Impact of Patient Confidentiality on Carers of People Who Have a Mental Disorder Essay

Patients disclose important information to their attending physician or health care professionals because of this patient-physician confidentiality. This information should not be divulged as much as possible so that the patients would continue trusting their attending physician. With this confidentiality, carers are hindered to get the needed information about their patients. The article, â€Å"Impact of Patient Confidentiality on Carers on People Who Have a Mental Disorder,† authored by Dianne Wynaden and Angelica Orb, is about the effect of absolute confidentiality of patients’ pertinent health information. With the help of 27 carers, the authors were able to justify the not-so-good effects of health care professionals not sharing the health information of patients with mental disorder to their carers. Summary Sharing information is necessary. Health care professionals value the legality of patient-physician confidentiality agreement. However, carers need information about their patients in order to help carers attend to the needs of the patients. Health care professionals and carers must work together in order to assist or guide their patients. Regarding legality, the authors suggested to have the patient-physician confidentiality agreement reviewed in order to include the rights of carers to know the pertinent health information of their patients. Generally, carers find it difficult to ask assistance from health care professionals. Carers are not usually health care professionals. Carers are anyone interested or willing to provide assistance to patients. They can be family members, friends, or neighbors. For this reason, health care professionals must be willing to share information to carers. Analysis Psychosis is one mental disorder. It affects the way an affected person’s perception, cognition, mood, personality, behavior, and movement. Hallucinations or seeing things or hearing sounds that are not really present characterize hallucinations. (Psychosis 2006) Symptoms of psychosis include disconnected thoughts, difficulty in concentrating, mood swings, and having thoughts of death or suicide. (Psychosis Mental Health Fact Sheet 2001) A person with mental disorder needs special care and attention. Normally today, these persons are â€Å"confined† inside their houses and there are carers attending to their needs. Carers could be their family members, friends, or neighbors. Most likely, carers have little or no background at all in providing medical aid to ill persons. So, health care professionals must guide carers in attending the needs of their patients. One help health care professionals could offer is the pertinent health information of the patients. However, due to the existing patient-physician confidentiality agreement, carers could not get the health information they need to know about their patients. To substantiate the effect of not sharing vital information to carers, the authors had interviewed 27 carers. The results of the interview were identical making the findings credible. The carer participants have related almost the same stories in terms of acquiring information from health care professionals. They have experienced difficulty in getting information from health care professionals. Carers believe that there are important pieces of information that should be shared to them in order to perform their tasks well. Because limited bits of information are provided to carers, they could not attend to all the needs of their patients. Worst, their patients’ recovery is at stake because of unshared information. Why is it so hard for health care professionals to share information to carers? Again we go back to patient-physician confidentiality agreement. In legal terms, the parties or persons involved in the confidentiality agreement must abide by it. This means no information must be divulged to anyone, even to carers. No one must breach the agreement, in respect to both parties. This is the reason health care professionals are hesitant in giving information to carers about their patients. In ethical means, not sharing information to carers could worsen the condition of the patients. Since carers have no complete information about the real condition of their patients, carers could miss some important details that could affect the health of their patients. Applying ethics, we need to stand firm on the agreement. No matter what, the parties involved must respect what they have agreed upon. Applying ethics also, both the health care professionals and the carers must consider the recovery of their patients. They must help one another. Conclusion Patient-physician confidentiality agreement is both guarded by legal and ethical issues. But one thing is important—how to help the patients with mental disorder? Since carers have difficulty in acquiring information for their patients due to patient-physician confidentiality agreement, patients must be informed of the importance of sharing information to carers. Health care professionals must work together with carers in order to provide the needs of their patients. The patient-physician confidentiality agreement must be reviewed so that information could also be shared to carers. Patients should be informed that carers could attend best to their needs if they are well-versed of their condition. Also, carers can adapt fast to the patients’ needs when all information are properly accounted for. Patients are important. Sharing information between health care professionals and carers is also important.

Descartes Existence of God Essay

The existence of God has been a question since the idea of God was conceived. Descartes tries to prove Gods existence, to disprove his Evil demon theory, and to show that there is without a doubt something external to ones own existence. He is looking for a definite certainty, a foundation for which he can base all of his beliefs and know for a fact that they are true. Descartes overall project is to find a definite certainty on which he can base all his knowledge and beliefs. A foundation that he will be able to prove without a doubt. To find a definite certainty he uses a methodical doubt, this states that anything that could be doubted must be taken as false. This is done to find an absolute certainty for which to base all knowledge. Descartes develops his Evil Genius theory to bring doubt to all senses and hence making them false. The theory says that it is possible that there is someone (an evil genius) who is controlling our mind. If so we wouldn’t be sure whether or not what we see was real or just a dream, therefore all of our senses would be doubtable and thus taken as false. This theory proves that nothing external is certain and must be proven false to continue his quest for truth and certainty. Descartes second meditation gives a definite certainty for which to use as his foundation to build his beliefs. Then his third meditation proves the existence of God and the external world, while disproving the evil genius theory. That definite certainty that cannot be doubted, is the fact that I exist. Whenever I utter or think â€Å"I am† I know this to be absolutely true, without doubt. From this definite foundation Descartes tries to prove that there is something external to the mind. So he states the law of casualty. This basically says that nothing can be created from nothing, and that the less perfect can not create something more perfect or better than itself. Then if there is an idea in our minds that we didn’t create, something else created it. If God is more perfect than us, then we could not have created God but God created us. Descartes then wrote about the idea of God. He said that God is infinite and could not have been created by us because God is more perfect than us thus undoubtable and certain. The idea that God exists disproves the Evil Genius theory therefore proves the existence of an external world. Anslem and Descartes’ theories both prove that there is a God and they both use some similar ideas in their premises’. For instance, they both rely on the faith that there is an idea of God; he is perfect and self evident. God could not have been conceived if there wasn’t a God. Though, Descartes says that the less perfect can not create something more perfect or better than itself, and that we are less perfect than God therefore we could not have created God. So, this proves the existence of God and an external world. On the other hand, Anslem says Existence is greater than conception and nothing greater can be conceived then God. Therefore God must exist. In my opinion descatres has successfully proven the existence of God as well as one can because he started from the beginning and logically found a true foundation of beliefs and from there proved the existence of God and an external world. consequently making our senses less doubtable, and more certain.

Analysis Of International Expansion Samples

International expansion of organizations provides them with opportunities to increase their revenues and profitability. The organizations however need to analyse the external environment where they are planning to expand so that they can decide upon the ways by which they set up their business. The organization that is taken into consideration for expansion is Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. The area where the company is planning to expand its operations is India and the city is Mumbai (Ang, Benischke & Hooi, 2018). Marina Bay is a resort which is located in Marina Bay, Singapore. The resort started its operations in the year 2010 and was named as the most expensive casino in the world. The Marina Bay resort consists of 2561 hotel rooms and many facilities within its premises (Singapore, 2018). The target market of the company will be India. The huge population and developing economy of the country will facilitate the operations of the organization in the country. The service sector of the country acts as the major driver of growth of its economy. Almost 28.6% of the entire population of India is employed in the service sector. The service sector of the country mainly comprises of the hotels and restaurants. India has been named as the most advanced traveller nations related to the usage of digital tools for the purpose of planning, then booking and further experiencing a particular journey (Papadopoulos, Gulanowski & Plante, 2018). The hospitality and tourism sector is considered to be a part of the top 10 sectors which are able to attract foreign investment. The government has also been taking many initiatives related to the promotion of the tourism and hospitality sector of the country. The hospitality and tourism industry of India has huge potential related to growth in the future. These qualities of the hotel industry of India will help in the growth and will further increase the revenues of the Marina Bay Sands resort (Yoder, Visich & Rustambekov, 2016). Marina Bay Sands can however face challenges related to various factors in the country which are as discussed below, Marina Bay Sands will face many challenges in the new area of their operations in Mumbai, India. However, the organization has to device strategies so that they can combat these challenges and set up a successful business in the country. The organization needs to conduct extensive research in the Indian hospitality sector before entering and investing in the market. The organization can take the help of promotions and advertising to promote their services and offerings in the country. The promotions can be done with the help of digital media and the with the help of social media   marketing as well. Marina Bay needs to a build a competitive edge so that they can differentiate themselves in the market. The shopping experience that the organization provides to the guests is a new concept and can help them in creating a different position in the market. Marina Bay will be able to create a different market for their offerings by introducing this new concept in the market. A wholly owned subsidiary mainly refers to the type of company which is totally owned by another company. The organization which owns the other company is known as the parent company or the holding company. The stocks of the subsidiary company are totally owned by the parent company. The market entry strategy that can be undertaken by the organization is a wholly-owned subsidiary. The wholly owned subsidiaries will be able to take control of the entire supply chain and will be able to control them totally (Santos, Brochado & Esperanà §a, 2016). The suppliers of the organization are under total control of the owners in this case. This means that an entirely different organization will be opened in India which will be a part of the Marina Bay Resorts Group. The organization needs to make a huge investment in this case, however, the growth levels of the Indian market will be suitable for the fast pace growth of the resort. The development of the organization will be facilitated by the increased number of foreign tourists in the city. The investment needs to be made by the organization as the facilities need to be built in such a manner so that it can accommodate the services that are provided by the resort in Singapore. The brand value of the organization will also help them attracting guests and setting up the business in a profitable manner (Andreu, Claver & Quer, 2017). Andreu, R., Claver, E., & Quer, D. (2017). Foreign market entry mode choice of hotel companies: Determining factors.  International Journal of Hospitality Management,  62, 111-119. Ang, S. H., Benischke, M. H., & Hooi, A. W. L. (2018). Frequency of international expansion through high control market expansion modes and interlocked directorships.  Journal of World Business. Doyle, G. (2015). Brands in international and multi-platform expansion strategies: Economic and management issues. In  Handbook of Media Branding  (pp. 53-64). Springer, Cham. Leonidou, L. C., Leonidou, C. N., Fotiadis, T. A., & Aykol, B. (2015). Dynamic capabilities driving an eco-based advantage and performance in global hotel chains: The moderating effect of international strategy.  Tourism Management,  50, 268-280. Papadopoulos, N., Gulanowski, D., & Plante, L. (2018). The Role of Knowledge in International Expansion: Toward an Integration of Competing Models of Internationalization.  Review of International Business and Strategy, (just-accepted), 00-00. Santos, M., Brochado, A., & Esperanà §a, J. (2016). Foreign direct investment patterns of global hotel chains.  Journal of Business Research,  69(11), 5235-5240. Singapore, 5. (2018).  Singapore Luxury Hotel.  Marinabaysands.com. Retrieved 16 March2018,fromhttps://www.marinabaysands.com/hotel.html#osSwY5SPJvKoE5Yx.97 Yoder, S., Visich, J. K., & Rustambekov, E. (2016). Lessons learned from international expansion failures and successes.  Business Horizons,  59(2), 233-243.

Income determination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Income determination - Essay Example ucts.2 Though there has no other research on the study of income smoothening Greenawalt and Sinkey study has helped Bank Company to provide income smoothening to loans to avoid losses that result from loan defaulters and bad debt.3 Greenawalt and Sinkey wonder why managers would want to smooth accounting incomes using loan loss provisions.4 This makes sense as it enables businesses to balance out the income when there is a boom and for the time businesses experience burst or recession. The two author provide a regression analysis data that have an R2 value of more than 0.5%.5 Therefore, the authors provide evidence into the use and success of income smoothening among large banks. Busch and Kick examine the determinant of noninterest earnings and their effect on financial risk and performance in Germany.6 Busch and Kick find out that almost all bank that exercised risk adjustment returns on its loans had positive higher income activities.7 Moreover, their study contributes empirical evidence that bank that involved in fee generating activities do so with high risk. The authors postulate that only in risking in noninterest activities that commercial bank remain relevant in the market.8 Busch and Kick argue that the increased demand for noninterest goods and services prompt bank to abandon the traditional sources of income due to the advent of new technology in communication and other areas in the economy.9 Busch and Kick proved that the noninterest activities are generating more income for the bank more than the interest-based activities.10 For this reason, the authors are advocating commercial bank to embrace the noninterest generating activities fully becaus e they bring more income and also because they have a high demand in the market. Keynes in his analysis of income determination of a country hypothesised that income is subject to fluctuation and is characterised by boom and busts.11 He questions the classical economist theories for failing to provide an

Floating cities vs colonial America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Floating cities vs colonial America - Essay Example Most of these people are also Native Americans. The differences between them include the fact that liberalists are mostly rich citizens who have well-established businesses with no affiliation to the government. They do not work for the government and they want to break away from it. The leaders of the American revolutionary war work for the government through the military. They support the government and are against anyone who opposes it, including the liberalists (David, p. 12). I do not think that the colonial cities offer the same opportunities that colonial America offered citizens of other nations. This is because the founders of these floating cities want to be liberalized and are motivated by breaking as far away from the government as possible. They want to offer their people greater opportunities that the colonial America never offered to its people (Edward, p. 4). The classes of people going to participate in the floating cities are an important factor to the political development of these cities. This is because most of the people sponsoring the development of these cities are the wealthy people such as landowners, businessmen and other high ranking individuals. Therefore, this is the select group of people that can be able to belong to the floating cities. The ordinary poor person cannot afford to have a say in these cities unless they are simply taken there to be passive citizens (Lawrence & Robert, p 105). I think that these floating cities would turn out the same as any other nation politically. According to the theory of social contract by Thomas Hobbes, individuals will only unite into common political societies when they mutually consent to accept duties and abide by common rules. The founders of these floating cities are all motivated by the disgruntlement from the government. According to this theory, a rational individual would easily give up his or her rational freedom voluntarily so as to enjoy the

Employment and Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Employment and Society - Essay Example All these factors have a profound influence on the organizational performance of a person; it also affects the psychological contract that a person makes with their employer based on mutual understanding and relationship in a negative manner. An impact on performance and mutual contract can create feelings of alienation and job insecurity as well. These feelings can further augment the stress. A huge responsibility lies on the shoulder of the individual to fight stress so they he/she is able to give the optimum level of efficiency, fulfill the psychological contract as well as fulfilling the family duties (Carole, 2003). There are a number of ways through which these feelings of stress can be curbed; it is the responsibility of the organization as well the individual; the organization can organize stress management seminars and conferences whereas the individual can use stress management techniques as a personal initiative. The duty of care needs to be fulfilled so that they are not called negligent from their responsibilities and become an active member of the corporate as well as the social society. Flexibility while working is of high importance as people from all walks of life need some elasticity towards their work life, timings and atmosphere. For example, for a single mother of two, work time flexibility would mean a peace of mind where she would be able to reach to her kids between normal work times; this will lead to better efficiency on her part as her worries will be less. Therefore, Flexibility is considered one of the biggest attributes that can attract labor towards one’s organization (Kathleen, 2010). Flexibility helps to achieve the goals of both the employee and the employer; flex hours would help the employee by tension free and work according to his/her timings producing quality work which is what the employer wants from the

Images of Organizations at Four Seasons Hotels Assignment

Images of Organizations at Four Seasons Hotels - Assignment Example This section describes how the Four Seasons Hotel can be viewed from the perspective of the eight metaphors developed by Morgan (1989). These include organizations as instruments of domination, flux, organisms, brains, machines, cultures, psychic prisons and political systems and transformation.The machine metaphor can be seen at work in the Four Seasons Hotel. The machine metaphor implies concepts such as efficiency of the operations and reduction of waste. Taylor’s principles of scientific management reflect the metaphor of organizations as machines. At the Four Seasons Hotel, the scheduling of various activities such as housekeeping and maintenance of inventory levels can be interpreted through the image of machines. Schedules of housekeeping, preparation of different meals throughout the day and maintenance of standardized service are all examples of the machine metaphor at work. The Four Seasons Hotel can also be viewed as an organism. This image is based on the perceptio n of the hotel as undergoing a process of evolution to ensure its survival. The responses of the management to the environmental changes can be interpreted as the response of a living organism to its natural environment. An example of the metaphor at work would be the changes in room rates throughout the year depending on the busy or slow season. Karmin (2013) explains that high earnings by competitors may motivate the owners of the Four Seasons Hotel to become a public limited company by issuing shares.  

Lumbar spine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Lumbar spine - Essay Example 4). Despite its ability to hold weight and absorb shocks, the lumbar spine is vulnerable and can easily be damaged in a number of ways. Therefore, it has become necessary to find an adequate means of measuring a patient’s pain. X-ray imaging is based in part on high energy photons passing through a phosphor screen and then scattering around the object being x-rayed, thus producing an image. The other part is a matter of studying the data collected from the original screening (Iniewski, 2009, p. 3). Most x-rays are made up of geometric magnification, which is created by crystals which are responsible for diffracting the image (Chang, 2004, p. 31) Before x-rays were available, the only way for a doctor to measure what it is they are looking at is by asking the patient and making judgments by the pain that they report (Herkowitz & Bell, 2004, p. 3). X-rays are not only necessary when it comes to diagnosing what the injury is, but they must also be performed again before surgery, to make certain that nothing has changed since the last time (Herkowitz & Bell, 2004, p. 459). The image quality of an x-ray plays a large role in how the image will turn out. The goal is to obtain optimal image, which provides the doctor and patient with an adequate view of all features related to the x-ray (McQuillen-Martensen, 2006, p. 1). Some key factors which play a role in image quality are: anatomical positioning, kVp and mA, density and contrast, SID, sharpness as well as focal point and geometry. It is important that the patient be properly set out on the observation table before hand. The patient should be lying face up on the table. The shoulders and â€Å"anterior superior iliac spines (ASISs) at equal distance from the imaging table prevent rotation† (McQuillen-Martensen, 2006, p. 414). The x-ray machine can only focus on the certain views. One such view is anterior to posterior

Can environmental factors acting on organisms lead to inherited Essay

Can environmental factors acting on organisms lead to inherited changes in phenotype in descendant - Essay Example Any ecosystem is composed of Abiotic and Biotic components. The Abiotic components include the atmosphere, where air acts as a medium, lithosphere and hydrosphere. The nature of the response of the organisms to these Abiotic factors depends on the essential factors and limiting factors. The response is best explained rather by ecological theories like Liebig-Blackman Law of Limiting factors and Shelford's Law of Tolerance. The Biotic components are composed of the biotic community each with an ecological niche influenced by community evolution, succession, growth, regulation and interactions. The ecological genetics is thus, a product of interactions of organisms with these Abiotic and biotic factors with the elements of adaptation, natural selection and speciation largely influenced by the ecological dynamics of energy flow and biogeochemical cycles. Thus, inherited changes in a phenotype depends on gravity of these interactions and the potential of these factors to cause a genomic change or a mutation. It is worthy to mention the role of Ecological pollution as a potential and vital factor in this process of genomic change today. Ecological pollution is one of the vital factors causing genomic changes or mutation, which is being carried through the generations. Thus, these pollutants act as potential mutagens. ... More than 65,000 chemicals are currently in use in U.K with which human beings come into constant contact. Many of these chemicals are harmful and pose a serious health hazard. Numerous chemicals have been designated as hazardous to biological system and these chemicals pose an occupational health hazard to workers who are constantly in contact with them. These chemicals are often toxic, mutagenic/carcinogenic, causing serious diseases like Cancer and disabilities of various kinds. Even children born to women working in nickel refinery have been found to have Genital malformations. Industrial units that release toxic gases like Sulphur di oxide, Nitrogenous compounds and Mercurial derivatives contribute to air pollution to a great extent. The automobile exhaust fumes rich in carbon monoxide harms the oxygen binding mechanism in human blood. Welding is another industrial important contributor in which metal or other thermoplastic materials are joined together by the application of heat or pressure. This process produces gases like acetylene, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, ozone, phosgene and tungsten. (Palmer .T, 2006) The gas and chemical pollutants primarily enter the human system by inhalation route namely Respiration. The deposition of these inhaled particles in the lungs is influenced by its physical and chemical properties and a variety of host factors. In the lungs, these particles produce a variety of reactions including Asthma and Cancer depending on the concentration, duration of the exposure of the particles, and degree of exposure. Even babies in the womb have been found to be susceptible than their mothers to DNA damage from air pollution, despite the added protection of the

Jungs View of Religion Essay Example for Free

Jungs View of Religion Essay I will be explaining Jung understands and his views of religion. Jung first starts with the key concept of the mind which is the three concepts of consciousness – consciousness, personal unconsciousness and the collective consciousness. Consciousness is where we actively make decisions and choices. The thoughts are based on a sensory experience e. g. the things we see, smell, hear, touch and taste. These are directly accessible. The personal conscious is out thoughts, feelings, urges which are difficult to bring to the consciousness and they are not directly accessible. They have been environmentally determined. The collective unconsciousness is inherited and the thoughts are shared by everyone – archetypes (inherited ideas: first prints or partners that form the basic blue print for major dynamic counterparts of the human personality. ) Jung believes that the archetypes pre exist in the collective unconscious of humanity. They determine how we both perceive and behave. Archetypes are the source of the ideas or images that is inherited instead of the ideas themselves. The experiences you have construct/create uniform images. We inherit a functional disposition to produce the same or very similar ideas not inherit the idea. This is the reason for a dream dictionary, for example a person could be dreaming that their friend is falling. So the falling is the image drawn from the archetype and the friend is from their experience. So the collective unconscious means that many of our ideas will be shared with people. There are different types of shared archetype examples are: the person – this is the mask that covers out true natures for the benefit of society. The mask could be good impressions of what is expected of us by others or the false impression to manipulate others behaviour and opinions. In our dreams the may manifest itself in images of ourselves appearing at a party in disguise. The shadow – this is our darker sides of us. In dreams it might reveal itself in the form of personification of evil e. g. Satan or monster. It could be deeper of our personality identity beings to be lost and individuals experience the chaos of getting closer to the material structure of psychic life. This commonly is found in the woods. The animus – is the masculine side of a female. They may appear as an exotic, sensual, young man or as heroes. The anima – is the female side of a male. They may appear as a  dancing girl, seductresses or goddess. Jung believes that the way neuroses(mental illness is caused by being psychically imbalanced) occurs is that it arises from being psychically imbalanced (so we become mentally ill if the when the psychic energy – psychological energy by which the work of the personality is performed isn’t flowing as well as it could. To maintain mental health all of the features of the personality need to be balanced so the psychic flows properly. There needs to be a balance between conscious and unconscious and the different archetype. If you fail to do this according to Jung this causes a mental disorder. Jung says through individuation (figuring out who you are and becoming your own self) you become psychically balanced personality through the addition of the range of archetypes into the conscious personality. There are two main process of individuation; the first part is when they come to terms with the outer environment with its challenges through work, friendship and relationship. The second part is from a middle age onwards is to come to terms with one’s own personality. For example a mid-life crisis, this is when someone is in the middle of their life they want what they never had in their youth age e.g. a sports car. They want to become psychically balanced as they missed out when they was youths. The things that come from the archetype such as images or thoughts are considered to be religious. Jung redefines religious thought as the numinous. This relies on Rudolf Otto’s understanding of the religious or numinous experience. According to Otto’s a numinous experience affects our consciousness which is caused by something external to our consciousness. Any experience which is archetypal in origin can be stated as religious. All archetypal images are ineffable (indescribable) . Our images of god are themselves archetypal. The concept of god is one of these primordial images (an archetype). Everyone is born with the tendency to generate religious images of god and angels . the actual image that we have of god are through our experiences in the world. An example of a case study is where Miss Miller had a dream about a moth’s desire for light. Jung said this parallel between god and light can be found in countless religious traditions e. g. the Aztec preoccupation with the sun and the Christian view of Jesus as ‘light of the world’. The role of religion is the process of individuation. The two reasons he gave was the self archetype this guides and controlled the innate process of individuation. Individuation is a religious process. The second reason is the self archetype generates images of wholeness. For example the mandala – means circle and is perfectly balanced, the design is symmetrical which represents the balance and wholeness same with Islamic art instead the repetitive patterns to show his eternality. Jung argues that god images are beneficial to our health. The images are used by the mind to individuate the personality, the personality then achieve its goal of integration. Religion now becomes clear, the ones that reject religion are therefore less likely to individuate successfully and is most likely to experience neurosis as a result. Jung concludes that the existence of an actual god is similar to Freud’s – there is no proof either way. We don’t know where the archetype actually comes from and we don’t know the origin of the-psyche because there are ineffable. As a psychic reality – god is real to those who experience the effect of archetypes. Jung always considered religious beliefs to be a natural expression of the collective unconscious.

A Remote Desktop Application For Android

A Remote Desktop Application For Android The aim of this project is to develop a simple-to-use remote desktop application which enables users to remote view contents of their desktop and view, create, edit and delete files and folders remotely. The application runs on a portable device (such as a cell-phone or tablet) which fully supports the Android mobile platform and is equipped with features like WiFi, touchscreen, document editor etc. An important goal of this endeavour is to keep the application user-friendly and easy-to-use. The application uses the same protocol as Microsoft Windows for file sharing. Thus, implementing and using the application in a domain environment where each user has access to specific files and folders makes sense. This also enables true mobility and control over the user-account in a university or office setting. In conclusion, the application works perfectly when the target remote machine is in the same network as the mobile device. For accessing a domain share, the device needs to be connected to the domain via VPN (Virtual Private Network). The application is expected to work in the same fashion with a VPN like it does over an actual network. Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation In computing, the term remote desktop refers to software or an operating system characteristic which allows applications, often including graphical applications, to be run remotely on a server while being displayed locally (1). In practise, the term remote desktop has a very broad meaning which could pertain to any of the specific uses of this feature. Also, each implementation of programs that enable remote access is different as the services provided by each of them vary. Applications of remote desktop are numerous and depend on the setting in which it is used. An important use is in the domain environment where a central server machine (or group of servers) controls all the other clients that are connected to it. In such a situation, certain programs which need a lot of resources are run on the server and are accessed by the client computers via remote sharing. This approach eliminates the need for multiple licenses or expensive client machines. Network administrators can also use remote desktop to maintain and when required, troubleshoot a remote client machine. This reduces the need for a large number of technical support staff (2). Remote desktop also serves as a handy utility for the end-user. It allows an employee to work from home by making available the same set of software and settings which are provided at office. A student can access all their important files and documents stored at the university computer without being physically present anywhere near the campus. A novice user can get help with installation of particular software remotely from an expert (3). To use remote desktop, one needs specialised software. Though there are a plethora of remote desktop clients available for the desktop on all major operating systems, the options for mobile platforms are quite scarce. This is majorly due to a variety of operating systems in use and restricted resources available in mobile devices. In addition to it, the few usable solutions are either quite expensive or are no longer supported. This prompted me to take up the challenge of developing a practical, easy-to-use remote desktop application for the ultra-portable platform which needs no technical know-how to setup and run. Chapter 2 Literature Survey 2.1 The Android Platform Today, there exist a number of operating platforms for mobile devices. A majority of them are proprietary and are adopted by a handful of device manufacturers. Thus, developing for such platforms would provide little in way of commercial value to the application. Also, it will be available to only a small section of smartphone users. Porting the app to other mobile platforms is also not an alternative as this would require drastic changes in its code which would require additional man hours. An exception to the above mentioned problem is the Android platform for mobile devices. Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware  [1]  and key applications (4). Android was originated by a group of companies known as the Open Handset Alliance, led by Google. Today, many more companies which involve cellular service providers, OEMs and developers have invested in Android and have adopted it for their products (5). As can be seen from the following figure, the architecture of the platform is no different from traditional PC architectures. Figure 1: The Android Architecture (Source: Wikimedia Commons) The lowest layer of the architecture consists of the Linux kernel which has all the drivers needed to communicate with the hardware. This layer is also called the Hardware abstraction layer. The layer above it has android core libraries written in C/C++. It also has the Dalvik virtual Machine which provides inter-process abstraction. On top of the libraries is the API  [2]  layer which enables component re-use and better application design. The topmost layer has all core applications which ship with the OS. An important attribute of the Android platform is that it is open-source. Thus, its source code is freely available which enables developers to use readily available APIs for developing robust applications quickly. Also, as the system requirements of Android are quite less, it is suitable for mid-range to ultra-high-end devices. As a result, Android can be seen in mobile phones, e-readers, PDAs and even netbooks (6). There is also an active developers community for Android which provides support via e-mail and web forums. Thus, it is not hard to see why Android provides an ideal platform for application development. Figure 2: A typical home-screen for Android devices (Source: developers.android.com) The screenshot above shows a home screen of an android device. This device is a mobile phone and thus has applications such as contacts, phone and messaging on the home screen. A variety of tablet computers, electronic book readers and netbook computers also use android and have icons relevant apps on the home screen. The white bar on the top is the notification bar which works the same way as the notification area in Microsoft windows. It displays battery level, signal strength, time and current network connection. 2.2 Android Application basics Applications for the android platform are written in the JAVA programming language. For deploying an application to a device, the java code is first compiled and then bundled into an android package which is in the .apk format. The latter operation is done by the Android Asset Packaging Tool or aapt. In Android, every application runs in its own Linux process. Android starts the process when any of the applications code needs to be executed, and shuts down the process when its no longer needed and system resources are required by other applications. Each process has its own virtual machine (VM), so application code runs in isolation from the code of all other applications. No other application is aware about the existence of the other. By default, each application is assigned a unique Linux user ID. Permissions are set so that the applications files are visible only to that user and only to the application itself. 2.3 Application components A unique feature of the android platform is that each application can use a feature provided by some other application without having to actually implement it. This encourages code-reuse and saves precious man hours spent in development. Unlike applications on most other systems, Android applications dont have a single entry point for everything in the application (no main() function, for example). Rather, they have essential components that the system can instantiate and run as needed. There are four types of components: 2.3.1 Activities An activity is a visual representation for any task that application intends to fulfil. For example, an activity could be a list of images in a gallery, a menu with settings for the user or a phonebook with contacts. An activity can spawn another activity whenever an event occurs. In the phonebook activity, when a user clicks on a contact, another activity is created which allows the user to either call or send a text message to that contact. Each activity has a view associated with it. This view provides visual elements such as text fields, buttons, checkboxes etc. These elements might have some listeners associated with them which trigger an action when interacted with. 2.3.2 Services A service might not be visible to a user but it runs indefinitely in the background and could be used by an activity. For example, a service might play background music as the user attends to other matters, or it might fetch data over the network or calculate something and provide the result to activities that need it. A prime example is a media player playing songs from a play list. The player application would probably have one or more activities that allow the user to choose songs and start playing them. However, the music playback itself would not be handled by an activity because users will expect the music to keep playing even after they leave the player and begin something different. To keep the music going, the media player activity could start a service to run in the background. The system would then keep the music playback service running even after the activity that started it leaves the screen. Like activities and the other components, services run in the main thread of the application process. So that they wont block other components or the user interface, they often spawn another thread for time-consuming tasks (like music playback). 2.3.4 Broadcast receivers A broadcast receiver is a component that does nothing but receives and reacts to broadcast announcements. These announcements can be anything that are meant to inform user about occurrence of an event such as email arrival, low battery indication, change of track in the music player and so on. Applications can also initiate broadcasts for example, to let other applications know that some data has been downloaded to the device and is available for them to use. An application can have any number of broadcast receivers to respond to any announcements it considers important. Broadcast receivers do not display a user interface. However, they may start an activity in response to the information they receive, or they may use the Notification Manager to alert the user. Notifications can get the users attention in various ways flashing the backlight, vibrating the device, playing a sound, and so on. They typically place a persistent icon in the status bar, which users can open to get the message. 2.3.5 Content providers A content provider makes a specific set of the applications data available to other applications. They basically provide for interprocess communication. The content provider extends the ContentProvider base class to implement a standard set of methods that enable other applications to retrieve and store data of the type it controls. However, applications do not call these methods directly. Rather they use a ContentResolver object and call its methods instead. A ContentResolver can talk to any content provider to manage communication with processes. Whenever theres a request that should be handled by a particular component, Android makes sure that the application process of the component is running, starting it if necessary, and that an appropriate instance of the component is available, creating the instance if it is necessary. 2.4 A typical Android project directory structure Figure 1 shows the directory structure of an android project named filegetter. Here, the first folder src holds the java source files for the project. These files contain actual java code which is written by the developers. In this case, the source files are held in a package named hardik.test.browse. The package helps to keep the source files together allowing easy access to data and variable within the project. Figure 3: Directory structure of an Android project The next folder is gen which consists of auto generated java files. These files are generated when the project is build/compiled. Information about variables, strings and layouts are stored in these files. Android 1.6 is the build of the android platform against which the application is being created. This is important as each build has some special classes which may not be present in an earlier one. Referenced Libraries consists of list of all third party or external libraries used for our project. In our case, it will consist of the JCIFS library (explained later). The assests folder in generally unused and it may hold required files if needed. The res folder has drawable, layout and values subfolders. Drawable consists of icons and other graphical elements of the application and is divided into three subfolders according to resolution of target device. The layout folder holds .xml layout files which decide elements like button, text box, list etc. for the application. The values folder is used for providing id for different components of the application. The AndroidManifest.xml is an important element of an android project. In this file, all the activities and services of the application are described. Other elements such as application permissions for the application are also described. Finally, the default.properties file has an entry for the build of target devices for which the application is being developed. 2.5 Android in the Market According to a May report by market research group NDP, the Android operating system performed quite well in the first quarter (Q1) of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems. NPDs wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28% behind Research In Motions Blackberry OS (36%) and ahead of Apples OS (21%) (7). These figures indicate a rise in popularity in the android platform. Also a large range of available handsets means that consumers will be able to choose according to their needs and budgets. This increase in market share also means that more developers will be willing to develop for Android making it a competitive, mainstream product. 2.6 Remote Desktop Implementation Currently, there exist a variety of applications for PC which use either proprietary or generic/open-source protocols for remote desktop implementation. All of these applications are based on the server-client model where the server side of the software operates on the target machine and the client application is run on the remote host. Either of the machines may function as client or server provided both of them are equipped with required software. Figure 4: Implementation of a traditional client-server model (Source: acm.org) Various protocols can be used for remote access. Each of these provides a specific set of functionalities that may be common to another protocol or unique to that particular protocol. Listed below are some of the protocols used for remote access and file sharing. These are widely used in several desktop clients in the market today. 2.6.1 RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) It is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft which provides remote display and input capabilities over network connections for windows-based applications running on a server (8). The RDP is encapsulated within the TCP layer and uses separate virtual channels for carrying data, licensing information, encrypted information and so on. All versions of windows after windows XP support Remote Desktop via RDP. But only the professional and ultimate versions come with the Remote Desktop Server program which enables a user to share their screen (9). 2.6.2 RFB (Remote Framebuffer) Protocol RFB is a simple protocol for remote access to graphical user interfaces. Because it works at the framebuffer level it is applicable to all windowing systems and applications, including Linux, Windows and Macintosh. It is primarily used by the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) software and its derivatives. By default, it uses TCP port 5900 for the client and port 5500 for the server (10). 2.6.3 SMB (Server Message Block) The Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol is a network file sharing protocol which allows a client application in a network to read and write files on and request services from the server on the same network. The SMB protocol requires a secure and encrypted authentication method and is thus more secure than other file sharing methods. Microsoft provides an SMB client and server with its Windows operating system. For Linux based systems, a utility called Samba is freely available for using the protocol (11). Chapter 3 Design One of the major hurdles faced in designing a remote access client is to decide upon the protocol to be used. Out of the available ones mentioned before, the RDP and SMB protocols allow screen-capturing of the remote machine onto the client device. This allows the user to interact with the desktop in real-time. Both these protocols have been implemented successfully in a variety of programs for all three popular (Windows, Mac OS and Linux) desktop platforms. Upon deciding the project, the intent was to use one of these protocols for the application. But the following difficulties were experienced during the development phase. 3.1 RDP and RFB Implementation issues 3.1.1 Absence of library classes While implementing either RDP or RFB, one can use the Robot class present in Java which can mimic the mouse, simulate keyboard interactions and capture the screen of a remote host over the network (12). This class is unfortunately absent in android and thus cannot be used. This makes it difficult to perform the above mentioned functions in android as no alternative classes exist. Current RFB and RDP implementations on Android have made use of similar projects on the desktop environment by forking  [3]  the source code from these projects. These existing projects use external libraries without proper documentation and at times are written in a non-java programming language. Thus, comprehending the original code and then forking it would take a lot more time than the projects duration. 3.1.2 Need for server side installation Both the protocols (RFB and RDP) required a server side program running on the target machine. This program is bundled with server editions of most operating systems but require purchase on all other editions. Also, there may be compatibility issues if the server is running a RDP implementation and the device has a client using the RFB protocol. This will result into failed communication between the server and the client. Due to the aforementioned issues, remote access will be implemented by using the SMB protocol. 3.2 Benefits of the SMB protocol An enhanced version of the SMB called CIFS  [4]  (Common Internet File Sharing) has been in place since Windows 2000 and it provides a host of features when compared to other such protocols (13). 3.2.1 Greater accessibility The SMB protocol for resource sharing has been used by Microsoft for their operating systems since Windows 95. In a domain environment, SMB is used to provide access to relevant resources to every user. In Linux too, a free utility called Samba which uses the SMB protocol, comes with most distributions. Thus, out-of-box functionality can be provided to any client requiring remote access. 3.2.2 Added security CIFS provides flexibility to allow anonymous transfers as well as secure, authenticated access to resources. Policies can also be easily managed and changed whenever required 3.2.3 Support for slow connection Access to shared resources and transfer of resources is also supported on slower connections. Thus, using a 3G or EDGE connection from a device will not be an issue while accessing remote files. 3.2.4 Performance and scalability CIFS servers are highly integrated with the operating system. Thus they function as part of the OS and not third party programs. This guarantees maximum system performance at all times (13). 3.3 SMB Authentication Method Authentication over SMB occurs mainly through the NTLM (NT Lan Manager) that works on systems using windows and on Linux/Unix distributions via the Samba server (14). NTLM is a challenge-response authentication protocol which uses three messages to authenticate a client in a connection oriented environment, and a fourth additional message if integrity is desired (15). The following figure shows exchange of messages between the client and server during authentication. Figure 5: Message sequence to authenticate an SMB session As seen in the above figure, the client negotiates protocol-specific options using the SMB_COM_NEGOTIATE request and the server replies with similar response messages as shown by (1) and (2) respectively. The client then sends an SMB_COM_SESSION_SETUP_ANDX request message. In cases where NTLM authentication is negotiated, within this message an NTLMNEGOTIATE_MESSAGE is embedded. The server responds with an SMB_COM_SESSION_SETUP_ANDX response message within which an NTLM CHALLENGE_MESSAGE is embedded. The message includes an 8-byte random number, called a challenge that the server generates and sends in the ServerChallenge field of the message. The client then extracts the ServerChallenge field from the NTLM CHALLENGE_MESSAGE and sends an NTLM AUTHENTICATE_MESSAGE to the server (embedded in an SMB_COM_SESSION_SETUP_ANDX request message). If the challenge and the response prove that the client knows the users password, the authentication succeeds and the clients security context is now established on the server. To acknowledge this, the server sends a success message embedded in an SMB_COM_SESSION_SETUP_ANDX response message. 3.4 SMB Packet Exchange The following lists an example of a packet exchange between a client and a server via the SMB protocol (16). The client and the server establish a NetBIOS  [5]  connection. The client and server negotiate the Microsoft SMB Protocol dialect. The client logs on to the server. The client connects to a share on the server. The client opens a file on the share. The client reads from the file The connection being full-duplex, file transfer can occur from both ends. Chapter 4 Implementation 4.1 Flowchart In any application, the flow diagram is an important figure that helps one visualize the interactions a user might have with the application and the possible outcomes of these interactions. Figure 6: Flowchart 4.2 UML Use Case diagram Use cases are used to identify and partition system functionality. They separate the system into actors and use cases. Actors represent roles that can are played by users of the system. Those users can be humans, other computers, pieces of hardware, or even other software systems. The only criterion is that they must be external to the part of the system being partitioned into use cases. These actors can interact with the system in a variety of ways which create various outputs. The outputs may be for the users or for other components of the system. Figure 7: Use cases The figure above shows a users interaction with the application. The user can access the Remote resources provided they are logged in to the remote share. Similarly, they can download a file to the local resources only if the file is present in the remote share. Chapter 5 Results 5.1 Experimental Setup For evaluating the results, the application was used on an android handset with Android platform version 2.2. The remote server was a laptop running windows 7. Files and folders were shared using the SMB protocol with mandatory authentication to all shared resources. The target machine and the mobile device were both connected to the same wireless network. 5.2 Application Screenshots Figure 8: On Start-up As seen above, the user is presented with a tabbed view with local file system selected. Different icons are used for various datatypes. Figure 9: Local Photo folder Seen above is the photo folder located on the memory card of the device. The two green arrows on the top represent up and back buttons which are used for navigation. Figure 10: Login screen Login screen on clicking the Remote tab. Figure 11: Unsuccessful login (pop-up appears) Figure 12: Remote download Downloading remote file to memory card on click. Figure 13: Operations on remote file Bibliography 1. Remote Desktop Software. Wikipedia. [Online] [Cited: 25 June 2010.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_desktop_software. 2. Remote desktop. TopBits Tech Community. [Online] [Cited: 25 June 2010.] http://www.topbits.com/remote-desktop.html. 3. 5 Best Remote Desktop and administration application. TechieZone. [Online] [Cited: 25 June 2010.] http://techiezone.in/reviews/5-best-remote-desktop-and-administration-application/. 4. About the Android Open Source Project. Android. [Online] [Cited: 26 June 2010.] http://source.android.com/about/index.html. 5. Philosophy and Goals. Android. [Online] [Cited: 26 June 2010.] http://source.android.com/about/philosophy.html. 6. List of Android Devices. Wikipedia. [Online] [Cited: 26 July 2010.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Android_devices. 7. Android shakes up U.S. smartphone market. NDP. [Online] [Cited: 7 July 2010.] http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100510.html. 8. MSDN Remote Desktop Protocol. MSDN. [Online] [Cited: 4 July 2010.] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383015.aspx. 9. Understanding the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Microsoft Support. [Online] [Cited: 5 July 2010.] http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q186607. 10. Richardson, Tristan. The RFB Protocol Version 3.8 (2009-11-24). RealVNC. [Online] [Cited: 10 July 2010.] http://www.realvnc.com/docs/rfbproto.pdf. 11. Server Message Block Protocol. Search Networking. [Online] [Cited: 25 July 2010.] http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci214214,00.html. 12. Java Remote Desktop Administration. The Code Project. [Online] [Cited: 21 July 2010.] http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/RemoteAdminJava.aspx. 13. CIFS. Protocol Base. [Online] [Cited: 20 July 2010.] http://www.protocolbase.net/protocols/protocol_CIFS.php. 14. Integrating additional services. Samba.org. [Online] [Cited: 2 August 2010.] http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-Guide/DomApps.html. 15. Microsoft NTLM. MSDN (Microsoft Developers Network). [Online] [Cited: 5 August 2010.] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378749(VS.85).aspx. 16. Microsoft SMB protocol packet exchange scenario. Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN). [Online] [Cited: 10 August 2010.] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365236(v=VS.85).aspx.