Tutor profile: Tonya O.

Why are cloud-based applications becoming more popular than locally installed software? What are the advantages of cloud-based applications?

Cloud-based software has a decentralized infrastructure typically used for storage while locally installed software typically relies on the data located in a single machine. The advantage with cloud-based storage is that the information is stored over multiple computers or locations on a network so that it is accessible from multiple locations, such as from home, school, or the office from different devices. This also provides redundancy in that if a single device that accesses the data or a single server in the cloud that provides the data stops functioning the data is still accessible to other devices from other servers in the cloud. Let me know if you need more help!

Can you help me find peer-reviewed journal articles about therapy animals used with patients with Autism?

One option is to do a search on Google Scholar (scholar.google.com), but this site does not allow you to limit your results by peer-reviewed articles, so you would have to look further for this information in each result. Your best option would be to see what databases your school/university and/or local public library offer. If your school does not offer the database you need, or if you need more options, try your local library's website to see what databases they offer. If you have access to databases such as EBSCOhost or Proquest, you should be able to use the advanced search to limit your search by peer-reviewed articles, full text, and a date range. Then start by searching with these terms: "therapy animals" AND Autism -- the quotation marks will ensure that your search finds therapy animals and not one word or the other. By including AND you'll get articles that also include Autism. Let me know if you need more help!

I am writing a paper comparing the worlds of a few dystopian novels to the current state of our world. Can you please help me find literary critisms of The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451?

Google Scholar is a good resource for finding access to literary criticisms from home. Access the site by going to scholar.google.com and search for the title of the book and literary criticism. You can often find books such as Bloom's Guide's, as well as some articles. You can set limits such as a date range of publication if needed. However, you may find that some articles require you to log in through your school -- if this is the case, see if your school has access to these databases. You may have to access them directly through your university's website. Another option is to see what databases your local public library offers on their website. For example, my local library offers Gale Literary Sources and Gale Virtual Reference Library, both of which offer literary criticisms and other information about authors and their works, as well as EBSCOhost. Let me know if you need more help!