Sources of virus infections

Table 8 illustrates changes in the most typical sources of computer virus infections. Mainly two of these sources express reflects develop in computer technologies and their interaction with our society. In 1992 disks are the most probably way to infect a computer, and almost nobody receive a virus as an electronic mail attachment. However, ten years later the trends actually changes. An e-mail is the most likelihood door to infect a computer, while use of diskettes decrease yearly, so it decreases as a source of virus infections. If this tendency is projecting to our days, most of the efforts to prevent a virus must be directed to prevent infections trough e-mails. Probably, in the same sense that develops as the electronic mail change the patrons of viruses’ distributions in the last decades, today the advances in cloud computing could produce a new scenario for the combat against computer virus infections.

Regular and Makeup Exam: a possible explanation of the gap

Dear Professor

The gap in the average scores between regular and makeup exam could have different explanations. In order to develop a systematic analysis of these possible causes, we can classify these alternative antecedents in three big groups:

a)      Related to the test

b)      Related to the environmental conditions

c)      Related to the students

As you can see in Table 1, the tests are similar for both groups. Both exams have a total score of 100, and the same difficulty. We can infer that the test in not the cause of the gap.

However, the environmental conditions have several changes between regular and makeup date. First of all, the students in the regular exam have board examples, while the participants in makeup exam do not. Probably, this is one of the causes which explain the difference average score. Another external condition that could affect the students’ performance was temperature, because the students in the makeup exam have to handle a higher temperature than their classmates in the regular date. Meantime on Wednesday at 7 it was 20 Celsius degrees, on Friday at 4 the temperature was 28.

 The third hypothesis is related to students. Why students choose do the exam in makeup date? It may be a reason of preparation or availability. In the first situation, if the student does not feel comfortable to do the exam on Wednesday, probably he did not study a lot during the semester. In the second, students with less free-time likely have fewer score.

	Regular exam	Makeup exam
Average score (out of 100) Time administered Difficulty of questions Number of students Proctor Board examples Room environment	86 Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. average 125 professor yes about 20C	72 Friday, 4:00 p.m. average 25 teaching assistant no (not considered necessary) about 28C

However, we cannot be sure of the real cause of the gap. Probably, to know specific scores for each student could help us to understand. It is known that the averages illustrate some characteristics of a sample… meanwhile others remain hidden.

Lit Review

Since the late 80s, researches about the relationship learner’s beliefs and the acquisition of a second language are going increasingly rise. From the firsts descriptive studies developed by Horwitz (1985, 1987, 1988), more complex research has been performed. While we can the 80s as the beginning time in this field, the 90s could be characterized as a decade of correlation. In that decade, most researchers went beyond descriptions, and establishing correlation between two variables. In that period, some researchers established a correlation between learners’ beliefs and specific dimensions of second language acquisition, like anxiety (Oh, 1996) and autonomy (Cotterall, 1995). Other correlational studies in those years found relationship between learners’ beliefs about language and more general or epistemological beliefs (Mori, 1999), and between teachers’ and students’ beliefs and proficiency (Peacock, 1998). However, in 90s some studies established a deeper relationship, affirming a causal relation between two variables.  These studies affirm that students’ beliefs are influenced for other variables, such as teachers’ beliefs (Kern, 1995), culture (Mori, 1999), or cultural training training (Mantle-Bromley, 1995).  So, if 90s are characterized for a focus in correlational studies and an emerging effort to established causal relations, the 2000s are strong focused in the last purpose. Most of the researchers established that learners’ beliefs are an effect of previous causes, such as learning environment (Amuzie & Winke, 2009; Kim, K-Y, 2001; Tanaka, 2000; Tanaka & Ellis, 2003), gender (Bernat & Lloyd, 2007; Henry & Apelgren, 2008)