Soccer Team Essays - FIFA 100, Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, Down

Landon Donovan down the sideline he goes looking for a pass. There?s the opening to Kei Kamara down the left side. Donovan hooks it, Kamara sprinting toward the center and jumps; his head hits the ball toward the top left corner of the goal. Sailing, Sailing and it?s good! Goal by Kamara, assisted by Donovan; what a play by these two working together. This is what it is about working together as team to get the job done. What does it take to get the job done? Well, it all boils down to dedication, hard work and unity of a team. How does this make a good soccer team? It does not only pertain to soccer but any team as a matter of fact. Dedication is the state of doing what it takes to succeed. If you are dedicated to playing a sport you don?t give up or even think about that. You might say ?hey, what do I need to do to get better.? Possibly, go up to your coach and see what they say you need to do. This is what people in the real world do for their jobs. Like a college student really wanting to get into med school; they will do everything they can to do just that and have little time for anything else. So being dedicated is a key to success as a team for if you get everyone dedicated to the sport then everyone wants to get better leaving the team to only succeed in the long run. Hard work is the will to train yourself to overcome barriers. When at practice what are you going to do? Go through the motions be like that is good enough for me, I don?t want to work. Possibly, you will be out there ready to go whenever you are in a drill or switching to another drill. Maybe this means that you will do whatever you need to do to fulfill your job on the field. Hard work the will to come out of your comfort zone to succeed where you want or need to succeed. Unity is the state of combining into one or being united. What does this mean to become one? This means that with all eleven players on the field; you want them to come together and become one unit instead of eleven different people, using their talent to make themselves look good. Would you want your doctors? and nurses? to work separately and not talk to each other, or would you like for them to all work together and make you better. You are part of the team so become one unit and help each other out. The people on your team are like your brothers and sisters take care of each other. When you have this going on you are a unit or some people would call the team a family. I put Sporting Kansas City to this test of dedication, hard work and unity as a team. They put forth the hard work, they have the dedication and they work as a unit moving up and down the field. To see that this goes for any type of team I also put the Highland Rugby team through the test. I get the same results as I did for Sporting Kansas City. You see this goes for any team as well as for going on through life. So now will you go out and make something of yourself by overcoming obstacles, being dedicated to your work and work as a unit to accomplish your goals. Ten seconds remain in the game; we have a goal kick being taken by Jimmy Nielson. He kicks it to the right side Fernando Torres gets the ball and turns it up field. Dribbling down the side line he could go all the way. No, he slows down by the goal line looks to the middle and sees Cristiano Ronaldo setting up in the middle waiting for the shot by Torres. Torres sends the ball sailing to the center of the penalty box; where Ronaldo throwing his body into the air, now extending his leg up and out. The ball meets his foot sailing toward

Modern world Essay Example

Modern world Essay Example Modern world Essay Modern world Essay In the modern world, official statistics cover the economy, crime, unemployment, education etc. Official statistics, such as the GHS, represent an extensive source of data on changing attitudes to particular social issues; they also show trends and patterns within a society. Official statistics are data collected or sponsored by the government and its agencies. However, they have been greatly criticised, many sociologist argue that official statistics lack validity and reliability, therefore cannot be an accurate picture of society. This essay shall focus on certain official statistics to see whether the criticisms surrounding them are justified. This can be shown in the way the statistics are collected produced and processed for example in crime statistics police procedures and practices. Statistics enable one to understand the dynamics of society there are three main perspectives on official statistics from the school of thoughts, firstly the realist school, second, the institutionalist school and finally, the radical school of thought. The realist point out that the official statistic distort the true picture but take statistics as objective indicators of the phenomena to which they refer. Institutionalist school reject the idea official statistics are objective indicators of social conditions. They consider official statistics as neither valid nor reliable indicators of objective phenomena. The institutionalist believes official statistics tell one more about process of how the official statistics are made. The radical, agrees with the institutionalist, however they would locate the institutionalist theory within a wider theory of the dynamics and structure of society. 1 (Squires 1990) Official statistics is secondary data, which is information that has already been allocated and readily available. Many sociologists such as (Hakim 1982) argue that there are problems with using official statistics for the simple fact of them being secondary data. For example, one may look at results and interpretations differently from those presented in the initial report on the survey2. This highlights the fact that secondary analysis use data for purposes other than that of which they were collected. Although doing this is in many ways a goods thing, it can create problems. Key social variables is official statistics is often deficient in some ways. Since the researcher does not collect the data there is very little they can do to rectify possible omission, for example how information as been collected and processed. In some cases secondary data such as official Statistics may be transformed and manipulate to suit ones argument or hypotheses. For instance, this approach may be used between different parties such as Labour and Conservatives. Figures in crime statistics for sexual assaults have increased 0. 4%,3 one party may interpret this as an increase in the number of people reporting sex crimes another party may interpret or manipulate these results to suggest there is an overall increase in the number of sex crimes committed. This indicates how official statistics can be manipulated to show different outcomes therefore questioning whether official statistics especially crime statistics are valid and reliable. Another example to show how the government or other agencies can manipulate results is in the case of employment figures in 1994. Conservatives politician celebrated the fall of unemployment they stated that it was due to economic recovery, while Michael Portillo insisted that government intervention in the labour market was inappropriate interference with market forces4 (newsnight 1 august 1994). Therefore questioning whether real drops in figures represent real drops in unemployment. Official statistics are information that has been collected on individuals in society that are used and stored. However, the production of official statistics is not unproblematic. To help understand certain limitations and some of the discussions concerning problems with official statistics this essay shall use crime statistics as an example to highlight many of the problems and criticisms faced by certain official statistics, however the limitations and criticised faced by criminal statistics do not apply to all official statistics. Criminal statistics are published for England and Wales they provide information and indications on the types of crimes being committed and the extent to which crime is increasing or decreasing. In the media there are often reports about certain crimes for example assaults against women , this in turn increases fear of crime amongst women. However, womens fear of crime is real enough and should not be dismissed as simply false5 ( stanko 1990). For the reason that crime statistics on sexual offences which are primarily carried out on women, show 37,263 sexual offences this is a small amount compared to overall crime figures. Criminologist such as walklate (1989) explains that sexual offences are crimes that are least likely to be reported to the police6 since women are often scared to report the crime. Suggesting that many of the crimes go unreported therefore are not represented in the criminal statistics. This can be used to argue how reliable criminal statistics is in portraying the true extending of crime how high is the validity in criminal statistics. This can demonstrate whether official statistics actually pick up the trends and patterns of society to they really reflect how society really is. In order for criminal statistics to be accurate, it must sustain validity and reliability for example two different incidents not being categorised the same way shows reliability. Police recording and practices for criminal statistics will be used to highlight how official statistics are often criticised for the way in which they obtain information and then portrayed in statistics. The counting methods in policing records are artificial conventions meaning they are not impermeable, as they like to think. The rules on the counting method are not entirely consistent, walker (1995) makes the point that one result of these rules is that they over represent offences of violence as compared to thefts7. Maguire (1999) makes a different point: if the rules were changed for example to allow all cheque frauds to be counted separately, the overall picture of crime might look significantly different indicating that if different measurements of counting was taken then certain figures of crime would double or even triple in numbers8. The same argument can be used in official statistics about poverty provided by the DSS, measurement for poverty has been highly criticised, for example there is no definite definition of poverty and that homeless people are not included in the survey in Britain and Wales. One can then argue how can statistics on poverty therefore be reliable. These problems faced in statistics emphasize the way in which information is collected, what information is collected or in the case of poverty information not collected can distort figures. Consequently suggesting that the statistics do not reflect the true picture of society, which subsequently makes official statistics difficult to use as a provider on showing how society changes over time9, If the way in which crime is collect is not consistent or does not have any structure. Although there are criticism on the procedures and recording in official statistics, one can not argue that official statistics produce interesting findings on contemporary society which despite there inadequacy, have been used by both radical and realist researchers alike. Arguable official statistics may have some flaws nevertheless the methologicial value of official data can often be very good for example, the census. Many criminologists such as painter (1995) argues that crime statistics do not portray an accurate picture on certain crimes such as rape, consecutively one can claim that rape is a very delicate subject and the criminal statistics representation of rape is not a defect on its ability to produce good quality data. For example Evidence shows that the same crimes, which are least likely to be reported to the police, are also least likely to be captured by victimization surveys10 (Walklate 1984 page 78). The 1982 and 1984 BCS had only one report each concerning rape and the Merseyside crime survey failed to find any reports of sexual offences against women (Kinsey 1984) this highlights certain aspects of victim surveys are not useful for collecting valid data on the dark figure of crime. Some studies had found that domestic violence is more likely to be reported to the police than to survey interviewer. This can be understandable because at the time of the incident, a woman may have reason to report the crime to the police but later may not be inclined to reveal such a personal thing to survey researchers11, the same argument may be use for rape. This therefore highlights that certain social issues are impossible to collect and official statistics are being over criticised because statistics that may portray a false image of society is inevitable.

What The Word 'Green' Means In Architecture Today Definition of Green Term Paper

What The Word 'Green' Means In Architecture Today Definition of Green Architecture - Term Paper Example While there is a specific association with the environmental living, there is also a question of the relevance to the architecture and whether it is truly eco-friendly. The systems and the aesthetics have both been altered to represent the idea of being environmentally conscious. However, many are also associating this with the trends in society, politics and in terms of the economic needs which need to be met. The result is a variety of innovative looks and materials which are being used with the statement of one living in an eco – friendly way. However, many of the structures and developments are only slightly altering the true changes that are a part of the environment and which are associated with the living that is a part of the eco – friendly associations currently in demand both politically and socially. This research paper will examine the essence of the Green Movement and the effects on architecture as well as whether this is a coined term or is being pieced in to action through the new buildings and structures created. Introduction The concept of green architecture is one which is now beginning to rise with different approaches to how buildings should match with the social priority of creating environmentally friendly buildings. The ideologies which are associated with this are inclusive of changing the internal and external structures so they match with the demands of the environmental changes for eco-friendly solutions to living. The structures and changes which are being created in response to this have built and established a variety of points that are associated with how one is able to create the right terms and approaches in response to both ecology and the social movement for green living. Examining the key term of green architecture and understanding the approaches which are associated with this have then developed a different approach to how architecture is being developed and what the associations are in terms of building the co rrect options for green living. Definition of Green Architecture The concept of green architecture has begun because of the push to take more responsibility toward the environment and the associations which have been created in terms of the Green Movement. The Green Movement is one which has taken place both socially and politically with the belief that ecological sustainability needs to be integrated into homes, lifestyles and public places. The concept of politics is one which is stating that the environment needs to be protected. However, there is also a vested interest in the economics of the green movement and the ability to buy green and live green that both politicians and individuals in society are looking toward. The concept is now one which is associated with the need and desire to live green and to state that one is in an ecofriendly area. This changes the attitudes of those in society with many that are associated with the beliefs of needing to save the environment and m ake an individual contribution to the associations which are in society (Soper, 1995). The political concepts associated with the green movement began in the 1970s with President Nixon stating that there were detrimental problems with the environment. However, the current changes began to accelerate in the 1990s when Al Green began to make statements associated with the ozone layer and how each citizen was responsible for changing the environment. This particular concept is one which was directly associated with the changes in society and the sociobiological approach associated with how one was developing within the green movement. The concept is one which is based on building a signifying system that would be able to help with those in society going green and having a better understanding

Current Business Themes Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Current Business Themes - Dissertation Example According to the paper the two major natural disasters caused by these firms have been discussed here. Also the report states the corrective measures undertaken by these firms. It can be concluded from the study that the occurrence of oil spillage is fundamentally a subject highly dependent on probability. A probabilistic occurrence like oil spill incident or oil spill spreading and affecting the marine ecology as well as the human lives is a matter that can’t be anticipated; only an estimation of its possibility can be made.   When an organization takes steps for sustainability practices, it becomes essential for it to know the probable causes of risk. Thus considering the environment prior to the business objectives should be the main aim of every firm related to this industry.From this study it is clear that in the present corporate era, all the firms strive to gain the trust of its stakeholders so that a long term business relationship can grow between them. A long term relationship in business depends on product quality, customer service, and good reputation. Reputation is the concept that many successful firms fail to achieve. Business reputation is considered as an asset that is intangible which distinguishes a company from other firms and draws consumers to make them buy things again and again from the same company and at the same at time the consumers readily pay a top price for the goods and services.... Business reputation is considered as an asset that is intangible which distinguishes a company from other firms and draws consumers to make them buy things again and again from the same company and at the same at time the consumers readily pay a top price for the goods and services. However, in spite of the discerning involvement between financial performance and reputation, pragmatic studies account for questionable findings. Reputation is an exclusive element of a business that can be achieved by it through its good work and goodwill (Lee & Roh, 2012). One of the greatest sources of reputation is the sustainability framework practiced by the firm. Sustainability can be attained by the means of numerous activities that comprises of the reputation of the management. These activities comprises of the formation of the environment-friendly goods, motivating and retaining employees, saving energy etc. which aids the business to preserve value via return and growth on capital. The aim of the present study is to focus on the various facets of the oil exploration and production industry and the corporate social responsibility practice followed by the firms of this sector to maintain sustainability. The two main firms that will be covered in our study are BP and Shell. It will be a comparative analysis between the environmental policies of both the firms that will further discuss about the various measures taken by these firms to repair the damages. For the present study the research question happens to be, how do the oil exploration and production plants deal with the issues of environmental pollution and what are their approach to a sustainable environment? The topic in hand will be studied by the conduction

Production Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Production Management - Essay Example According to Hill (1991), ‘The production/operations management (POM) task is concerned with the transformation process which takes inputs and converts them into outputs, together with the various support functions closely associated with this basic task’ (cited Brown, 2000; p.7). Such transformation processes can be applied to three main categories, materials, customers and information. Brown (2000) describes that Production Management encompasses the most vital activities of production, beginning from and including, planning and design, production processes of goods and services, and also effective integration of marketing, finance, human resources management and strategy in order to enable a business to enter and compete with both new and existing markets. In other words, a business’s success and sustainability largely depend on the operational capabilities, including efficiency and quality. Production management is a comprehensive phenomenon including distinct and complex activities that need to be performed in order to achieve a firm’s goals. Besides the processes itself, there is a strategic aspect linked to the production management process, without which aligning production processes with the firm’s actual goals, tracking performance of the firm and its processes, and gaining profits become difficult or even impossible. The entire production management can be illustrated in the following manner: Each of these activities requires planning in great detail. The present discussion will be focused on production process in a normal readymade clothes manufacturing unit. Although the focus is on production process, it should be noted that production process is further dependent on the other functions, i.e. strategic planning and tactical planning. For instance, the raw materials required for the production process are procured from

Data Storage for Art Gallery

Data Storage for Art Gallery Executive Summary This assignment is based upon an Art Gallery. Being the system analyst and designer the art gallery is hopeful I demonstrate professionalism and propose a computerized cataloging system which they require. Currently the Art Gallery has 8 exhibition rooms where they display art items from around the word. These items dont only belong to the Art Gallery but by other owners, be it other galleries or private collectors. These items are borrowed to enhance the exhibition rooms which change exhibits every 3 months. The gallery is lead by a curator and 6 assistant curators to see about its daily operations. One of the major issues of the art gallery is the paper based form which they use to keep record exhibits in storage or in exhibition, in addition and borrowing and returning of items to their respective owners. There are several technologies available in which these paper forms can be transferred directly into the catalogue system which I am designing for the art gallery. These technologies would be reviewed and the best suited technology would be recommended for the transfer of the paper forms to the computerized system. In building this catalogue it is required that only the curator and assistant curators have read, write, edit and delete functions once the system is properly installed. These functions would be given with discretion to the user according to rank i.e. the curator would be given access to the entire catalogue system granting him permissions to all CRUD functions whereas the 6 assistant curators would have specific access and could only delete certain items in the system. This is required for security issues. In this proposal submitted must be a prototype interface so the users can see how the system would look before the interchange from the current paper based system to the computerized catalogue. The prototype would demonstrate the following functions: Adding a new item Editing item details Searching for the location of an item Listing items due for return This system would make the curator and assistant curators demonstrate efficiency and effectiveness in the art gallery as it is a step into the modern way or storing data which is used by many businesses worldwide. Unified Modelling Language, or UML, is a set of diagrammatic techniques, which are specifically tailored for object-oriented development, and which have become an industry standard for modelling object-oriented systems. In developing this cataloguing system for the art gallery, specialized diagrams would be used to model the system throughout the development process. These diagrams would represent part of the system but not the whole thing. Some of the diagrams that would be shown are: use case diagrams use case specifications activity diagrams class diagrams sequence diagrams state machines communication diagrams Use Case Diagrams Use case diagrams are description of the system from the users point of view. This would entail an actor, use case and system boundary. Three use case diagrams are presented to the art gallery to the show some functional requirements of the system but not the whole system. The art gallery system, maintaining the art list and returning the art item are demonstrated below. This use case describes all the functions carried out in the art gallery system which includes all the actors from the curator, assistant curator, owner and the public. Some of the use cases include maintain art list, maintain owner list, maintain exhibition, manage store rooms, borrow and returning of art. Maintain Art list is a function carried out by the curator. This use case was generated from the Art Gallery System use case in figure 1. It extends to describe the description of what the curator could do in the cataloguing system, which are CRUD functions. Returning of art is a function which the assistant curator performs. This use case was developed from the Art Gallery System in Figure 1 and gives a details listing of the function the assistant curator can perform. Use Case Specification The use case description is a narrative description of the functional requirements from the use case. It describes the use case goal and gives the description of what usually happens and the normal course of events. Following are the use case specifications from the previous use case diagrams. Use Case: Maintain Art List Actors: Curator Goal: Managing the entire art list Description: The curator logs into the system, the user name and password is verified. Access is granted and the curator continues to function. A search is carried out on a particular art ID to ensure it does not exist, once affirmed the curator may create the new record with all the art details required. Other functions granted to the curator are update, delete and print functions which follow along the same line. Once the curator is finished with the particular functions so desired he then logs out the system. Use Case: Maintain Art List Actors: Curator Goal: Managing the entire art list Overview: The curator logs into the system, the user name and password is verified. Access is granted and the curator continues to function. A search is carried out on a particular art ID to ensure it does not exist, once affirmed the curator may create the new record with all the art details required. Other functions granted to the curator are update, delete and print functions which follow along the same line. Once the curator is finished with the particular functions so desired he then logs out the system. Typical course of events: Alternative courses: Step 6 the art information may already exist in the system in the event of adding a new art item and may choose a new art ID. Use Case: Returning Art Actor: Assistant Curator Goal: To return art to respective owner Description: The assistant curator logs into the system, the user name and password is verified. A search is carried to verify all items that are due. The list is obtained and the assistant curator/s may contact the respective owner making them aware the due date is soon. The contract is ended for borrowing the art item, a report is printed and the art is returned. Once successful the assistant curator logs out. Use Case: Returning Art Actor: Assistant Curator Goal: To return art to respective owner Overview: The assistant curator logs into the system, the user name and password is verified. A search is carried to verify all items that are due. The list is obtained and the assistant curator/s may contact the respective owner making them aware the due date is soon. The contract is ended for borrowing the art item, a report is printed and the art is returned. Once successful the assistant curator logs out. Typical course of events: Description: The art gallery system includes the daily operations of the art gallery; this includes the maintaining art list, owners list and exhibition carried out by the curator. The assistant curators also maintain the exhibition rooms, the storage rooms and carry out the functions of borrowing and returning the art items. The owner of the art items are also included in the borrowing and returning of the items and viewing the exhibitions in conjunction with the public. Activity Diagrams Activity diagrams show the internal flow of control in a process. Activity diagrams can be used to represent sequence, selection and iteration and they can also illustrate where all activities can be carried out in parallel. According to IBM.com Activity diagrams are helpful in the following phases of a project: Before starting a project, you can create activity diagrams to model the most important workflows. During the requirements phase, you can create activity diagrams to illustrate the flow of events that the use cases describe. During the analysis and design phases, you can use activity diagrams to help define the behaviour of operations. This diagram shows the activity of events in swim lanes with the assistant curator, art list and the owner. It shows the process of the activity of events taking place in the returning process. Class Diagrams The class diagram is central to object-oriented analysis and design, it defines both the software architecture. It is used to model classes and the relationships between classes, and also to model higher-level structures comprising collections of classes grouped into packages. The class diagram appears through successive iterations at every stage in the development process. Designed are class diagrams illustrating the super class, hierarchy and attributes and operations for the proposed catalogue system for the Art Gallery. Transfer Methods Currently the Art Gallery stores and processes all information on paper based forms which outlines the name, location, owner, value of art, due date, etc. This system could cause problems in finding location of art items and generating due dates because of the frequent change in the exhibitions and in storage. The Art Gallery wishes to fully change this paper based style and produce a catalogue which would improve the efficiency and effectiveness in the work place that would entail the same information from the paper forms. The system would also grant permission to only the Curator and Assistant Curators to have read, write, edit and delete functions. In order to commence this catalogue all the paper forms must be transferred to the computerised system. There are many techniques in which this catalogue could be created, but only the most efficient one would be chosen as it is critical to implement this system. These techniques range from human data entry, document scanning and even voice recognition tools. The mentioned techniques and technologies would be compared and contrasted where only the best option would be chosen to perform the functions needed. Human Data Entry Beginning with the very basic and most popular way of entering information into a system is human data entry. This operation is fully dependant on the data entry clerk or in the Art Gallerys case the assistant curator to read the document and manually key information from the paper forms into the catalogue on the computer system. This process would be strenuous and lengthy as it is a fully manual process. There are only six assistant curators employed at the Art Gallery and this would be highly impossible to implement in a short period. The curators not only have to borrow and return art items, but mange the store rooms and exhibitions so time would be limited in such, to perform data entry. It is assumed that if this technique is chosen at least two of the assistant curators would perform the functions of keying the information into the system. Therefore this option is not best suited for the art gallery due to time constraint and the amount forms that would be re-processed even though a specific number of records wasnt given, it is alleged that there are a profound amount of documents to be entered into the catalogue. Advantages of Human Data Entry Method requires simple software systems and low-end computing hardware Less costly in the sense of hardware and software in addition depending on cost of manpower A large number of PCs would be available for use after census Disadvantages of Human Data Entry Requires more staff Time consuming compared to automated data entry Human errors may consist Standardisation of operations is difficult as performance may be individually dependant Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) According to tiscali.co.uk OMR is a technique that enables marks made in predetermined positions on a computer input form be detected optically and input to a computer. Optical Mark Recognition is used to process data entry form in various institutes and companies. This technology shines a light beam onto the document and is able to detect the marks filled from check boxes and fill-in fields on a printed form, and then the software interprets the output from the scan and translates it to the desired format, bearing in mind the use of a keyboard is nonexistent. OMR is best applicable for processing large number of hand filled forms which are needed to be processed quickly and accurately, which may include survey reply cards, questionnaires and ballots. The speed of OMR is very fast as it could process approximately 85-130 pages per minute and up to 4000 pages per hour depending on the type of machine used. Advantages of Optical Mark Recognition Improved data accuracy Faster than human data entry Capture speeds around 4000 forms per hour Equipment is relatively inexpensive as costs are predictable and defined It is simple to install and run Well established technology that is used by many countries Disadvantages of Optical Mark Recognition There are restrictions as to form design Restrictions on type of paper and ink OMR cannot recognise hand written or machine printed characters Images are not captured by scanners so electronic retrieval is not possible Response boxes should be correctly marked with appropriate pen or pencil The Art Gallery forms are hand written documents and OMR technology doesnt recognise hand written documents therefore this technology is at fault with the requirements of the Art Gallery. Even though this technology has many advantages and of its use worldwide, another type of technology must be considered for transferring the paper based forms to the computerized system. Optical Character Recognition According to wisegeek.com Optical Character recognition is the process of converting printed or hand written materials into text or word processing files that can be easily stored and edited. All OCR systems require hardware and software for analysing the images. A scanners is used to scan the text on a page, then breaks the fonts into a series of dots called bitmap in addition it reads most common font and can determine where lines start and stop. The bitmap is then translated to computer text. This technology fits the requirements of the Art Gallery as it is able to read hand written documents. There have been a lot of advances to this technology over the years as to improve the recognition of handwriting or fonts similar to hand writing. As we observed before in human data entry if we wanted to document one of the forms which is currently used by the Art Gallery someone would have to manually type the document word for word, but with OCR you just scan the document and it could be converted to several formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PDF or HTML. OCR would save a lot of time as it is fast in reading documents, just scan a document and it would be ready in seconds. A lot of businesses have chosen this technology as it cuts time in producing a document which would usually take days to complete can now be accomplished in a minute. As stated in the scenario the documents which the Art Gallery has are neatly handwritten characters which are easy to read so the problems with recognising font wouldnt be of a problem to hinder the operations carried out by this technique. Advantages of Optical Character Recognition Quicker processing, up to 60 sheets per minute Savings in costs and efficiencies by not having the paper questionnaires Scanning and recognition allowed efficient management and planning for the rest of the processing workload Reduced long term storage requirements, hard copy documentation could be destroyed after the initial scanning, recognition and repair Quick retrieval for editing and reprocessing Minimizes errors associated with physical handling of the questionnaires Disadvantages of Optical Character Recognition Higher costs of equipment High calibre IT staff required to support the system Handwriting on census forms be as close as possible to the model handwriting to avoid recognition error Possibility for error during character substitution which would affect data quality Tuning of recognition engine to accurately recognize characters is critical with trade-off between quality and cost Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) Intelligent Character Recognition is sometimes compared with Optical Mark Recognition because of their similarities, but the difference with ICR is its advancement in recognition patterns allowing the technology to recognise all fonts and different styles of handwriting. This technology also allows automatic updates to the recognition of new hand writing patterns in its database. This technology is best suited for the transferring of the forms in the Art Gallery because it would recognise the handwriting on the forms without any editing taking place. The process of documenting the forms to the computerised system would entail the form being scanned; the data is captured then analyzed and translated using ICR software that enables pattern-matching and automatic indexing. Just like OCR the data could be transferred into several formats such as Word, Excel, Access, PDF, XML etc. According to managedoutsource.com some features and benefits of using ICR are: Can recognize any text of a form or a check Allows manual key boarding reduction or deletion Maximum process automation of documents Recognize text regardless of its specific typeface, style or size. Batch processing Automated updating, reports display and automated mass spectra interpretation Automatic checking of the information against databases and dictionaries Costs reduction for your business Because of the similarity with ICR and OCR the advantages and disadvantages may be the same. Therefore the following disadvantages are reiterations of OCR disadvantages as described earlier. Recommendation Voice recognition technology is another aspect of converting the paper based forms to the computerized system but due to all the training involved in this technology only the fastest and most reliable techniques were discussed. It is recommended that the museum use the Intelligent Character Recognition method for the transfer of the forms to the computerized system. Even though it is stated that the forms are easy to read and in standard English the Optical Character Recognition would have been the ideal choice, but doesnt know what the future holds while the process is actually being implemented and what errors may occur. One of the major downfalls the company would face with the ICR technology is its cost. This equipment quite costly and the budget of the Art Gallery are unknown. Instead of buying the machine it could be rented at a cheaper cost, because this technology is only being used to transfer the old forms and nothing further. This would result in a more economical status for the museum. Another form is to buy the machine and rent it out to other businesses who demand the use of this technology for the same purpose. The income generated from the ICR machine could be used in the borrowing of the art items from other galleries and private collectors. Prototype User Interface According to agilemodeling.com a prototype user interface is an iterative technique where users are involved in the development of the User Interface for the system. Since the actual system isnt necessary to demonstrate to the users all desired are snapshots of the designed prototype interface. Includes are the searching for the location of an item, editing an items details, adding a new item and listing the due for return to their owners by a selected date. In the searching process there are two options available to the user, by either entering the Art ID or browsing the current collection with the option of choosing the item type or by selecting the item. Once an option of choice is chosen the art details would be listed below. In the art item details there would be the name of the item what type of art it is, and its current location, further information could be granted to either see what exhibition room or store room it is located in. This form is designed to add a new art item into the catalogue. It gives the option of entering all the art details into the form, once completed the curator has the option of going to another record and view all records in the catalogue or add another record in the system, once completed the curator could close the form. This image is similar to adding the art information; the only difference is the editing aspect. The curator and assistant curators have specific functions where editing is concerned. First they search the record by browsing through the forms and choose the edit button to make changes to the art information. Once completed the new information is automatically saved then the user can close the form. Generating due dates is a function which the assistant curator does in the returning of an art item process. The assistant curator has two options of searching for the due dates. Either by entering a desired date and then the catalogue would list all the due art items on that particular day or by entering an art id which would display the due date of the item. When the search is completed the assistant curator could then print out a report of the information gathered or close the form and continue with the returning art item process. Security Issues Security is a continuous process of protecting an object from unauthorized access. It is as a state of being or feeling protected from harm. That object in that state may be a person, an organization or property such as a computer system. Many businesses suffer the loss of their business due to lack of security. Security doesnt only have to be securing the computer system of the Art Gallery but also its physical surroundings. Objects in the art gallery can either be tangible or non-tangible, tangible objects being hardware and paintings, and intangible being information and data in the system that the art gallery depends on for its continuation. There Art Gallery has many art items which are on loan from different galleries and private collectors which may be priceless or one of a kind art work so losing this could cost the art gallery fortunes. Listed below are the possible threats to security to the art gallery system. Physical Security This may vary in different ways, if there is poor security measures such as little or no implementation of swipe cards, biometrics, security guards, surveillance cameras and identification cards, this may result in a negative effect on the company as there may be imposters wishing to harm the operations of the business. Businesses sometimes think if securing your computer with anti-virus and firewalls would help secure your business but the little things like an unauthorized person gaining access to the building and removing the server, stealing hardware or by vandalizing equipment could make businesses suffer continuity. Therefore the Art Gallery should have proper implementation security guards, surveillance cameras, swipe cards and other media to help with securing the exhibition rooms and store rooms in the Art Gallery. Physical Attacks Physical attacks may result in the event of malicious activity, natural disasters or it may be an accident these attacks results from denial of service. Listed are some physical attacks that may be harmful to the Art Gallery: Fire destruction of art and equipment Water flooding or leaks in the art gallery Electrical Power Surges Temperature air condition failure Natural Disasters Hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Equipment Failure failure in servers, surveillance cameras, swipe readers. Tampering of equipment With respect to the physical attacks once proper planning and prevention of the above mentioned are complied with the art gallery may be protected against any harmful measures. Faulty Software Faulty software may be unintentional mishaps, it doesnt necessary means sabotage in a business but manufacture problems. These could occur if there is a glitch in the Operating System causing it to malfunction; software was misconfigured during installation or database software malfunction or exploitable weakness. Malicious Software Malicious software is software designed to destroy a computer system without the owners informed consent. Malicious software could be developed by hackers or internal employees in the workplace. Some malicious software may include Computer Viruses Worms Trojan Horse Logic Bomb Hackers toolkit Spyware Dishonest adware Crime ware These malicious software can be contracted due to illegal use of the company internet for personal use other than work related or implanted into the system intentionally. Unauthorised Access Unauthorized Access may take form in different forms. A common way of unauthorized access is by leaving a system logged on and walking away from your desk, another co-worker may intentionally spy on your computer and steal information this is also called eavesdropping. Counter authentication is another form of unauthorised access which may include individuals guessing passwords, password interception, password cracking and session replay. Session Hijacking is the exploitation of a valid computer session to gain access to information or services in a computer system. Denial of Service Denial of service is designed to interrupt normal system functions and affect legitimate users to access the system. Hostile users send a flood of fake requests to a server making the connection impossible to establish. This may result in significant server downtime and financial loss for many companies. All these mentioned security issues are threats to the art gallery; even though some attacks are based on a networked system it is assumed that the Art Gallery would implement a network for the computerised system. Consequences to breach of security According to the threats discussed earlier they play serious threats to the Art Gallery. Once the art gallery has a breach in security it could harm the continuity of the business depending on the level of attack. Firstly starting off with physical attacks, a natural disaster can destroy the entire building with all the exhibits and computers which could terminate the continuation of the business continuity. Other physical attacks like flooding and fire may harm the business but it could be prevented or stopped once proper implementation of fire extinguishers and proper storage of computer system and art exhibits a secured. The difference is a natural disaster is sometime unpredictable. The loss of vital information pertaining to the catalogue with the owner details of art, and information could eventually result in physical theft of art items in the gallery. Some items in the art gallery may be priceless and belongs to persons all over the world; therefore loosing these items would endure the gallery into a financial disorder. Art Gallerys integrity and reputation could blemish as it would turn into a public scandal embarrassing they security measures and all private and confidential information exposed. Permissions User accounts are the best way of ensuring only the curator and assistant curators have write, edit and delete permissions in the proposed catalogue. Every user account is associated with a username and password, the users contact information, account restrictions allowing access to the database at only certain hours of the day and account status allowing the administrator to temporarily disable an account. The curator would be the administrator of the database allowing him access to any and everything he desires which may include the maintaining the art list, maintaining owners list, maintaining the location of art items etc. These functions would allow the curator have all CRUD functions in the database. Being the administrator no one can delete the account because the system depends on an administrator to function and administrator status could be granted to any a supervisor of the 6 assistant curators. The assistant curators would be granted general access to the database but granted certain permissions. The supervisor of the assistant curators may have write, edit and delete functions, whereas the other users may have write and edit functions. Reasons being a delete function is one of power and this permission should only be granted to persons of stature in an organization. This is also part of security reasons. Bibliography Publications Database Design Know it all by: S. Buxton; L. Fryman; R. Guting; T. Halpin; J. Harrington; W. Inmon; S. Lightstone; J. Melton; T. Morgan; T. Nadeau; B. ONeil; E. ONeil; P. ONeil; M. Schneider; G. Simsion; T. Teorey; G. Witt. Published by Morgan Kaufmann 2009 (1st Edition) A Student Guide to Object-Oriented Development by: C. Britton; J. Doake. Published by Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann 2005 (1st Edition) Database Solutions A step-by-step guide to building databases by: T. Connolly; C. Begg. Published by Pearson Education Limited 2004 (2nd Edition) Networking All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies by: D. Lowe. Published by Wiley Publishing Inc. 2008 (3rd Edition) Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML Theory Practice by: D. Rosenberg; M. Stephens. Published by: Springer-Verlag New York Inc 2007 (1st Edition) Using UML Software Engineering with Objects Components by: P. Stevens; R. Pooley. Published by Addision-Wesley, Pearson Education Limited 2006 (2nd Edition) ICR, OCR, OMR Published by NCS Pearson, Inc www.PearsonNCS.com 2004 Workshop on Consistency Problems in UML-based Software Development by: J. Bodaveix; T. Millan; C. Percebois; C. Le Camus; P. Bazex; L. Feraud; R. Sobex. Blekinge Institue of Technology 2002 Workshop on Consistency Problems in UML-based Software Development by: J. Derrick; D. Akehurst; E. Boiten. Blekinge Institute of Technology 2002 Websites http://www.computer-realm.net/omr-technology/ http://www.drs.co.uk/census_methods.html. http://search.pearson.com/compare/icr-ocr-omr.pdf www.flatworldsolutions.com/articles/advantages-disadvantages-outsourcing.php http://www.scribd.com/doc/8663036/Normalization www.cert.org/archive/pdf/inside cross051105.pdf http://www.omg.org/technology/uml/index.htm,

Parkinsons Disease: Is It All In the Brain? :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Parkinson's Disease: Is It All In the Brain? "When I should go lay down on the couch, but I know that I will never find a comfortable position, so if I'm to be uncomfortable, it may as well be here, in front of this gently glowing screen. I feel the last of last night's meds burn away in my throat and then the dreaded "heebie-jeebies" come" (6). Parkinson's disease otherwise named the "shaking palsy" in 1817 by James Parkinson affects 50,000 Americans every year. The risk of the disease is higher amongst men giving them twice risk of developing Parkinson's disease compared to women (5). It is not clear why men are more prone to getting the disease, but it may be related to them not having the female hormone estrogen. (5). The general population that is at risk for developing Parkinson's disease are people older than fifty (1,5).The disease is related to a motor system disorder that cause the patient's hands, legs, jaw, face, and arms to tremor. Parkinson's disease may also cause bradykinesia (slowness of movement) as well as a loss of balance, and a difficulty in doing ordinary daily activities such as walking, talking, eating, and writing (1,2,5). How does this disease then affect the I-Function? If we already have all of our learned capabilities stored there then how do we account for such a loss once Parkinson's disease h as occurred? Symptoms associated with the disease such as tremors are very rhythmic and usually ends when the patient is sleeping. The resistance of the body to move causes rigidity in motion and is caused by an imbalance of opposing muscles in the body. Postural instability is a disturbance in the patient's balance and coordination (1). Notice many of these symptoms occur in relation to a certain movement the body makes. This is because it is said our brains control our movements, thus Parkinson's disease must directly affect some aspect of the brain. By the previous symptoms stated associated with Parkinson's disease it is clear that most would directly link the disease to the brain. Parkinson's disease is caused by a decrease in the nerve cells in the brain that produce the chemical dopamine (1,4). A chemical in the synapse is what breaks down the dopamine levels and once that occurs it continues to try to deplete the little dopamine that is left (4). The importance of the dopamine is so that messages can be relayed steadily between the substantia nigra (movement control center in the brain) and the corpus striatum (part of the brain that helps regulate motor activities) (1,4). Parkinson's Disease: Is It All In the Brain? :: Biology Essays Research Papers Parkinson's Disease: Is It All In the Brain? "When I should go lay down on the couch, but I know that I will never find a comfortable position, so if I'm to be uncomfortable, it may as well be here, in front of this gently glowing screen. I feel the last of last night's meds burn away in my throat and then the dreaded "heebie-jeebies" come" (6). Parkinson's disease otherwise named the "shaking palsy" in 1817 by James Parkinson affects 50,000 Americans every year. The risk of the disease is higher amongst men giving them twice risk of developing Parkinson's disease compared to women (5). It is not clear why men are more prone to getting the disease, but it may be related to them not having the female hormone estrogen. (5). The general population that is at risk for developing Parkinson's disease are people older than fifty (1,5).The disease is related to a motor system disorder that cause the patient's hands, legs, jaw, face, and arms to tremor. Parkinson's disease may also cause bradykinesia (slowness of movement) as well as a loss of balance, and a difficulty in doing ordinary daily activities such as walking, talking, eating, and writing (1,2,5). How does this disease then affect the I-Function? If we already have all of our learned capabilities stored there then how do we account for such a loss once Parkinson's disease h as occurred? Symptoms associated with the disease such as tremors are very rhythmic and usually ends when the patient is sleeping. The resistance of the body to move causes rigidity in motion and is caused by an imbalance of opposing muscles in the body. Postural instability is a disturbance in the patient's balance and coordination (1). Notice many of these symptoms occur in relation to a certain movement the body makes. This is because it is said our brains control our movements, thus Parkinson's disease must directly affect some aspect of the brain. By the previous symptoms stated associated with Parkinson's disease it is clear that most would directly link the disease to the brain. Parkinson's disease is caused by a decrease in the nerve cells in the brain that produce the chemical dopamine (1,4). A chemical in the synapse is what breaks down the dopamine levels and once that occurs it continues to try to deplete the little dopamine that is left (4). The importance of the dopamine is so that messages can be relayed steadily between the substantia nigra (movement control center in the brain) and the corpus striatum (part of the brain that helps regulate motor activities) (1,4).

Origin and Development of Applied Linguistics Essay

â€Å"Applied linguistics is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process. For this reason, applied linguistics examines theories from all sorts of different areas (semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,†¦) and from all sorts of perspectives so that it help find out effective solutions for language -related issues such as teaching methodology (including foreign language and mother tongue teaching), translation, aphasia,†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Applied linguistics originated in close relation with foreign language teaching and has developed to cover a wide range of knowledge, but its core has always been language teaching and learning. Applied linguistics draws its sources from sociology, psychology, anthropology and information theory as well as from linguistics to solve practical problems in practical areas such as language teaching. So applied linguistics is not linguistics that is applied, though it applies, first of all, linguistics. In fact, what it applies depends on what the theories are applied to. Applied linguistics, unlike pure science, aims to solve problems. Thus between theories of linguistics and related fields and the practical areas such as language teaching, it plays the role of a mediator, which bridges theories and practice together. In this way, applied linguistics not only provides principles and methodology for language teaching, etc. , but also gives feedbacks to the theoretical study by summing up the experience from practice. As applied linguistics makes language teaching and learning its core, it provides language teacher with good language theories, principles and methodology. By learning applied linguistics, language teacher can possess an overall understanding of updated theories of language teaching & learning as well as a better perspective of the various factors affecting language teaching &learning. So it is very necessary for a language teacher to learn applied linguistics in order to teach more effectively. As for language learners, it is also very helpful to have some knowledge about applied linguistics. For one thing, by knowing the currently used teaching approaches and methods, which are covered by applied linguistics, language learners can learn to adjust themselves to the teacher’s teaching by adopting a more proper learning method because â€Å"a theory of teaching always implies a theory of learning â€Å"(Applied Linguistics, Yue Meiyun) and language learning is a two – way process, which needs efforts and adaptation from bath the teacher’s side and the learner’s side. For another, applied linguistics covers a wide scope of knowledge. It helps to enhance learner’s insights and depth of knowledge in language learning. Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. The goal of this writing is to make some personal comment on the viewpoint: â€Å"Applied linguistics is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process. For this reason, applied linguistics examines theories from all sorts of different areas (semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,†¦) and from all sorts of perspectives so that it help find out effective solutions for language -related issues such as teaching methodology (including foreign language and mother tongue teaching), translation, aphasia,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Many linguistic students like me find linguistics useful because it broadens and deepens their understanding of related fields such as languages and literature (English and foreign), social sciences (especially anthropology, sociology, and psychology), education, philosophy, communication†¦ The question is whether applied linguistics and linguistics applied is the same. Needless to say, the answer is â€Å"no†. Phillip Shaw, Stockholm University Strictly looking at the model above by Philip Shaw, a professor from Stockholm University, we can see a basic coherence between applied linguistics and other sciences. According to the professor, studying linguistics means studying language’s sounds, grammar, words, meanings, uses, and connected contexts – that is phonetics, syntax, lexis, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse respectively. Of these, phonetics focuses on the physical sounds of speech. It covers speech perception (how the brain discerns sounds), acoustics (the physical qualities of sounds as movement through air), and articulation (voice production through the movements of the lungs, tongue, lips, and other articulators). This area investigates, for instance, the physical realization of speech and how individual sounds differ across languages and dialects. This research plays a large part in computer speech recognition and synthesis. Syntax is the study of how units including words and phrases combine into sentences. Syntacticians investigate what orders of words make legitimate sentences, how to succinctly account for patterns found across sentences. Semantics within linguistics refers to the study of how language conveys meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how utterances relate to the context they are spoken in. By areas studied, he distinguishes different kinds of linguistics. Sociolinguistics is the study where linguistics looks at how language functions in different social contexts. In other words, it is the study of how language varies according to cultural context, the speaker’s background, and the situation in which it is used. Meanwhile, historical linguistics studies how languages are historically related. This involves finding universal properties of language and accounting for a language’s development and origins. Psycholinguistics is the study of language to find out about how the mind works. Pr. Phillip Shaw emphasizes that we can applied all knowledge of the above-mentioned sciences. It is understandable, therefore, whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and describing generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, applied linguistics takes these results and applies them to other areas. He defines applied linguistics as an engineering of linguistics, taking what the sciences of linguistics have discovered and applied to solve real practical problems. Kamil Wisniewski, in his work ‘Applied Linguistics’ 2007, he presents the term applied linguistics as an umbrella term that covers a wide set of numerous areas of study connected by the focus on the language that is actually used. He puts the emphasis in applied linguistics on language users and the ways in which they use languages, contrary to theoretical linguistics which studies the language in the bstract not referring it to any particular context, or language, like Chomskyan generative grammar for example. Interestingly even among applied linguists there is a difference of opinion as to the scope, the domains and limits of applied linguistics. There are many issues investigated by applied linguists such as discourse analysis, sign language, stylistics and rhetoric as well as language learning by childr en and adults, both as mother tongue and second or foreign language. Correlation of language and gender, as well as the transfer of information in media and interpersonal communication are analyzed by applied linguists. Also forensic linguistics, interpretation and translation, together with foreign language teaching methodology and language change are developed by applied linguistics. Shortly after the introduction of the term applied linguistics it was associated mainly with first, second and foreign language teaching, however nowadays it is seen as more interdisciplinary branch of science. Although in certain parts of the world language teaching remains the major concern of applied linguists, issues such as speech pathologies and determining the levels of literacy of societies, or language processing along with differences in communication between various cultural groups – all gain interest elsewhere. There is a consensus among linguists that is applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. Major branches of applied linguistics include bilingualism and multilingualism, computer-mediated communication, conversation analysis, contrastive linguistics, sign linguistics, language assessment, literacy, discourse analysis, language pedagogy, second language acquisition, lexicography, language planning and policies, stylistics, pragmatics, forensic linguistics, and translation. For all of what I have presented above, I want to restate that applied linguistics does not exist on its own, it makes a great influence on other disciplines and also is influenced by them. The findings of linguistics, like the findings of any other theoretical study, can be applied to the solution of practical problems, as well as to innovations in everyday areas involving language. This is the mandate of applied linguistics. Applied linguists draw from theories of language acquisition to develop first and second language teaching methodologies and to implement successful literacy programs. Applied linguists may also engage in language planning by developing alphabets and grammars for unwritten languages and by writing dictionaries. In short, applied linguistics applies the theories and tools of formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics in a wide variety of socially useful ways In his own work – â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics† (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Michael McCarthy presents applied linguistics as problem – solving concept. According to him, it is the belief that linguistics can offer insights and ways forward in the resolution of problems related to language in a wide variety of contexts that underlines the very existence of applied linguistics. Applied linguists try to offer solutions to real-world problems in which language is a central issue. People often think that applied linguistics refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but this is just one sub-discipline. McCarthy lists out the domains of typical applied linguistic problems which, as he says, seems certainly be wide – ranging and potential endless, but might include 14 problems as following: 1- A speech therapist sets out to investigate why s four-year-old child has failed to develop normal linguistics skills for a child of that age. 2- A teacher of English as a foreign language wonders why groups of learners sharing the same first language regularly make a particular grammatical mistake that learners from other language backgrounds do not. – An expert witness in a criminal case tries to solve the problem of who exactly investigated a crime, working only with statements made to the police 4- A advertising copy writer searches for what would be the most effective use of language to target a particular social group in order to sell a product. 5- A mother-tongue teacher needs to know what potential employers consider important in terms of a school-leaver’s ability to write reports or other business documents. 6- A historian wishes to understand the meanings of place-names in a particular geographical area and how they have changed over time. – A person constructing a language test foe non-native speakers for entry into further education needs to know what the key linguistic or psycholinguistic indicators are of reading ability in a second of foreign language. 8- A literary scholar suspects that an anonymous work was in fact written by a very famous writer and looks for methods of investigating the hypothesis. 9- A dictionary writer ponders over possible alternatives to an alphabetically organized dictionary. 10- A computer programmer wrestles with the goal of trying to get a computer to process human speech or to get it to translate from one language into another. 1- A group of civil servants are tasked with standardizing language usage in their country, or deciding major aspects of language planning policy that will affect millions of people. 12- A body is set up to produce an international, agreed language for use by air-traffic controllers and pilots, or by marine pilots and ships’ captains. 13- A zoologist investigates the question whether monkeys have language similar to or quite distinct from human language and how it works. 4- A medical sociologist sets out to understand better the changes that occur in people’s use of language as they move into old age. (Michael McCarthy, â€Å"Issues in Applied Linguistics†, Cambridge University Press 2001, page 1-2) In a work called â€Å"Understanding applied linguistics† by Professor V. B Owhotu (2007), the author emphasizes the importance and growing diversity of applied linguistics. In his view applied linguistics is driven first by real world problems rather than theoretical explorations. In other words, the applied linguists should be preoccupied by the following problems: language learning problem (emergence, awareness, rules, use, context, automaticity, attitudes and expertise); language teaching problems (resources, training, practice, interaction, understanding, use, context, inequalities, motivation, outcomes); literacy problems (language and culture); language inequality problems such as ethnicity, class, gender and age; language policy and planning problems (status planning, corpus planning, and ecology of language); language assessment problems (validity, reliability, usability, responsibility); language use problems (dialects, register, discourse communities, gate-keeping situations, limited access to services); language and technology problems (learning, assessment, access and use); translation and interpretation problem (on-line, off-line, technology assisted); and language pathology problems (aphasia, dyslexia, physical disabilities). Needless to say, it is far beyond my capacity to present an insight to all of these above-mentioned problems. However, in this part of the writing, I would like to take problems of language learning and teaching, translation nd interpretation, and speech-language pathology as examples to demonstrate the point that applied linguistics helps us to find out effective solutions to our practical problems. Researches in language teaching today show that applied linguistics is sometimes used to refer to â€Å"second language acquisitions†, but these are distinct fields, in that second language acquisition involves more theoretical study of the system of language, whereas applied linguistics concerns itself more with teaching and learning. In their approach to the study of learning, applied linguists have increasingly devised their own theories and methodologies, such as the shift towards studying the learner rather than the system of language itself, in contrast to the emphasis within second language acquisition. I shall continue by considering what avenues within linguists suggest themselves for approaching two of the problems relevant to languages teaching. Let us consider problem of teacher trying to understand why learners from the same language background are having difficulty with a particular grammatical structure in English. Potential linguistic questions for the solution of a grammatical problem, as McCarthy shows in â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics†, are: â€Å"What is known about the learner’s first language or any other language they know which might be interfering with their learning of the foreign language? What do grammarians say about this structure? What psychological barriers might be preventing the learning of the structure? Are some structure difficult to learn if they are tackled too early on? Is there an order in which structures are best presented? † (Michael McCarthy, â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics†, page 8). Can linguistics offer an approach or solution to the problem? If so, which branch(es) of linguistic study and by what methods? The answer lies in such linguistics’ components as pragmatics, semantics, syntax. In terms of pragmatics, students sometimes make mistakes in the use of unsuitable sentences in certain contexts that makes listeners misunderstand. Therefore, when teaching English, teachers need not only teach grammar and vocabulary but also teach how to use sentences in suitable contexts; e. g. eaching students how and when to say thank you or apologize. In terms of syntax, the most popular mistakes students make are: when making sentences students often translate word by word as the result of their habit of mother tongue (e. g. I have a cat black); combining words incorrectly to produce phrases (e. g. â€Å"a high man† instead of â€Å"a tall man†); the agreement between words in a sentence (e. g. S and V, tenses). In these cases, possibly effective solutions for teachers are: teachers need to teach students how to combine words correctly according to English grammatical rules; they should teach words in contexts. Teachers might also apply semantic knowledge to deal with learners’ mistakes. That is when teaching students a word which has many different meanings, they should teach the meanings related to the context, situation; wishing to talk about a meaning of the word, we may use different synonyms or antonyms; when teaching students how to translate the sentences or the texts into learners’ mother tongue, we should teach students to combine the meaning of English words and the meaning of their mother tongue to have a good translation. It could be confirmed that any problems in language learning and teaching might be solved with application of linguistics, and knowledge about language plays or could play a major role in language teaching and learning. In translation and interpretation area, applied linguistics can also be shown with effective applications in solving problems. In an article titled â€Å"Linguistics and Applied Linguistics† posted in the website of University of Melbourne, Australia, the author emphasizes an important role of linguistics and applied linguistics in different areas of our life, specially in translation and interpretation area. The article provides clear reasons why linguistic and applied linguistics should be studied by those specializing in translation and interpretation. One of the given reasons is that the skills in need for solving problems are central to the study of linguistics. An evidence for this assumption is clearly shown in the article. That is, â€Å"In a period when Australian culture is coming to term with the need to relate the worldwide mosaic of non-English speaking cultures, and when information and communication are moving to technological centre stage, there is a growing demand for people equipped to analyze language. In fact, an increasing number of employers, ranging from language teachers to engineers of knowledge systems and speech synthesis, from translators to managers to designers of natural-language interfaces for computers, from lexicographers to lawyers to bilingual schools in Aboriginal communities, realize the value of a sound training in Linguistics†. As cited in the article, knowledge in Applied Linguistics will provide us a head start in understanding and orienting us to the area and will give us relevant knowledge and analytical skills. People with a background in Applied linguistics also gain an enhanced understanding of how people learn first, second and foreign languages and of how language is used in the community. These skills will be relevant to those interested in preparing for careers as language teachers, language education and assessment experts, speech pathologists, interpreters and translators, and a variety of jobs in industry where language and communication are issues are of concern. Linguistics and Applied Linguistics provide unique skills in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication that are helpful in solving problems in translation and interpretation. Speaking of applied computational linguistic, people often mention machine translation, computer – assisted translation, and natural language processing as fruitful areas which have also come to the forefront in recent years. I am going to pick up machine translation as a typical example of applying linguistic knowledge. Machine translation is a form of translation where a computer program analyses the text in one language – the â€Å"source text† – and then attempts to produce another, equivalent text in another language – the target text – without human intervention. Currently the state of machine translation is such that it involves some human intervention, as it requires a pre-editing and a post-editing phase.

How to Draw a Lewis Structure

How to Draw a Lewis Structure A Lewis structure is a graphic representation of the electron distribution around atoms. The reason for learning to draw Lewis structures is to predict the number and type of bonds that may be formed around an atom. A Lewis structure also helps to make a prediction about the geometry of a molecule. Chemistry students are often confused by the models, but drawing Lewis structures can be a straightforward process if the proper steps are followed. Be aware there are several different strategies for constructing Lewis structures. These instructions outline the Kelter strategy to draw Lewis structures for molecules. Step 1: Find the Total Number of Valence Electrons In this step, add up the total number of valence electrons from all the atoms in the molecule. Step 2: Find the Number of ElectronsNeeded to Make the Atoms "Happy" An atom is considered happy if the atoms outer electron shell is filled. Elements up to period four on the periodic table need eight electrons to fill their outer electron shell. This property is often known as the octet rule. Step 3: Determine the number of bonds in the molecule Covalent bonds are formed when one electron from each atom forms an electron pair. Step 2 tells how many electrons are needed and Step 1 is how many electrons you have. Subtracting the number in Step 1 from the number in Step 2 gives you the number of electrons needed to complete the octets. Each bond formed requires two electrons, so the number of bonds is half the number of electrons needed, or: (Step 2 - Step 1)/2 Step 4: Choose a Central Atom The central atom of a molecule is usually the least electronegative atom or the atom with the highest valence. To find electronegativity, either rely on periodic table trends or else consult a table that lists electronegativity values. Electronegativity decreases moving down a group on the periodic table and tends to increase moving from left to right across a period. Hydrogen and halogen atoms tend to appear on the outside of the molecule and are rarely the central atom. Step 5: Draw a Skeletal Structure Connect the atoms to the central atom with a straight line representing a bond between the two atoms. The central atom can have up to four other atoms connected to it. Step 6: Place Electrons Around Outside Atoms Complete the octets around each of the outer atoms. If there are not enough electrons to complete the octets, the skeletal structure from step 5 is incorrect. Try a different arrangement. Initially, this may require some trial an error. As you gain experience, it will become easier to predict skeletal structures. Step 7: Place Remaining Electrons Around the Central Atom Complete the octet for the central atom with the remaining electrons. If there are any bonds left over from Step 3, create double bonds with lone pairs on outside atoms. A double bond is represented by two solid lines drawn between a pair of atoms. If there are more than eight electrons on the central atom and the atom is not one of the exceptions to the octet rule, the number of valence atoms in Step 1 may have been counted incorrectly. This will complete the Lewis dot structure for the molecule. Lewis Structures vs Real Molecules While Lewis structures are useful, especially when youre learning about valence, oxidation states, and bonding, there are many exceptions to the rules in the real world. Atoms seek to fill or half-fill their valence electron shell. However, atoms can and do form molecules that are not ideally stable. In some cases, the central atom can form more than other atoms connected to it. Also, the number of valence electrons can exceed 8, especially for higher atomic numbers. Lewis structures are helpful for light elements but less useful for transition metals, including lanthanides and actinides. Students are cautioned to remember Lewis structures are a valuable tool for learning about and predicting the behavior of atoms in molecules, but they are imperfect representations of real electron activity.

Electorial College essays

Electorial College essays In the United States there had been debates going back and forth about the Electoral College. The majority wants to abolish the Electoral College because of the belief of freedom of rights. The Electoral College was set up to make each presidential election fair for both parties. I am in neutral about the Electoral College because they have both have great reasons why it should and shouldnt be abolished. I was quite upset at the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. In my understanding everyone wanted Al Gore to win because people were pleased with the Clinton administration and wanted to continue in that direction for the future. In that election I do not have proper evidence to criticize Bushs victory, but I can say that he did not win the popular majority votes in that election and I am not sure how he could win the Electoral College votes without some form of bribery or illegal tactics. If he sabotaged the election which there was numerous documentaries about the election (farienheight 911), he should not be the president. Since everyone is upset with Mr. Bush why was he elected for another term? I am not sure if Gore would do a better job but as far as I know Mr. Bush has been doing an bad job as president I havent seen any good decision making yet, so I could be wrong. If anyone should be blamed with their decision on the last two presidencies it should be the Electoral College because its their job is to choose the best candidate available. I just want to know how was Mr. Bush the best candidate to win the electoral votes. Well I am going to discuss what the Electoral College is, the advantages, and the disadvantages of the Electoral College. I hope you can come up with your reasons why we should keep it or lose it. I think we should fix the problems instead of getting rid of a good idea. What is th...

Response to 4 students assignment postings with 2 references each Coursework

Response to 4 students assignment postings with 2 references each - Coursework Example and the highlight of the discussion came when he stated clearly and in no uncertain terms, how the impact of an organizational change at the individual response stage holds so much power in contributing to other forms of impact such as the group response (Burke, 2011). The lesson that is drawn from the discussion therefore is for managers to appreciate the fact that to attain organizational success, the individual success of the human resource base must be taken into consideration (Farcao, 2003). This writer creates a peculiar picture about a typical organization, where he makes it clear that for an organization to expect to achieve unanimous backing for any intended organizational change is virtually not feasible (Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, 2008). This is because the writer was able to outline how there were individual opponent, group opponents and organizational opponents for a single organization. To the manager therefore, what he ought to do is to bring the views of both supporters and opponents together and try to solve the dilemma that arises (Burke, 2011). The writer refused to make a real case of the impact of the organizational change at the individual, group and organizational levels. This therefore made the essay lack some sense of focus on the topic. Given the type of change that took place, it is expected that the writer would let the impact of the change that took place be felt (Robinson, 2009). This is because for every organizational change, there would be rapid impact at the individual, group and organizational levels (Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, 2008). Robinson Hickman, G. (2009). Organizational change practices. In G. Robinson Hickman (Ed.),  Leading organizations: Perspectives for a new era (2nd ed.) (pp. 510-524). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Yasunari Kawabatas Masterpiece Yukiguni Research Paper

Yasunari Kawabatas Masterpiece Yukiguni - Research Paper Example After his parents’ untimely deaths, he came to be raised by his maternal grandfather. He lost his grandparents at a young age either and by the time of his teens, was bereft of most of his close relatives. While graduating from the Tokyo Imperial University, Kawabata contributed to the magazine Bungei Shunju, which brought him to the attention of editors and well-known writers of that time, including author Kan Kikuchi. He went on to become one of the founders of Bundei Jidai (or ‘the artistic age’), a publication that became the medium for a new movement in modern Japanese literature. Kawabata also worked for a time as journalist and claimed himself to be deeply moved by World War II, which was apparently one of the greatest influences on his work. Kawabata allegedly committed suicide in 1972 by gassing himself, although this has not been conclusively proven. It is certain however that the early loss of his family and, by his own admission, the horrors of the war , left his work with a tinge of melancholy and sense of insecurity and loss. He was the first of two Japanese Nobel laureates – Oe Kenzaburo being the other – and is perhaps globally, the best-known Japanese writer in contemporary times, although his status in his native country as an author is still widely debated among critics (Miyoshi). Kawabata’s literary style is characterized by its free flowing imagery. He uses surprisingly original and unusual images in his stories that emphasize the poetic quality of his writing. In Yukiguni (Snow Country) for instance, the imagery employed is especially effective and beautiful in telling the emotionally charged love story of the geisha and the dilettante from Tokyo. Masao Miyoshi, in his review of Yasunari Kawabata talks about this ‘dependence of visualization’ as a result of his being essentially a short-story writer. Reiko Tsukimara in ‘A Thematic Study of the Works of Kawabata Yasunari’ ide ntifies ‘ryoshu’ and ‘aishu’ as two primary elements in Kawabata’s work. Ryoshu is described as an ‘intense emotional realization that you have found a home of your soul’ and aishu translates to ‘sorrow’ (Tsukimara 23). According to Tsukimara, these two emotions recur in Kawabata’s writing most persistently. They appear together as the recognition of finding a home for one’s soul or ryoshu is accompanied by a sense of profound sorrow or aishu as well. This paper will seek to explore what previous scholars have already commented on Kawabata’s writing technique and thematic concerns and test them on what has been called his masterpiece by Edward G. Seidensticker, Yukiguni or Snow Country. The paper will also explore if there are departures from his usual style and from what scholars like Tsukimara and Miyoshi assert. And finally, it will attempt to make fresh observations on Kawabata’s style through the study of Snow Country. Snow Country began as a short story that was published in 1935 in a literary journal. It was published serially, with Kawabata reworking later, between 1935 and 1937. A new ending and a collation of seven pre-existing versions appeared in 1937. Kawabata again worked on the story and between 1940 and 1941 the story was again published in journals in two sections. These two sections were merged by Kawabata in 1946, with another piece added in 1947. The book as it stands today was the result of combining nine previous versions, published in 1948 (Seidensticker). This complex and long publication history of the story and the its ‘piecemeal’ nature as Seidensticker calls it in his introduction to Snow Country’s translation reiterates the idea of Kawabata as being primarily a short-story writer. The repeated editing and elaborating of what began as a