Analysis Of Edgar Allen Poe s Influence On American...

When thinking of American literature, it’s difficult to pinpoint an author who absolutely hits the nail on the head about what exactly defines American literature and what it means. The definition is also liable to change depending on the person’s depiction of each story that is written. You simply cannot wrap it up into one sentence and call it a concrete definition; there is too much diversity and complexity within its significance. There are also numerous centuries with different eras that all have vast connections along with their differences that must be considered when interrupting how American literature has evolved. One can define it is the literature that is written or produced in the area of the United States (Giles), which is an exceedingly generic explanation and open for many categories. There are many influential American literature authors who have shared trying stories about how our country has evolved. However, no one writer can transcend all genres or eras, but one that comes to mind for his extraordinary impact on American literature is Edgar Allen Poe. His work is unique and diverse, as well as continued to be effective and successful, which is the perfect example of American literature. Poe introduced several changes to the literary style of his time period. He was one of the first writers to develop the genre of both detective fiction and horror. Poe was renowned for focusing on the opaque side of the human nature. He can even be considered the fatherShow MoreRelatedSummary Of The Fall Of The House Of Usher 1173 Words   |  5 PagesENG-102 9 November 2014 Gullah Superstitions: â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† Superstitions are a mysterious part of any culture, and those mysteries greatly influence mysterious writers. Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most famous mysterious authors, use the many mysterious encounters he faced as an asset for his short stories. A major influence was his time in Charleston, South Carolina, where he learned of the many superstitions and rituals of both the blacks and the whites of the area. His interestsRead MoreAnalysing the Black Cat Using Labovs Narrative Structure5713 Words   |  23 PagesNarrative Structure 2. discuss the way Edgar Allen Poe structured his short story to form the elements of tragedy, mystery and terror as presented in the short story In completing the task, I will use Labov’s Narrative Theory to conduct narrative analysis of the short story, The Black Cat written by Edgar Allan Poe. The structure of this essay begins with the introduction to narrative and narrative analysis. The second part develops in the literature review where I will explain Labov’s NarrativeRead MoreSeminar: Literary Theory Applied to H.P. Lovecraft-Notably â€Å"the Beast in the Cave†6821 Words   |  28 PagesBuena VistA university | A Theoretical Analysis of H.P. Lovecraft’s â€Å"Beast in the Cave† | Senior Seminar | | Cory J. Dahlstrom | 7/28/2012 | H.P. Lovecraft has been called â€Å"one of the best, worst authors of our century.† In the following paper, I will explore his earliest work, â€Å"The Beast in the Cave,† a story written when he was around fifteen years old. I will explore its meanings and context through the lenses of reader response, deconstructionism, newRead MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pagesmoney From multiple study paths, to self-assessment, to a wealth of interactive visual and audio resources, WileyPLUS gives you everything you need to personalize the teaching and learning experience.  » F i n d o u t h ow t o M A K E I T YO U R S  » www.wileyplus.com ALL THE HELP, RESOURCES, AND PERSONAL SUPPORT YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS NEED! 2-Minute Tutorials and all of the resources you your students need to get started www.wileyplus.com/firstday Student support from an experienced

Christian Anthropology Forms and Informs Learning at All...

This reflection paper discusses how Christian Anthropology forms and informs learning at All Saints Catholic Primary School. According to Treston (2001) Christian anthropology outlines â€Å"that in spite of our flawed condition, we are created in God’s likeness and have the capacity to be transformed by God’s gracious love.† Groome (1998) and Treston (2001) also discuss positive anthropology of the person by recognising that we are created in the image of God and that humankind is essentially all good. We are all made to seek out what is right and just, exactly what God would do. As an active member of the All Saints Catholic School community I value and uphold the All Saints vision of â€Å"a spirit centred community of learners, inspired by†¦show more content†¦We nurture and assist the growth of each and every child’s Catholic identity with the integration of Religious Education into everyday life; by proclaiming the good news of Jesus in my teachings and expressing to the children that we are Jesus’ hands, feet, voice and heart in everything that we do. The children’s carry out their own faith journeys by leading their learning and building on their individual understandings. At All Saints we value individuality by constantly referring to each individual as a unique creation and a gift of God that is to be cherished and embraced. I do this through appreciating each individual’s efforts in the classroom, each with their own gifts and talents. I recognise and cater for the 100 languages of children, allowing children to represent their understandings in ways that they choose. This is demonstrated in my classroom through displays of work with wire, clay, artist pens, natural materials, documentation of dialogue and written work. The children are encouraged to pave their own learning journeys and strive towards their individual goals. The children are involved with various pastoral care activities across the school community that promote the celebration of God’s creations, the children. By embracing the Reggio Emilia Philosophy our school links the natural environment to learning experiences as reflection, inspiration, awe and remembrance of God’s creation. The children are exposed to and encouraged to be criticalShow MoreRelatedRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 Pagesin the UK and in certain other countries Copyright  © 2003 by Ennis Barrington Edmonds The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizationRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 PagesCopyright  © 2011-14 by Bradley H. Dowden This book Logical Reasoning by Bradley H. Dowden is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. That is, you are free to share, copy, distribute, store, and transmit all or any part of the work under the following conditions: (1) Attribution You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author, namely by citing his name, the book title, and the relevant page numbers (but not in any way that suggests thatRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesProject Management: Christian Holdener, S4Carlisle Publishing Services Composition: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Printer/Binder: Courier/Kendallville Cover Printer: Courier/Kendalville Text Font: 10.5/12 ITC New Baskerville Std Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on the appropriate page within text. Copyright  © 2013, 2011, 2009, 2007, 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall. All rights reserved. ManufacturedRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesMichael Adas for the American Historical Association TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS PHILADELPHIA Temple University Press 1601 North Broad Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright  © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Essays on twentieth century history / edited by Michael Peter Adas for the American Historical Association. p. cm.—(Critical perspectives on the past) Includes bibliographical

Zara Research free essay sample

According to Reporter Brasil, who broke the story, and Made in Brazil (who translated the report), AHA Industria e Comercio de Roupas Ltda. , a supplier that Zara uses to contract with factories to produce their garments in Brazil, has been under investigation by Sao Paulo’s Bureau of Labor and Employment since May. The Bureau of Labor and Employment found that 52 people were working in unsafe and unsanitary conditions at one of the factories contracted by AHA Industria to produce pants for Zara Brazil. Workers were made to work 16-hour shifts in windowless factories, earning only between R$274 and R$460 a month (that’s $170 to $286), which is below Brazil’s minimum wage of R$545 ($339) . In another inspection, a 14-year-old girl was found working â€Å"under slave-like conditions† at another factory in Sao Paulo contracted by AHA Industria for Zara. Made in Brazil reports that 91% of of AHA Industria’s production was contracted by Zara Brazil and that AHA was in direct contact with Zara’s headquarters in Spain, sending them samples for approval. Zara has been charged with 52 infractions by the Ministry of Labor and Employment in Brazil. Fiscal auditor Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi, who is involved in the investigation, told Reporter Brasil that Zara â€Å"should be responsible for all of its suppliers, and it is a duty of the company to be aware of how its merchandise is being produced. † The report also suggests that there are 30 other factories with similar working conditions producing for Zara in Brazil. Inditex, the group that owns Zara, has issued a statement in which they deny knowledge that their supplier, AHA Industria, contracted with factories that employed workers illegally. This action goes against Inditex’s Code of Conduct and the company has zero tolerance for infringements of this kind,† the release states. â€Å"This case constitutes a grave infringement of the Inditex Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Workshops, a code with which this supplier was contractually obligated to comply with. The Code of Conduct stipulates the requirements with which all suppliers, whether di rect or subcontracted, must comply, and aims to safeguard workers’ rights to the fullest extent. † Zara has since taken action to â€Å"immediately rectify the situation. It has been reported that one of Inditex’s Brazilian suppliers engaged in unauthorised subcontracting of work to a factory in Brazil. 15 workers were found to be employed illegally by a subcontractor, without Inditex’s knowledge. This action goes against Inditex’s Code of Conduct and the company has zero tolerance for infringements of this kind. Inditex Group wishes to state the following: -This case constitutes a grave infringement of the Inditex Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Workshops, a code with which this supplier was contractually obligated to comply with. The Code of Conduct stipulates the requirements with which all suppliers, whether direct or subcontracted, must comply, and aims to safeguard workers’ rights to the fullest extent. Action to be taken: -Upon learning of the case, Inditex demanded that the supplier responsible for the fraudulent subcontracting arrangement immediately rectify the situation. The supplier has accepted full responsibility, and is paying financial compensation to the workers as required by Brazilian law and the Inditex Code of Conduct. Meanwhile, the supplier will upgrade the subcontractor’s working conditions in order to bring them into line with those at facilities audited and approved by the Inditex Group’s inspection process. Brazil’s Ministry of Labour and Employment has moved to legalise the workers’ employment status. Inditex, in conjunction with the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment, will strengthen oversight of its production system, both at this supplier and at the other companies with which it works in Brazil, for the purpose of preventing similar cases in the future. Inditex in Brazil has a stable supplier base of approximately 50 companies, which together account for more than 7,000 workers. The Inditex social audit system enables the company to guarantee that overall working conditions throughout Inditex’s Brazilian production chain, which manufactures several million garments each year, meet optimum standards. Inditex annually conducts more than 1,000 audits of its suppliers worldwide to enforce compliance with its Code of Conduct. In cases in which auditors detect non-compliance issues, Corrective Action Plans are implemented. A cornerstone of this is activation of a dialogue with all agents involved in the supply chain: local and international trade unions, suppliers, business management organisations, governments, non-governmental organisations, etc. The Inditex Group is grateful to the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment for its work on this case and for its willingness to collaborate with Inditex to foster the best conditions possible in the Brazilian textile industry. http://www. dailymail. co. uk/femail/article-2028041/Zara-accused-employing-children-young-14-slave-labour-factories-Brazil. tml Zara accused of employing children as young as 14 in slave labour factories in Brazil By DAISY DUMAS UPDATED: 19:25 GMT, 19 August 2011 Comments (5) Share Spanish fashion chain Zara is at the centre of accusations of slave labour and child labour. A report by Reporter Brasil throws a damning spotlight on the retail giants main supplier in Brazil. It reveals the company has been under investigation since May, when 52 people were found to be working under unsanitary conditions in a factory that produces trousers for Zara. Fast fashion: Zara is accused of slave labour and child labour in two of its Sao Paulo factories. It said the labourers had been illegally sub-contracted Made In Brazil says that a subsequent inspection in July exposed foreign workers labouring under slave-like conditions. The 15 labourers, from Bolivia and Peru, included a 14-year-old girl and were set free from two factories in Brazils largest city, Sao Paolo, the report said. It was revealed that the girl and her peers laboured for more than 16 hours a day in the unsanitary and hazardous work environment and were not allowed to leave the windowless factories. They were reportedly paid between R$274 ($171) and R$460 ($288) a month, less than Brazils legal minimum wage of R$545 ($341). The Ministry of Labor and Employment in Brazil has charged Zara with 52 infractions, says Made in Brazil. Zara is owned by the worlds largest fashion group, Inditex. According to The Telegraph, Inditex said the 15 labourers were employed illegally by a subcontractor without Inditexs knowledge and that it has zero tolerance for infringements of this kind. According to the report, the factories were the responsibility of sub-contractor, AHA Industria e Comercio de Roupas Ltda. Zaras Spanish headquarters was reportedly in direct contact with AHA over the period of the alleged slave labour, often receiving samples from Sao Paolo for approval. Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi, who is involved in the investigation, says that Zara should be responsible for all of its suppliers, and it is a duty of the company to be aware of how its merchandise is being produced. AHA was Zara Brazils fastest growing supplier over the last year. Zara accounted for 91 per cent of AHAs production between April and June, the report says. We should be under no illusions that incidences like this will arise when you dont have complete control over sourcing Made in Brazil says: In spite of its growth, however, the supplier drastically cut down its number of employees and workers from 100 to 20 from June of 2010 to May of this year. The report reveals that that there are a suspected 30 more factories producing Zara clothes in Brazil that also operate under slave-like conditions. In a stateme nt released yesterday, Inditex said the case represented a serious breach in accordance with the Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Workshops of Inditex. Jimmy Greer, founder of research consultancy Brazilintel, said: Companies like Inditex are well aware of the difficulties of outsourcing their production and do work hard to ensure that standards are upheld. However, we should be under no illusions as they no doubt are, that incidences like this will always arise when you dont have complete control over sourcing. The fashion megalith, which also owns chains Massimo Dutti and Berksha, said the group, along with Brazil’s Ministry of Work, will strengthen the supervision of the production system of all its suppliers in the country to ensure that such cases do not occur again. Inditex is owned by Spains richest man, Amancio Ortega. He is ranked seventh in Forbes billionaires list, with an estimated fortune of $31billion, according to The Telegraph. Read more: http:/ /www. dailymail. co. uk/femail/article-2028041/Zara-accused-employing-children-young-14-slave-labour-factories-Brazil. html#ixzz1rX8m9EcT http://www. hollywoodlife. com/2011/08/19/zara-child-labor-unfair-unsafe-working-conditions-brazil-factories-kate-middleton/ Zara Is Accused Of Child Labor! What Would Kate Middleton Say? Tags: Kate Middleton Zara, Zara, Zara Child Labor One of the Duchess’ favorite brands has found itself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons! A new report claims they’re responsible for unfair labor practices — and they’ve hired a girl as young as 14-years-old! According to a new investigative report out of Brazil, Zara’s Brazilian suppliers and factories are being accused of subjecting workers to â€Å"slave-like† conditions — and hiring minors. The factory has employed at least one girl who is only 14-years-old. I’m sure Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge and her sister, Pippa Middleton would be shocked and disappointed with the news. According to the Reporter Brasil story, (where the news broke), Zara’s supplier AHA Industria e Comercio de Roupas Ltda. , has been under investigation by Sao Paulo’s Bureau of Labor and Employment since May. The Bureau deemed working conditions for 52 people unsafe and unsanitary at one of the factories that was responsible for producing pants for Zara Brazil. Workers were working 16-hour shifts in windowless factories, earning R$274 and R$460 a month (which is $170 to $286). This figure falls way below Brazil’s minimum wage, which is R$545 ($339). In yet another factory in Sao Paulo, a 14-year-old girl was found working under â€Å"slave-like conditions. † So far, Zara has been charged with 52 infractions by the Ministry of Labor and Employment in Brazil. Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi, an auditor who is involved in the investigation, told Reporter Brasil Zara, â€Å"should be responsible for all of its suppliers, and it is a duty of the company to be aware of how its merchandise is being produced. † Apparently that’s not all — the report addresses the fact that 30 other factories are producing for Zara with similar conditions. With all the accusations, the group that owns Zara, Inditex, issued a statement denying any knowledge that their supplier contracted factories that employed workers under illegal or unsound conditions. â€Å"This action goes against Inditex’s Code of Conduct and the company has zero tolerance for infringements of this kind,† the release stated. â€Å"This case constitutes a grave infringement of the Inditex Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Workshops, a code with which this supplier was contractually obligated to comply with. The Code of Conduct stipulates the requirements with which all suppliers, whether direct or subcontracted, must comply, and aims to safeguard workers’ rights to the fullest extent. † They go on to say that Zara is taking action to â€Å"immediately rectify the situation. † What do you make of the whole situation? Katrina Mitzeliotis http://www. madeinbrazilblog. com/blog/zara-accused-of-alleged-slave-labor-and-child-labor-in-brazil/ Zara Accused Of Alleged Slave Labor And Child Labor In Brazil Aug 17, 2011 /7 comments POSTED IN APPAREL, FASHION, NEWS, ZARA Zara is leading the trending topics on twitter in Brazil today because of an investigation made public last night by Reporter Brasil which involves accusations of slave labor and child labor. According to the article published by Reporter Brasil, Zara’s national suppliers started to be investigated by Sao Paulo’s Bureau of Labor and Employment in May of this year, when 52 people were found working at a factory under unsanitary conditions, producing pants for Zara Brazil. In another inspection last month, 15 foreign workers from Bolivia and Peru, including a 14-year-old girl, working under slave-like conditions, were set free from two factories in Sao Paulo. Aside from the unsanitary and hazardous work environment, workers faced over 16-hour shifts, were prohibited from leaving the factories, in this case homes with almost no windows, and were paid a salary in between R$274 and R$460, less than the legal minimum wage of R$545. The supplier responsible for contracting the two factories investigated and filed for slave labor is AHA Industria e Comercio de Roupas Ltda. , and in between April and June of this year, 91% of its production was contracted by Zara Brazil. According to the investigation, AHA was the Zara supplier in the country which most grew in revenue and number of pieces manufactured over the last year. In spite of its growth, however, the supplier drastically cut down its number of employees and workers from 100 to 20 from June of 2010 to May of this year. Also according to the investigation, AHA was in direct contact with Zara’s headquarters in Spain, sending samples directly to Spain for approval. The Ministry of Labor and Employment in Brazil has charged Zara with 52 infractions for the two factories inspected in July. According to fiscal auditor Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi, who is involved in the investigation, Zara â€Å"should be responsible for all of its suppliers, and it is a duty of the company to be aware of how its merchandise is being produced. It is believed that there are other 30 factories producing for Zara in Brazil also operating under slave-like conditions. Inditex, the Spanish corporation which owns Zara and is also the world’s largest fashion group, released a statement today saying that the case represents a â€Å"serious breach in accordance with the Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Workshops of Inditex,† and that â€Å"the Inditex group, along with Brazil’s Ministry of Work, will strengthen the supervision of the production system of all its suppliers in the country to ensure that such cases do not occur again. Ok, so the bad guy is Spanish Zara and not the Brazilian supplier? Or suppliers, as it’s probably not an isolated case and other? And no way Brazilian where among the brands using shady suppliers? Or the headline is just sexier when a wellknown brand is accused, and not the actual offender no-one’s never heard of? http://www. retail-week. com/zara-faces-child-labour-allegations/103236. article Zara faces child labour allegations (in Portugal) 6 June, 2006 Portuguese magazine claims children are made to sew Zara shoes Spanish fast fashion giant Zara has been linked with allegations of using child labour in Portugal. An article in Portugese magazine Expresso alleged that children as young as 11 have been employed by a Zara supplier to sew Zara-branded shoes. The article was illustrated with photographs showing the children at work, according to reports. Zara parent Inditex said in a statement that, if true, the allegations would be a serious breach of Inditexs code of conduct for external workshops and suppliers. It said:The alleged breaches of the code of conduct would entail if confirmed the immediate termination of any commercial relationship with that supplier, subject to any further actions stemming from the breach of the contract. Inditex said it thought it had identified the supplier, which had not been named in the report. The company performed an audit of the supplier in question last year and found nothing untoward. http://wishididntknow. com/2011/08/20/zara-accused-of-child-slave-labor-in-brazil/ Zara Accused Of Child Slave Labor In Brazil AUGUST 20, 2011 Submitted to WIDK by Emily Moore (Daisy Dumas, Daily Mail) – Spanish fashion chain Zara is at the center of accusations of slave labor and child labor. A report by Reporter Brasil throws a damning spotlight on the retail giant’s main supplier in Brazil. It reveals the company has been under investigation since May, when 52 people were found to be working under ‘unsanitary conditions’ in a factory that produces trousers for Zara. Made In Brazil says that a subsequent inspection in July exposed foreign workers labouring under ‘slave-like conditions. The 15 labourers, from Bolivia and Peru, included a 14-year-old girl and were ‘set free’ from two factories in Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paolo, the report said. It was revealed that the girl and her peers laboured for more than 16 hours a day in the ‘unsanitary and hazardous work environment’ and were not allowed to leave the windowless factories. They were r eportedly paid between $171 and $288 a month, less than Brazil’s legal minimum wage of $341. The Ministry of Labor and Employment in Brazil has charged Zara with 52 infractions, says Made in Brazil. Zara is owned by the world’s largest fashion group, Inditex. According to The Telegraph, Inditex said the 15 labourers were ‘employed illegally by a subcontractor without Inditex’s knowledge’ and that it has ‘zero tolerance for infringements of this kind. ’ According to the report, the factories were the responsibility of sub-contractor, AHA Industria e Comercio de Roupas Ltda. Zara’s Spanish headquarters was reportedly in direct contact with AHA over the period of the alleged slave labour, often receiving samples from Sao Paolo for approval. Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi, who is involved in the investigation, says that Zara ‘should be responsible for all of its suppliers, and it is a duty of the company to be aware of how its merchandise is being produced. ’ AHA was Zara Brazil’s fastest growing supplier over the last year. Zara accounted for 91 per cent of AHA’s production between April and June, the report says. ‘We should be under no illusions that incidences like this will arise when you don’t have complete control over sourcing’ Made in Brazil says: ‘In spite of its growth, however, the supplier drastically cut down its number of employees and workers from 100 to 20 from June of 2010 to May of this year. ’ The report reveals that that there are a suspected 30 more factories producing Zara clothes in Brazil that also operate under slave-like conditions. In a statement released yesterday, Inditex said the case represented a ‘serious breach in accordance with the Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Workshops of Inditex. ’ Jimmy Greer, founder of research consultancy Brazilintel, said: ‘Companies like Inditex are well aware of the difficulties of outsourcing their production and do work hard to ensure that standards are upheld. ‘However, we should be under no illusions as they no doubt are, that incidences like this will always arise when you don’t have complete control over sourcing. ’ The fashion megalith, which also owns chains Massimo Dutti and Berksha, said the ‘group, along with Brazil’s Ministry of Work, will strengthen the supervision of the production system of all its suppliers in the country to ensure that such cases do not occur again. Inditex is owned by Spain’s richest man, Amancio Ortega. He is ranked seventh in Forbes’ billionaires list, with an estimated fortune of $31billion, according to The Telegraph. http://www. thefrisky. com/2011-08-20/retail-giant-zara-accused-of-violating-child-labor-practices/ Retail Giant Zara Accused Of Ag e Old Practice Of Slave Labor Julie GersteinAugust 20, 2011 2 Comments // style Just a little reminder for us to think about where our clothes come from. Spanish retailer Zara has been accused of child labor and violating fair labor practices by Brazil’s Ministry of Labour and Employment. According to the agency, 52 workers in one of the company’s Sao Paulo factories were being held in â€Å"slave-like† conditions, and at least one underage girl was found working there, violating child labor laws. Workers were required to work 16-hour shifts in windowless factories, and were paid significantly below Brazil’s minimum wage, earning between $170 to $286 a month. As a result of Brazil’s several months’ long investigation, Zara’s been charged with 52 infractions. Notes the Brazilian fiscal auditor, Zara â€Å"should be responsible for all of its suppliers, and it is a duty of the company to be aware of how its merchandise is being produced. † But that’s often not the case. And when retailers fail to follow the long tail of their supply chain down to their factory workers, everyone loses. Zara is hardly the only offender. In 2007, Topshop came under fire for using what amounted to slave labor in Mauritius to produce its line of pricey high street fashions. And more recently Target, Walmart and Macy’s have been pressured to stop using a factory in Jordan where incidences of sexual abuse are common. These large corporations often claim that they’re unaware of the labor practices in their factories, but shouldn’t they be? After all, they profit directly of what their factory workers do. And to a large extent, we benefit as consumers when corporate retailers turn a blind eye to what’s happening in their factories. Slave labor and unfair labor practices often translates directly to cheap price tags for consumers. There are some organizations advocating on behalf of workers. Social Accountability International is a nonprofit organization that developed a series of standards for fair labor. Their SA8000 certification–which is as of now still a voluntary certification program–offers a method of auditing factories for fair trade labor practices that protect workers. And the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights But what about Zara? Inditex, Zara’s parent company, denied any knowledge of the working conditions in its Sao Paulo factory, and in fact issued a statement claiming, â€Å"This case constitutes a grave nfringement of the Inditex Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Workshops, a code with which this supplier was contractually obligated to comply with. The Code of Conduct stipulates the requirements with which all suppliers, whether direct or subcontracted, must comply, and aims to safeguard workers’ rights to the fullest extent. † Which i s a start. But it makes you wonder if Zara would care if they — like so many other retail chains — hadn’t gotten caught. Want to contact the author of this post? {encode=†[emailprotected] com† title=†Email her†}! ttp://www. google. de/imgres? imgurl=http://www. ecouterre. com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/captured-by-cotton-1-537402. jpgimgrefurl=http://www. ecouterre. com/high-street-retailer-zara-accused-of-alleged-slave-labor-in-brazil/h=402w=537sz=54tbnid=bf58KyxonKGgHM:tbnh=94tbnw=126prev=/search%3Fq%3Dzara%2Bchild%2Bwork%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Duzoom=1q=zara+child+workdocid=Tk2m6hQKMonPJMhl=plsa=Xei=s6aCT9X8Ls7UsgawxMHABAved=0CGUQ9QEwCAdur=5872 High-Street Retailer Zara Accused of Alleged â€Å"Slave Labor† in Brazil by Jasmin Malik Chua, 08/18/11 Spanish fast-fashion retailer Zara, known for its affordable knockoffs of runway designs, has been accused of allegedly using slave labor in more than 30 of its outsourced plants in Brazil. On an episode of the investigative TV show, A Liga, reporters visited a factory where Bolivian immigrant garment workers were caught in â€Å"slave-like conditions,† according to Forbes on Wednesday. Zara, a subsidiary of Inditex, one of the world’s largest apparel distributors, is now under investigation by Brazil’s labor ministry, which is cracking down on slave labor in the logging, charcoal, and sugarcane industries. SLAVE SCANDAL In addition to unsafe work conditions—a fire extinguisher was found to have expired in 1998—a huge divide exists between a garment’s cost and the employees compensation. A pair of Zara jeans that sells for R$200 ($126 in American dollars), according to one Bolivian worker, has a working cost of R$1,80 ($1. 14). That sum is divvied equally among the individuals involved in its production—seven people in all. Workers who labor no less than 12 hours per day make an average of R$900 ($569) per month. Workers who labor no less than 12 hours per day make an average of R$900 ($569) per month. Zara, once referred to by Daniel Piette, Louis Vuitton’s fashion director, as â€Å"possibly the most innovative and devastating retailers in the world,† produces an average of 11,000 distinct designs every year. Only 50 percent of their products is actually manufactured in Spain; 26 percent is produced in other parts of Europe, while another 24 percent is made in countries in Asia, Africa, and South America where labor is inevitably cheaper, like Brazil. Although Amancio Ortega, the company’s founder and Spain’s richest man, recently stepped down from his post as chairman of Inditex last month, he still remains a large shareholder. In a statement today, Zara says that the accusations represent a â€Å"serious breach in accordance with the Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Workshops of Inditex,† adding that it’s asked factories responsible for illegal outsourcing to comply with company standards. â€Å"The Inditex group, along with Brazil’s Ministry of Work,† a representative notes, â€Å"will strengthen the supervision of the production system of all its suppliers in the country to ensure that such cases do not occur again. † We’re keeping our fingers crossed. ttp://www. irtk. org/child-labor-are-children-a-part-of-overseas-operations. html Child Labor: Are Children a Part of Overseas Operations? Image via Wikipedia Child labor is illegal in most developed countries, but in third world countries it’s a different story. In certain parts of the world, children do factory work, help their parents with the family business, work on farms, work as prostitu tes and so forth. Contrary to popular belief, most child labor is informal: not the stuff that people see on T. V. of children hidden in factories. So, most likely, a child did not make those Nike shoes after all. On the other hand, a few cases have suggested that children are still at work for first world countries. For example, the Firestone Tire Company had a metal plantation in Liberia, and their workers were required to meet a certain quota or they would not receive their wages. As a result, many of the employees brought their children to work. In the 2005 case, The International Labor Fund vs. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, the International Labor fund fought on behalf of the child laborers and Indiana did not allow Firestone to dismiss the case. Gap Inc. , the clothing company, has also been accused of child labor. However, unlike Firestone, Gap was openly upset and concerned about the accusation. They shut down 23 factories due to problems with child labor and other violations. H M and Zara were accused by the Environmental Justice Foundation for selling clothing made with cotton from Bangladesh, because that cotton may have been picked by children. H M and Zara both responded that they did not support child labor, and H M claimed that they sought to avoid cotton from Uzbekistan (where the Bangladesh cotton originally came from). However, H M also admitted that they had no way of tracing their material. Sadly, child labor still does occur, formally and informally. Excluding child labor in the household (children helping their parents, or perhaps doing all the domestic chores), UNICEF estimates that there are 158 million children (under the age of 14), who are employed informally or formally.

Is citizenship in Australia an individuals legal status

Citizenship in Australia has been considered as a new concept in spite of the prevailing politics that has existed for many years. The political factors often raise questions on the relationship between the state and its citizens. In addition, the validity of Australian citizenship has also been argued out on the perspective of whether it acts to safeguard an individual’s legal status or that of the state.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Is citizenship in Australia an individual’s legal status? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Short and Mutch (2001, p. 114) point out in their publication that while citizenship in Australia is an important component that draws individuals and institutions together in order to share aspirations and values as well as to exercise social responsibilities, issues of individuals’ legal status, ability to perform duties and enjoy certain rights in Australia have been of concern for some duration of time now. Citizenship has been described as a legal entity which should create a balance between individuals and state while allowing equal access to rights and protection by existing laws. In addition, citizenship in Australia has in the past decade been affected by conflicts both in terms of its practical meaning and in relationship to an individual’s legal status. It is against this background that this paper critically examines the citizenship in Australia and its legal role among Australians in general. A brief overview of citizenship in Australia The history of the creation of the current Australian citizenship can be traced way back in 1949 when it took effect after it was formed through the Nationality and Citizenship Act (1948). Studies reveal that earlier on, before its formation, Australians did not have any form of well recognized legal status in their own country which could be granted to them as proof of citizenship. As a result, they mainly relied on the one which was being offered to the British nationals. However, with an increase in immigration practices that became common after the federation, migration programs were developed which saw the rise of citizenship laws that were addressing immigration policies. The trend of migration in Australia has over the years risen significantly with 153, 648 in 1949. The latter was the number that was granted citizenship at that time. This figure rose to 22 million individuals in 2009 (Dutton 2000, p. 333).Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More According to Chauchat and Cogliati-Bantz (2008, p. 193), citizenship in Australia may be obtained in several ways. Some of the key ways include grant, adoption, descent as well as birth. It is important to mention that many permanent citizens in Australia today have attained their status through grants. However, obtaining citizenshi p by grant saw the introduction of new rules that made acquisition of citizenship in Australia harder than it was some 30 years ago. Today, over thirty amendments have been made on the Australian citizenship legislation. This has led to less regard of the Australian citizenship status since it is being regarded as an important component of identifying oneself with the country. In other words, it is a way of showing commitment and loyalty to the country. Boreham, Stokes and Hall (2004, p. 100) argue that even with the rise in provision of citizenship to individuals in Australia, its practical impact on legal rights and material situation has very little effect on individuals. This is attributed to the manner in which it impacts negatively on the legal status of individuals and poses the threat of its ability to grant individuals their rights and protection. This has been worsened by myriad of amendments that have been done in the past. Patriotism versus preceduralism The amendments c arried out in the Australian citizenship legislation have been subject of great debate in legal and academic circles bearing in mind that its symbolic and legal changes have impacted on individuals’ legal status. The amendments have also made the cost of acquiring citizenship to be a lot easier. This has made its expected impact on provision of support and legal protection to be less felt and robbed Australians the sign and status of feeling like distinct people with a unique culture, evolved memories, history and a common future.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Is citizenship in Australia an individual’s legal status? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The citizenship has ceased being associated with loyalty and patriotism, rather it demands adherence to procedures and laws. Dutton (2000, p. 333) argues that proceduralism has replaced the aspect of an individual’s legal status. Its call for o bedience to laws and tolerance seems to be the only value which it demands from citizens. While proceduralism has received much credit from many analysts who feel it fits well with multiculturalism, others feel that citizenship ought to be light and prescriptive and not complex and oppressive. As Cook, Walsh and Harwood (2009, p. 45) indicate, Australia has a highly diverse population similar to other countries. Unlike other countries that highly restrict their growth and development only to their people, Australia is open to all who have basic history of the country and English understanding, good moral characteristics, no criminal record and readiness to swear allegiance to the country’s constitution. Among individual Australians, their belonging in Australia is based on legal status and patriotism and not tolerance in living as a community or side by side as this does not just rob them of some of their rights, it also allows newcomers to interfere with their cultures. Perm anent residence versus citizenship McGregor (1997, p. 64) argues that the introduction of permanent residents in Australian citizenship impacts on the legal rights that an Australian individual reserves on its provisions. Being largely symbolic, the Australian citizenship and its material benefit like education, welfare gains and access to Medicare which were legally enjoyed by Australian citizens have now been opened to permanent citizens. Another area of change is full access to employment and old age pension. These have made citizenship and its legal rights not to be fully enjoyed by Australian citizens. Jaensch (1997, p. 90) argues that there are a few legal barriers that prevent full participation of migrants with or without citizenship in the Australian society.Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The problem of citizenship on an individual’s legal status as put forward by Dutton (2002, p. 86) is that it has not been thoroughly debated in terms of how Australians are supposed to benefit. Rather, it is about commitment and levels of loyalty to the nation. Citizens in Australia confer the right to a passport, service on juries and right to vote and work. Besides, citizens and non-citizens alike may work in public offices and have immunity from deportation. The problem posed by these provisions on the legal status of Australian citizens is the slightness in their practical difference with permanent residents. The element fostered by the Australian citizenship legislation is one that strongly supports proceduralism over individuals’ legal status. This has drawn sharp arguments from different supporters and opponents with the former seeing citizenship as more inclusive and a component that grants everyone full community and political membership. While critically eval uating the problem of citizenship and individuals’ legal status, Sifa, (2000, p. 154) argues that addressing it should largely be considered from an economic outset. The very reference of minority groups invokes a sense of poor social economic overtone that restricts their ability to move up the social economic hierarchy towards the top. Therefore, the manifestation and outlay of citizenship and its effects is a paradox in the sense that demanding people at the top to reflect their own cultures and those of the minority groups is indeed cumbersome. Donoghue and Tranter (2010, p. 493) posit that through economic empowerment, the minority groups and their representative cultures become easily represented in important developments and societal demands. The numerous amendments in the Australian citizenship laws largely sought to protect possible bias towards people of a given group or culture in Australia in terms of enjoyment of basic rights and protection by the law. Such amend ments are critical because they reduce possible sense of inferiority for the minority groups and their cultures. Though some analysts indicate that such laws may present possible crashes between the dominant and the minority groups, the same consideration is not always true. Chesterman and Galligan (1999, p. 64) indicate that the Australian local administration creates effective checks and balances that require strict adherence and sets up major penalties if faulted. Though it often takes place involuntarily, the resulting orientation depicts key tolerance and eventual acceptance based on mutual respect. Conclusions To sum up, the arguments above were based on the thesis statement that citizenship in Australia has been considered as a new concept for many years in spite of its political theories that have been advanced by the political class. This factor has elicited more questions especially in regards to the relationship between the state and its people. In addition, an individual ’s legal status has also been inquired on whether it is an integral component that affects the acquisition of Australian citizenship. From the discussion, it is clear that citizenship may be obtained in several ways such as grant, adoption, by descent and birth. It is also evident that the Australian citizenship law has gone through many amendments, a consideration that has seen citizens in Australia and other residents, permanent and non-citizens, receive equal treatment. As noted in the essay, while this has received a considerable support from multiculturalists, it is without doubt that it has impacted on individual legal rights of Australians raising questions on whether Australians should continue existing as a community besides immigrants or as individuals who have full legal status. References Boreham, P., Stokes, G., Hall, R 2004, The Politics of Australian Society: Political  Issues for the New Century, Pearson Longman, Sydney. Chauchat, M., Cogliati-Bantz, V 200 8, â€Å"Nationality and Citizenship in a Devolution Context: Australian and New Caledonian Experiences†, University of Queensland Law Journal, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 193-220. Chesterman, J., Galligan, B1999, Defining Australian Citizenship: Selected Documents, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. Cook, I., Walsh, M., Harwood, J 2009, Government and Democracy in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Donoghue, J., Tranter, B 2010, â€Å"Citizenship, Civic Engagement and Property Ownership†, Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 493-508. Dutton, D 2000, â€Å"Defining Australian Citizenship: Selected Documents†, Australian Journal of Political Science, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 333-333. Dutton, D 2002, One of Us? A Century of Australian Citizenship, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. Jaensch, D 1997, The Politics of Australia, Macmillan Education Australia, Melbourne. Short, P.M., Mutch, A 2001, â€Å"Exchange, reciprocity, and citizenship–principles of access and the challenge to human rights in the third sector: An Australian perspective†, Social Justice, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 114-127. Sifa, S 2000, â€Å"Citizenship and Indigenous Australians: Changing Conceptions and Possibilities†, Pacific Affairs, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 154-155. This essay on Is citizenship in Australia an individual’s legal status? was written and submitted by user Desiree Herrera to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek essays

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek essays Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (layu-wen-hook) was born in Delft, a city in the western Netherlands, on October 24, 1632. His father was a basket-maker, while his mother's family were brewers. Antoni was educated as a child in a school in the town of Warmond. In 1676 he served as the trustee of the estate for Jan Vermeer, a famous painter, who had had been born in the same year as Leeuwenhoek and is thought to have been friends with him. Also some time before 1668, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek learned to grind lenses, and made simple microscopes, and began observing with them. He seems to have been inspired to take up microscopy after having seen a copy of Robert Hookes illustrated book Micrographia, which illustrated Hooke's own observations with the microscope and was very popular Leeuwenhoek used double-convex lenses mounted between brass plates and held close to the eye. He viewed objects on pinheads, magnifying them up to 300 times this a lot better than any earlier compound microscopes. In 1668 he confirmed and developed the discovery by Italian anatomist Marcello Malpighi of the capillary systems, he showed how the red corpuscles circulated through the capillaries of a rabbit's ear and the web of a frog's foot. In 1674 Leeuwenhoek gave the first accurate description of red blood corpuscles. Leeuwenhoek was not a good artist so he hired an illustrator to prepare drawings of the things he saw, to go with his written descriptions. Later he observed what he called animalcules, which today are known as protozoa and bacteria in pond water, rainwater, and in human saliva. In addition in 1677 he described the spermatozoa of both insects and humans. He was the first to observe human sperm under the microscope. Leeuwenhoek believed that sperm contained a child in miniature, which grew larger inside the females body. Two centuries of experiment and debate followed. Then in 1879, with the use of imp ...

Characteristics of Shakespeares History Plays

Characteristics of Shakespeare's History Plays Many of Shakespeare’s plays are historical, but only certain plays are categorized as such. Plays like Macbeth and Hamlet are historical in setting but are more correctly classified as Shakespeare tragedies. The same is true for the Roman plays (Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus), which are all based on historical sources. So which plays are classified as Shakespeare histories and what are their common features? Sources of Shakespeare's History Plays Most of the Bards  English history plays, as well as Macbeth and King Lear are based on Holinsheds Chronicles. Shakespeare was known for borrowing heavily from earlier writers, and Holinsheds works, published in 1577 and 1587, were a key reference for Shakespeare and other authors of his day, including Christopher Marlowe. Interestingly, Holinsheds works were not particularly historically accurate either but instead are considered mostly fictional works of entertainment. If produced in the modern day, both Shakespeare and Holinsheds writings would probably be described as based on historical events but have a disclaimer that they were edited for dramatic purposes. Common Features of the Shakespeare Histories The Shakespeare histories share a number of things in common. First, most are set against medieval English history. The Shakespeare histories dramatize the Hundred Years War with France, giving us the Henry Tetralogy, Richard II, Richard III and King John- many of which feature the same characters at different ages. In all his histories, indeed in all his plays, Shakespeare provides social commentary via his characters and plots. The history plays say more about Shakespeare’s time than the medieval society in which they are set. For example, Shakespeare cast King Henry V as an everyman hero to exploit the growing sense of patriotism in England. His depiction of this character is not necessarily historically accurate. For instance, theres not much evidence that Henry V had the rebellious youth that Shakespeare depicts. Were Shakespeare's Histories Accurate? Another characteristic of Shakespeares histories is, for the most part,  theyre not historically accurate. In writing the history plays, Shakespeare was not attempting to render an accurate picture of the past. Rather, he was writing for the entertainment of his theater audience and therefore molded historical events to suit their prejudices or preferences. Shakespeare'sPlays and Social Commentary More subtly than his comedies and tragedies, Shakespeares histories provide contemporary social commentary. His plays offer a view of society that cuts right across the class system. These plays present us with all kinds of characters, from lowly beggars to members of the monarchy. In fact, it is not uncommon for characters from both ends of the social strata to play scenes together. Most memorable is Henry V and Falstaff who turn up in a number of the history plays. All in all, Shakespeare wrote 10 histories. These plays are distinct in subject matter only- not in style. The histories provide an equal measure of tragedy and comedy. The 10 plays classified as histories are as follows: Henry IV, Part IHenry IV, Part IIHenry VHenry VI, Part IHenry VI, Part IIHenry VI, Part IIIHenry VIIIKing JohnRichard IIRichard III

To compare Pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire with the movie Essay

To compare Pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire with the movie The Slave Narratives - Essay Example On the other side of the coin, the ones who are oppressed are in search and yearn for their freedom and liberty and this deep seated struggle is a constant quest to regain their lost humanity. Liberation seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel, but how many of the oppressed gain their liberty? This oppressed group is looked down upon as the downtrodden lot who suffers and endures violence and exploitation meted out to them. When this vicious circle becomes too hard to bear, the oppressed who are not in a position to put up a fight become oppressors in return. Such incidents are brought out clearly in the movie ‘The Slave Narratives.’ This essay is going to analyze what takes place in ‘The Slave Narratives’ against the backdrop of Paulo Freire’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ that portrays an incessant struggle by the oppressed to gain their freedom and humanity. According to Paulo, ‘The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.† (Paulo Freire,) The heartrending movie titled â€Å"Unchained Memories† was scripted from readings taken from the ‘Slave Narratives† which is an exclusive collection of documents based on the true stories and incidents of those people who lived beneath the yoke of slavery in ancient times. These true life narratives were transcribed by the ‘Federal Writer’s Project’ (WPA’s) writers and were made use of to film a very touching story filled with tragic life experiences of the oppressed slaves under their cruel white masters. ‘Unchained Memories’ belongs to the genre of social history based on race and ethnicity. The movie which is 74 minutes in length was shot in the United States. ‘The Slave Narratives’ which were housed safely in the Library of Congress, was made use of by directors Ed Bell

Saudi arabia culture and customs Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Saudi arabia culture and customs - Assignment Example There are various shapes and kinds of clothes which usually vary from one region to another and also from a particular environment to another one within the same region. Due to the social and cultural harmony amongst the Kingdom’s regions, the clothing techniques and accessories blueprints have grown to be similar to one another in most of the regions. Some kinds of Saudi foods have grown to become dominant throughout the region despite the various economic and social segments of the region. Different beverages and cuisines do exist and have got several nutritional benefits together with high calories that provide the body with the energy to work. Folklore- Saudi Arabia’s folklore is on the basis of such themes as groups and unity. It is composed of songs and games that are enthusiastic, expressing Arab traditions and customs. Folklore is considered by citizens as a source of pride inherited from one age group to the next. Customs and traditions-There are several customs in Saudi and one of the most striking is Al-Janadriyah.It is usually a heritage village constructed near Riyadh to mirror the real representation of Saudi’s heritage. It is done yearly when weather conditions are mild within the starting months of the year of Gregorian. It stays for 2 weeks and comprises of heritage activities that restore the Kingdom’s heritage via handicraft events, traditional buildings and contemporary audio-visual expertise utilized mostly in displaying various activities and so on. In addition, the village also comprises of performance halls, theater together with model buildings representing the constructed heritage of all cities within the Saudi

In The Crucible childrens lies lead to allegations of witchcraft and the breaking up of a community Essay Example for Free

In The Crucible childrens lies lead to allegations of witchcraft and the breaking up of a community Essay In The Crucible childrens lies lead to allegations of witchcraft and the breaking up of a community. Why do people lie and what can the consequences be? The word lie means a false statement deliberately presented as being true according to the American Heritage Dictionary, and its a very common habit in everyone. When it comes to lying, we can find white and normal lies. White lies are often harmless, whereas normal lies can be dangerous because of the various consequences they might have. In this essay Im going to present two arguments explaining the reasons why lies are used, which are to protect their reputation or get themselves out of a compromising situation, and to have a motive in order to commit an act of vengeance or violence. Then, I will give four examples regarding the book The crucible and modern day events, which I will then compare. One of the main reasons why people make use of lies is because when they are accused of something that can get them into trouble, the best option at that moment seems to be denying their acts. However, lying can have severe consequences depending on how much you twist the truth when doing it, and even if it doesnt make much sense, people are actually aware of what can happen later but since they feel theres no other choice, they lie anyways. A clear example of this can be found in The crucible by Arthur Miller, where a group of girls are caught performing witchcraft, and some dancing naked around a fire. In the time of the book, dancing was strictly forbidden and witchcraft was a matter nobody dared to discuss. Therefore, anyone being related to any of these would be punished. The group of girls had a leader who was Reverend Parris niece, Abigail, and whose cousin, also in the group, was Betty, Parris daughter. They were performing witchcraft in order to get men to fall in love with them, but Abigail threatened the other girls making them lie about their actions so that she wasnt punished. Even though they could have disobeyed her, telling the truth would have also jeopardized them given that they had as well taken part in the event. This big lie led to several false allegations against many innocent people whose families were torn apart because of the whole scandal, and also ruined important peoples reputations in the society. An example of modern day would be the Lewinsky scandal which first broke on January 17, 1998, basically involving the then current president Bill Clinton and one of the White houses employees, Monica Lewinsky. It started as rumors in websites, but people seemed to be very interested since they regarded the nations leader. Clinton denied everything a million times as we can see in the following statement: I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. Im going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false However, after further investigations, evidence such as recorded tapes and a dress of Lewinskys stained with his semen were taken into consideration and it was concluded that President Clinton had indeed, had sexual relations with her. Overwhelmed by accusations and strong proof, Clinton finally admitted on August 17, 1998, to have had an inappropriate physical relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Even though Clintons wife forgave him, many people had a new opinion of their president and lost some respect for him. These two examples show us how far a person would go to protect their reputation or get out of a problem, being totally selfish given that many times lies like these can benefit you while hurting others. We can see this because Abigail didnt care who was punished for something they didnt do as long as she was safe, and President Clinton was maybe trying to protect his family from breaking up but in my opinion, he was just trying to protect his reputation as an important entity. Another reason why people lie is because they sometimes need a motive to hurt someone else, being this for revenge or just pure envy. We often see people committing murders and harming others in any way possible because they seek revenge and/or envy them. Some are so intense about their feelings that they are indifferent to the consequences their acts might lead to and would rather go to jail or even die as long as they have satisfied their sick desires. On the other hand, we have people who do care about what may happen to them when performing inappropriate actions, reason for which they look for any motive possible. However, sometimes there isnt a motive at all, so they have to create one and they lie by starting rumors and giving false statements in order to accomplish what they want. We can see this in The Crucible when Abigail lies about performing witchcraft and makes other people take the blame. When in court, she gave Mary Warren a poppet with a needle in her stomach, and told her to give it to Elizabeth Proctor in order to frame her so that she would be blamed of witchcraft and that way, Abigail could take her place as John Proctors wife. A modern day example is the Big lie Bush invented against Iraq. He claimed Sadam Hussein had in his power weapons of mass destruction and would use them on America. However, this was not true and it was proved after thorough investigations. Bush made these accusations because he wanted to attack Iraq but he didnt have any good reason, so saying they were going against the USA made it almost mandatory to attack them back. These examples show us that when a person wants something, lies can sometimes help get it, like Abigail who tried to make a false accusation against Proctors wife, whose place she wanted to take. The same happened with Bush, who wanted so bad to take revenge on Iraq, he invented a lie about Hussein. This clearly reveals a certain selfishness from both since they have no interest at all about anyone but themselves. In conclusion, we can say lies are all around us at all times and sometimes we need them but it is not right to use them. In the previous examples, this affirmation is confirmed, showing us the consequences lying can lead to.

Two Different Attitudes, Two D Essay -- essays research papers

Two Different Attitudes, Two Different Worlds   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this essay I am going to compare and contrast the speakers and the stories of 'Homage to my Hips'; and 'Her Kind';. The speakers in this stories have very different attitudes, and approaches in telling their story about the same topic. While talking about the oppression of women, both Lucille Clifton and Anne Sexton take the own stance on the situation. While Clifton expresses her proud and self-confident attitude, Sexton on the other hand speaks in a very snotty, self-righteous tone. Each of these extremely influential woman, that I will be talking about describe their own individual experiences. These experiences create a very clear, individualistic tone that makes the poems of these two writers differ in many ways.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The speaker in 'Homage to my Hips'; carries a very proud and self-confident attitude. The best example of this would be when the speaker says, 'These hips are mighty hips. These hips are magic hips. I have known them to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top!';(Pg705). That line is so powerful, it portrays the image that she thinks that bug women are better than men. The speaker in this poem is also a very brave and daring type of women. 'They don't like to be held back. These hips have never been enslaved, they go where they want to go';(Pg705), that line shows how brave the speaker is. It conveys the message that ...

Stylistic Analysis: “To—” by Peter Shelley

Language through Poetry: A Stylistic Analysis of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s â€Å"To —â€Å" A Stylistic Paper Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English Institute of Arts and Sciences Far Eastern University Manila In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirement for the Course Eng C 31—Introduction to Stylistics Osabel, Julla C. Panis, Kimberly Nicole S. October, 2012 I. Reaction and it’s effects on you II. Summary of the Text Percy Bysshe Shelley’s â€Å"To —â€Å" is one of his lyrical poetry—is a poem used to express feelings—ideally of the Romantic Era.In his poem, the poem is about an unrequited love—a term that is used when one person has strong feelings towards another that is not reciprocated. Or in other words, someone is in love with someone else who is not interested. It is also about realistic and complicated love, which means that the persona of the poem wants to express his emotions towards the addresse e but he feared to show because in reality, he knew that it is impossible for them to be together, thus, this depicts the persona’s complicated feelings or emotions and the reality of their relationship to each other.The poem illustrates farewell and goodluck to the addressee. To summarize the poem, it is about a man who is in love with someone else or he secretly in love with, who is not interested. He wants to express his feelings to the addressee but he feared to express it, due to his complicated emotions, he chose not to say his emotions because in reality, the addressee will not love him back. Instead of obvious insisting his feelings towards the addressee, the man shows farewell and goodluck to the person he loved most. III. Stylistic AnalysisA. Stylistic Tools Phonology Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages. It has a phonological system of a language includes, an inventory of sounds and their features, and rules which specify how sounds interact with each other. In other words, Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics (Sil, 2004). Hence, in Stylistic analysis, Phonology is one of the suited units of analysis in poetry.Basic Sound Patterns Sound devices are resources used by poets to express and emphasize the meaning or experience of poetry through the skilful use of sound. After all, poets are trying to use a focused blend of sound and imagery to form an emotional response. The words and their order should evoke images, and the words themselves have sounds, which can reinforce or otherwise clarify those images. Sound patterns have different elements that show the nature of poetry, and these are the following: 1. Alliteration C-V-CAlliteration is the repetition of the same letter or sounds at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals. e. g Dewdrops dancing on the drifting dust made for a dreary day. 2. Assonance C-V-C Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. It is used to reinforce the meanings of words or to set the mood. e. g Try to light the fire. 3. Consonance C-V-C Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds by not vowel sounds. e. g Some mammals are clammy. 4. Reverse Rhyme C-V-CReverse Rhyme it is the repetition of consonant and vowel sounds which happen at the beginning. e. g brainless, bracelet, brakeless 5. Pararhyme C-V-C Pararhyme is the repetition of of first and the last consonant sounds. e. g bat and brat 6. Rhyme C-V-C Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds. In poetry, the most common kind of rhyme is the end rhyme, which occurs at the end of two or more lines. It is usually identified with lower case letters, and a new letter is used to identify each new end sound. e. g I saw a fairy in the wood, He was dressed all in green. He drew his sword while I just stood,And realized I'd been seen. 7. Repetition is anything that is repeated. e. g â€Å"goodnight goodnight, parting time is such a sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow† — Romeo and Juliet, W. Shakespeare These sounds or elements of sounds are used by the poets to convey the meaning of the text. In this procedure, the poet or author strengthen the vividness of the imagery of the poem to discern its effects or significance of the text. Sound Symbolism Sound symbolism is the study of the direct relationship between the sound of an utterance and its meaning (Hinton, 1999).Sound symbolism is persistent among the world’s languages. Furthermore, sound symbolism plays a significant role in language, especially at the affective level. Essential to the study of cognitive poetics is the concept of sound symbolism, which has been defined differently by different authors but here refers to cases in which ‘a sound unit such as a phoneme, syllable, feature, or tone is said to go beyon d its linguistic function as a contrastive, non-meaning-bearing unit, to directly express some kind of meaning’ (Nuckolls,1999).Jespersen (1922) made the claims that sounds that are suggestive of meaning (which he claims happens through association, not because a sound intrinsically has a specific meaning) ‘makes words more fit to survive and give them considerable help in their struggle for existence’. Mithun (1982) notes that, in many languages, ‘words for noises, animal cries, mental states, physical states, and actions, termed by Fudge ‘expressive vocabulary,’ seem particularly resistant to regular phonetic change’.She goes on to give the specific example of Iroquoian languages, where expressive terms are ‘characterized by special syntactic, morphological, and phonological patterns’. Expressive vocabulary and taboo words contain sounds that do not occur elsewhere. She also claims that expressive vocabulary in Iroquoian l anguages is imitative and therefore resistant to phonological change. While she does not make specific claims about certain sounds being related to certain meanings, her data suggest that phonemes do have a relationship to meaning in Iroquoian ideophones, but that relationship may be imitative rather than iconic or symbolic.The significance of sound, sound patterns and sound symbolism is that in terms of writing texts, particularly poetry, it helps the poets or writers convey the message of the text in implicit manner. This may add to the aesthetic effects of writing poetry while on the readers, the advantage is that, it helps them to understand, appreciate and feel the emotions of the text that the poet is trying to convey. Every sounds of the text has its meaning, whether it describe or gives emphasis to the text. B. Stylistic Tool/ Discussion of coding In this short phonological analysis it begins with the analysis of the sound pattern of the poem.In each sound pattern, it has sh aded area where it shows the comprehensibility of the analysis after that, the researchers tabulated it to find the frequency and percentage form the least number of sound pattern used up to the most number of sound pattern used. Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Rhyme and Repetition To —- BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY One word is too often profaned For me to profane it, One feeling too falsely disdained For thee to disdain it; One hope is too like despair For prudence to smother, And pity from thee more dear Than that from another. I can give not what men call love,But wilt thou accept not The worship the heart lifts above And the Heavens reject not,— The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow, The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow? As can be seen in the text, the most number of shaded sound patterns belongs to Rhyme. As rhyme pattering is concerned, two types of rhyme to be distinguished. First, in the first stanza of the tex t, the shaded rhyming words are rhyme has several syllables and the stressed rhyming syllable, which means that this type of rhyme is Feminine (Latham, 2010).While on the second stanza, same as in first stanza of the text, the shaded rhyming words are in feminine type expect from the first line of the 2nd stanza. (â€Å"love†), thus, it shows the masculine rhyme—single stressed syllable (Costa,2000). The least number of sound pattern used in the text is the Consonance. The sound /t/ occur once in the first and second line of the 2nd stanza. In this two lines practically all the consonants are plosives. To them is generally associated a sound of harshness and hardness (Costa,2000). The use of one masculine rhyme in text depicts the persona of the poem which is man†, while the remaining feminine rhymes depict the addressee, which is â€Å"woman†. The connection of those two types of rhymes that were distinguished in the text is that, the â€Å"man†, w ho is in love with the addressee (woman), but the addressee know nothing about the man’s feeling towards her. The use of one consonance in the text, illustrates the volume of hardness of the feelings to the persona to express is least. Therefore, it shows the persona’s attitude which is fearful of expressing his thoughts to the addressee and due to this, it is explained suitable for the theme of the poem—unrequited love.Figure 1. Sound Pattern Percentage Sound Pattern| Frequency| Percentage (%)| Consonance| 1| 5| Assonance| 3| 16| Alliteration| 4| 21| Repetition| 4| 21| Rhyme| 7| 37| TOTAL| 19| 100| As revealed by the number of percentage of the sound pattern used in the poem, Rhyme has the most number of percentages. This shows that rhymed stanzas are used in lyrical poetry. Traditionally, in romantic era, lyrical poetry use rhymed stanzas to convey or express strong feelings thus, the significant use of the it is that, it reveals the fusion of sound and sense in the poem.

User Authentication Through Mouse Dynamics

16 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013 User Authentication Through Mouse Dynamics Chao Shen, Student Member, IEEE, Zhongmin Cai, Member, IEEE, Xiaohong Guan, Fellow, IEEE, Youtian Du, Member, IEEE, and Roy A. Maxion, Fellow, IEEE Abstract—Behavior-based user authentication with pointing devices, such as mice or touchpads, has been gaining attention. As an emerging behavioral biometric, mouse dynamics aims to address the authentication problem by verifying computer users on the basis of their mouse operating styles.This paper presents a simple and ef? cient user authentication approach based on a ? xed mouse-operation task. For each sample of the mouse-operation task, both traditional holistic features and newly de? ned procedural features are extracted for accurate and ? ne-grained characterization of a user’s unique mouse behavior. Distance-measurement and eigenspace-transformation techniques are applied to obtain featur e components for ef? ciently representing the original mouse feature space.Then a one-class learning algorithm is employed in the distance-based feature eigenspace for the authentication task. The approach is evaluated on a dataset of 5550 mouse-operation samples from 37 subjects. Extensive experimental results are included to demonstrate the ef? cacy of the proposed approach, which achieves a false-acceptance rate of 8. 74%, and a false-rejection rate of 7. 69% with a corresponding authentication time of 11. 8 seconds. Two additional experiments are provided to compare the current approach with other approaches in the literature.Our dataset is publicly available to facilitate future research. Index Terms—Biometric, mouse dynamics, authentication, eigenspace transformation, one-class learning. I. INTRODUCTION T HE quest for a reliable and convenient security mechanism to authenticate a computer user has existed since the inadequacy of conventional password mechanism was reali zed, ? rst by the security community, and then gradually by the Manuscript received March 28, 2012; revised July 16, 2012; accepted September 06, 2012. Date of publication October 09, 2012; date of current version December 26, 2012.This work was supported in part by the NSFC (61175039, 61103240, 60921003, 60905018), in part by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (60825202), in part by 863 High Tech Development Plan (2007AA01Z464), in part by the Research Fund for Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20090201120032), and in part by Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (2012jdhz08). The work of R. A. Maxion was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant CNS-0716677. Any opinions, ? dings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors, and do not necessarily re? ect the views of the National Science Foundation. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Dr. Sviatoslav Voloshynovskiy. C. Shen, Z. Cai, X. Guan, and Y. Du are with the MOE Key Laboratory for Intelligent Networks and Network Security, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710049, China (e-mail: [email  protected] xjtu. edu. cn; [email  protected] xjtu. edn. cn; [email  protected] xjtu. edu. cn; [email  protected] jtu. edu. cn). R. A. Maxion is with the Dependable Systems Laboratory, Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA (e-mail: [email  protected] cmu. edu). Color versions of one or more of the ? gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore. ieee. org. Digital Object Identi? er 10. 1109/TIFS. 2012. 2223677 public [31]. As data are moved from traditional localized computing environments to the new Cloud Computing paradigm (e. g. , Box. net and Dropbox), the need for better authentication has become more pressing.Recently, several large-scale password leakages exposed users to an unprecedented risk of disclosure and abuse of their information [47], [48]. These incidents seriously shook public con? dence in the security of the current information infrastructure; the inadequacy of password-based authentication mechanisms is becoming a major concern for the entire information society. Of various potential solutions to this problem, a particularly promising technique is mouse dynamics. Mouse dynamics measures and assesses a user’s mouse-behavior characteristics for use as a biometric.Compared with other biometrics such as face, ? ngerprint and voice [20], mouse dynamics is less intrusive, and requires no specialized hardware to capture biometric information. Hence it is suitable for the current Internet environment. When a user tries to log into a computer system, mouse dynamics only requires her to provide the login name and to perform a certain sequence of mouse operations. Extracted behavioral features, based on mouse movements and clicks, are compared to a legitimate user’s pro? le. A match authenticates the user; otherwise her access is denied.Furthermore, a user’s mouse-behavior characteristics can be continually analyzed during her subsequent usage of a computer system for identity monitoring or intrusion detection. Yampolskiy et al. provide a review of the ? eld [45]. Mouse dynamics has attracted more and more research interest over the last decade [2]–[4], [8], [14]–[17], [19], [21], [22], [33], [34], [39]–[41], [45], [46]. Although previous research has shown promising results, mouse dynamics is still a newly emerging technique, and has not reached an acceptable level of performance (e. . , European standard for commercial biometric technology, which requires 0. 001% false-acceptance rate and 1% false-rejection rate [10]). Most existing approaches for mouse-dynamics-based user authentication result in a low authentication accuracy or an unreasonably long authenticatio n time. Either of these may limit applicability in real-world systems, because few users are willing to use an unreliable authentication mechanism, or to wait for several minutes to log into a system.Moreover, previous studies have favored using data from real-world environments over experimentally controlled environments, but this realism may cause unintended side-effects by introducing confounding factors (e. g. , effects due to different mouse devices) that may affect experimental results. Such confounds can make it dif? cult to attribute experimental outcomes solely to user behavior, and not to other factors along the long path of mouse behavior, from hand to computing environment [21], [41]. 1556-6013/$31. 00  © 2012 IEEE SHEN et al. : USER AUTHENTICATION THROUGH MOUSE DYNAMICS 17It should be also noted that most mouse-dynamics research used data from both the impostors and the legitimate user to train the classi? cation or detection model. However, in the scenario of mouse-d ynamics-based user authentication, usually only the data from the legitimate user are readily available, since the user would choose her speci? c sequence of mouse operations and would not share it with others. In addition, no datasets are published in previous research, which makes it dif? cult for third-party veri? cation of previous work and precludes objective comparisons between different approaches.A. Overview of Approach Faced with the above challenges, our study aims to develop a mouse-dynamics-based user authentication approach, which can perform user authentication in a short period of time while maintaining high accuracy. By using a controlled experimental environment, we have isolated inherent behavioral characteristics as the primary factors for mouse-behavior analysis. The overview of the proposed approach is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of three major modules: (1) mouse-behavior capture, (2) feature construction, and (3) training/classi? cation. The ? st module serves to create a mouse-operation task, and to capture and interpret mouse-behavior data. The second module is used to extract holistic and procedural features to characterize mouse behavior, and to map the raw features into distance-based features by using various distance metrics. The third module, in the training phase, applies kernel PCA on the distance-based feature vectors to compute the predominant feature components, and then builds the user’s pro? le using a one-class classi? er. In the classi? cation phase, it determines the user’s identity using the trained classi? r in the distance-based feature eigenspace. B. Purpose and Contributions of This Paper This paper is a signi? cant extension of an earlier and much shorter version [40]. The main purpose and major contributions of this paper are summarized as follows: †¢ We address the problem of unintended side-effects of inconsistent experimental conditions and environmental variables by restricting usersâ€℠¢ mouse operations to a tightly-controlled environment. This isolates inherent behavioral characteristics as the principal factors in mouse behavior analysis, and substantially reduces the effects of external confounding factors. Instead of the descriptive statistics of mouse behaviors usually adopted in existing work, we propose newly-de? ned procedural features, such as movement speed curves, to characterize a user’s unique mouse-behavior characteristics in an accurate and ? ne-grained manner. These features could lead to a performance boost both in authentication accuracy and authentication time. †¢ We apply distance metrics and kernel PCA to obtain a distance-based eigenspace for ef? ciently representing the original mouse feature space.These techniques partially handle behavioral variability, and make our proposed approach stable and robust to variability in behavior data. †¢ We employ one-class learning methods to perform the user authentication task, so that the detection model is Fig. 1. Overview of approach. built solely on the data from the legitimate user. One-class methods are more suitable for mouse-dynamics-based user authentication in real-world applications. †¢ We present a repeatable and objective evaluation procedure to investigate the effectiveness of our proposed approach through a series of experiments.As far as we know, no earlier work made informed comparisons between different features and results, due to the lack of a standard test protocol. Here we provide comparative experiments to further examine the validity of the proposed approach. †¢ A public mouse-behavior dataset is established (see Section III for availability), not only for this study but also to foster future research. This dataset contains high-quality mouse-behavior data from 37 subjects. To our knowledge, this study is the ? rst to publish a shared mouse-behavior dataset in this ? eld. This study develops a mouse-dynamics-based user authenticat ion approach that performs user authentication in a short time while maintaining high accuracy. It has several desirable properties: 1. it is easy to comprehend and implement; 2. it requires no specialized hardware or equipment to capture the biometric data; 3. it requires only about 12 seconds of mouse-behavior data to provide good, steady performance. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Section II describes related work. Section III presents a data-collection process. Section IV describes the feature-construction process.Section V discusses the classi? cation techniques for mouse dynamics. Section VI presents the evaluation methodology. Section VII presents and analyzes experimental results. Section VIII offers a discussion and possible extensions of the current work. Finally, Section IX concludes. 18 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013 II. BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK In this section, we provide background on mouse- dynamics research, and various applications for mouse dynamics (e. g. , authentication versus intrusion detection).Then we focus on applying mouse dynamics to user authentication. A. Background of Mouse Dynamics Mouse dynamics, a behavioral biometric for analyzing behavior data from pointing devices (e. g. , mouse or touchpad), provides user authentication in an accessible and convenient manner [2]–[4], [8], [14]–[17], [19], [21], [22], [33], [34], [39]–[41], [45], [46]. Since Everitt and McOwan [14] ? rst investigated in 2003 whether users could be distinguished by the use of a signature written by mouse, several different techniques and uses for mouse dynamics have been proposed.Most researchers focus on the use of mouse dynamics for intrusion detection (sometimes called identity monitoring or reauthentication), which analyzes mouse-behavior characteristics throughout the course of interaction. Pusara and Brodley [33] proposed a reauthentication scheme using m ouse dynamics for user veri? cation. This study presented positive ? ndings, but cautioned that their results were only preliminary. Gamboa and Fred [15], [16] were some of the earliest researchers to study identity monitoring based on mouse movements.Later on, Ahmed and Traore [3] proposed an approach combining keystroke dynamics with mouse dynamics for intrusion detection. Then they considered mouse dynamics as a standalone biometric for intrusion detection [2]. Recently, Zheng et al. [46] proposed angle-based metrics of mouse movements for reauthentication systems, and explored the effects of environmental factors (e. g. , different machines). Yet only recently have researchers come to the use of mouse dynamics for user authentication (sometimes called static authentication), which analyzes mouse-behavior characteristics at particular moments.In 2007, Gamboa et al. [17] extended their approaches in identity monitoring [15], [16] into web-based authentication. Later on, Kaminsky e t al. [22] presented an authentication scheme using mouse dynamics for identifying online game players. Then, Bours and Fullu [8] proposed an authentication approach by requiring users to make use of the mouse for tracing a maze-like path. Most recently, a full survey of the existing work in mouse dynamics pointed out that mouse-dynamics research should focus on reducing authentication time and taking the effect of environmental variables into account [21]. B.User Authentication Based on Mouse Dynamics The primary focus of previous research has been on the use of mouse dynamics for intrusion detection or identity monitoring. It is dif? cult to transfer previous work directly from intrusion detection to authentication, however, because a rather long authentication period is typically required to collect suf? cient mouse-behavior data to enable reasonably accurate veri? cation. To our knowledge, few papers have targeted the use of mouse dynamics for user authentication, which will be the central concern of this paper. Hashia et al. [19] and Bours et al. 8] presented some preliminary results on mouse dynamics for user authentication. They both asked participants to perform ? xed sequences of mouse operations, and they analyzed behavioral characteristics of mouse movements to authenticate a user during the login stage. Distance-based classi? ers were established to compare the veri? cation data with the enrollment data. Hashia et al. collected data from 15 participants using the same computer, while Bours et al. collected data from 28 subjects using different computers; they achieved equal-error rates of 15% and 28% respectively.Gamboa et al. [17] presented a web-based user authentication system based on mouse dynamics. The system displayed an on-screen virtual keyboard, and required users to use the mouse to enter a paired username and pin-number. The extracted feature space was reduced to a best subspace through a greedy search process. A statistical model based on the Weibull distribution was built on training data from both legitimate and impostor users. Based on data collected from 50 subjects, the researchers reported an equal-error rate of 6. 2%, without explicitly reporting authentication time.The test data were also used for feature selection, which may lead to an overly optimistic estimate of authentication performance [18]. Recently, Revett et al. [34] proposed a user authentication system requiring users to use the mouse to operate a graphical, combination-lock-like GUI interface. A small-scale evaluation involving 6 subjects yielded an average false-acceptance rate and false-rejection rate of around 3. 5% and 4% respectively, using a distance-based classi? er. However, experimental details such as experimental apparatus and testing procedures were not explicitly reported. Aksari et al. 4] presented an authentication framework for verifying users based on a ? xed sequence of mouse movements. Features were extracted from nine move ments among seven squares displayed consecutively on the screen. They built a classi? er based on scaled Euclidean distance using data from both legitimate users and impostors. The researchers reported an equal-error rate of 5. 9% over 10 users’ data collected from the same computer, but authentication time was not reported. It should be noted that the above two studies were performed on a small number of users—only 6 users in [34], and 10 users in [4]—which may be insuf? ient to evaluate de? nitively the performance of these approaches. The results of the above studies have been mixed, possibly due to the realism of the experiments, possibly due to a lack of real differences among users, or possibly due to experimental errors or faulty data. A careful reading of the literature suggests that (1) most approaches have resulted in low performance, or have used a small number of users, but since these studies do not tend to be replicated, it is hard to pin the discr epancies on any one thing; (2) no research group provided a shared dataset.In our study, we control the experimental environment to increase the likelihood that our results will be free from experimental confounding factors, and we attempt to develop a simple and ef? cient user authentication approach based on mouse dynamics. We also make our data available publicly. III. MOUSE DATA ACQUISITION In this study, we collect mouse-behavior data in a controlled environment, so as to isolate behavioral characteristics as the principal factors in mouse behavior analysis. We offer here SHEN et al. USER AUTHENTICATION THROUGH MOUSE DYNAMICS 19 considerable detail regarding the conduct of data collection, because these particulars can best reveal potential biases and threats to experimental validity [27]. Our data set is available 1. A. Controlled Environment In this study, we set up a desktop computer and developed a Windows application as a uniform hardware and software platform for the coll ection of mouse-behavior data. The desktop was an HP workstation with a Core 2 Duo 3. 0 GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM.It was equipped with a 17 HP LCD monitor (set at 1280 1024 resolution) and a USB optical mouse, and ran the Windows XP operating system. Most importantly, all system parameters relating to the mouse, such as speed and sensitivity con? gurations, were ? xed. The Windows application, written in C#, prompted a user to conduct a mouse-operation task. During data collection, the application displayed the task in a full-screen window on the monitor, and recorded (1) the corresponding mouse operations (e. g. , mouse-single-click), (2) the positions at which the operations occurred, and (3) the timestamps of the operations.The Windows-event clock was used to timestamp mouse operations [28]; it has a resolution of 15. 625 milliseconds, corresponding to 64 updates per second. When collecting data, each subject was invited to perform a mouse-operations task on the same desktop computer free of other subjects; data collection was performed one by one on the same data-collection platform. These conditions make hardware and software factors consistent throughout the process of data collection over all subjects, thus removing unintended side-effects of unrelated hardware and software factors. B.Mouse-Operation Task Design To reduce behavioral variations due to different mouse-operation sequences, all subjects were required to perform the same sequence of mouse operations. We designed a mouse-operation task, consisting of a ? xed sequence of mouse operations, and made these operations representative of a typical and diverse combination of mouse operations. The operations were selected according to (1) two elementary operations of mouse clicks: single click and double click; and (2) two basic properties of mouse movements: movement direction and movement distance [2], [39].As shown in Fig. 2, movement directions are numbered from 1 to 8, and each of them is sel ected to represent one of eight 45-degree ranges over 360 degrees. In addition, three distance intervals are considered to represent short-, middle- and long-distance mouse movements. Table I shows the directions and distances of the mouse movements used in this study. During data collection, every two adjacent movements were separated by either a single click or a double click. As a whole, the designed task consists of 16 mouse movements, 8 single clicks, and 8 double clicks.It should be noted that our task may not be unique. However, the task was carefully chosen to induce users to perform a wide variety of mouse movements and clicks that were both typical and diverse in an individual’s repertoire of daily mouse behaviors. 1The mouse-behavior dataset is available from: http://nskeylab. xjtu. edu. cn/ projects/mousedynamics/behavior-data-set/. Fig. 2. Mouse movement directions: sector 1 covers all operations performed degrees and degrees. with angles between TABLE I MOUSE MO VEMENTS IN THE DESIGNED MOUSE-OPERATION TASK C.Subjects We recruited 37 subjects, many from within our lab, but some from the university at large. Our sample of subjects consisted of 30 males and 7 females. All of them were right-handed users, and had been using a mouse for a minimum of two years. D. Data-Collection Process All subjects were required to participate in two rounds of data collection per day, and waited at least 24 hours between collections (ensuring that some day-to-day variation existed within the data). In each round, each subject was invited, one by one, to perform the same mouse-operation task 10 times.A mouse-operation sample was obtained when a subject performed the task one time, in which she ? rst clicked a start button on the screen, then moved the mouse to click subsequent buttons prompted by the data-collection application. Additionally, subjects were instructed to use only the external mouse device, and they were advised that no keyboard would be needed. S ubjects were told that if they needed a break or needed to stretch their hands, they were to do so after they had accomplished a full round. This was intended to prevent arti? cially anomalous mouse operations in the middle of a task.Subjects were admonished to focus on the task, as if they were logging into their own accounts, and to avoid distractions, such as talking with the experimenter, while the task was in progress. Any error in the operating process (e. g. , single-clicking a button when requiring double-clicking it) caused the current task to be reset, requiring the subject to redo it. 20 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013 TABLE II MOUSE DYNAMICS FEATURES Subjects took between 15 days and 60 days to complete data collection.Each subject accomplished 150 error-free repetitions of the same mouse-operation task. The task took between 6. 2 seconds and 21. 3 seconds, with an average of 11. 8 seconds over all subjects. The ? nal dataset contained 5550 samples from 37 subjects. IV. FEATURE CONSTRUCTION In this section, we ? rst extract a set of mouse-dynamics features, and then we use distance-measurement methods to obtain feature-distance vectors for reducing behavioral variability. Next, we utilize an eigenspace transformation to extract principal feature components as classi? er input. A.Feature Extraction The data collected in Section III are sequences of mouse operations, including left-single-clicks, left-double-clicks, and mouse-movements. Mouse features were extracted from these operations, and were typically organized into a vector to represent the sequence of mouse operations in one execution of the mouse-operation task. Table II summarizes the derived features in this study. We characterized mouse behavior based on two basic types of mouse operations—mouse click and mouse movement. Each mouse operation was then analyzed individually, and translated into several mouse features.Our study divi ded these features into two categories: †¢ Holistic features: features that characterize the overall properties of mouse behaviors during interactions, such as single-click and double-click statistics; †¢ Procedural features: features that depict the detailed dynamic processes of mouse behaviors, such as the movement speed and acceleration curves. Most traditional features are holistic features, which suf? ce to obtain a statistical description of mouse behavior, such as the mean value of click times. They are easy to compute and comprehend, but they only characterize general attributes of mouse behavior.In our study, the procedural features characterize in-depth procedural details of mouse behavior. This information more accurately re? ects the ef? ciency, agility and motion habits of individual mouse users, and thus may lead to a performance boost for authentication. Experimental results in Section VII demonstrate the effectiveness of these newly-de? ned features. B. Dis tance Measurement The raw mouse features cannot be used directly by a classi? er, because of high dimensionality and behavioral variability. Therefore, distance-measurement methods were applied to obtain feature-distance vectors and to mitigate the effects of these issues.In the calculation of distance measurement, we ? rst used the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) distance [6] to compute the distance vector of procedural features. The reasons for this choice are that (1) procedural features (e. g. , movement speed curve) of two data samples are not likely to consist of the exactly same number of points, whether these samples are generated by the same or by different subjects; (2) DTW distance can be applied directly to measure the distance between the procedural features of two samples without deforming either or both of the two sequences in order to get an equal number of points.Next, we applied Manhattan distance to calculate the distance vector of holistic features. The reasons for th is choice are that (1) this distance is independent between dimensions, and can preserve physical interpretation of the features since its computation is the absolute value of cumulative difference; (2) previous research in related ? elds (e. g. , keystroke dynamics) reported that the use of Manhattan distance for statistical features could lead to a better performance [23]. ) Reference Feature Vector Generation: We established the reference feature vector for each subject from her training feature vectors. Let , be the training set of feature vectors for one subject, where is a -dimensional mouse feature vector extracted from the th training sample, and is the number of training samples. Consider how the reference feature vector is generated for each subject: Step 1: we computed the pairwise distance vector of procedural features and holistic features between all pairs of training feature vectors and .We used DTW distance to calculate the distance vector of procedural features for measuring the similarity between the procedural components of the two feature vectors, and we applied Manhattan distance to calculate the distance vector of holistic features . (1) where , and represents the procedural components of represents the holistic components. SHEN et al. : USER AUTHENTICATION THROUGH MOUSE DYNAMICS 21 Step 2: we concatenated the distance vectors of holistic features and procedural features together to obtain a distance vector for the training feature vectors and by (2) Step 3: we normalized vector: to get a scale-invariant feature nd sample covariance . Then we can obtain the mean of such a training set by (5) (6) (3) is the mean of all where pairwise distance vectors from the training set, and is the corresponding standard deviation. Step 4: for each training feature vector, we calculated the arithmetic mean distance between this vector and the remaining training vectors, and found the reference feature vector with minimum mean distance. (4) 2) Feature-Dis tance Vector Calculation: Given the reference feature vector for each subject, we then computed the feature-distance vector between a new mouse feature vector and the reference vector.Let be the reference feature vector for one subject; then for any new feature vector (either from the legitimate user or an impostor), we can compute the corresponding distance vector by (1), (2) and (3). In this paper, we used all mouse features in Table II to generate the feature-distance vector. There are 10 click-related features, 16 distance-related features, 16 time-related features, 16 speed-related features, and 16 acceleration-related features, which were taken together and then transformed to a 74-dimensional feature-distance vector that represents each mouse-operation sample. C.Eigenspace Computation: Training and Projection It is usually undesirable to use all components in the feature vector as input for the classi? er, because much of data will not provide a signi? cant degree of uniquene ss or consistency. We therefore applied an eigenspace-transformation technique to extract the principal components as classi? er input. 1) Kernel PCA Training: Kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) [37] is one approach to generalizing linear PCA to nonlinear cases using kernel methods. In this study, the purpose of KPCA is to obtain the principal components of the original feature-distance vectors.The calculation process is illustrated as follows: For each subject, the training set represents a set of feature-distance vectors drawn from her own data. Let be the th feature-distance vector in the training set, and be the number of such vectors. We ? rst mapped the measured vectors into the hyperdimensional feature space by the nonlinear mapping Here we centered the mapped point with the corresponding mean as . The principal components were then computed by solving the eigenvalue problem: (7) where and . Then, by de? ning a kernel matrix (8) we computed an eigenvalue problem for t he coef? ients is now solely dependent on the kernel function , that (9) For details, readers can refer to B. Scholkopf et al. [37]. Generally speaking, the ? rst few eigenvectors correspond to large eigenvalues and most information in the training samples. Therefore, for the sake of providing the principal components to represent mouse behavior in a low-dimensional eigenspace, and for memory ef? ciency, we ignored small eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenvectors, using a threshold value (10) is the accumulated variance of the ? st largest eigenwhere values with respect to all eigenvalues. In this study, was chosen as 0. 95 for all subjects, with a range from 0 to 1. Note that we used the same for different subjects, so may be different from one subject to another. Speci? cally, in our experiments, we observed that the number of principal components for different subjects varied from 12 to 20, and for an average level, 17 principal components are identi? ed under the threshold of 0. 95. 2) Kernel PCA Projection: For the selected subject, taking the largest eigenvalues and he associated eigenvectors, the transform matrix can be constructed to project an original feature-distance vector into a point in the -dimensional eigenspace: (11) As a result, each subject’s mouse behavior can be mapped into a manifold trajectory in such a parametric eigenspace. It is wellknown that is usually much smaller than the dimensionality of the original feature space. That is to say, eigenspace analysis can dramatically reduce the dimensionality of input samples. In this way, we used the extracted principal components of the feature-distance vectors as input for subsequent classi? ers. 22IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013 V. CLASSIFIER IMPLEMENTATION This section explains the classi? er that we used, and introduces two other widely-used classi? ers. Each classi? er analyzes mouse-behavior data, and discriminates between a legitimate user and impostors. A. One-Class Classi? er Overview User authentication is still a challenging task from the pattern-classi? cation perspective. It is a two-class (legitimate user versus impostors) problem. In the scenario of mouse-dynamicsbased user authentication, a login user is required to provide the user name and to perform a speci? mouse-operation task which would be secret, like a password. Each user would choose her own mouse-operations task, and would not share that task with others. Thus, when building a model for a legitimate user, the only behavioral samples of her speci? c task are her own; other users’ (considered as impostors in our scenario) samples of this task are not readily available. In this scenario, therefore, an appropriate solution is to build a model based only on the legitimate user’s data samples, and use that model to detect impostors. This type of problem is known as one-class classi? ation [43] or novelty/anomaly detection [25], [26]. We thus focused our attention on this type of problem, especially because in a real-world situation we would not have impostor renditions of a legitimate user’s mouse operations anyway. B. Our Classi? er—One-Class Support Vector Machine Traditional one-class classi? cation methods are often unsatisfying, frequently missing some true positives and producing too many false positives. In this study, we used a one-class Support Vector Machine (SVM) classi? er, introduced by Scholkopf et al. [36], [38]. One-class SVMs have been successfully applied to a number of real-life classi? ation problems, e. g. , face authentication, signature veri? cation and keystroke authentication [1], [23]. In our context, given training samples belonging to one subject, , each sample has features (corresponding to the principal components of the feature-distance vector for that subject). The aim is to ? nd a hyperplane that separates the data points by the largest margin. To separ ate the data points from the origin, one needs to solve the following dual quadratic programming problem [36], [38]: the origin, and is the kernel function. We allow for nonlinear decision boundaries. Then the decision function 13) will be positive for the examples from the training set, where is the offset of the decision function. In essence, we viewed the user authentication problem as a one-class classi? cation problem. In the training phase, the learning task was to build a classi? er based on the legitimate subject’s feature samples. In the testing phase, the test feature sample was projected into the same high-dimensional space, and the output of the decision function was recorded. We used a radial basis function (RBF) in our evaluation, after comparative studies of linear, polynomial, and sigmoid kernels based on classi? ation accuracy. The SVM parameter and kernel parameter (using LibSVM [11]) were set to 0. 06 and 0. 004 respectively. The decision function would gen erate â€Å" † if the authorized user’s test set is input; otherwise it is a false rejection case. On the contrary, â€Å" † should be obtained if the impostors’ test set is the input; otherwise a false acceptance case occurs. C. Other Classi? ers—Nearest Neighbor and Neural Network In addition, we compared our classi? er with two other widely-used classi? ers, KNN and neural network [12]. For KNN, in the training phase, the nearest neighbor classi? r estimated the covariance matrix of the training feature samples, and saved each feature sample. In the testing phase, the nearest neighbor classi? er calculated Mahalanobis distance from the new feature sample to each of the samples in the training data. The average distance, from the new sample to the nearest feature samples from the training data, was used as the anomaly score. After multiple tests with ranging from 1 to 5, we obtained the best results with , detailed in Section VII. For the neural network, in the training phase a network was built with input nodes, one output node, and hidden nodes.The network weights were randomly initialized between 0 and 1. The classi? er was trained to produce a 1. 0 on the output node for every training feature sample. We trained for 1000 epochs using a learning rate of 0. 001. In the testing phase, the test sample was run through the network, and the output of the network was recorded. Denote to be the output of the network; intuitively, if is close to 1. 0, the test sample is similar to the training samples, and with close to 0. 0, it is dissimilar. VI. EVALUATION METHODOLOGY This section explains the evaluation methodology for mouse behavior analysis.First, we summarize the dataset collected in Section III. Next, we set up the training and testing procedure for our one-class classi? ers. Then, we show how classi? er performance was calculated. Finally, we introduce a statistical testing method to further analyze experimental results. (12) where is the vector of nonnegative Lagrangian multipliers to be determined, is a parameter that controls the trade-off between maximizing the number of data points contained by the hyperplane and the distance of the hyperplane from SHEN et al. : USER AUTHENTICATION THROUGH MOUSE DYNAMICS 23A. Dataset As discussed in Section III, samples of mouse-behavior data were collected when subjects performed the designed mouseoperation task in a tightly-controlled environment. All 37 subjects produced a total of 5550 mouse-operation samples. We then calculated feature-distance vectors, and extracted principal components from each vector as input for the classi? ers. B. Training and Testing Procedure Consider a scenario as mentioned in Section V-A. We started by designating one of our 37 subjects as the legitimate user, and the rest as impostors. We trained the classi? er and ested its ability to recognize the legitimate user and impostors as follows: Step 1: We trained the classi? er to b uild a pro? le of the legitimate user on a randomly-selected half of the samples (75 out of 150 samples) from that user. Step 2: We tested the ability of the classi? er to recognize the legitimate user by calculating anomaly scores for the remaining samples generated by the user. We designated the scores assigned to each sample as genuine scores. Step 3: We tested the ability of the classi? er to recognize impostors by calculating anomaly scores for all the samples generated by the impostors.We designated the scores assigned to each sample as impostor scores. This process was then repeated, designating each of the other subjects as the legitimate user in turn. In the training phase, 10-fold cross validation [24] was employed to choose parameters of the classi? ers. Since we used a random sampling method to divide the data into training and testing sets, and we wanted to account for the effect of this randomness, we repeated the above procedure 50 times, each time with independently selected samples drawn from the entire dataset. C. Calculating Classi? r Performance To convert these sets of classi? cation scores of the legitimate user and impostors into aggregate measures of classi? er performance, we computed the false-acceptance rate (FAR) and false-rejection rate (FRR), and used them to generate an ROC curve [42]. In our evaluation, for each user, the FAR is calculated as the ratio between the number of false acceptances and the number of test samples of impostors; the FRR is calculated as the ratio between the number of false rejections and the number of test samples of legitimate users.Then we computed the average FAR and FRR over all subjects. Whether or not a mouse-operation sample generates an alarm depends on the threshold for the anomaly scores. An anomaly score over the threshold indicates an impostor, while a score under the threshold indicates a legitimate user. In many cases, to make a user authentication scheme deployable in practice, minimizing the possibility of rejecting a true user (lower FRR) is sometimes more important than lowering the probability of accepting an impostor [46]. Thus we adjusted the threshold according to the FRR for the training data.Since calculation of the FRR requires only the legitimate user’s data, no impostor data was used for determining the threshold. Speci? cally, the threshold is set to be a variable ranging from , and will be chosen with a relatively low FRR using 10-fold cross validation on the training data. After multiple tests, we observe that setting the threshold to a value of 0. 1 yields a low FRR on average2. Thus, we show results with a threshold value of 0. 1 throughout this study. D. Statistical Analysis of the Results To evaluate the performance of our approach, we developed a statistical test using the half total error rate (HTER) and con? ence-interval (CI) evaluation [5]. The HTER test aims to statistically evaluate the performance for user authentication, which is de ? ned by combining false-acceptance rate (FAR) and falserejection rate (FRR): (14) Con? dence intervals are computed around the HTER as , and and are computed by [5]: (15) % % % (16) where NG is the total number of genuine scores, and NI is the total number of impostor scores. VII. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS Extensive experiments were carried out to verify the effectiveness of our approach. First, we performed the authentication task using our approach, and compared it with two widely-used classi? rs. Second, we examined our primary results concerning the effect of eigenspace transformation methods on classi? er performance. Third, we explored the effect of sample length on classi? er performance, to investigate the trade-off between security and usability. Two additional experiments are provided to compare our method with other approaches in the literature. A. Experiment 1: User Authentication In this section, we conducted a user authentication experiment, and compared our c lassi? er with two widely-used ones as mentioned in Section V-C. The data used in this experiment consisted of 5550 samples from 37 subjects.Fig. 3 and Table III show the ROC curves and average FARs and FRRs of the authentication experiment for each of three classi? ers, with standard deviations in parentheses. Table III also includes the average authentication time, which is the sum of the average time needed to collect the data and the average time needed to make the authentication decision (note that since the latter of these two times is always less than 0. 003 seconds in our classi? ers, we ignore it in this study). Our ? rst observation is that the best performance has a FAR of 8. 74% and a FRR of 7. 96%, obtained by our approach (one-class SVM).This result is promising and competitive, and the behavioral samples are captured over a much shorter period of time 2Note that for different classi? ers, there are different threshold intervals. For instance, the threshold interval fo r neural network detector is [0, 1], and for one. For uniform presentation, we mapped all of intervals class SVM, it is . to 24 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013 TABLE IV HTER PERFORMANCE AND CONFIDENCE INTERVAL AT CONFIDENCE LEVELS DIFFERENT Fig. 3. ROC curves for the three different classi? rs used in this study: oneclass SVM, neural network, and nearest neighbor. TABLE III FARs AND FRRs OF USER AUTHENTICATION EXPERIMENT (WITH STANDARD DEVIATIONS IN PARENTHESES) information about mouse behavior, which could enhance performance. Finally, we conducted a statistical test, using the HTER and CI evaluation as mentioned in Section VI-D, to statistically evaluate the performance of our approach. Table IV summarizes the results of this statistical evaluation at different con? dence levels. The result shows that the proposed approach provides the lowest HTER in comparison with the other two classi? ers used in our study; the 95% con? ence interval lies at % %. B. Experiment 2: Effect of Eigenspace Transformation This experiment examined the effect of eigenspace-transformation methods on classi? er performance. The data used were the same as in Experiment 1. We applied a one-class SVM classi? er in three evaluations, with the inputs respectively set to be the original feature-distance vectors (without any transformations), the projection of feature-distance vectors by PCA, and the projection of feature-distance vectors by KPCA. Fig. 4 and Table V show the ROC curves and average FARs and FRRs for each of three feature spaces, with standard deviations in parentheses.As shown in Fig. 4 and Table V, the authentication accuracy for the feature space transformed by KPCA is the best, followed by the accuracies for feature spaces by PCA and the original one. Speci? cally, direct classi? cation in the original feature space (without transformations) produces a FAR of 15. 45% and FRR of 15. 98%. This result is not encouraging c ompared to results previously reported in the literature. However, as mentioned in Experiment 1, the samples may be subject to more behavioral variability compared with previous work, because previous work analyzed mouse behaviors over a longer period of observation.Moreover, we observe that the authentication results of % % by PCA, and % % by KPCA are much better than for direct classi? cation. This result is a demonstration of the effectiveness of the eigenspace transformation in dealing with variable behavior data. Furthermore, we ? nd that the performance of KPCA is slightly superior to that of PCA. This may be due to the nonlinear variability (or noise) existing in mouse behaviors, and KPCA can reduce this variability (or noise) by using kernel transformations [29].It is also of note that the standard deviations of FAR and FRR based on the feature space transformed by KPCA and PCA are smaller than those of the original feature space (without transformations), indicating that th e eigenspace-transformation technique enhances the stability and robustness of our approach. compared with previous work. It should be noted that our result does not yet meet the European standard for commercial biometric technology, which requires near-perfect accuracy of 0. 001% FAR and 1% FRR [10]. But it does demonstrate that mouse dynamics could provide valuable information in user authentication tasks.Moreover, with a series of incremental improvements and investigations (e. g. , outlier handling), it seems possible that mouse dynamics could be used as, at least, an auxiliary authentication technique, such as an enhancement for conventional password mechanisms. Our second observation is that our approach has substantially better performance than all other classi? ers considered in our study. This may be due to the fact that SVMs can convert the problem of classi? cation into quadratic optimization in the case of relative insuf? ciency of prior knowledge, and still maintain hig h accuracy and stability.In addition, the standard deviations of the FAR and FRR for our approach are much smaller than those for other classi? ers, indicating that our approach may be more robust to variable behavior data and different parameter selection procedures. Our third observation is that the average authentication time in our study is 11. 8 seconds, which is impressive and achieves an acceptable level of performance for a practical application. Some previous approaches may lead to low availability due to a relatively-long authentication time. However, an authentication time of 11. seconds in our study shows that we can perform mouse-dynamics analysis quickly enough to make it applicable to authentication for most login processes. We conjecture that the signi? cant decrease of authentication time is due to procedural features providing more detailed and ? ne-grained SHEN et al. : USER AUTHENTICATION THROUGH MOUSE DYNAMICS 25 TABLE VI FARs AND FRRs OF DIFFERENT SAMPLE LENGTH S Fig. 4. ROC curves for three different feature spaces: the original feature space, the projected feature space by PCA, and the projected feature space by KPCA.TABLE V FARs AND FARs FOR THREE DIFFERENT FEATURE SPACES (WITH STANDARD DEVIATIONS IN PARENTHESES) the needs of the European Standard for commercial biometric technology [10]. We ? nd that after observing 800 mouse operations, our approach can obtain a FAR of 0. 87% and a FRR of 0. 69%, which is very close to the European standard, but with a corresponding authentication time of about 10 minutes. This long authentication time may limit applicability in real systems. Thus, a trade-off must be made between security and user acceptability, and more nvestigations and improvements should be performed to secure a place for mouse dynamics in more pragmatic settings. D. Comparison User authentication through mouse dynamics has attracted growing interest in the research community. However, there is no shared dataset or baseline algor ithm for measuring and determining what factors affect performance. The unavailability of an accredited common dataset (such as the FERET database in face recognition [32]) and standard evaluation methodology has been a limitation in the development of mouse dynamics.Most researchers trained their models on different feature sets and datasets, but none of them made informed comparisons among different mouse feature sets and different results. Thus two additional experiments are offered here to compare our approach with those in the literature. 1) Comparison 1: Comparison With Traditional Features: As stated above, we constructed the feature space based on mouse clicks and mouse movements, consisting of holistic features and procedural features. To further examine the effectiveness of the features constructed in this study, we provide a comparative experiment. We chose the features used by Gamboa et al. 17], Aksari and Artuner [4], Hashia et al. [19], Bours and Fullu [8], and Ahmed a nd Traore [2], because they were among the most frequently cited, and they represented a relatively diverse set of mouse-dynamics features. We then used a one-class SVM classi? er to conduct the authentication experiment again on our same dataset with both the feature set de? ned in our study, and the feature sets used in other studies. Hence, the authentication accuracies of different feature sets can be compared. Fig. 5 and Table VII show the ROC curves and average FARs and FRRs for each of six feature sets, with standard deviations in parentheses.We can see that the average error rates for the feature set from our approach are much lower than those of the feature sets from the literature. We conjecture that this may be due to the procedural features providing ? ne-grained information about mouse behavior, but they may also be due, in part, to: (1) partial adoption of features de? ned in previous approaches C. Experiment 3: Effect of Sample Length This experiment explored the effe ct of sample length on classi? er performance, to investigate the trade-off between security (authentication accuracy) and usability (authentication time).In this study, the sample length corresponds to the number of mouse operations needed to form one data sample. Each original sample consists of 32 mouse operations. To explore the effect of sample length on the performance of our approach, we derived new datasets with different sample lengths by applying bootstrap sampling techniques [13] to the original dataset, to make derived datasets containing the same numbers of samples as the original dataset. The new data samples were generated in the form of multiple consecutive mouse samples from the original dataset. In this way, we considered classi? r performance as a function of the sample length using all bootstrap samples derived from the original dataset. We conducted the authentication experiment again (using one-class SVM) on six derived datasets, with and 800 operations. Table VI shows the FARs and FRRs at varying sample lengths, using a one-class SVM classi? er. The table also includes the authentication time in seconds. The FAR and FRR obtained using a sample length of 32 mouse operations are 8. 74% and 7. 96% respectively, with an authentication time of 11. 8 seconds. As the number of operations increases, the FAR and FRR drop to 6. 7% and 6. 68% for the a data sample comprised of 80 mouse operations, corresponding to an authentication time of 29. 88 seconds. Therefore, we may conclude that classi? er performance almost certainly gets better as the sample length increases. Note that 60 seconds may be an upper bound for authentication time, but the corresponding FAR of 4. 69% and FRR of 4. 46% are still not low enough to meet 26 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013 Fig. 5. ROC curves for six different feature sets: the feature set in our study, and the features sets in other studies.RESULTS OF TABLE VII CO MPARISON WITH SOME TRADITIONAL FEATURES (WITH STANDARD DEVIATIONS IN PARENTHESES) Note that this approach [2] is initially applied to intrusion detection, and we extracted parts of features closely related to mouse operations in our dataset. The reason for this decision is that we want to examine whether the features employed in intrusion detection can be used in user authentication. because of different data-collection environments; (2) using different types of thresholds on the anomaly scores; (3) using less enrollment data than was used in previous experiments.The improved performance based on using our features also indicates that our features may allow more accurate and detailed characterization of a user’s unique mouse behavior than was possible with previously used features. Another thing to note from Table VII is that the standard deviations of error rates for features in our study are smaller than those for traditional features, suggesting that our features might be more stable and robust to variability in behavior data. One may also wonder how much of the authentication accuracy of our approach is due to the use of procedural features or holistic features.We tested our method using procedural features and holistic features separately, and the set of procedural features was the choice that proved to perform better. Specifically, we observe that the authentication accuracy of % % by using the set of procedural features is much better than for the set of holistic features, which have a FAR of 19. 58% and a FRR of 17. 96%. In combination with the result when using all features, it appears that procedural features may be more stable and discriminative than holistic features, which suggests that the procedural features contribute more to the authentication accuracy.The results here only provide preliminary comparative results and should not be used to conclude that a certain set of mouse features is always better than others. Each feature set has it s own unique advantages and disadvantages under different conditions and applications, so further evaluations and comparisons on more realistic and challenging datasets are needed. 2) Comparison 2: Comparison With Previous Work: Most previous approaches have either resulted in poor performance (in terms of authentication accuracy or time), or have used data of limited size.In this section, we show a qualitative comparison of our experimental results and settings against results of previous work (listed in Table VIII). Revett et al. [34] and Aksari and Artuner [4] considered mouse dynamics as a standalone biometric, and obtained an authentication accuracy of ERR around 4% and 5. 9% respectively, with a relatively-short authentication time or small number of mouse operations. But their results were based on a small pool of users (6 users in [34] and 10 users in [4]), which may be insuf? ient to obtain a good, steady result. Our study relies on an improved user authentication methodolo gy and far more users, leading us to achieve a good and robust authentication performance. Ahmed and Traore [2] achieved a high authentication accuracy, but as we mentioned before, it might be dif? cult to use such a method for user authentication since the authentication time or the number of mouse operations needed to verify a user’s identity is too high to be practical for real systems. Additionally, Hashia et al. 19] and Bours and Fulla [8] could perform user authentication in a relatively-short time, but they reported unacceptably high error rates (EER of 15% in [19], and EER of 26. 8% in [8]). In our approach we can make an authentication decision with a reasonably short authentication time while maintaining high accuracy. We employ a one-class classi? er, which is more appropriate for mouse-dynamics-based user authentication. As mentioned in Experiment 3, we can make an authentication decision in less than 60 seconds, with corresponding error rates are FAR of 4. 9% and FRR of 4. 46%. Although this result could be improved, we believe that, at our current performance level, mouse dynamics suf? ce to be a practical auxiliary authentication mechanism. In summary, Comparison 1 shows that our proposed features outperform some traditional features used in previous studies, and may be more stable and robust to variable behavior data. Comparison 2 indicates that our approach is competitive with existing approaches in authentication time while maintaining high accuracy.More detailed statistical studies on larger and more realistic datasets are desirable for further evaluations. VIII. DISCUSSION AND EXTENSION FOR FUTURE WORK Based on the ? ndings from this study, we take away some messages, each of which may suggest a trajectory for future work. Additionally, our work highlights the need for shared data and resources. A. Success Factors of Our Approach The presented approach achieved a short authentication time and relatively-high accuracy for mouse-dynami cs-based user SHEN et al. : USER AUTHENTICATION THROUGH MOUSE DYNAMICS 27 TABLE VIII COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS WORKAuthentication time was not explicitly reported in [4], [8], [17]; instead, they required the user to accomplish a number of mouse operations for each authentication (15 clicks and 15 movements for [17]; 10 clicks and 9 movements for [4]; 18 short movements without pauses for [8]). Authentication time was not explicitly stated in [2]; however, it can be assumed by data-collection progress. For example, it is stated in [2] that an average of 12 hours 55 minutes of data were captured from each subject, representing an average of 45 sessions. We therefore assume that average session length is 12. 5 60/45 17. 22 minutes 1033 seconds. authentication. However, it is quite hard to point out one or two things that may have made our results better than those of previous work, because (1) past work favored realism over experimental control, (2) evaluation methodologies were incons istent among previous work, and (3) there have been no public datasets on which to perform comparative evaluations. Experimental control, however, is likely to be responsible for much of our success. Most previous work does not reveal any particulars in controlling experiments, while our work is tightly controlled.We made every effort to control experimental confounding factors to prevent them from having unintended in? uence on the subject’s recorded mouse behavior. For example, the same desktop computer was used for data collection for all subjects, and all system parameters relating to the mouse were ? xed. In addition, every subject was provided with the same instructions. These settings suggest strongly that the differences in subjects were due to individually detectable mouse-behavior differences among subjects, and not to environmental variables or experimental conditions.We strongly advocate the control of potential confounding factors in future experiments. The reaso n is that controlled experiments are necessary to reveal causal connections among experimental factors and classi? er performance, while realistic but uncontrolled experiments may introduce confounding factors that could in? uence experimental outcomes, which would make it hard to tell whether the results of those evaluations actually re? ect detectable differences in mouse behavior among test subjects, or differences among computing environments.We had more subjects (37), more repetitions of the operation task (150), and more comprehensive mouse operations (2 types of mouse clicks, 8 movement directions, and 3 movement distance ranges) than most studies did. Larger subject pools, however, sometimes make things harder; when there are more subjects there is a higher possibility that two subjects will have similar mouse behaviors, resulting in more classi? cation errors. We proposed the use of procedural features, such as the movement speed curve and acceleration curve, to provide mor e ? egrained information about mouse behavior than some traditional features. This may allow one to accurately describe a user’s unique mouse behavior, thus leading to a performance improvement for mouse-dynamics-based user authentication. We adopted methods for distance measurement and eigenspace transformation for obtaining principal feature components to ef? ciently represent the original mouse feature space. These methods not only overcome within-class variability of mouse behavior, but also preserve between-class differences of mouse behavior. The improved authentication accuracies demonstrate the ef? acy of these methods. Finally, we used a one-class learning algorithm to perform the authentication task, which is more appropriate for mousedynamics-based user authentication in real applications. In general, until there is a comparative study that stabilizes these factors, it will be hard to be de? nitive about the precise elements that made this work successful. B. Oppor tunities for Improvement While previous studies showed promising results in mouse dynamics, none of them have been able to meet the requirement of the European standard for commercial biometric technology.In this work, we determined that mouse dynamics may achieve a pragmatically useful level of accuracy, but with an impractically long authentic