Mindfulness, Professionalism and Healing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mindfulness, Professionalism and Healing - Essay Example In addition to my experience with the films and the readings, witnessing my aunt visiting a nurse for help was just evidence on the power of the nursing. Despite having three kids, the size of the building she had was a hindrance to giving adequate care for the younger ones. Taking her time to visit the nurses was a life changing moment since she was given every kind of empathy, mindfulness and healing that she required. Intuitively, in order to realize the importance of nursing system to families I had to relate my aunt’s experiences with the nurses on the basis of the three aspects: of empathy, mindfulness and healing . Rationally, my aunt was a low income earner who could not acquire enough resources to secure his family. As if the scarcity is not enough punishment, my aunt gave birth to three kids of which all of them required care from her. For instance the children were a subject to food consumption, shelter and clothes to wear which my aunt could not adequately offer. Just the same to my aunt situation, David Bornstein in â€Å"The Power of Nursing† introduces his article with an intriguing question to depict the state of some individuals in the society† The following is a statement and question put forward by Bornstein: â€Å"In 2010, 5.9 million children were reported as abused or neglected in the United States. If you were a policy maker and you knew of a program that could cut this figure in half, what would you do?† (Bornstein, 2012) The above quote depicts children who are abused and neglected in the same way as my aunt who is going through a crisis of taking care of her three children in her small hut. The act of mindfulness comes in when Bornstein talks about Nurse-Family partnership as the best way to save this group of people. Nurse-Family partnership comes in handy as it is the only right way of harmonizing the gap between the poor and the rich. No matter what background an individual comes from, the program arranges for registered

Company Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 5

Company Law - Essay Example A client and an auditor are usually in a contractual relationship thus meaning that the two parties are in agreement. The auditor thus have to perform their share of bargain carefully and appropriately as stipulated in the contract. If the auditor does not conform to the contract terms, the client can decide to sue based on the rounds of breach of contract. According Lacy, a client can sue the auditor first, due to the failure to accomplish specific performance, secondly, in the case where there is general monetary costs and damages for losses incurred due to the breach of that contract and lastly, any other consequential damages that as a result of negligence, have occurred (2002, p.78). Therefore, basing from these factors, Benard being the auditor of NASDAQ Composites Plc is highly liable. During auditing, before partaking any work for a client, the auditor or accountant should ensure that the particular duties to be executed, and in precise if there is need for any important matters to be excluded, have been discussed and harmoniously agreed with the client usually through written word or through a letter of engagement or otherwise (Delaney & Whittington 2010, p. 135). This therefore implies that before any of the undertakings is assumed, there is need for the auditor to ensure that there is special written evidence. In Re Thomas Gerrard & Son Ltd (1968) UK, the company’s auditors learned that there were various alteration to some of the invoice dates of the company. The company’s auditors then referred and consulted with the managing director of this corporation and accepted the director’s explanation although they did not scrutinize the statements of the related suppliers. As a result, there were loss of money to the company and it was thus ruled out that the auditors had breached their duty required by the company at the instance when they failed critically to examine the statements. The facts of the

The Promise of Stem Cell Research for Solving Complex Medical Problems Paper

The Promise of Stem Cell for Solving Complex Medical Problems - Research Paper Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that stem cell research might seem to be a catch-all solution to a myriad of clinical problems. If the public listens to certain corners of the bioethics field, stem cell research might seem to be a scientific solution that comes at a great cost to human life. Of course, most approaches to stem cells contain far more nuance than â€Å"for† and â€Å"against† embryonic cell research; however, it is a polarizing subject that is divisive even among researchers in the field. The purpose of this paper is to define some of the challenges—both ethical and scientific—posed to embryonic stem cell research, which includes looking at possible future directions for clinical practices, research agendas, and ethical systems that might oppose the use of embryonic stem cell lines. Overall, the â€Å"promise† of stem cell research includes not only the potential for benefiting mankind with novel kinds of treatment for painfu l and debilitating diseases, but also the potential for creating these treatments in ways that do not harm human dignity. First, a distinction should be drawn between embryonic and adult stem cells, particularly with regard to differences in their potentials to grow and regenerate tissues. Stem cells in general are a rare subset of primitive cells that, at the single-cell level, can self-renew as well as give rise to mature, differentiating daughter cells. According to the NIH, embryonic stem cells are grown easily in culture, while adult stem cells are rare in mature tissues. Accordingly, isolating these cells from an adult tissue is difficult, and methods to develop more cells in cell culture have not yet been developed. This distinction is significant insofar as large numbers of cells are needed for stem cell replacement therapies. In other words, adult stem cells cannot provide a sufficient level of coverage for stem cell research, let alone stem cell treatments on a public leve l. Therefore, stem cell research is normally biased toward the use of embryonic stem cells. Such stem cells are taken from embryos that are fertilized in vitro. The development of cells in a laboratory setting is known to scientists as â€Å"cell culture.† Embryonic stem cells are grown by transporting cells from a pre-implantation embryo into a culture environment that holds a nutrient-rich base known as a culture medium. Over the process of development, the cells divide and coat the surface of the dish into which they were transported. Once a cell line is developed, the original stem cells can produce millions or perhaps billions of embryonic stem cells for researchers to utilize in making discoveries and potentially treating diseases. Stem cells that proliferate in a cell culture of an extended period of time but have not differentiated into a specific kind of cell are known as â€Å"pluripotent† (meaning, literally, not constrained toward a specific developmental p athway). These cells are truly useful because they can be

Company Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 5

Company Law - Essay Example A client and an auditor are usually in a contractual relationship thus meaning that the two parties are in agreement. The auditor thus have to perform their share of bargain carefully and appropriately as stipulated in the contract. If the auditor does not conform to the contract terms, the client can decide to sue based on the rounds of breach of contract. According Lacy, a client can sue the auditor first, due to the failure to accomplish specific performance, secondly, in the case where there is general monetary costs and damages for losses incurred due to the breach of that contract and lastly, any other consequential damages that as a result of negligence, have occurred (2002, p.78). Therefore, basing from these factors, Benard being the auditor of NASDAQ Composites Plc is highly liable. During auditing, before partaking any work for a client, the auditor or accountant should ensure that the particular duties to be executed, and in precise if there is need for any important matters to be excluded, have been discussed and harmoniously agreed with the client usually through written word or through a letter of engagement or otherwise (Delaney & Whittington 2010, p. 135). This therefore implies that before any of the undertakings is assumed, there is need for the auditor to ensure that there is special written evidence. In Re Thomas Gerrard & Son Ltd (1968) UK, the company’s auditors learned that there were various alteration to some of the invoice dates of the company. The company’s auditors then referred and consulted with the managing director of this corporation and accepted the director’s explanation although they did not scrutinize the statements of the related suppliers. As a result, there were loss of money to the company and it was thus ruled out that the auditors had breached their duty required by the company at the instance when they failed critically to examine the statements. The facts of the

Hilton Case study Essay Example for Free

Hilton Case study Essay Problem: From the case, we know Hilton is currently using the marketing penetration by focusing on business travelers. And now the expensive loyalty-program features that are added by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. for attracting more business travelers is threatening Hilton by increasing Hilton’s cost or decreasing Hilton’s market shares. Solution: In my opinion, in response to the Starwood’s strategy, the solution for Hilton’s dilemma should be market development which is developing new market from current products or services. Hilton can avoid increasing its cost by showing customers Hilton has more and better benefits. There are several reasons for this solution. Firstly, HHonors Program has been a good service program for Hilton. On the other hand, Starwood’s Preferred Guest announcement was a strategy to their less effective frequent-guest program. As it shown on the case, â€Å"they changed it every few years†. Secondly, it is risky to compete with them by increasing the cost and adding the features Starwood added. It is because the lower cost-effectiveness will hurt the profit of the whole hotel industry eventually. Also, if Hilton can have the same or more amount of business with lower costs compared to other competitors, Hilton earns more profits. The last but not the least, it is important to market and consolidate the Hilton brand nowadays. We need to let customers know how superior Hilton is than other hotels to attract and retain consumers. Implementation: For implementation, Hilton needs to realize its flashpoints and put more marketing efforts on them. Firstly, HHW’s program has a unique practice called Double Dipping which means customers can earn mileage in partner airline and also earn HHonors points. This flashpoint can not only attract customers but also better relationship with corporate clients. Double Dipping melts the conflict of competing with the airline’s program. Hilton can talk to partner airlines by sharing members and create a complemented program with them. Then, Hilton can advertise this program to more airlines by calling them. So Hilton can attract more customers through airlines without increasing advisement costs. Also, Hilton can increase the number and range of partners such as car rental firms and Cookies firms. This action will help customers attain their rewards easily and eventually will help Hilton get more customers. Thirdly, Hilton can franchise to more small hotels with comparable with lower loyalty- program cost than its competitors in order to increase the market share of Midmarket without FB segment which other big competitors don’t have. After that, Hilton can send an email to their current customers in their computer system by presenting the appreciation for being Hilton customers and introducing Double Dipping and other partners for customers to attain rewards earlier. Also, tell them they can get desirable points by having someone experience Hilton. Guest managers who are responsible for making the best customers feel special and satisfy their needs as perfect as possible can call upper-rank customers by introducing themselves.

Penetration Testing Scope

Penetration Testing Scope The main objective of this document is to provide the readers a view on importance of Penetration test in network security and how it will overcome the network security issues and how organizations are determining their security weaknesses in their network infrastructures. With the help of this document, readers can obtain knowledge about advantages, strategies, types, tools and techniques of the penetration testing. Introduction: Penetration testing method is one of the oldest network security techniques for evaluating the securities of a network system. Penetration testing method used by Department of Defence in early 1970s to determine the security weaknesses in computer system and to initiate the development of programs to create more secure system. Using penetration testing, organization can fix their security weaknesses before they get unprotected. Many companies are using this method because penetration testing will provide proper security information systems and services to the organizations network systems. Organization can reduce risk in their network system using penetration testing tools and techniques. The main objective of the penetration testing is to evaluate the security weaknesses of the organizations network systems. Penetration testing has more secondary objectives and that will help the organization to identify their security incidents and also test the security awareness of the employees. Scope and Goals of the Penetration Testing: Identifying gaps in security: Organization can identify the gap of the system security and company can develop an action plan to reduce the threat with the help of penetration test. Help to create strong business case: A penetration test result document will help the manager to create a strong business case to produce the security message at the implementation stage. To discover new threats: Penetration testing measures will help the organization to find the new threats. To focus on internal security resources: A Penetration test and its security analysis allow the organization to focus internal security resources. To meet regulatory compliances: Organization can meet their regulatory compliances using penetration testing tools. To find weakest link: Penetration test and security audit will assist the firm to find the weakest link in their intricate structure and it will provide baseline security for all typical entities. Provide validation feedback: Penetration test deliver validation feedback to business entities and security framework that lead the organization to reduce the risk in the implementation. Phases of the Penetration Test: Discovery Planning Attack Reporting Additional Discovery Planning Phase: Scope of the test will be defined in planning phase. In this phase, testing team will get the approvals, documents and agreements like NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and they will set the baseline for effective penetration test after that documents are signed. Penetration test team will get certain input from existing security plan, industry standards and best practices while defining their scope for the test. No real testing activity happens in the planning stage. Factor influencing the successful Penetration test: Time: Legal restriction: Discovery Phase: The real testing activity will start from this phase. In this stage, they used to identify the potential target using network scanning and to gather information using port scanning and other techniques. Vulnerability is the second part of this discovery phase. In this stage, application, operating system and services are equated against vulnerability database. Normally human testers use their own database or public database to find vulnerabilities manually. Compare with automated testing, manual testing is better way to identify the new vulnerabilities but this type of testing is time consuming unlike automated testing. This Phase can be further Characterized as: Footprinting Phase Canning and Enumeration Phase Vulnerability Analysis Phase Footprinting Phase: The process of footprinting is a completely non-disturbing activity executed to get information available about the target organization and its system using various resources, both technical and non-technical. This process includes probing the internet, querying various public repositories (Database, Domain registrar, Usenet groups and mailing list). In this phase, penetration tester will gather significant information and confidential data through internet without probing the target system. Penetration tester will conduct the social engineering attacks for that they will collect valuable information like IT setup details, e-mail address of the company, device configuration and username and password. In this phase, penetration tester tries to find various loopholes and try to explore data leakage about the target organization in shortest time period. Mostly procedure of this phase can be automated using customized script and small programs. Scanning and Enumeration: The scanning and enumeration phase includes lot of activity like identifying the live system, open / filtered ports found, service running on these ports, identifying the operating system details, network path discovery, mapping router / firewall rules, etc. Penetration tester must be careful while using the tools for these activities because they should not overwhelm the target systems with extreme traffic. Before going into live scenario, successive phase should be tested completely in a testing environment. Types of Port Scanner: Nmap SuperScan Hping Services should be fingerprinted either manually or using existing tools after successfully identifying the open ports. Penetration tester will provide exact name and version of the services which running on the target system and the underlying Operating system before including these in the final report. Also this will help to identifying and removing numerous false positive found later. Existing Fingerprint Tools: Xprobe2 Queso Nmap Amap Winfingerprint P0f Httprint Vulnerability Analysis: In this stage, penetration tester will try to identify possible vulnerabilities existing in each target system after identifying the target systems and collecting required details from the previous phase. During this stage penetration tester may use automated tools to find the vulnerabilities in the target systems. These tools have their own record containing of latest vulnerabilities and their details. In vulnerability analysis stage, penetration tester will test the systems by giving invalid inputs, random strings, etc. to check for any errors or unintended behaviour in the systems output. Penetration tester should not depend only on his experience because a successful penetration tester should be up to date with latest security related activities and join with security related mailing-lists, security blogs, advisories, etc. to keep him updated to the latest vulnerabilities. Types of Vulnerability Scanners: Nessus Shadow Security Scanner Retina ISS Scanner SARA GFI LANguard Attack Phase: Attack phase is a vital stage in penetration testing, the most challenging and interesting phase for the penetration tester. This Phase can be further Characterized as: Exploitation Phase Privilege Escalation Phase Exploitation Phase: In this phase, penetration tested will try to identify activities for the various vulnerabilities found in the previous stage. Penetration tester can get more resources from internets that provide proof-of-conception exploits for most of the vulnerabilities. In exploitation stage, all exploit should be tested thoroughly before going for a real implementation. If any vulnerabilities critical system not exploited then penetration tester should give sufficient documented proof-of-concepts about the impact of the vulnerability on the organizations business. Exploitation Frameworks: Metasploit Project Core Security Technologys Impact Immunitys CANVAS Instead of running exploitation, penetration tester need to use the full potential framework to reduce the time in writing custom exploits. Gaining Access Discovery Phase Rising Privilege System Surfing Install Add Test Software Enough data has been Gathered in the discovery phase to make an attempt to Access the target. If only user-level access was obtained in the last step, the tester will now seek to gain complete control of the system. The information gathering process begins again to identify mechanism to gain access to trusted system. Additional presentation testing software is installed to gain additional information and/or access. Attack Phase Step with Look back to Discovery Phase Privilege Escalation: In this stage, penetration tester will make further analysis to get more information that will help to getting administrative privileges. Before continuing further process, penetration tester should get the prior permission from the target organization. Penetration tester will maintain his all activity report because in the reporting stage that will be the proof for all the activities completed. Tester may install additional software for higher level of privilege. Reporting Phase: Reporting stage is the last phase in the penetration test methodology. Reporting phase will parlay occurred with other three stages or it will happen after attack phase. This reporting phase is very vital stage and this this report will cover both management and technical aspects, provide detailed information about all findings, figures with proper graphs. Penetration tester will provide suitable presentation of the vulnerabilities and its impact to the business of the target organization. Final document will be detailed and it will provide technical description of the vulnerabilities. Penetration tester should meet the client requirement in the documents also document should be detailed and that will show the ability of the successful penetration tester. Report Consist of: Executive Summary Detailed Findings Risk level of the Vulnerabilities found Business Impact Recommendations Conclusion Penetration Testing Strategy: External Testing Strategy: In this strategy, process made from outside the organizations system to refers attack on the organizations network border, this may be through Internet or Extranet. External testing strategy will start with clients publically accessible information. Naturally the External testing approach will executed with non-disclosure or fully disclosure environment. This test will target the organizations externally visible server or device like Domain Name Server (DNS), Firewall and E-mail server. Internal Testing Strategy: Internal testing approach executed from inside the organizations technology environment. The focuses of the internal testing strategy is to know what could occur if the network border were penetrated effectively or what an authorized user could do to penetrate specific information resources inside the organizations network. Both type of testing techniques are similar but the result of both tests will vary prominently. Blind Testing Strategy: Blind testing approach targets at pretending the activities and processes of a real hacker. In this approach, testing team will provide limited information about organizations systems configuration. The penetration testing team gather information about the target to conduct its penetration test using publically available information like company web-site, domain name registry, internet discussion board and USENET. This testing approach can provide lot of information about the organization but this method of testing is very time consuming. Double Blind Testing Strategy: This testing strategy is an extension of blind testing approach. In this testing approach, IT and security staff of the organization will not informed earlier and are blind to the strategic testing activities. Double blind testing strategy is a vital component of testing because it can test the organizations security monitoring and incident identification, escalating and response procedure. The main objective of this testing approach is only few people from the organization will aware of this testing activity. Once the objective of the test has been achieved then project manager will terminate the response procedure of the organization and testing procedures. Targeted Testing Strategy: Another name of this testing strategy is lights-turned-on approach. In this testing approach, both organizations IT staff and penetration testing team involve in this testing activities. In this test, there will be a clear understanding of testing actions and information about the target and network design. Targeted testing approach is very cost effective because this test mainly focused on technical setting or design of the network. This test can executed in less time and effort unlike blind test but this approach will not give clear picture of an organizations vulnerabilities and response capabilities. Types of Penetration testing There are many type of penetration test available to test the network security of an organization. But type of penetration test may depend upon the organizations needs to test their network. Black-box Testing: White-box Testing: DOS (Denial Of Service): This type of testing tries to identify the weaknesses on the system through exhausting the targets resources because it will stop responding to legal request. Denial of service testing can perform on both manually and automated tools. This test is classified into two types such as software exploits and flooding attacks. The level of this test depending upon the penetration tests information system and related resources. There are more formats in this test such as: Application Security Testing: Application security testing will protect the confidentiality and reliability of information using applications encryption and objective of this testing is to assess the control over the applications (Electronic commerce server, on-line financial applications, distributed applications and internet front ends to legacy systems) and its process flow. Components of Application Security Testing: Code Review: In this type of testing, analysing the code of the application because it should not contain the sensitive data. Authorization Testing: Authorization testing includes Analysing the system initiation and maintenance of the user sessions like Input validation of login fields, Cookies security and lockout testing. Functionality Testing: Functionality testing involves testing the functionality of the application such as input validation and transaction testing as presented to a user. War Dialling: Tools for Penetration Testing: Reconnaissance Tools: Nmap (Network Mapper): Network mapper (Nmap) is a powerful port scan tool and its a part of reconnaissance tools of penetration testing. Network mapper has ability to regulate the operating system of the target system. Network mapper maintains a database for the target computer to find its operating systems resospnse3. Network mapper is a permitted product for network security review. Network mapper was intended to quickly scan big network but it will work fine against single network. Network mapper is compatible with all major operating system like Windows, Linux and MAC operating system.2. Features of the Network mapper (Nmap) Flexible Nmap will support different advanced techniques for mapping out networks such as firewalls, IP filters and other obstacles. This tool also contains port scanners mechanism (TCP UDP), version detection, version detection, Prevailing Portable Easy Free Well documented Supported Acclaimed Popular http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9087439/Five_free_pen_testing_tools http://nmap.org/ http://www.sans.org/reading_room/analysts_program/PenetrationTesting_June06.pdf https://buildsecurityin.us-cert.gov/bsi/articles/tools/penetration/657-BSI.html Nessus Nessus is a vulnerability assessment tool and its free domain software released by GPLS. This tool is intended to identify the security problem. Nessus helps the management people to rectify the security problem before exploitation. Client server technology is very powerful features of Nessus. Penetration tester can test from various point of the server because Different server technology placed in various place. It can control the entire server using multiple distributed clients or central client. This tool is very flexible for penetration tester because it can run on different operating system like MAC OS X and IBM/AIX but most of the server portion will run on UNIX. Features of the Nessus: Up-to-date security vulnerability Database Nessus tool will check the database regularly and Nessus can receive with the command Nessus-update-plugins. This tool will monitor all the plugins data. Remote and Local security Nessus has the ability to detect the remote faults of the host in a network and also it will remove local flaws and omitted areas. Scalable Nessus is very scalable because it can run on a computer with low memory. If we give more power to this tool then it can scan our system quickly. Plug-Ins Every security test will be written in NASL; also its printed as an exterior plugin. For updating the Nessus, it will not download binaries from internet and to understand the result of the Nessus report, every NASL can be read and modified. NASL (Nessus Attack Scripting Language) The Nessus security Scanner contain NASL, its a designed language to inscribe security test easily and quickly. NASL run in a controlled environment on top of a virtual device, this will make the Nessus a very secure scanner. Smart Service Recognition with Multiple Services Nessus tool helps to recognize the FTP server which running in an unidentified port. This is the first tool to hold this facility. If the host runs the similar services twice or more then Nessus can scan all of them. Full SSL Support and Non-Destructive This tool has the ability to scan SSL services like https, imaps, smtps and more. Nessus tool can integrate with PKI field environment. Nessus is the first scanning tool has this feature. Nessus tool will give more option to the tester to perform a regular non-destructive security audit. Packet Manipulation and Password Cracking Tools Exploitation Tools Metasploit Version Metasploit framework is both penetration testing system and a development platform for creating security tools and techniques. Metasploit framework comprises of tools, modules, libraries and user interfaces. Metasploit framework used to network security and network security professionals will use this framework to conduct penetration test, system administrators to verify the patch connection, to perform regression testing by product vendors, and security researcher world-wide. This tool offers valuable information and tools for penetration tester security researcher. Metasploit framework written in Ruby programming language and contains components written in C and assembler. The basic function of this tool is a Module launcher, allow the user to organize the exploit module and launch the module at target system. Metasploit is very user friendly to the penetration tester to conduct the test and it will give full network penetration testing capabilities. Metasploit is an open source framework and largest combined public databank of exploits. Security Forest exploitation Framework Limitations of Penetration Testing: Penetration testing will not identify all vulnerabilities because normally this test will carried out as Black Box exercises. Penetration test will not provide information about new vulnerabilities those weaknesses identified after the test. Penetration tester will not have sufficient information about the system. Compare with vulnerability assessments, penetration test is not the correct way to identify the weaknesses because vulnerability assessments can identify more issue than penetration testing using diagnostic review of all systems and all servers. Penetration test does not have that much time to evaluate and identify the vulnerabilities and penetration testing is a snapshot for an organization and its network security. Conclusion: Scope of the penetration testing should be increased. Time period of penetration testing is very limited. Time limit of penetration testing needs to be increased, then testing team can identify more issues and testing team can protect the network security of an organization. Further action needs to be taken against vulnerabilities that identified as a result of penetration test. Penetration Testing Definitions: Penetration test is a method to assess the organizations data security system in dynamic way. The information security system of an organization will be tested to identify any security issues. In other way, penetration test is a theoretical or paper based audit. What is Penetration Test? Penetration test is a sequence of actions to find and exploit security weaknesses of the systems. Penetration test naturally includes group of people financed by the organization and Department of Internal Audit or IT department to conduct the test. Penetration test team member attempts to accomplish vulnerabilities in the system security of the organization using tools and techniques of the penetration test. The goal of the testing tem is to find out security weaknesses under controlled circumstances to eliminate the vulnerabilities before unauthorised users can exploit them. Penetration testing is an authorised action to correct the hackers (unauthorised users) activities. Penetration test is a better way to find the security weaknesses that exist in a network or system. Penetration test result will increase the awareness of the management people and also it will assist them to take an important decision making processes. Management people can find their system security weaknesses conducting penetration test in their organization. Depending upon the organization penetration test will differ and time frame of the test will depend on the type of test. If the penetration test is conducted badly then this test have serious costs like system roaring and cramming. Organization needs to have dynamic consent on this test while conducting or performing.

More Than Just The Disease :: essays research papers

By close reference to â€Å"More Than Just The Disease†, show what feelings you have for Neil in the course of the story. What lessons do you suppose he has learned by the end of it? In the story, â€Å"More than Just the Disease†, Neil who was away from home for a holiday with the Middleton family experienced and learned much. The best part was how Neil managed to take the first step of overcoming his shyness, not to â€Å"suffer from more than just the disease†. At the start of the story, we come face to face with the dominance of Neil’s mother. â€Å"Be tidy at all times, then no one can surprise you† and â€Å"A little too ornate for my taste-vulgar almost† shows that Neil’s mother does not just exist in planning everything for him(â€Å"although he had been reluctant because of this very thing, she had insisted he could not turn down an invitation from the doctor’s family†), she had embedded herself in Neil’s thoughts, even to the end of the story like, â€Å"Close your mouth when you’re eating, please. Others have to live with you† and â€Å" It will teach you how to conduct yourself in good society†, all highlighted in italics. This brings about irritation and annoyance as Neil is really a â€Å"Mama’s boy†. He does not seem to have a mind of his own and lacked the moral courage to be his own personality. This is worrying as this dominance of his mother may stay with him all his life. I am, to a certain extent, angry with Neil, for being so easily dominated by his mother, and not by his own self. It is rather disappointing of a protagonist. The continuous excuses given by Neil (â€Å"Too cold†, â€Å"I told you I can’t swim†, â€Å"No, it’s too cold†) shows his defences to cover up his disease, psoriasis as he is inferior about it. This is understandable as he is fearful of being found out and shunned by everyone. (â€Å"If there is one thing he couldn’t abide it was to be laughed at†) I sympathize with him as it is indeed unfortunate to have the disease and desperately trying to hide it. However, when he gave his final excuse â€Å"I’ve got my period†, the whole situation changed. Besides the readers getting some entertainment, they are fairly amused and laughed behind his back. â€Å"There was a long silence† and â€Å"Neil heard her (Anna) make funny snorts in her nose†.