Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Values Education Essay - 1157 Words

Australia as a nation is underpinned by the belief of a democratic society that requires the acquisition of essential knowledge, skills and values in order to enable all citizens to proactively play a part in the shaping their preferred future of a more equitable and socially just world (Bliss, 2005). To that end, Values and Values-based Education are considered to be an integral aspect of the Educational landscape as there is a recognition that values are not only a crucial part of a critical understanding of society, but also the key to successful participation in our democracy (Allison Von Wald, 2010). For this reason the incorporation of values in schools is becoming increasingly important, as the active construction and†¦show more content†¦Many of the values that are discussed within the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools are inexplicably linked to the issues explored throughout the Queensland Senior Legal Studies Syllabus 2007. The Nation al Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools document (Australian Government Department Of Education, Science and Training, 2005) incorporates a foundation vision for improved Values Education in Australian schools; eight Guiding Principles as well as key elements and approaches providing practical guidance to support schools in implementing Values Education; and nine values for Australian Schooling that emerged from Australian school communities and from the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, which underlines the importance of Values-Based learning experiences in the classroom, working in conjunction with modern educational policy to complement both the fundamental inclusion of valuesShow MoreRelatedThe Value Of An Education1037 Words   |  5 PagesWhat is the value of an education really worth in today’s society? In order to clearly understand the worth of an education, one would have to understand what the word education reall y means. According to dictionary.com, it defines the term education as, â€Å"the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgement, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/education). An educationRead MoreValue of Education1441 Words   |  6 PagesValue of Education In his essay â€Å"Is College Worth the Money?†, Daniel S. Cheever, Jr. contends that, â€Å"The real question is whether students are getting their money’s worth† (102). He emphasizes the value of education and not only the cost. Higher education is the focus of Cheever’s essay, but I believe the same question of worth can be asked concerning elementary through high school education as well. Both public and private schools offer distinctive educational opportunities and each individualRead MoreValue Based Education: a Need of Today2339 Words   |  10 PagesThe Phrase Value Based Education, in wide use in present times comes closest in meaning to the Sanskrit word Vidya as it was used by the Gurus or preceptors of ancient India. Vid - ya means that which illumines. As such, it was identified with knowledge that illumines the mind and soul. Since the imparting of knowledge was the aim of education, over a period of time, education also came to be known as Vidya. But, the highest goal of Vidya as visualized by the seers and seekers was to understandRead MoreThe Value Of Culture Of Education Essay1519 Words   |  7 Pages The Value of Culture in Education All individuals are affected in one way or another by the culture, or the beliefs and traditions of our society. The various layers of culture assist in designing the future of an individual, but more importantly the educational culture affects the success of the student. Cathy Davidson, author of Project Classroom Makeover, claims that the current culture of education is negatively affecting the students by narrowing the spectrum of success. Susan Faludi, authorRead More Education Values Essays780 Words   |  4 Pagesnot only educational values but societal values as well. Three areas in particular that have been eliciting much discussion are bilingual education programs, services within schools for gay and lesbian students, and inclusion of multicultural curricula. Among each of these programs, questions have been raised about their relativity to education and the comprehensive research to prove that these programs are beneficial to students. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Bilingual education is a fairly new programRead MoreThe Precious Value Of Education952 Words   |  4 Pages The precious Value of education 7:25 to 2:15. We spend 180 days a year here. We spend 900 hours here. We spend the majority of our adolescence here. School. We ,the millennial generation, are in our prime time for intellectual development, ready to forment our opinions, beliefs, and our perspectives on life. The information we process flows into our thoughts, then into our actions, then into our habits. These habits become our identity. We can not help but absorb and evaluate the flowRead More Value of an Education Essays1372 Words   |  6 PagesValue of an Education In todays society education is really important. Education has evolved a lot over time and has shaped American society. Back in the day, education was not as important because many jobs did not have educational requirements. In those days you could have a high school diploma and get a good job. Today, if you only have a high school diploma the types of jobs that you can get include fast food restaurants or maybe construction work. Getting your college degree is very essentialRead MoreThe Value Of University Education Essay1702 Words   |  7 PagesOn the Value of University Education The nature of attaining a higher level of education has changed drastically since the end of WWII with more than triple the percentage of the population attending at least some college. While receiving advanced degree used to be an opportunity only for the rich or those going into a specialized profession, it now has become an integral part of the American Dream. However, historically such mass education was never the point of university, and the value of theirRead MoreThe Value of Education Essay1028 Words   |  5 PagesThe Value of Education Learning and knowledge are highly prized in all societies, especially here in Ireland, where there is a strong tradition of respect for education. The choices that individuals make when leaving school, in particular whether to pursue higher education or not, are likely to have a long lasting effect on their lifestyle. The main purposes for a University education involve: social, national and educational purposes and for the individual personal purposes and moral developmentRead MoreThe True Value Of Informal Education Essay1384 Words   |  6 PagesThe True Value of Informal Education Although about fifty percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation, the United States has only the sixth highest divorce rate in the world. This statistic alone shows how broken families have managed to become the social norm across the nation and that the â€Å"American Dream† is, in most cases, unattainable. A study conducted by Andrew J. Cherlin concluded that children that experienced divorces received lower results at school.

Monday, December 16, 2019

The Importance Of Imperialism In Joseph Conrads Heart Of...

On the surface, Conrad’s work seems to simply stress, â€Å"Humanity is important; fidelity is the highest virtue† (Moser, 1966, pg 11) but is both more subtle and complex. Even in the title of the book, Heart of Darkness, has significance. Africa’s Victorian era nickname was the ‘dark continent’, which â€Å"referred to the fact that little was known in the West about the interior of the continent† (yourdictionary.com, 2017). Therefore, Congo is the interior or ‘heart’ of Africa. This title also alludes to the darkness or the primitiveness in mans mind and heart. This essence of savagery, brutality and cruelty is represented in Kurtz, the devil himself. Kurtz is the heart of darkness. Imperialism is central to the novel because it allows men to†¦show more content†¦Kurtz embodies the lust for wealth and possession, and a desire to dominate other all for colonialism in the name of educating and civilizing the popular. Justified under the cover of bringing a bright light into the savages lives but the irony is that he is overshadowed by the darkness of his own heart. Kurts had succumbed to the darkness and Marlow emphasizes the insanity that overwhelms him. â€Å"Everything belonged to him – but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. †¦ – it was not good for one either – trying to imagine. He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land† (Conrad, 2009, pg 174-175) Krutz best represents the biggest irony. Krutz wanted to tame the cannibals and viewed that whites where superior to the natives. Highly progressive, he had preached morality concept but at the end of his report he had scrawled, â€Å"Exterminate all the brutes† (Conrad,Show MoreRelatedHeart of Darkness on the Flaws of Imperial Authority1024 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"Heart of Darkness† on the Flaws of Imperial Authority Throughout Joseph Conrad’s â€Å"Heart of Darkness† despite the many conditions of the described Africa most if not all the characters agree that these conditions indeed differ from the conditions found in Europe. In working through conversations with Chinua Achebe’s Colonialist Criticism and An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness it can be brought to light that not only is Conrad’s â€Å"Heart of Darkness† a novel that criticizesRead MoreCorruption Of Imperialism In Joseph Conrads Heart Of Darkness1473 Words   |  6 Pagesbecome corrupt themselves. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad relates to both the idea that an individual can become corrupt in a corrupt environment, and that some individuals can uphold their integrity in a corrupt situation. Both of these reactions can be seen in the main characters of Heart of Darkness, Kurtz and Marlow, in Kurtz’ becoming corrupt due to imperialism in the Congo, while still upholdin g some integrity, and in Marlow’s continuing integrity in spite of imperialism, while still losing someRead MoreThe Significant Role of Women in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness1986 Words   |  8 PagesIn the 1900s novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the protagonist often encounters women at landmarks of his life. Charlie Marlow is a sailor and imperialist who sets out along the Congo River to â€Å"civilize† the â€Å"savages.† The novella begins with a crew on the Thames waiting for the tides to change. During their wait, a character named Marlow tells of his exploits on the African continent. In his recounted travels, Marlow meets other imperialists such as Mr. Kurtz, a man who is obsessed withRead MoreJoseph Conrad s Heart Of Darkness1198 Words   |  5 Pages Joseph Conrad, in his novel Heart of Darkness, comments on the nature of imperialism, the individual psyche, and the evil inherent in the human condition. Chinua Achebe, a contemporary liter ary critic, argues that as the protagonist, Marlow, travels through the Congo, Conrad maintains a Western imperialist attitude towards the African natives. According to the novel, the natives are a sort of animalistic backdrop, a part of a landscape to merely house Kurtz and Marlow’s metaphysical battle. TheRead More The Evil of Colonialism and Imperialism in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad1559 Words   |  7 PagesColonialism in Heart of Darkness   Ã‚  Ã‚   A masterpiece of twentieth-century writing, Heart of Darkness exposes the tenuous fabric that holds civilization together and the brutal horror at the center of European colonialism. Joseph Conrads novella, Heart of Darkness, describes a life-altering journey that the protagonist, Marlow, experiences in the African Congo.   The story explores the historical period of colonialism in Africa to exemplify Marlows struggles. Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness is mostRead More The Lie of Imperialism Exposed in Literature Essay3048 Words   |  13 Pagesa full understanding of the far-reaching effects of European imperialism (Groden and Kreiswirth 582). Reading colonial literature in dialogue with postcolonial literature engenders a more complete interpretation of the effects of imperialism by creating a point of reference from which to begin the revelation and the healing of cultural wounds resultant from European colonialism. Postcolonial literature reveals the lie of imp erialism by suggesting that colonization was unsolicited by and unjustlyRead More The Changing Personality of Kurtz in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness887 Words   |  4 PagesHeart of Darkness   - The Changing   Personality of Kurtz      Ã‚   Kurtzs character is fully facet (in Conrads Heart of Darkness), not because of his conventional roll of antagonist, but for his roll in a historical fiction as a character with important roll in society, influenced by those close to him. Kurtz makes some key developments in the way he interacts with others, in large part due to the words and actions of society and Kurtzs acquaintances.    Heart of Darkness is a novelRead MoreOppression of Imperialism in Poisonwood Bible and Heart of Darkness1453 Words   |  6 Pages Imperialism has been a constant oppressive force upon societies dating back hundreds of years. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, illustrates this oppression by providing an instance of its occurrence in the Congo of Africa, while simultaneously setting the stage for The Poisonwood Bible, which is essentially the continuation of the story. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, demonstrates how the Congo is still affected by modern circumstances and ideology. Conrad’s novella acts as aRead MoreEssay On Heart Of Darkness720 Words   |  3 PagesBook Review: Heart of Darkness When reading Joseph Conrad’s stunning work of literary fiction, Heart of Darkness, one is transported to the Congo’s jungles itself and has to ferociously fight until the end. The novel is readable to those determined to reach the end; the words are arranged almost in a way that makes the reader feel the struggle of the Congo. Reading the novel is indeed a journey itself, making the end worth the struggle. In Heart of Darkness, the narrator is in fact not the realRead MoreHeart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad1436 Words   |  6 PagesIn Joseph Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness one encounters the telling of Conrad’s adventures on a steamship traveling up the Congo when numerous, drastic accountancies take place. During this Victorian age, men are seen as heroes and women are occupied by roles of domesticity, which ironically the story tells quite the opposite from these two ideals. Throughout the text, one will also learn from the imperialistic society that is set forth by the Europeans and the controversy that arises because of the

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Photography We aim to portray the world at night Essay Example For Students

Photography We aim to portray the world at night Essay We aim to portray the world at night. We will be paying special attention to how electrical light sources highlight the world around us, provide our understanding of objects through highlighted areas, surfaces and colours. The mood and change in representation of the objects perceived by lights will also be taken into consideration to the point where some photos develop emotive qualities. Using longer exposures to keep a wide range of tones and clarity. The images will all have similar characteristics which run through the whole slide show, such as bright orange skies and deep shadow areas. They will have a range of locations as we thought that staying just in Lincoln would produce images with too little change in them. They will show not only industrial uses for lighting, but also recreational such as outside clubs and bars. There will also be the safety aspect, looking at car headlights and the use of lighting to improve safety on pavements and walkways such as streetlights and pelican crossings. Edward S. Curtis, Photographed the Navaho Indians in the early 1900s. The photographs depicted the American Indians isolation and their way of life. They were very striking photos with bold highlights and good composition. The same characteristics would work well with nighttime photography because when it is dark it also seems desolate and people feel isolated and vulnerable. Being able to emulate emotions in images is a powerful tool and something that I would investigate further. Because of the long exposure, the sky and the horses appear bold and almost solorised in comparison to the grasses and water. It makes the horizon seem infinitely far away, which it is, but there are no buildings, no middle ground just the people and masses of space. We develop empathy for the Navahos which gives the image a sense of meaning. Whereas I would be working at night, the only source of light would be artificial. The topic would therefore be how artificial light effects us, and what feelings it raises. As it shows up very yellow in images you would assume that it would convey warmth and happiness, but because it is surrounded by darkness the message would be confused. I will look at trying to show different areas such as the border of a town. There you would have the warm glowing lights next to the stark and empty countryside. Laura Smith This is a series of images by Laura Smith, a St Louis based photographer. Her images are more like the ones which I would be trying to create because they are more modern than Curtiss, particularly in the first image. In the background you can see the city lit up which is inviting. It has a barrier of lights around it which seems to be protecting the occupants from what is out across the water. Light is a sign of safety and protection. Because of the longer exposure needed at nighttime, the sky seems to have been lit up. Jason Schock Similarly to the previous photographers, Schock as used light sources to make his photos have more meaning. The first image of an American car with a bright red/pink light behind it is in the same style that I would like to do. There are definite areas of the photo made up by different light levels. The car is in half shadow caused by the neon light. This does several things. It gives the car a sense of mystery, but it also fetishises it by causing a sort of hallow around it and showing up the polished chrome bodywork. Critique Through the shooting process Alistair and I have tried to stick to the original plan which we laid out. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances we were unable to get into the power station to shoot. .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 , .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .postImageUrl , .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 , .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072:hover , .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072:visited , .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072:active { border:0!important; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072:active , .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072 .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ucdd3d09b7a9da71de4f6198341f5f072:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Human Rights Violations EssayThis left us with a tough decision to make. In the end we decided to leave the journey part out and focus mainly on the uses and emotions which artificial lighting conveys. It meant a more limited amount of material to work with, and forced us to look harder for a suitable composition. There are only five or so images which I feel are up to the standard which I first set out to keep, and I feel they are a more telling example of our work. Overall I feel that the images are good, but could have been better though they do go with the track with its industrial sounds.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Nuclear Weapon Controversy free essay sample

The Nuclear Weapon Controversy The question of whether countries should have nuclear weapons or be able to test them is a very controversial topic among the public. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. (Vicky: Nuclear Weapon). The destructive atomic bomb is an example of a nuclear weapon. The United States used the atomic bomb to destroy the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1885, which killed nearly 250,000 people and virtually ended World War II.There are also other nuclear weapons that are used and tested by several other militaries around the world. Since the atomic bombs hit Japan in 1885, two thousand nuclear weapons have been detonated for testing purposes. If nuclear weapons are so destructive, then why are they being used in the military or even on innocent people? Nuclear weapons should be banned to insure safety and peace within our planet. We will write a custom essay sample on Nuclear Weapon Controversy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Since nuclear energy used in nuclear weapons is unstable, so is the capability of the nuclear weapons.If the nuclear reactions, fusion or fusion, were even the slightest unstable it may cause a destructive explosion. If any simple miscalculation or minor accident occurred, it can have a more diverse affect; even the possibility of destroying the whole world is not very farfetched (What are the Pros and Cons of Nuclear Weapons? ). The amount of energy and force within a nuclear weapon is so immense that any accident of the unpredictable nuclear reaction could be catastrophic. Also the reaction within a nuclear weapon occurs when he chain reaction process is encouraged to cascade or run away, with the number of nuclear fissions and fissile neutrons increasing at an exponential rate, releasing a tremendous amount of energy (Denton: How do nuclear warheads work? ). The energy saved within a nuclear weapon has enough power to cause mass destruction and death. The use and even test of nuclear weapons could cause mass destruction and death when used on another nation. When nations participate in a nuclear warfare, the amount of casualties and injuries could potentially be in the thousands.The process of creating a thermonuclear is the same fusion process that powers the Sun, and so a thermonuclear bomb is literally a miniature, man-made Sun, which explains its terrifying destructive power (Denton: How do nuclear warheads work? ). The amount of energy and destructive power that is in a nuclear weapon is extensive. A modern thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1. 2 million tons (1. 1 million metric tons) of TNT.Thus, even a small nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire and radiation (Vicky: Nuclear Weapon). Nuclear weapons and bombs have the energy and destructive capability to destroy civilizations and nations. The United Nations (UN) has attempted to control the use and test of these destructive and powerful nuclear weapons and bombs. There have been several significant attempts to try to control nuclear weapons, but many have been ignored by superior nations.In the Nuclear Non –Proliferation Treaty (NPT) nations are not allowed to spread or create nuclear weapons or weapon technology and in turn use the nuclear energy to improve the world. However, this treaty is ignored by several nations who have produced nuclear weapons to improve their military and national security. Unfortunately, the nuclear weapons state, and particularly the United States, seem to have made virtually zero progress (Kreiger Saving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement, Waging Peace ).Since the United States and other superior nations are not cooperating with the Nuclear Non –Proliferation Treaty (NPT), they are opening the door for deployment of missile defenses and moves toward placing weapons in outer space; kept nuclear weapons at the center of its security policies, including research to create new nuclear weapons; and demonstrated no political will toward the elimination of its nuclear arsenals in the past five years(Kreiger Saving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement, Waging Peace).The International Atomic Energy Agency was created in 1957 to force the issue of using nuclear energy for peaceful developments and not nuclear wea pons, but they have not been successful. The United Nations (UN) needs to do better in controlling the creation of nuclear weapons and someday banning it. Any use of nuclear weapons should be banned for the safety of our country and the world. Countries do have a right to nuclear development for peaceful purposes such as nuclear energy, but not for potentially harmful practices.Even though nuclear energy could be used to improve our world, it could also be used for weapon development. Also its incredible destructive force could be used to win a war such as World War II, but it could also be used destroy and kill thousands of people. Since nuclear weapons are unstable, destructive, and not well controlled, they should be banned. Several superior nations have the capability to use nuclear weapons, but they have restrained because of the possible devastating consequences.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Mystical Caves Used Throughout Mythology Essays - God, Free Essays

Mystical Caves Used Throughout Mythology Essays - God, Free Essays Mystical Caves Used Throughout Mythology The use of caves in mythology to depict darkness and abandonment has branded it as a symbol of chaos. From this perception other associations are made which connect the cave to prejudices, malevolent spirits, burial sites, sadness, resurrection and intimacy. It is a world to which only few venture, and yet its mysticism has attracted the interest of philosophers, religious figures and thinkers throughout history. These myths are exemplified in Homers "Odyssey," where the two worlds of mortals and immortals unite in the eternal cave. To Plato, the cave represents the confusion between reality and falsehood. Individuals chained deep within the recesses of the cave mistake their shadows for physical existence. These false perceptions, and the escape from bonds held within the cave symbolize transition into the a world of reality. Comparatively, in the Odyssey, Odysseus must first break with Kalypso, and set himself free before he can return to Ithaka, when he will then be prepared to release Penelope from the bondage of suitors. His experience within the cave is in itself a world of fantasy, in that Kalypso is a supernatural being, and the only way to escape her enslavement is to receive assistance from immortals superior to her. The philosopher Francis Bacon also theorized about the myth attached to caves in which he maintained that "idols," meaning prejudices and preconceived notions possessed by an individual, were contained in a persons "cave," or obscure, compartment, with "intricate and winding chambers"1 . Beliefs that caves were inhabited by negative thoughts, or spirits, were also held by the native-American culture, in which these spirits influenced the outcome of all human strivings, and had to be maintained inside caves. The souls of the dead were thought to be the most malevolent of all spirits, and were held within the deepest parts of the cave. In Greek mythology this also holds true, according the legend in which Cronus was placed in a cave in the deepest part of the underworld. This was done by Zeus and his siblings after waging war against their father for swallowing them at birth for fear that they might overthrow him. Incidently, Zeus was raised in a cave after Rhea hid him from Cronus. For his punishment, Cronus was placed in Tartarus to prevent his return to earth, which would unbalance the system of authority established by Zeus. Beyond the shadows of the cave, however, this balanced system of power is nonexistent. It becomes a system both unstable and lawless, and survival as a guest in such a cave is only accomplished through the complete submission to the sovereign. In Odysseus encounter with the Cyclops, it is his disregard for Polyphemos authority that costs him the lives of several companions, and ultimately a ten year delay on his return home. The land of the Cyclops epitomizes darkness, chaos, and abandonment; where the only law exists past the entrance of the cave. From the islands shore a "high wall of...boulders"2 can be seen encircling each cave. Clearly impossible of being accomplished by mortals, massive walls of similar description found standing after the Persian Wars were also thought by ancient Greeks to be the work of the Cyclops. Unfamiliar to this system of power, Odysseus disregards these laws and enters the cave without an invitation. For this reason, Polyphemos implicates his own punishment onto the trespassers, and kills six men. In order to escape the wrath of the Cyclops, Odysseus eventually blinds him, an offense which falls under the jurisdiction of Poseidon, and for which he ultimately pays throughout his wanderings. The uncontrollable winds next direct Odysseus through a narrow strait outlined by rocks and cliffs through which he must pass to return home. On these cliffs which stand opposite each other lurk Scylla and Charybdis, one side "reach[ing] up into...heaven"3 and the other not quite as high. Scylla, a creature with twelve feet and six necks, resides in a cave upon this high cliff and devours sailors from fleeting ships. Across the stream of water dwells Charybdis, a dreadful whirlpool beneath a fig tree. Three times daily the maelstrom forms, and shipwrecks passing vessels. In the "Odyssey," Odysseus and his crew encounter these two sea

Friday, November 22, 2019

The Importance of Transitional Words and Phrases

The Importance of Transitional Words and Phrases THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSITIONAL WORDS AND PHRASES When it comes to writing academic papers, communication is pivotal. For a reader to navigate successfully through an essay, therefore following and understanding each point, thought by thought, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, the writer must always employ certain words, phrases, and tools, because it is their responsibility to have the reader know exactly what they are attempting to convey. This includes linking words and phrases (like on the contrary, however, as a result, in comparison, this suggests that, including, most importantly and although) that bridge together certain items in a sentence or paragraph. Since most academic essays include some kind of a thesis that is evidenced by supporting points, the individual paragraphs (the body) of an essay generally expand on each point, one at a time, to provide a solid argument – one that is believable, convincing. Linking words and phrases are to be generally used in a single paragraph to connect sentences and thoughts that validate a single point that is being examined in an essay. These types of words and phrases are generally used for when a writer needs to expand on just ONE point, one idea on which they are elaborating. For example, in one of their points claiming that poetry is dying out in the 21st century, the writer may focus on the low number of poetry books sold in 2013. Expanding on this point, they may compare (and use phrases like in comparison) that number with the number of fiction or nonfiction books sold in 2013 to demonstrate (this suggests that) their point that people just aren’t reading and buying poetry anymore. You may also be interested in: Connecting Words and Phrases Social Media Words and Phrases in the Academic World How to Write a Great Essay Then there are transitional words and phrases to indicate to a reader a change in a point, topic, or subject in the essay they are reading. They are usually found in the first sentence of a paragraph examining a new point in the argument. They strengthen what a written assignment seeks to convey, explain, or argue to the reader – who most times is the student-writer’s professor. Also, transitional words and phrases help the reader make connections between evidencing points in the essay, by the use of, sometimes, just one word. Just like keywords in conversation, the purpose of these particular words is to communicate effectively and illustrate a transition in thought: Firstly, first of all, secondly, thirdly, next, subsequently, lastly, conclusively, in conclusion, and finally. Without these cues, the reader is ultimately left confused, because the reader is ineffectively not kept abreast of the argument being made, which then weakens the essay’s overall purpose to convince or educate, depending on the type of essay. Lacking these cues, unfortunately, results in the student-writer getting a low grade on their written assignment. Most persuasive essays, or even five-paragraph essays, are supported by extensive, well-thought-out evidence. The evidence is traditionally explained in the body paragraphs of an essay, which, again, are mostly made up of at least three defending, or defining, points, each one making up at least a paragraph, and usually more, of that essay. But when an essay does not indicate when a new point is being put forth or examined, to further validate the overarching theme of the essay – which is its thesis – the reader fails to recognize the change and instead is left considering the previous point and not the current one. And the writer’s argument is ultimately weakened. If you would like to avoid a weak argument and a low grade, let professional writers help with proofreading, making sure your paper contains connection and transitional words and phrases, ensure it contains no spelling and grammar errors and is structured properly. Feel free to place your order anytime and we will gladly start working on your project. is the service you can trust!

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Quantitative Methods database assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Quantitative Methods database - Assignment Example Data regarding the hotels were collected from 144 hotels found in these 3 cities and namely 45 hotels from Edinburgh, 54 hotels from London and 45 hotels from Manchester. The information collected were star rating status, review scores, existing price of property, provision of swimming pool, Wi-Fi and whether it is charged. The analysis was based on: The statistical analysis done were the t tests and the ANOVAs to find out whether the p value is les than 0.05 which will mean there is a significant difference between the observations(price) based on locality or other variables and if p value is greater than 0.05 such observed difference will not be considered significant(Warne,2012). Further regression analysis was done to find out how the variables are related to pricing and how they influence price (Wessa, 2014). The sign convention of the coefficients in the equation will indicate whether the particular variable positively or negatively correlates with pricing strategy. Fig 1: The above table and figure reflects the number of hotels in different localities. London has more 4 star and 5 star hotels compared to Edinburgh and Manchester. While 0 star, 1 star and 2 star and 3 star hotels are more in Edinburgh and Manchester compared to London. Fig 8: The above figure reflects the comparison of average price of different star rated hotels in all 3 cities. It reflects London hotels has highest value for the rooms in 2 star, 3 star, 4 star or 5 tar properties compared to similar properties in Manchester or Edinburgh. Two star hotels are significantly priced more in Manchester than Edinburgh (p0.05). In the equation Pri means room price, Sta means star ratings, Rsc means review scores, WiC means wifi charged, FiC means fitness centre, Loc means locality, Dummy variables was assigned to WiC ( if

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

International Market Entry and Development Essay - 2

International Market Entry and Development - Essay Example The purpose of this essay is to analyze foreign marketplaces and the strategies that must be used to penetrate US, China and other's markets. The competitive landscape has changed and the United States has to keep up with the changes worldwide. Currently the top exporter in the world is the emerging economy of China, while the U.S. is the 4th highest exporter and the top importer worldwide. Due to the amazing growth of many emerging economies companies must target these foreign nations to achieve further growth in the long term. One of the best ways to establish a strong market presence described in the essay is through the utilization of a branding strategy. A branding strategy has many benefits including the ability to charge a premium price for products and services. A company in the apparel industry that has used a branding strategy to successfully penetrate many nations worldwide is Urban Outfitters. The use of a branding strategy helps companies build up a reputation among cust omers that leaves a lasting impression on the buyers. The use of marketing is also described by the researcher and is critical to create a branding strategy. The reseacher mentiones that the top fast food restaurant in the world, McDonald’s, spends every year a $1 billion in marketing expenses to continue its branding strategy. Companies that are able to establish a brand value have a better chance to succeed in international markets. The branding strategy can be as effective in the international markets as in the domestic marketplace.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Rubin Carter Essay Example for Free

Rubin Carter Essay In today’s society it is quite possible for people to be accused and punished for committing a crime they didn’t actually do. It would be nice to think our judicial system is 100% accurate but unfortunately that is not the case. Innocent people are convicted of crimes they didn’t commit more often than a lot of people would like to admit. In some cases people who were later on found to be innocent have actually been put to death. A couple examples of this would be Ruben Cantu and Carlos DeLuna. Ruben Cantu was convicted of a capital murder and investigators found out about 12 years after his death that he didn’t commit the murder and was falsely accused. Later on detectives found out that he wasn’t even there the night of the murder. Carlos was another person who was accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Police didn’t find out till 20 years later that Carlos DeLuna was innocent and had nothing to do with a teen stabbing in Texas. It was Carlos Hernandez, a man who even confessed to committing the crime many times that was in fact guilty. Those are just two examples of our judicial system not being accurate at all. Just because somethings may point to a person doing a crime doesn’t mean that the person actually did and there needs to be more research and evidence to back all this up especially if people are being sentenced to life sentences in prison. Rubin Carter who was accused of committing a triple murder was in fact innocent, after almost 20 years of being behind bars. Rubin who was also a middleweight boxer other known as â€Å"The Hurricane† was arrested for the murders of three people downtown in the Lafayette which is a New Jersey bar. The night of the triple murder it was said that Patty Valentine the one who walked in on the three victims being shot had told police and detectives that she saw the car the shooters had gotten into it. Alfred Bello who was at the scene of the crime during all of this said that he was only there for robbing the cash and he had told police he saw the shooter approaching the bad and he was just in fact an eye witness. The description of the car Patty Valentine gave matched Rubin Carters car, which is what made him a suspect in the first place. Although he pleaded his innocence the detective who was in charge of the case had a grudge against Rubin since early childhood and framed him for the crime according to Rubin, which resulted in him going to three life terms in prison. While in prison Rubin decided to write an  autobiography about his life to take out his frustration and despair. His book called â€Å"The Sixteenth Round†. His novel seemed to have gotten a lot of attention from people and that’s what got it published. It also caused Bob Dylan to write a song in his name. After 19 years of being in jail a young boy by the name of Lesra Martin reads Rubin’s book and gets so moved by the case that he convinces his foster family of Rubin’s innocence. He then decides to write Rubin a letter while he’s in prison telling him what his book meant to him and how much he believed in everything Rubin Carter was saying. The young boy Lesra finally ends up meeting him by visiting him in jail and they establish a friendship that you would never expect between a teenage boy and someone convicted of murder. Lesra Martin then puts in motion a new appeal which would eventually set Rubin free. One thing that shows Rubin’s innocence of this triple murder case is the fact that Rubin was quote on quote â€Å"On top of the world†. He had a very high chance of becoming a heavy weight boxing champion as well as millions of dollars being in his grasps so why would he throw that all away just to be thrown into jail for three life term sentences. This was something that he has always dreamed about doing and from watching this film and learning about this trial that went on I don’t believe he would just give something like that up. To be heavyweight boxer it takes a lot of training and motivation as well as a lot of other traits and attributes to be successful, it’s not something you just get over night. Why would somebody work so hard for something like that just to have to give it up? Others may say that because of his fighting skills and violence that may cross his mind often may of lead him into doing such a violent crime but that is definitely not en ough evidence to accuse someone of doing such a crime. Another thing that helps shows that he was not guilty was just the way he treated the people that worked endlessly to get his freedom. He didn’t want to bring anyone down with him and didn’t want anyone to go out of their way for him especially if he knew it wasn’t going to get him anywhere in the end. He showed a lot of mental strength while being in prison and seemed pretty positive despite what was happening. The way he ignores everyone who accuses him, just accepts everything how it is and accepts that he has to do  the time even though he is innocent really shows the character of him and may not scientifically prove his innocence but definitely lessens him. This last reason doesn’t necessarily prove Rubin was innocent but shows how easy it was for him to be an easy target for this crime. The place and the time that all this occurred was a very racist time and a lot of people would agree that a black person was more likely to be accused of a crime then a white person. Rubin was framed by racist detective, police and prosecutors. His boxing career, his background, and the colour of his skin made him the perfect target of this crime and that is why he was involved in the first place. The jury of this trial was all white which is unfair at that time because of the amount of racism that went on in that time. A couple other things I’d like to add that really shows Rubin carter’s innocence was that the night of the murder one of the victims that was in the hospital actually got to identify the suspect. This was Rubin, they asked the victim to tell the police if it was him who murdered the people and shot him. The victim told the detectives that it was not Rubin who committed the murder but because of the state that the victim was in (blind in one eye and very hard seeing through the other) they did not take his word for it and Rubin Carter was still said to be guilty. This is a very unfair judgment Rubin was also put through numerous test and lie detector tests and passed all of them. Overall from looking at all the pieces of evidence that show Rubin Carters innocence and looking at the reasons why Rubin was accused and convicted in the first place really does prove that he is not in fact guilty. Just because he was black and the description of the shooter was black was not a good enough reason to make him a prime suspect. Either was the car description a valid reason. There were other people who could have been suspected but because of his skin colour it was a very racist assumption. For such a serious crime with really long consequences they needed to put a lot more time into the trial and get more evidence to prove the case. Rubin was just a black middleweight boxer who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time which led to such critical consequences.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

The History of Spices and Condiments :: Cooking Food Papers

Today, due to the technological evolution and worldwide trade, people came to enjoy foreign cultures regardless the East or West. More and more people travel around the world freely and explore exotic cultures. Among those pleasures, food can be the most interesting lure which represents the culture. This is because food is unique to the place. One of major aspects which enhance the uniqueness of food is its condiments such as spices and flavors. Chefs are enthusiastic in using flavors to stimulate epicurians’ appetites and to add special tastes to the cuisine. Although condiments tend to be considered subordinating part of food, they have very long histories and significant meanings in ancient times. In ancient times, condiments were highly valued, â€Å"as basic ingredients of incense, embalming preservatives, ointments, perfumes, antidotes against poisons, cosmetics, and medicines, and were used only to a limited extent in the kitchen (Rosengarten 16). Studying their histories and roots of the names, such as etymology, will help us to track down the ancient life, culture, and social values. And the use of condiments were much more expansive than today and played one of the most important parts in the world history, encouraging the civilization which allowed today’s worldwide trades. This research is focused on the etymologies of major condiment words such as salt, vinegar, pepper, cinnamon, and mustard, which have been highly valued from ancient time to today’s life. In addition, the migrations of those words in the world and expressions produced by wisdom of ancient people are also investigated. Matsuya 2 I) History In ancient times, salt was very precious and valuable before refrigeration, when salt was the major means of preventing meat from decaying. And salt was used as a medicine such as â€Å"smelling-salts.† It was believed that salt, with ammonium carbonate with some agreeable scent as lavender or bergamot, can be a stimulant and restorative in faintness and headaches. Therefore, spilling salt was considered to bring an unlucky omen among the Romans. II) Etymological change Proto-Germanic *saltan Indo- European *sal-d-om ~ Old English salt, sealt Before 1100 sealt 13th salit 14-16th salte 16-17th sault Cognate with Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Icelandic, Gothic, salt Middle Dutch sout Old High German salz Cognate outside Germanic Latin sal, salt Old Irish salann Welsh halen Greek hals Latvian sals Old Slavic soli, sladuku Matsuya 3 Armenian al Tocharian sale salyiye Sanskrit sal (in salila-m ‘sea’) Although these forms have certain similarities, in Old Slavonic, sladuku meant â€Å"sweet.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Business Research Methods Essay

Organizational Dilemma Starbucks grew as it attracted many people, leading to tripling its stores worldwide. It became part of every neighborhood, appearing on every street, in airports, supermarkets, and roadside rest stops all over America. This is when complaints began to surface that Starbucks is transforming into a fast-food restaurant and not a coffee house. The coffee industry was no longer dominated by Starbucks, for competitors began to put pressure on the business. In addition, the biggest dilemma to hit Starbucks was the 2008 economic crisis. This took a toll on the consumer who saw Starbucks as a luxury and searched for more affordable alternatives. As a result, Starbucks’ management was faced with the need to generate the right management question that would be the thread to making the best decision through its research design. An organizational dilemma can spark a research question. Once an organization determines a situation exists, research methods start to devise and eventually sample designs are implemented. When people think of Starbucks, do they think of great customer service, quality products, clean store, or great coffee? The organizational dilemma is: how should Starbucks go about keeping loyal customers while overcoming the old perceptions and changing with the times. According to Howard Schultz, â€Å"We are not in the coffee business serving people; we are in the people business serving coffee† (Starbucks Board of Directors, 2008). Research Design Marius Pretorius (2008) research infers Starbuck’s organizational dilemma, whether strategic or operational is not diminished when using Michael Porter’s (1985) generic strategies for competitive advantage. Declining sales require a turnaround solution that address strategic causes and cost relationship pressures that govern demand determinants. Which are â€Å"highly susceptible to external influences that are not clearly visible to the decision-makers† (Pretorius, 2008, pg. 21). Designing a two-stage exploratory study to identify the basis of distress and the key determinants is essential to a turnaround strategic plan. An exploratory study provides sufficient flexibility to address research costs, timelines, and development of clear constructs to address priorities and operational definitions (Cooper & Schindler, 2011). The first stage of the study will look to ascertain the causation of the organizational dilemma and postulate the asymmetrical relationships in declining sales by examining both internal and external independent and dependent variables. This research will categorize findings into four relationship types as stimulus-response, property-disposition, disposition-behavior, or property-behavior. This will refine the second stage of research and explore influencing factors in depth. Characteristics and Operational Definitions The research design will produce casual inferences upon which a complementary strategy will result. â€Å"Although they may be neither permanent nor universal, these inferences allow us to build knowledge of presumed causes over time† (Cooper & Schindler, 2011, pg. 154). Therefore, it is important to identify moderating or interactive variable dependencies. To ensure data validity operational definitions will challenge data to meet specific standards. These definitions may not exhibit the organization’s use but will establish a means to classify clearly an event. The main concern is to establish actionable information in which contributory or contingent effects on the original independent to dependent variable (IV–DV) relationship will provide empirical conclusions. References Cooper, D.R. & Schindler, P.S. (2011). Business research methods (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Porter, M.E., (1985). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York, NY: The Free Press Pretorius, M., (2008). When Porter’s generic strategies are not enough: Complementary strategies for turnaround situations. Journal of Business Strategy 29(6): 19–28. Starbucks Board of Directors. (2008). Retrieved 2 2013, February, from Starbucks.com: www.starbucks.com/aboutus/environment.asp Starbucks, (2011) Our Company: Mission Statement. Retrieved from http://www.starbucks.com

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Individual Analysis of Hamlet; Act 4, Scene 7

Individual Analysis Hamlet; Act 4, Scene 7 Steven Roach Friday, November 16, 2012 A Freudian angle of (4. 7 135 – 145) and (4. 7 9 – 21) Throughout the scene Claudius depicts a personality that evaluates situations and makes choices out of desire without much concern for consequence. Although Claudius does show a little bit of concern for consequence, he generally acts from an â€Å"inner-child† psyche. In the scene, Claudius plots with Laertes and acts quickly out of a sense of DESIRE and makes a plan to kill Hamlet.Demonstrated in the lines; â€Å"A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice, Requite him for your father. † (4. 7. 137 – 140) And â€Å"I will do’t. And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword. I bought unction of a mountebank, So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratched witha l. I’ll touch my point With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly It may be death. † (4. 7. 140 – 145).In these lines, Claudius and Laertes plan to kill hamlet by sharpening a fencing blade and dousing it with a poison that will cripple upon contact. This is clearly a representation of a psyche that acts rapidly out of an intense sense of desire. Although Claudius will often display act from a sense of the â€Å"ID† or â€Å"inner-child†, he also demonstrates, albeit relatively minimal compared to the previous example, a concern for consequence. In the beginning of the scene, he explains to Laertes his reasoning for not prosecuting Hamlet for the death of Polonius, Laertes’ father.Depicted in the lines; â€Å"Oh, for two special reasons, Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinewed, But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother Lives almost by his looks, and for myself— My virtue or my plague, be it either which— Sh e’s so conjunctive to my life and soul, That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her. The other motive Why to a public count I might not go, Is the great love the general gender bear him, Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces† (4. 9 – 21). Claudius claims that because of the fact that his mother is completely devoted to him, and the idea that the general public loves him so much; the prosecution would end up hurting him more than it would Hamlet. He cannot live without Hamlets mother, so he cannot make the prosecution. Claudius displays a small fraction of his psyche that acts as the â€Å"super-ego† and evaluates situations based upon the consequential outcome.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Three-Fifths Compromise

Three-Fifths Compromise Free Online Research Papers The Three-Fifths compromise was a compromise between the Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the population of slaves would be counted for enumeration purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the House of Representatives. (Wikipedia contributors, 2008) The question is whether slaves should be counted as people or property to determine each states financial contribution to the central government? At the Constitutional Convention, the North wanted to count slaves as people verses property seeing as taxes were determined by population. On the other hand, the South wanted slaves to be counted as people for apportioning Representatives. At the time the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, there were more than 500,000 black American slaves. Jefferson had expressed American injustice and explained why the colonists were breaking away and were no longer under any obligations of civil obedience with the British. His words stated America’s beliefs of freedom and equality. However, in spite of his beliefs, Thomas Jefferson himself was a slave owner that had owned more than 100 slaves. Slaves accounted for about one-fifth of the population in the American colonies. Most of them lived in the Southern colonies, where slaves made up 40 percent of the population. Many colonists, even slave holders, hated slavery. Thomas Jefferson called it a â€Å"hideous blot† on America. George Washington, who owned hundreds of slaves, denounced it as â€Å"repugnant.† George Mason, a Virginia slave owner, condemned it as â€Å"evil.† (The Constitution and Slavery, 2008). Southern colonists relied on slavery and were among the richest in America. Their cash crops of tobacco, indigo, and rice depended on slave labor, which they were not willing to give up. The first U.S. National government began under the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781. This document said nothing about slavery. It left the power to legalize slavery, as well as most powers to the individual states. After their experience with the British, the colonists doubted a strong central government. The new national government consisted solely of a Congress in which each state had one vote. The new government proved to be unsuccessful with little power to carry out its laws or collect taxes. In May 1787, 55 delegates from 12 states met in Philadelphia. Rhode Island refused to send a delegation. Their original goal was to revise the Articles of Confederation. In the middle of secret sessions they changed their goal to write a new Constitution. The outline of the new government would consist of three branches which was the executive, judiciary, and a two-house legislature. A dispute occurred with the legislative branch. States with large populations wanted representation in both houses of the legislature to be based on population. States with small populations wanted each state to have the same number of representatives, like under the Articles of Confederation. Edmund Randolph of Virginia had proposed The Virginia Plan that favored the large states, including Virginia, which consisted of: 1) A bicameral legislature, with the lower chamber chosen by the people and the smaller upper chamber chosen by the lower chamber from nominees selected the state legislatures. The number of representatives would be proportional to a state’s population, favoring the large states. This legislature could void any state laws. 2) The making of an unspecified national executive, elected by the legislature. 3) The making of a national judiciary, appointed by the legislature. It did not take long for the smaller states to realize they would not benefit and knew it was time for them to come up with their own plan. William Paterson of New Jersey proposed a different plan called The New Jersey Plan, which consisted of: 1) The primary ruling of the Articles of Confederation-one state, one vote would be preserved. 2) Congress would be able to regulate trade and impose taxes 3) All acts of Congress would be the supreme law of the land. 4) Several people would be elected by Congress to form an executive office. 5) The executive office would appoint a Supreme Court The New Jersey plan was an amendment of the Articles of Confederation. The only significant feature was its reference to the supremacy doctrine, which state in Article VI of the Constitution that the laws passed by the national government under its constitutional powers, and all treaties represent the supreme law of the land. This argument carried on for two months. Finally the delegates agreed to the Great Compromise also known as the Connecticut Compromise, which was proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut, which consisted of: 1) A bicameral legislature in which the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, would be apportioned according to the population in each state, plus three-fifths of the slaves. 2) An upper chamber, the Senate, which would have two members from each state elected by the state legislatures. The Connecticut Compromise resolved the large state vs. small state disagreement. It did correct a political price because it allowed each state to have equal representation in the Senate. Having two senators represent each state determined the voting power of citizens living in more heavily populated states and gave unequal political powers. The issue of how to count slaves split the delegates into two orders. The Northerners regarded slaves as property who should receive no representation. Southerners demanded that Blacks be counted with whites. The compromise clearly reflected the strength of the pro-slavery forces at the convention. The Three-Fifths Compromise allowed a state to count three-fifths of each Black person in determining political representation in the House. (Historic U.S. Cases, 1992) The three-fifths figure was the outgrowth of a debate that had taken place within the Continental Congress in 1783. The Articles of Confederation had apportioned taxes not according to population but according to land values. The states consistently undervalued their land in order to reduce their tax burden. To rectify this situation, a special committee recommended apportioning taxes by population. Northerners favored a 4-to-3 ratio, while southerners favored a 2-to-1 or 4-to-1 ratio. Finally James Madison suggested a compromise of 5-to-3 ratio. New Hampshire and Rhode Island did not approve this recommendation and because the Articles of Confederation require a unanimous agreement, the proposal was defeated. Later when the Constitutional Convention met in 1787, it adopted Madison’s earlier suggestion of 5-to-3 ratio. (Mintz, 2007). While the Constitutional Convention was debating in Philadelphia, it turns out there was a second compromise that was taking place in New York. With many members absent and the South for the time being holding a majority, Congress had passed the Northwest Ordinance, which banned slavery in the Northwest Territory. This land would be divided into five states: Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and parts of Wisconsin. Some people believed that slave economies worked only in warmer climates; there would therefore have been little incentive to import slaves north across the Ohio River. (Collier, 1986, p. 219) The Northwest Ordinance had a clause promising that slaves who escaped to the Northwest Territories would be returned to their owners. This was part of the price of making the Northwest Territories free. The delegates placed a similar fugitive slave clause as well. In exchange for the fugitive slave clause, the New England states got concessions on shipping and trade. Another compromise found in section 9 of Article I, stipulates that Congress would not be able to prohibit the importation of slaves before 1808, although they may tax them $10 per slave. This helped to offset the Southern fears that Congress’ power to regulate commerce would be used to abolish slavery. This provision could not be changed by amendment, therefore, giving the slave trade a 20 year reprieve. The fugitive slave clause allowed escaped slaves to be chased into the North and caught. It also resulted in the illegal kidnapping and return to slavery for thousands of free blacks. The Three-Fifths Compromise increased the South’s representation in Congress and the Electoral College. References Collier, C., Collier, J. (1986). Decision in Philadelphia the Constitutional Convention of 1787.New York: Ballantine Books. Historic U.S. Cases 1690-1993: An Encyclopedia New York Copyright 1992 Garland Publishing, New York ISBN 0-8240-4430-4 Retrieved 19:08, February 20, 2008 from African American Registry web site: aaregistry.com/african_american_history/552/The_ThreeFifths_compromise Mintz, S. (2007). The three-fifth compromise. Retrieved February 20, 2008, from Digital History web site: digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=306 Ratification Debate on the U.S. Constitution. Retrieved, February 20, 2008, from Constitutional Rights Foundation web site: crf-usa.org/lessons/slavery_const.htm Three-fifths compromise. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:06, February 29, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Three-fifths_compromiseoldid=192755412 Research Papers on Three-Fifths Compromise19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationQuebec and CanadaPETSTEL analysis of IndiaBringing Democracy to AfricaComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Never Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceHip-Hop is Art

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Denegacin papeles a cubanos por inadmisibilidad

Denegacin papeles a cubanos por inadmisibilidad El rechazo de las peticiones de las visas CMPP o de las tarjetas de residencia confunde a muchos cubanos. Sin embargo, hay una causa que frecuentemente est detrs de este problema. Destacar que en la actualidad ya no se admiten ms solicitudes de visas CMPP, si bien se tramitan las pendientes de resolucià ³n final. Requisitos para que la CMPP y la tarjeta de residencia sean aprobadas para los cubanos Es necesario que se cumplan los requisitos que se piden para todos los solicitantes de una tarjeta de residencia, cualquiera que sea su nacionalidad. Por lo tanto, tanto la green card -tambià ©n conocida como tarjeta o permiso de residencia- como la visa CMPP sern rechazadas si el que la pide es inadmisible  segà ºn las leyes de los Estados Unidos. Y es aquà ­ donde los cubanos suelen encontrar un gran obstculo porque afecta a un gran nà ºmero de ellos: membresà ­a en el partido comunista. Cuando una persona rellena la peticià ³n de residencia permanente o de visa CMPP debe contestar la verdad sobre si ha pertenecido a un partido totalitario o al partido comunista o a alguna organizacià ³n relacionada (hay que entender juventudes comunistas y similares). En los casos en los que el solicitante tenga un pasado de militancia comunista el USCIS puede rechazar la aplicacià ³n de la visa CMPP o de la tarjeta de residente. Hay alguna alternativa para evitar el rechazo de la visa CMPP o de la tarjeta de residencia? En determinados casos pueden aplicar excepciones a la regla general, con lo cual sà ­ se aprobarà ­a la peticià ³n, o incluso cabe solicitar un perdà ³n. Serà ­a posible beneficiarse de una excepcià ³n a la aplicacià ³n de la regla general cuando: Han transcurrido dos aà ±os desde que se causà ³ baja en el partido comunista, que se aumentar a cinco se trata de ciudadanos de paà ­ses regidos por el partido comunista, como es el caso de Cuba o China. La inactividad, como dejar de pagar las cuotas al partido o dejar de participar en sus actividades se puede considerar como que se ha renunciado a la membresà ­a comunista. La afiliacià ³n fue involuntaria, porque era necesaria para conseguir alimentos, trabajo u otros bienes esenciales. Si bien este punto tiene la dificultad de la prueba en muchas ocasiones.La membresà ­a en el partido comunista no era sentida y simplemente era un vehà ­culo para conseguir una ventaja. Este punto tambià ©n puede ser complicado de probar. Es là ³gico esperar que el asunto del pasado comunista està © presente en cualquier entrevista con un oficial consular o de inmigracià ³n y que se pueda pedir al solicitante informacià ³n o documentacià ³n adicional. Adems, si el USCIS niega la solicitud por esta causa, es posible apelar la decisià ³n. Para tener claro cul es la causa concreta del rechazo verificar el nà ºmero y unas letras que aparecen en el documento en el que se notifica el mismo. Si es 212(a)(3)(d), la razà ³n es el pasado comunista. Perdn o waiver Se puede pedir un perdà ³n, tambià ©n conocido como waiver o permiso, cuando el solicitante es: Padre o madre, esposo/a, hijo/a, hermano/a de un ciudadano americano.Esposo/a, hijo/a de un residente permanente legal. En estos casos el oficial consular notificar quà © planilla debe completarse para solicitarlo. Si no es concedido, es posible apelar la decisià ³n. A tener en cuenta Resaltar que si se  miente y posteriormente se descubre la verdad, el mentiroso puede ser demandado y puede quitrsele la documentacià ³n (green card o, si han pasado los aà ±os y se ha naturalizado incluso el pasaporte americano). Mentir en una planilla federal es una idea muy mala con consecuencias que pueden ser gravà ­simas. Incluso si se miente al solicitar la visa se puede estar arrojando a la basura toda posibilidad de conseguir cualquier otro visado hacia los Estados Unidos. Las consecuencias son igual de malas si se le miente de palabra a un agente federal. Situacin legislacin que afecta a cubanos Entre las à ºltimas actuaciones del presidente Barack Obama se encuentra el haber puesto fin a la polà ­tica de pies secos pies mojados y a las visas CMPP. En la actualidad sigue vigente la Ley de Ajuste Cubano, segà ºn la cual se puede solicitar la tarjeta de residencia permanente (green card) al aà ±o y un dà ­a de presencia fà ­sica en Estados Unidos, siempre y cuando el ingreso se hubiera producido de forma legal.   Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Event Studies and the Measurement of Abnormal Returns Essay

Event Studies and the Measurement of Abnormal Returns - Essay Example This paper is aimed at identifying the events of stock market and making a case study of one of the events. Many studies were carried out for the events of stock market. Study was made on the influences of stock splits and stock prices by Dolley (1933). Publication of papers in the leading business journals indicate that the event studies were done by Myers (1948), by Barker (1956), (1957), (1958) and by Ashley (1962). Event studies were introduced to the financial experts and managers through two papers first by Ball Brown in 1968 and second by Fama et al in 1969. The methodology of studying events of the capital markets have developed and advanced manifold since then and yet the two papers of Brown and Fama provide the core elements of an event. MacKinlay (1997) The market model developed by Ball Brown and Fama contributed in their success. Their model was patterned after the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) developed in 1964 by Sharpe. The data from the Center for Research in Se curity Prices (CRSP) at University of Chicago was used by Ball Brown and Fama which also made it a standard source for research for the entire capital markets. The development of computer hardware and statistical analytical software and its increasing access and usage also played important role in the success of event studies. The key issues of capital structure market were made prominent by papers of Modigliani and Miller (1958), (1961) and (1963) which made studies of event a key empirical tool. The events that can impact capital market include declaration of dividends or earnings, splits of stock, mergers of two or more companies, listings of new companies in exchanges, initial public offerings (IPO) and changes of people at key management positions. The impact of such events can be underreaction, overreaction, abnormal returns and reversals. Corrado (2011) Literature Review There are many types of event studies in the literature such as examination of Return Variances by Beaver (1968), and Patell (1976), studies on volume of stock trading by Beaver (1968) and Campbell and Wasley (1996), analyzes of operating performance by Barber and Lyon (1996) and management of earnings through discretionary accruals by Dechow, Cloan, and Sweeney (1995) and Kothari, Leone, and Wasley (2005). However our paper is focused only the mean stock prices. Corrado (2011) The researches during past thirty years have not changed the basic statistical format and it still concentrate around the measurement of mean and cumulative mean of abnormal return before and after the event. The only major changes that took place are the periods of the data for which mean is calculated. Earlier data of returns were used on monthly basis but today data are used on daily and intraday basis. This helps in measuring the abnormal returns more accurately and determines its effects more descriptively. The second change which has come in the event studies is in the ways of estimating the abnormal return s for events that are long-horizon. The new development of French 3 factor model in pricing asset by Fama also brought some changes in event studies methodology. In spite of these changes, there are serious limitations in the methods of long-horizon and extreme caution is required while making any inferences from it. (Kothari and Warner, 1997, p.301) The model of event study constitute examination of behaviour of the stock

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Congestive heart failure Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Congestive heart failure - Research Paper Example Diseases and agents that weaken heart muscle contraction, especially ventricular muscle, for example, heart attacks, infections of heart muscle (myocarditis), toxins, chronic alcohol abuse and some chemotherapeutic agents (systolic dysfunction). They vary amongst many patients depending on the type (whether it is systolic or diastolic) and the organs affected. Fatigue is the earliest symptom of CHF due to inadequacy of the heart to perform its function. The diagnosis of CHF entails; having noteworthy knowledge about the medical history of the patient; carefully taking a proper history concerning the present condition of the patient; carefully conducting a physical examination and conducting the necessary laboratory tests to confirm the diagnosis. This will assist the health care expert identify signs that are consistent with CHF. Treatment should start immediately CHF is diagnosed in a patient. For one, lifestyle modification should be used so that no further fluid is retained in the body. This is done through regulation of sodium intake in food, since sodium increases fluid in the body. Restriction of alcohol intake and monitoring fluid intake also manages the

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

The global issues of healthcare management Research Paper

The global issues of healthcare management - Research Paper Example The advent of new client technology is bringing in even more issues or reintroducing older ones to the fore. This disruptive technology enhances better patient power. The most supple and advanced health economies have the change to revolutionize the manner in which care is delivered, and in doing this, in order to change their societies (Hall, 2011). This article outlines issues that face the global healthcare management, as well as some of the trends that scholars think greatly impact healthcare for the better or maybe worse. Among the global challenges that affect healthcare include: (1) rising costs, (2) changing demographics, (3) filling the resource gap, (4) easy access, (5) focus on quality and (6) becoming customer-driven. Spending on healthcare basically invariably increases faster compared to GDP. Its growth rate has surpassed that of GDP ever since national record keeping started. In addition, economic recession and spending closely related (Kongstvedt, 2013). Experts claim that we can see the growth rate of healthcare spending in continents such as Europe and Asia outshine the GDP growth considerable during these financially challenging times. Macroeconomic aspects such as aging populaces or inadequate public funding among others are challenging both providers and receivers or healthcare (Kongstvedt, 2013). Penetration and adoption rates of clinical information systems differ greatly. In reality, the number, as well as size of buyers, differs from nation to nation, plus it is not vitally reliant on the size of the nation, but instead on the healthcare system structure. In addition, people’s purchasing behavior is changing towards a more coordinated and joint purchasing from what researchers have seen in the past (Kongstvedt, 2013). There is rising demand on the healthcare delivery institutions, and this is occurring in every nations. Peoples’ immortality rates have increased all

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Framework for Speech Enhancement and Recognition

Framework for Speech Enhancement and Recognition A Generalized Framework for Speech Enhancement and Recognition with Special Focus On Patients with Speech Disorders Literature Review Kumara Sharma et.al. have proposed Harmonics-to-Noise Ratio and Critical-Band Energy Spectrum of speech as Acoustic Indicators of Laryngeal and Voice Pathology [8]. Acoustic analysis of speech signals is a noninvasive technique that has been proved to be an effective tool for the objective support of vocal and voice disease screening. In the present study acoustic analysis of sustained vowels is considered. A simple k-means nearest neighbor classifier is designed to test the efficacy of a harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR) measure and the critical-band energy spectrum of the voiced speech signal as tools for the detection of laryngeal pathologies [12]. It groups the given voice signal sample into pathologic and normal. The voiced speech signal is decomposed into harmonic and noise components using an iterative signal extrapolation algorithm. The HNRs at four different frequency bands are estimated and used as features. Voiced speech is also filtered with 21 critical-band pass filters tha t mimic the human auditory neurons. Normalized energies of these filter outputs are used as another set of features. The HNR and the critical-band energy spectrum can be used to correlate laryngeal pathology and voice alteration, using previously classified voice samples. This method could be an additional acoustic indicator that supplements the clinical diagnostic features for voice evaluation [42]. Cepstral-based estimation is used to provide a baseline estimate of the noise level in the logarithmic spectrum for voiced speech. A theoretical description of Cepstral processing of voiced speech containing aspiration noise, together with supporting empirical data, is provided in order to illustrate the nature of the noise baseline estimation process. Taking the Fourier transform of the liftered (filtered in the Cepstral domain) cepstrum produces a noise baseline estimate. It is shown that Fourier transforming the low-pass liftered cepstrum is comparable to applying a moving average (MA) filter to the logarithmic spectrum and hence the baseline receives contributions from the glottal source excited vocal tract and the noise excited vocal tract[43]. Because the estimation process resembles the action of a MA filter, the resulting noise baseline is determined by the harmonic resolution as determined by the temporal analysis window length and the glottal source spectral tilt. On select ing an appropriate temporal analysis window length the estimated baseline is shown to lie halfway between the glottal excited vocal tract and the noise excited vocal tract. This information is employed in a new harmonics-to-noise (HNR) estimation technique, which is shown to provide accurate HNR estimates when tested on synthetically generated voice signals. HNR is defined as the ratio between the energy of the periodic component to the energy of the aperiodic component in the signal. As such it is sensitive to all forms of waveform aperiodicity [8],[12]. It only specifically reflects a signal to aspiration noise ratio when other aperiodicities in the signal are comparatively low. Validation of a HNR method requires testing the technique against synthesis data with a priori knowledge of the HNR. Time-domain methods that require individual period detection for HNR estimation can be problematic because of the difficulty in estimating the period markers for pathological voiced speech. Frequency domain methods encounter the problem of estimating noise at harmonic locations .Cepstral techniques have been introduced to supply noise estimates at all frequency locations in the spectrum (the Cepstral processing removes the harmonics from the spectrum).It is shown that the cepstrum-based noise baseline estimation process is comparable to applying a moving average MA filter to the power spectrum and hence the baseline receives contributions from the glottal source excited vocal tract and the noise excited vocal tract. Two important issues need to be considered with respect to HNR estimation for sustained vowel phonation when inferring glottal noise levels: HNR is a global indicator of voice periodicity.HNR is indirectly related to the noise level of the glottal source .HNR provides a g lobal estimate of signal periodicity. Hence a low value of HNR can arise from any form of aperiodicity, for example, from aspiration noise, jitter, shimmer, nonstationarity of the vocal tract, or other waveform anomalies [43]. Daryush Mehta has discussed about Aspiration Noise during Phonation: Synthesis, Analysis, and Pitch-Scale Modification. The current study investigates the synthesis and analysis of aspiration noise in synthesized and spoken vowels. Based on the linear source-filter model of speech production, author has implemented a vowel synthesizer in which the aspiration noise source is temporally modulated by the periodic source waveform. Modulations in the noise source waveform and their synchronism with the periodic source are shown to be salient for natural-sounding vowel synthesis. The accurate estimation of the aspiration noise component that contains energy across the frequency spectrum and temporal characteristics due to modulations in the noise source was a challenging task for the author. Spectral harmonic/noise component analysis of spoken vowels shows evidence of noise modulations with peaks in the estimated noise source component synchronous with both the open phase of the periodic s ource and with time instants of glottal closure [39]. Due to natural modulations in the aspiration noise source, author has developed an alternate approach to the speech signal processing with the aim of accurate pitch-scale modification. The proposed strategy takes a dual processing approach, in which the periodic and noise components of the speech signal are separately analyzed, modified, and re-synthesized. The periodic component is modified using our implementation of time-domain pitch-synchronous overlap-add, and the noise component is handled by modifying characteristics of its source waveform. Author has modeled an inherent coupling between the original periodic and aspiration noise sources; the modification algorithm is designed to preserve the synchronism between temporal modulations of the two sources [44]. The reconstructed modified signal is perceived to be natural-sounding and generally reduces artifacts. Arpit Mathur et.al. have discussed about the significance of parametric spectral ratio methods in detection and recognit ion of whispered speech [45]. Other References Kaladhar developed confusion matrix which is a matrix for a two-class classifier, contains information about actual and predicted classifications done by a classification system. The accuracy obtained by training the probabilistic neural network using Parkinson disease dataset got 100% as positives, predictions that an instance is positive, using WEKA 3 and Matlab v7. The data explored in this research was obtained from the Oxford Parkinsons Disease Detection Dataset. Data mining is the process of extracting patterns from data. Data mining is an important tool to transform this data into information. Authors present results with accuracy obtained by training the probabilistic neural network using the above dataset [46]. Xiao Li et.al. proposed a technique to reduce the likelihood computation in ASR systems that use continuous density HMMs. Based on the nature of dynamic features and the numerical properties of Gaussian mixture distributions, the observation likelihood computation is approximated to achieve a speedup. Although the technique does not show appreciable benefit in an isolated word task, it yields significant improvements in continuous speech recognition. For example, 50% of the computation can be saved on the TIMIT database with only a negligible degradation in system performance [47]. Authors analyze the case with only static features and their deltas and focus on achieving computational saving by partially computing the observation probability in a Gaussian component. It ignores computing the dynamic-feature part of an observation vector when its static-feature part already falls in the tail of a Gaussian. This technique doesnt require a complicated training procedure and brings almost no overhead to the decoding process. It is effective on both isolated word and connected word speech tasks, but works especially well on connected word recognition with high-dimensional dynamic features [47]. Elisabeth Ahlsà ©n has discussed different types of communication disorders. In case of Global aphasia there is nil or almost no linguistic communication. In case of Broca’s aphasia there is slow, effortful speech, telegram style, word finding problems known as anomia, relatively good comprehension. In case of Wernicke’s aphasia there is fluent verbose speech, w ord finding difficulties known as anomia, substitutions of words and sounds, impaired comprehension. In case of Anomic aphasia there are only word finding problems [49]. Kristen Jacobson explains about auditory and language processing disorders as follows. There are three general levels that speech sounds travel through while we are â€Å"listening†. The first level refers to the reception of sounds that occurs within our ears. A person who is diagnosed with a hearing impairment has difficulties perceiving sounds at this level. This problem is not referred to as a processing disorder. Central auditory processing disorders (CAPD) refer to difficulties discriminating, identifying and retaining sounds after the ears have heard the sounds. Individuals who experience difficulties attaching meaning to sound groups that form words, sentences and stories are often diagnosed with language processing disorders. They may also experience similar difficulties processing and organizing language for meaning during reading. Similar sounding words are often confused and some individuals may experience sensitivity to specific sounds. Reduced recognition of stre ss patterns and word boundaries within sentences is often present, especially during rapid speech or listening without visual cues. At times, only parts of messages are received accurately, so that messages and directions often appear incomplete. Specific language processing deficits are often reflected in delayed responses, the need to rehearse statements, and/or the need for frequent reviews while learning new information [50]. There are various types of speech disorders in children described as follows. Articulation: There is difficulty in the production of individual or sequenced sounds. The speakers exhibit substitutions, omissions, additions, and distortions of syllables or words. The Motor or Neurogenic speech disorders result into speech difficulties and affect the planning, coordination, timing, and execution of speech movements. Apraxia of speech is neurogenic motor speech disorder affecting the planning of speech. There is difficulty with the voluntary, purposeful movement of speech .The causes are stroke, tumor, head injury, and developmental disorders. The speakers can produce individual sounds but cannot produce them in longer words or sentences. Voice disorders affect pitch, duration, intensity, resonance, and vocal quality parameters. Fluency disorders produce interruptions in the flow of speaking. It is also known as stuttering. It means frequent repetition and/or prolongation of words or sounds [51]. Treatment of children with Speech Oral Placement Disorders (OPD)s needs various types of speech oral placement therapy (OPT) .Children with speech OPDs may have typical or a typical oral structures. The key to the definition of OPD lies in the child’s ability or inability to imitate auditory-visual stimuli and follow verbal oral placement instructions. Children with OPD cannot imitate targeted speech sounds using auditory and visual stimuli .They also cannot follow specific instructions to produce targeted speech sounds [52]. Thomas Dubuisson et.al. described an analysis system aiming at discriminating between normal and pathological voices. Based on the normal and pathological samples included the MEEI database, it has been found that using two features (spectral decrease and first spectral tristimuli in the Bark scale). Music Information Retrieval (MIR) aims at extracting information from music in order to build classification system of music. Temporal Domain features are Energy, mean, standard deviation. Spectral features are spectral Delta, Spectral Mean Value, Spectral Standard Deviation, Spectral Center of Gravity known as spectral centroid, Spectral Moments. The first four moments of the power spectrum M1, M2, M3, M4 . M3 is used to compute the skewness defining the orientation of the PSD around its first moment. If it is positive, the PSD is more oriented to the right and to the left if is negative. The skewness is computed as Skewness = M3/(M2)3/2 . The fourth moment is used to compute the kurtos is defining the acuity of the PSD around its first moment. A Gaussian distribution is having a kurtosis equal to 3, a distribution with a higher kurtosis is more acute than a Gaussian one while a distribution with a lower kurtosis is more flat than a Gaussian distribution. The kurtosis is computed as Kurtosis = M4/(M2)2. The Soft Phonation Index is defined for the (0–1000 Hz) and (0–8000 Hz) frequency bands [54]. Behnaz Ghoraani et.al. proposed a novel methodology for automatic pattern classification of pathological voices. The main contribution of this paper is extraction of meaningful and unique features using Adaptive time-frequency distribution (TFD) and nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). The proposed method extracts meaningful and unique features from the joint TFD of the speech, and automatically identifies and measures the abnormality of the signal. The proposed method is applied on the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) voice disorders database. As a matter of fact from the TFD of abnormal speech it is evident that there are more transients in the abnormal signals, and the formants in pathological speech are more spread and are less structured [55]. Corinne Fredouille et.al. have addressed voice disorder assessment. The goal of this methodology is to bring a better understanding of acoustic phenomena related to dysphonia. The automatic system was validated on dysphonic corpus (80) female voices. These observations led to a manual analysis of unvoiced plosives, which highlighted a lengthening of VOT according to the dysphonia severity validated by a preliminary statistical analysis. The feature vectors issued from this analysis, at a 10 millisecond rate, are finally normalized to fit a 0-mean and 1-variance distribution. The LFSC/MFSC computation is done by using the (GPL) SPRO toolkit. Finally, the feature vectors can be augmented by adding dynamic information representing the way these vectors vary in time. Here, first and second derivatives of static coefficients are considered (also named Δ and ΔΔ coefficients) resulting in 72 coefficients [56]. Younggwan Kim et.al. discussed the role of the statistical model-based voice activity detector (SMVAD) to detect speech regions from input signals using the statistical models of noise and noisy speech. The LRT-based decision rule may cause detection errors because of statistical properties of noise and speech signals[57]. Wiqas Ghai et.al. described automatic speech recognition system as comprised of modules Speech Signal acquisition ,Feature extraction, using MFCC is done . Acoustic Modeling is done for expected phonetics of the hypothesis word/sentence. For generating mapping between the basic speech units such as phones, tri-phones syllables, a rigorous training is carried. During training, a pattern representative for the features of a class using one or more patterns corresponding to speech sounds of the same class. Language Lexical Modeling is done with the help of Text Corpus, Pronunciation Dictionary and Language Model [59]. Lucas Leon Oller presents analysis of voice signals for the Harmonics-to-Noise crossover frequency .The harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR) has been used to assess the behavior of the vocal fold closure. The objective is to find a particular harmonics-to-noise crossover frequency (HNF) where the harmonic components of the voice drop below the noise floor, and use it as an indicator of the vocal fold insufficiency. . As the range used for the calculation of the cepstrum approaches the lowest octaves, the growth of the rahmonics should accelerate at some point, the range is going to contain harmonics that are above the noise floor level, and then the energy of the rahmonics will start to faster. That point would be the harmonics-to-noise crossover frequency [60]. Daryl Ning has developed an Isolated Word Recognition System in MATLAB. A robust speech-recognition system combines accuracy of identification with the ability to filter out noise and adapt to other acoustic conditions, such as the speaker’s speech rate and accent. It requires detailed knowledge of signal processing and statistical modeling [61]. Phonetic Concepts Daniel Jurafsky et.al. presented a case study of Star trek where robots converse with humans in natural Dialogue system with language conversational agents. Various components that make up modern conversational agents, including language input and language output dialogue ,automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding ,response planning , speech synthesis systems and the goal of machine translation which leads to automatic translation of a document from one language to another is explained here [62]. Steven Pruett describes speech as the motor act of communicating by articulating verbal expression and Language as the knowledge of a symbol system used for interpersonal communication. Mary Planchart has explained four domains of language namely Phonology, Grammar , Morphology ,Syntax , and Pragmatics [63], [64]. Eric J. Hunter has presented a case study of a 5 year old healthy male child. He has analyzed comparison of the child’s fundamental frequencies in structured elicited vocalizations versus unstructured natural vocalizations. The child also wore a National Center for Voice and Speech voice dosimeter, a device that collects voice data over the course of an entire day, during all activities for 34 hours over 4 days. It was observed that the child’s long-term F0 distribution is not normal. If this distribution is consistent in long-term, unstructured natural vocalization patterns of children, statistical mean would not be a valid measure. Author has suggested mode and median as two parameters which convey more accurate information about typical F0 usage [65].

Friday, October 25, 2019

Communication Essay -- Verbal and Non Verbal Communication

Today many people still lack the ability to communicate effectively with in interpersonal relationships. It is through cooperation and collaboration that effective communication occurs. By analyzing and studying the communication process we can improve our ability to communicate effectively between one another. To have a successful interpersonal relationship one must first interact with others, which is called interpersonal communication (Hybels and Weaver pg.156). Recognizing emotions in other is a very important first step to building a relationship. If you can’t feel what someone else is feeling then you can’t connect with them on a personal level and that can hinder your relationship process. Interpersonal communication is important because of the functions it achieves. Whenever we engage in communication with another person, we seek to gain information about them. We also give off information through a wide variety of verbal and non-verbal cues. Verbal communication has huge effects on many aspects of life, including interpersonal relationships. Speaking and telling our needs and wants verbally or non-verbally is a necessity for daily life. Verbal communication is organized by language; non-verbal communication is not. Most of us spend about 75 percent of our waking hours communicating our knowledge, thoughts, and ideas to others (Allis, 2002). However, most of us fail to realize that a great deal of our communication is of a non-verbal form as opposed to the oral and written forms. Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, body posture and motions, and positioning within groups. It may also include the way we wear our clothes or the silence we keep. In person-to-person com... ... We can do this by conflict resolution, which is negotiating to find a solution to the conflict (Hybels, 2007 pg202). Depending on how a conflict is resolved it can produce a positive or negative result. For example if two sisters are fight over a dress to wear on the weekend, they have two choices: one wear the dress and the other one does not, which leaves one sister unhappy (negative outcome) or neither of them wear it, so both are satisfied and neither of them are jealous of the other (positive outcome). It also helps to take a positive approach to conflict resolution, where discussion is considerate and non-confrontational, and the heart of the matter is on issues rather than on individuals. If this is done, then, as long as people listen carefully and explore facts, issues and possible solutions properly, conflict can often be resolved effectively.