The purpose of this study was to analyze the rebrand of Victoria's Secret through a consumer perspective. We focused on Instagram, since this platform enables communication between the company and consumer. By analyzing the opinions found in the comment section under the post announcing the rebrand, we were able to see how the new direction was perceived by consumers. Previous research has shown that consumers today have higher expectations of the companies they interact with, which we believe could be another contributing factor to Victoria's Secret’s new identity.  Through a thematic analysis, we were able to find patterns in which opinions were expressed, and then we categorized the opinions into themes. We located three main themes: opinions about the rebrand, identity/image, and corporate responsibility. Our thematic analysis shows that most of the opinions found in the comment section were negative; the Instagram users grieved the old Victoria's Secret and specifically the loss of the Angels. There were also positive reactions expressing gratitude towards the new direction, and neutral comments wanting something more in line with the former identity. To add more depth to our study, we decided to perform a semiotic analysis of two campaigns before and after the rebrand. We perceived that the first one, published in 2019, focused more on portraying the “perfect” woman, while the second one, published in 2022, allowed more of the woman's personality and strength to shine through.  Our conclusion is that Victoria's Secret’s rebrand has been received with mixed reactions. One thing that was made very clear to us is how knowledgeable today's media users are and how they are not afraid to speak up. In the comment section under our chosen post, it showed that the Instagram users strategically chose their expressions and found support in other users with similar opinions. With this in mind, we believe that if a company is to make a similar change today, it is crucial that they listen to and involve their customers.

This essay analyzes the theme of the pursuit of beauty in The Secret History. It analyzes the main characters’ concept of beauty, their manner of seeking beauty, as well as the result of this search. For this analysis, I use Friedrich Nietzsche’s theories of the Apollonian and the Dionysian as outlined in The Birth of Tragedy and in scholarly texts that analyze TBT— which describe the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy as the opposed worlds of order and madness— to define the main characters’ concept of beauty. The narrator of the novel once says that “beauty is terror” (Tartt 45), a statement which paints beauty as harsh and shocking, and potentially destructive. Likewise, in this essay I argue that for these characters beauty is created through the interplay between the Apollonian and the Dionysian, and that its pursuit leads to destruction. I analyze this through the characters of Richard Papen, Henry Winter, and Bunny Corcoran. Richard and Henry pursue beauty in that the actions they take are aimed at embodying an aesthetic ideal. In Richard’s case, it is his longing for beauty which leads him to imitate and join the classicists— particularly by mimicking their socio-economic class— and which eventually places him in a disordered Dionysian world of madness and murder. Henry, on the other hand, is the embodiment of Apollonian order, and it is his search for beauty through a bacchanal which leads him to commit murder twice and, eventually, to take his own life. Lastly, Bunny is different in that he is neither beautiful nor interested in beauty as his peers define it. It is because of this that he is excluded from the others’ pursuit of beauty, that he is murdered, and that his murder is justifiable in the eyes of his murderers. This study finds that, in The Secret History, where beauty is defined as the dance between Apollonian order and Dionysian madness, the Dionysian ends up as the victorious half of the dichotomy, causing the loss of reason and the triumph of destruction and disaster. This portrayal of beauty as destruction and vice versa, rather than serving as the vehicle for a moral indictment, is instead the very purpose of the novel.

KLETEČKOVÁ, D. Anonymous child abandonment in the Czech Republic. Prague: Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, 2014. 131 s. Diploma thesis. In the theoretical part the student aims to map the situation of leaving children anonymously in the Czech Republic in comparison with selected countries in Europe, the history of this phenomenon, the current situation and possible insights into the future. Anonymous leaving of children is studied from several perspectives, in terms of legal, psychological, medical and mainly social point of view. In the empirical part the method of inquiry, namely the interview technique is used. For this purpose experts on the specific areas were interviewed - lawyers, psychologists, doctors and social workers. In the conclusion part the research data are evaluated and possible measures suggested. Key words Anonymous abandoment, secret delivery, babybox, family, child

In this thesis, four different methods for secret sharing with threshold schemes will be investigated. We will discuss theory, implementation and security aspects. For example, we show how some known attacks are implemented.The methods considered in this thesis, are the schemes by Shamir, Blakley, Mignotte and Asmuth-Bloom.

The William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University has one of the largest collections of postcards in the world – over one million cards. The postcards span all decades of history since their conception in the late 19th century. They provide valuable insight into the culture and communication of the past. Head of Archives and Special Collections Cynthia Becht introduces viewers to some of the most important postcards in LMU’s collection. Professor Jason Jarvis provides additional insight on the communication and social aspect of postcards. Postcard designer and letterpress printer, Eric Woods, shares his thoughts on what makes a postcard visually impactful, and the value of handmade materials. Also, Frank Warren shares his journey of how his hit blog, Post Secret, came to be. Postcards is a journey through time and a reminder of why – in a digital world – human connection through material means is still relevant and important.

A secret service agent returns home to reconcile with his wife just as the Rapture begins. His scramble to reunite with her becomes all the more urgent when a violent cult begins terrorizing the city in its final hours

The Book of Mormon and the Book of Moses, sacred scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have woven into their pages a brief history of secret combinations on the "American" continent. Secret combinations have caused the destruction of three previous civilizations that have existed on this continent. The prophet Moroni warned the Latter-day American inhabitants that "This secret combination... shall be among you..." (Ether 8:24). The evidence summarized in this study leads one to the conclusion that the American Mafia Organization (Cosa Nostra) is the same organization warned against in sacred scripture.

Many systems contain sensitive data such as user credentials used for authentication purposes. For large systems, a common approach is to store the data in a configuration file at a trusted third party. However, that would imply a single point of failure if an adversary gains access to the trusted party. In theory this could be solved by encrypting the data but in practice this only moves the problem and does not solve it, since some type of credential data is needed to decrypt the configuration file. A more flexible solution is needed that requires less of human interaction while also providing a higher degree of security. This thesis proposes a complete cryptographical system for solving this problem in a typical enterprise setting with a set of additional implementation requirements by using multi-party computation and Shamir's secret sharing protocol. Additionally, the work combines the mentioned system with a certificateless cryptography based multi-party computation protocol, since certificates usually implies a time-consuming process. The system has been evaluated in terms of security and efficiency with the conclusion that the results look promising. In terms of performance, the bulk of the overhead comes from certificateless cryptography, a constraint for the specific scenario which might not be present in general. The work also provides incentives for developing and further evolving Java libraries for cryptography, especially for multi-party computation and certificateless cryptography. / Många system innehåller känslig data, exempelvis användaruppgifter som används för autentiseringsändamål. För stora system är en vanlig lösning att lagra data i en konfigurationsfil hos en betrodd tredje part. Det skulle emellertid innebära att den svagaste länken är om motståndare får tillgång till den betrodda parten. I teorin kan detta lösas genom att kryptera data men i praktiken flyttar det bara på problemet men löser det inte, eftersom någon typ av autentiseringsdata behövs för att dekryptera konfigurationsfilen. En mer flexibel lösning behövs som kräver mindre mänsklig interaktion samtidigt som det ger en högre grad av säkerhet. Denna avhandling föreslår ett komplett kryptografiskt system för att lösa detta problem i en typisk företagsmiljö med en ytterligare uppsättning implementationskrav genom att använda multipartsberäknande och Shamirs secret sharing protokoll. Dessutom kombinerar arbetet det nämnda systemet med ett certifikatfritt krypteringsbaserat protokoll kombinerat med multipartsberäkningar, eftersom certifikat oftast innebär en tidskrävande process. Systemet har utvärderats med avseende på säkerhet och effektivitet med slutsatsen att det ser lovande ut. När det gäller prestanda kommer huvuddelen av omkostnaden från den certifikatfria kryptografin, en begränsning för det specifika scenariot som kanske inte är närvarande i allmänhet. Arbetet ger också motiv för att vidareutveckla Java-bibliotek för kryptografi, speciellt för multipartsberäknande protokoll och certifikatlös kryptering.

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The aim of the current study was to investigate the way teen pregnancy is portrayed in Seasons 1 and 2 of the television drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Framing theory and social cognitive theory were used as guiding frameworks for exploring the way the main character’s pregnancy was presented and the way this presentation may influence the ideas and behaviors of viewers. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to examine portrayals in the first 23 episodes. Results indicated that teen pregnancy was portrayed in five major ways: as Dramatic, as Identity, as Manageable, as Transformative, and as Serious. Overall, the findings suggest that teen pregnancy was presented in ways that encourage viewers to perceive this issue as positive and negative, with clearly positive outcomes.