Journal of Pattern Recognition Research,7(1), 116-139. Beveridge, J. R., Phillips, P. J., Bolme, D. S., Draper, B. A., Givens, G. H., Lui, Y. M., ... Flynn, P. J. (2013, September). The challenge of face recognition from digital point-and-shoot cameras. InBiometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems (BTAS), 2013 IEEE Sixth International Conference on(pp. 1-8). IEEE. Bhargavan, K., Fournet, C., Kohlweiss, M., Pironti, A., Strub, P. Y. (2013, May). Implementing TLS with verified cryptographic security. InSecurity and Privacy (SP), 2013 IEEE Symposium on(pp. 445-459). IEEE. Cappelli, R., Ferrara, M., Maio, D. (2012). A fast and accurate palmprint recognition system based on minutiae.IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B (Cybernetics),42(3), 956-962. De Cristofaro, E., Wright, M. (2013). Privacy enhancing technologies. InProceedings of 13th International Symposium, PETS. Froomkin, A. M. (2015). From anonymity to identification.Browser Download This Paper. Larsson, S., Svensson, M., De Kaminski, M., Rnkk, K., Alkan Olsson, J. (2012). Law, norms, piracy and online anonymity: Practices of de-identification in the global file sharing community.Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing,6(4), 260-280. Li, B., Erdin, E., Gunes, M. H., Bebis, G., Shipley, T. (2013). An overview of anonymity technology usage.Computer Communications,36(12), 1269-1283. Rainie, L., Kiesler, S., Kang, R., Madden, M., Duggan, M., Brown, S., Dabbish, L. (2013). Anonymity, privacy, and security online.Pew Research Center,5. Singla, A., Sachdeva, R. (2013). Review on security issues and attacks in wireless sensor networks.International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering,3(4). Venkatraman, K., Daniel, J. V., Murugaboopathi, G. (2013). Various attacks in wireless sensor network: survey.International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering,3(1), 208-211. Wessels, B. (2012). Identification and the practices of identity and privacy in everyday digital communication.New Media Society,14(8), 1251-1268.