Saturday, August 31, 2019

8 1/2 Federico Fellini

8 ? Federico Fellini Film 8 ? by Italian director Federico Fellini was one of the most influential film of the post-war 1960? s. Nevertheless, this film is an Italian comedy which was based on Guido Anselmi a famous Italian film director. Guido Anselmi has a mental block when it comes to his film, (â€Å"director‘s block†) and struggles with his flash backs, dreams, and reality. Guido desperately tries to find an inspiration to help him finish his film. However, with the wife, mistress, and friend’s pressure it becomes much harder for Guido to focus on his film production.This film was shot in black and white and yet of the depletion of technology and the un-discovery of color, Fellini still as a filmmaking director portrays the amusing and perplexing shots and scenes from the film in an engrossing way. Federico Fellini who directed the film gave the audience a new perspective of filmmaking and techniques. Fellini used several film techniques, but these two techni ques stood out. Mise-en-scene and camerawork which both helped make this film one of the best of its time.On the other hand, Fellini was also one of the many film directors who used reflexivity, which means he created awareness of itself as a process as well as a process. This gave the film and audience an impression of what and how Federico Fellini works on his films. The audience can in a way get into Fellini’s mind and try to understand what it is that he is thinking or struggling with. Federico Fellini made 8 ? in a non-chronological way, which means that the film has no shot order. Guido’s dreams and reality intertwined throughout the entire film.This throws the audience off track but Guido’s on and off dream, memory and reality shot’s in the end come to making sense. Fellini used mise-en-scene for 8 ?. Mise-en-scene is a French term which means â€Å"what is put into the scene/frame†. Fellini knows the importance of lighting, background, and location. This is what makes the audience more aware and also helps understand what is happening throughout the film. For example, in one of the scenes, Fellini shows Guido speaking to his father and the camera angles shows his father standing in the foreground. This makes Guido’s father look smaller in the background.This is a very good example of mise-en-scene because it’s defined as the articulation of cinematic space. In this film Fellini took very good advantage of the frame. His way of placing characters is quite fascinating he almost places them like if they’d been on a stage while filmmaking. Camerawork was the second of many techniques that Federico Fellini used for the production of 8 ?. The way Fellini used the camera to show close ups, long shots, images, frame within a frame, and montage were very eye catching to the audience. One example would be, the scene where Guido remembers when he was younger and how he was wrapped with sheets.Then suddenly h e starts to fantasize that all the women who live in the house with him, where carrying him. Fellini focused on that specific scene where Guido? s face is far beyond noticeable on the camera and the viewer can clearly see his face expressions. The audience can almost feel as if they where there with Guido in that same house. Another good example of Fellini’s great camerawork would be the scene where Guido is in some sort of sauna with many men and women, and the audience can clearly see Guido’s facial expressions when he sees the woman in some sort of bath robe walking to her side of the women? sauna. Guido rapidly, gets distracted and the viewers are able to see the close up on Guido’s face. Following the scene where Guido is called to speak to his eminence, the camera deep focus on the window that is opening and vapor is coming out. Guido’s eminence is being bathed by his helpers. Fellini really embraced the fact that Guido is very religious since he wa s very young. Despite his crazy fantasies, and memories, he still seeks for his eminence to obtain permission to do his film. However, the camera work is not the only technique that makes this film special.The shadows, dark lighting and the use of location are also, very important in 8 ?. Federico Fellini made the audience more aware of what was happening throughout the film. Location is where the moviegoers can connect with the film. To conclude Federico Fellini’s film 8 ? was very amusing despite the confusion it caused through the film. The audience struggles to see if it’s reality that is happening in Guido’s life or if it’s just another of his dreams. Now, Guido would dream and fantasize because that was a way for him to cope with his lost inspiration. ? was not only the greatest film during the post- war era, but it also influenced the making of a play, and musical named â€Å"Nine† (1980) which was a revival of the Fellini’s film 8 ?. Nevertheless, film director Federico Fellini and this film itself have made me understand much more of the various types of cinematography and filmmaking techniques there is. However, the film was confusing the surrealism of the film and Guido? s flashbacks, fantasies, and reality made Fellini? s film 8 ? quite an adventure to have seen.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Bangle Sellers

The poem â€Å"Bangle Sellers† was first published in the year 1912 by Sarojini Naidu in her collection of poems called â€Å"The Bird of Time. † A group of bangle sellers is on its way to the temple fair to sell their bangles. One of them is the narrator of this poem. They are an impoverished and marginalized group of people whose income from the sales of their bangles is at the best of times uncertain and very meagre. However the bangles they sell are of religious and symbolic importance: no Indian widow is permitted to wear bangles. Hence the wearing of bangles is considered to be very auspicious and of symbolic value bordering on the religious. What is of great significance in the poem is that the bangle seller does not say a word about his/her poverty, nor does he/she say anything about the profit that he/she intends to make by selling his/her bangles at the temple fair where he/she will certainly do roaring sales. On the contrary he/she only concentrates on the human element of the product he/she is going to sell at the temple fair: Who will buy these delicate, bright Rainbow-tinted circles of light? Lustrous tokens of radiant lives, For happy daughters and happy wives. Sarojini Naidu has foregrounded the auspiciousness and the symbolic value of the custom of wearing bangles by repeating â€Å"happy. † The ‘happy' daughters look forward to their marital bliss while the ‘happy' wives are content and glory in the fulfillment which is a result of their marital status. Each of the next three stanzas deal with the three stages in the life of of an average Indian woman – a virgin maiden, an expectant bride and finally a mature matriarch. The bangles are of many colors. However, each stage in an Indian woman's life s described lyrically and appropriately according to the colour of the bangle suitable to that stage:for the maiden virgin who is always dreaming of a happily married life it is a misty silver and blue, for the expectant and passionate bride it is a golden yellow, and for the mature matriarch it is a â€Å"purple and gold flecked grey. † Simil arly Sarojini Naidu very poetically describes the longings of an Indian woman according to each stage of her life: the virgin maiden is carrying in her heart countless dreams of her future married life and she is compared to a â€Å"bud that dreams. The young bride is described as brimming over with passionate desire although she is nervous about what the future holds for her as she leaves her parental home – â€Å"bridal laughter and bridal tear. † Finally, she describes the proud and faithful matriarch who has attained fulfillment by successfully rearing her sons – â€Å"serves her house in fruitful pride -† and hence is permitted to take her rightful place by the side of her husband in all the domestic religious rituals.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Impact of Globalization on Development of Nations Literature review

Impact of Globalization on Development of Nations - Literature review Example Globalization is related internationalization of production and business of organizations that require organizational structural changes, resources, management practices, capabilities and competencies to meet the needs & requirements of cross border production, business, transactional strategies, and marketing operations. [Dunning. 1993 taken from Clark and Knowles. 2003] Globalisation is essentially a plurality of global knowledge systems that results in cultures which spill over across boundaries (that were developed to constraint them) in many countries and hence forms a mass global society. [Worsley. 1999 taken from Clark and Knowles. 2003] Globalisation is an extension of geographic limits of economic activities across national boundaries of multiple countries such that the many internationally dispersed activities get categorized under global definitions and are functionally integrated. [Dicken. 1998 taken from Clark and Knowles. 2003]Â  There are many such definitions that de scribe globalization at economic, cultural, religious, linguistic, political, social, etc. levels but, as reiterated by Clark and Knowles (2003), a clear, concise and consolidated definition is yet to arrive. The paper is targeted to analyze the impact of globalization on the economic and social development of regions across the globe. The methodology employed for the study comprises of the study of the selected empirical literature on globalization. The arguments that support globalization, as well as the ones that criticize globalisations, have been considered to arrive at the conclusions. Vernon (1971) carried out an empirical analysis of the relationship between the globalization of businesses and national economic goals of a country. As per his analytics, the nations look forward to enhancements of much larger systems than just earning profits from exports or duties from imports. Enhancement of infrastructure, people competencies, technology, cross border controls for mutual be nefits, etc., acquisition of foreign currency, better utilization of capitals, higher revenues and margins are some of the economic benefits that nations look forward from globalization. For example, the development of global information and communications technologies (ICT), global aviation and road transportation of the nations is the result of collaborative working among nations to share their competencies and put demands on the industries multilaterally to achieve mutual economic benefits.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Research the topic of Information Security Management from quality Paper

The topic of Information Security Management from quality - Research Paper Example A large number of small-to-medium sized enterprises have and are investing a substantial amount of capital and resources into their business to cement their place within the world of business (eCom Advisor, 2000). The latest networking technology not only helps them achieve this but also allows them to expand their business and upgrade their SME into a large enterprise. This paper would take a look at the security threats that an SME faces online and its need of information security management to tackle these threats. ... This exposes their data to threats such as phishing, Trojans, spam and viruses. These threats could have a serious impact on the daily operations of the business being conducted. Moreover these threats can even sometimes have long term effects that hinder in the company’s growth and become a reason towards the loss in the company’s productivity (GFI software, 2009). SMEs are usually restricted in terms of resources and finances. Any significant loss of data or leakage of secret information could destroy the entire business (GFI software, 2009). This means that data integrity is a vital component within a SME and can make or break its business. An effective Information security management allows businesses to implement various measures that would protect various data and assets that the business owns. Information security management not only allows an organization to tackle security threats that it faces but also allows it to measure the impact the attack would have on t he performance of the business (Alexander, Finch, & Sutton, 2008). Incident response management and disaster recovery Components of an incident: Before the discussion of an incident management system it is vital to understand what an incident is and what the components of an incident are. An incident is an event that occurs due to an action that is executed by a person or an individual. Usually the purpose of these actions is to cause harm to the working of the system or to the data contained within the system. It is vital to point out here that incidents are a subset of events. An incident comprises of three components event, incident response team and incident investigation (Molino, 2006). An event is an activity that causes a deviation of the system from its normal working. An event is

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Independent Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Independent Research - Essay Example . . Before the constitutional monarchy in 1931 (Kiriwat 2001), all theatre Khon, or masked dance drama was for palace performances only. Khon is still part of an elite group of the Thai National Theatre. Their performances are only related to the Rhamakayian. Lakon Nai also dealing with the Rhamakayian, was intended to be danced only by women who can do the complicated hand and finger movement. They are both very much part of the Thai culture. This is a study to present a short history of the origins of Rhamakayian and its importance in Thai Culture. The study will show how the royal family changed Rhamakayian from the original Ramayana developing two distinct dance styles which began centuries ago. King Rama I and King Rama II standardized the dance forms . This classical dance of today still has ancient origins. It style is old fashioned and no longer appeals to modern audience. It will be shown why the perception of the audience is no longer met. An audience is determined by the t ype of performance . Their needs and expectations will be shown in order to how what companies can do today, to bring the universal aspect of Rhamakayian back to the dance and drama without losing this beautiful Thai Epic. To conclude, the study will have shown that the use of an ancient subject is universal and its dance and drama can be brought up to the expectations of today's audience. The Origins of Ramakien from the original Ramayana Ramayana is a "timeless tale", which originated in ancient India. India was considered the centre of the world. The epic consists of 18 books covering every significant and insignificant aspect of human nature and character. The epic, though adapted to each individual country's culture and standards, has traversed all of Asia. It is so ingrained in the culture of the Asian world that it is compulsory in University and some lower education. In Indonesia, students are quoted as saying "Islam is our Religion but Ramayan is our Culture". (Kumar 2007) The Way of the Ram as Ram was a God who left his children , Lav and Kush to travel the world. This epic is universal to all as it covers the nine sentiments known to man. Each and every situation in a person's life is covered in the epic. So that the reader might get an excellent feel of the importance of Ramayana on the development of Rakayian. Expressing feeling are used in movement as they show the power of the sentiments in dramatic art. As it will be explained in the psychology of the audience are the Rasas expressed to the people in the hall? Love: between Sita and Rama Valor : Shiva's bow was broken when it was being restrung Pathos: Kakasura's feelings when he surrendered Suprise: the bridge over the ocean Humour: Shoorpanakha going to Rama Terror and Disgust: battlefield Fury: Killing Ravana Peace: Interaction with the sages. All of Asia was influenced by the story. "Ramanama is for the pure in heart and for those who want to attain purity and remain pure.' Mahatma Gandi". (Kumar 2007,page 4) The progression from Ramahaya to Ramakian was done in stages. The first Ramakian version came to Siam in the 14th century. In the 18th century there was a great fire which destroyed all existing written versions of the epic. The most modern version comes from King Rama I who in the 18th century saw the importance of cataloguing and sequencing the whole epic. He added his own writing where he had to complete the storyline. In Thailand, Ramakien changes in context but the story stays the same; the

Monday, August 26, 2019

Warehouse management systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Warehouse management systems - Essay Example The modern warehouse can ill-afford to ignore this important resource. The key focus of SCM is to get the right part to the right place at the right time. WMS facilitates this process by dramatically increasing the accuracy of inventory management, control, and distribution. For example, when parts are received at a warehouse facility, a good WMS can "check the bill of lading against the items actually received, [and] any discrepancies can be noted through the audit trail" thereby allowing management to track items that have been lost in transit (Gladston 40). It goes without saying that it is impossible to ship the right part from the warehouse facility if the item never actually made it to the warehouse. When the system generates an audit trail document, facility employees can quickly and easily identify the problem and resolve it. Thus, system accuracy is greatly enhanced through WMS. If, as in the case study, a facility that is holding more than 85,000 stock keeping units can obtain 99.9% accuracy, the impact of such a system is significant. Another reason why WMS is critical to operations is its ability to allocate storage locations of parts and supplies within the facility itself. Businesses that move a high volume of parts through their supply chain must focus on improving "the efficiency of warehouse management (especially space)" to avoid the logistical difficulties that would be present in a poorly-designed facility (Cortada 292). In the case of Toyota, the ability to allocate warehouse space according to the part's size and frequency of demand was a major contributor to the system's success. For a company like Wal-Mart, which uses centralized distribution centers to serve its many outlets, a WMS that streamlined facility space allocations by creating inventory zones would create a scale of supply chain efficiency that could save the company millions of dollars a year. In the same way that it is impossible to move the right part from the warehouse if it hasn't arrived, it is equally difficult to do so if managemen t knows that it has the part in the warehouse but isn't sure where it is. The organization of storage and product flow throughout a warehouse facility is so important that if a WMS did only that, it would be worth the investment. The advantages of a WMS, however, go beyond the ability to track and store inventory. As the systems become more sophisticated, they are able to increase supply chain efficiency in many other ways. As noted in the case study on Toyota, the WMS not only tracks position within the system, but also produces a tag label giving part details and locations. A dealer direct order capability, when combined with overall supply chain efficiency, leverages warehouse management to a much higher level. As one author notes, "WMS functionality will continue to broaden... with an increasing focus on dynamic optimization" to a point that will "enable the system to ship product without ever actually receiving it" (Hoctor and Thierauf 238). The ability to optimize a company's operations to the point that supply-chain subsystems are integrated across the entire platform is what makes a good WMS more than just a

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Prediction paper number 2 Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Prediction number 2 - Research Paper Example 113). She believed that this hostility has an evolutionary basis, wherein women attack one another due to competition over males and their resources and the need to promote themselves to ensure their reproduction (Campbell, 1995, p. 115). It will be interesting to know if physical attractiveness that can be measured through facial symmetry is correlated with indirect aggression. It is possible that attractive women may practice more indirect aggression than less attractive ones because of the evolutionary need to promote their reputation to men and to deny competitors of access to men and other social resources. It is assumed that physically attractive women are more indirectly aggressive than less attractive ones because of their dominance over other women, since, evolutionary theory suggests that males choose their female partners through their sexual attractiveness, which makes attractive women as the dominant women in their gender group (Campbell, 1995, p. 115).McAndrew (2014) added that gossip may be a strategy for reputation management that suggests the evolutionary basis of intrasexual competition through excluding competitors and taking away potential sources of social support. Muà ±oz-Reyes et al. (2012) noted from their study that fluctuating asymmetry (FA) of physical traits is a measure of developmental instability and health and that FA is neg atively correlated to hostility for older adolescent women and to the physical attractiveness of women. It is hypothesized that attractive women with low FA practice indirect aggression more than less attractive women, and that those who are in a relationship and attractive are more aggressive than other attractive and less attractive women who are not in a relationship because of the need to protect their access to their male partners. The independent variables are FA and the relationship status of the participants, while the

Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Literature - Essay Example the lower social status of Atieno as compared to the speaker, the power struggle between the speaker and Atieno and the misery of the characters represented. In focusing on the different social status of the characters represented in the poem, the critic will point out the various ways in which Atieno is essentially a slave to her older and more successful relative. This difference in social status equates to a significant difference in expected responsibilities as Atieno, at only 8 years old, is expected to perform all the basic functions of the house making it possible for the speaker’s wife, the child’s aunt, to sit all day and sew. This gives the impression that the wife’s chores are not as heavy or as tiring as those given to the niece. This kind of difference in expectations is what Marx points to when he indicates that the lower classes will rise up against perceived injustices in the division of labor to reward. The Marxist critic is also likely to focus on the apparent power struggle occurring between Atieno and the speaker as a result of these differences in labor expectations. The girl is covetous towards her cousins’ things, she â€Å"spends too long at market† (26) and is evidently given a place to sleep but not the same access to education that her cousins have. This idea is given voice as the speaker asks, â€Å"Don’t I keep her, school my own ones / Pay the party, union fee† (20-21). Because she has no power of her own and no real chance of escaping her situation, Atieno rebels against her system the only way she knows how. This speaks directly to Marx’s theory that when the laboring classes have finally had enough of capitalist gain being withheld, they will cease to perform until more equitable terms have been made available. Finally, the Marxist critic is likely to take a look at the misery of the lower classes as it is reflected in the lives of all the characters mentioned. Although Atieno is obviously the worse-off among

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Provide a brief critical historical assessment of why and how Essay

Provide a brief critical historical assessment of why and how accounting harmonisation has been achieved internationally - Essay Example Investors can analyse statements from different countries and decide on the nature and magnitude of the similarities and differences (Nobes. 76). Harmonization of accounting standard provides a level playing field globally (Shil, Das and Pramanik, 2009: 195). This level requires standardized accounting structures to facilitate international transactions and cost minimization through foreign payments by providing usable information to the global society. Under the global business scenario, the community needs a common accounting procedure (Shil et al. 2009: 195). The international accounting standards committee that later adopted the word international accounting standard board (ISAB) was formed in 1973. The committee involved sixteen accounting bodies representing nine nations: Canada, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Netherlands, United States, and Mexico (Shil et al. 2009: 196). Currently, ISAB has a total of a hundred and fifty-three accounting bodies that represent a hundred and twelve countries. The process of harmonization has undergone a challenging path from inception. One of the critical breakthroughs was the adoption of international accounting standards by the international organization of securities commission on May 2000 for use in stock exchanges in member states (Shil et al. 2009: 196). The European Union used the fourth and seventh council directives to achieve harmonization. Company law harmonization of financial accounting procedures was based on the Article 54(3)(g) of the EC Treaty. The fourth ((78/660/EEC) Council directive of 25th July 1978 required all companies to prepare annual accounts (Com 95, 3). However, this directive did not aim to achieve complete standardization of accounting procedures. The seventh council directive (83/349/EEC) of 13 June 1983 was more interested in consolidated accounts. Companies were required to prepare accounts and parent companies

Friday, August 23, 2019

Australias economic growth relies on Asias continuing demand for Essay - 2

Australias economic growth relies on Asias continuing demand for resources - Essay Example However, there are indications by several observers to the effect that the situation is likely to change especially with the euro zone crisis and the fact that there might be a reduction in the dependence of minerals by large Asian markets like China (Das 2012, p.2). Economic growth may refer to the relative increase in production of goods and services by a country over a definite period. Australia’s economic growth therefore means that it has to continue improving is production in the mineral sector that has been a major driver of its economy. The Asian market refers to the countries in the Asian continent that have continued to import the minerals from Australia. Consequently, the intention of this discussion is to ascertain whether Australia’s economy has largely depended on the Asian market. To further illustrate this, two listed companies that are engaged in exports will be examined. There have been several sentiments that have been put forth to suggest that the co untry has been reliant on the Asian market especially for its energy and minerals exports. To begin, the Australian economy has been on a sharp rise in decades as a result of its connection with the Chinese market. The country’s mineral sector has largely benefited from the rapidly expanding Chinese economy that has been a great consumer of mineral ores. To illustrate this fact, there are indications that about 23% of Australia’s exports go directly to the Chinese market (Das 2012, p. 3). Moreover, this figure is even likely to be reviewed upwards given that some of the exports to Asian countries are further re-exported to China. As a result, it is stated that the terms of trade between the two nations has increased to over 40% since the year 2004. Capling (2008, p. 610) points the overdependence on the Asian market to the issue of globalization of trade among nations in the Asian

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Wireless networking Essay Example for Free

Wireless networking Essay With the current application of 802.11b wireless solution Highbrow Ed is using, hot spots are inefficient for application delivery, and to manage the bandwidth they will need for the collaboration and expansion required in the future. An upgrade to an optimized Wireless LAN (WLAN) architecture will solve all of their business needs. While an 802.11b/g model for wireless networking using a traditional centralized WLAN switch might work, this solution is very expensive and has several limitations. This type of model is prone to inefficient application delivery, performance bottlenecking, and having a single point of failure depending on the health of the centralized WLAN switch. Upgrading to an optimized WLAN architecture, using 802.11n technology, provides Highbrow Ed with a scalable, efficient, high-performing wireless network. An optimized WLAN architecture combines the advantages of central management and addresses the limitations of having a central wireless switch. Optimized WLAN consists of intelligent Access Points (Aps) and a WLAN controller. The APs forward traffic and enforce security and prioritization policies, while the WLAN controller centrally manages and controls all APs. The APs dispatch all traffic directly from source to destination without requiring a detour to the controller. The optimized WLAN architecture, with its distributed traffic forwarding, will not require Highbrow Ed to significantly change their LAN backbone. Highbrow Ed will need to upgrade their WLAN infrastructure to migrate from the 802.11b network to 802.11n network. However, Highbrow Ed will see an increase in productivity and enhanced collaboration solutions. The conversion to the 802.11n architecture will increase their area of coverage for the campus both in the structures and outdoors. 802.11n boosts network capacity and speed up to 600Mbps, and supports voice and data transfers.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Health Management Plan for Smoker with Heart Disease

Health Management Plan for Smoker with Heart Disease Introduction Cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in the developed world. In the UK it is estimated to cause serious illness in 4.5 million people and kills about 300,000 people each year. Frieden estimates that it kills 5 million people in the world annually. (Frieden et al. 2005) This essay will consider the management plan for an idealised patient who smokes and has recently been diagnosed with ischaemic heart disease. There is a great deal of evidence in the literature which links smoking with both increased incidence and increased morbidity and mortality in heart disease. (Molyneux et al. 2004). It follows therefore that every effort should be made to encourage a patient who smokes to quit at the first opportunity. There is some evidence to suggest that one of the optimum times to successfully persuade a patient to quit smoking is when they have had a smoking related health event. (Ferguson et al. 2003) In the context of this essay one can assume that, having just been diagnosed with some form of heart disease, this would be an optimum time to instigate such an intervention. Pathophysiology Cigarette smoking is known to be a major health hazard. It is significantly implicated in virtually all aspects of both cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. (Missel et al. 2008). In terms of pathophysiology, cigarette smoking has an effect on all phases of the atherosclerotic process from the earliest detectable signs of endothelial dysfunction to clinically significant thrombotic clinical events. There appears to be little difference in the implications of active or passive smoking as the effects appear to be largely dose (exposure) related. (Heiss et al. 2008). The mechanisms by which cigarette smoking exerts its pathological effects are complex, but it is known to increase inflammation, enhance the thrombotic processes and increases the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Cigarette smoking increases the oxidative stress on the body. (OConnell et al. 2008). These smoking-specific effects are accumulative. And there is evidence to support the view that persuading a patient to reduce hi s intake is beneficial, even though this is clearly not as beneficial as complete cessation. (Wood-Baker 2002) Goals Any management plan should ideally have goals. This does not imply that they will all be achieved, but all of the processes identified and activities embarked on should have the ideal goal as their ultimate target. In this particular case, one can define several goals which will assist in the process of smoking cessation and management of their heart disease. A) To ensure that the patient understands their condition. B) Empowerment and education of the patient so that they can participate in their management plan with understanding and commitment C) To assist the patient in the medical treatment of the acute phase of their condition. D) To rehabilitate the patient after the acute stages are stabilised E) To engage with the patient’s carers (formal and informal) to optimise the patient’s return to health F) To assist the patient to quit smoking G) To support the patient as they negotiate their illness trajectory. Clearly there may well be other goals that could be considered and may arise in specific cases. This essay however, is dealing with the generalised patient. These goals are therefore designed to be applicable to the majority of cases of patients who smoke and have heart disease. Assessment The assessment of a patient begins at the first point of contact. Information can be gleaned from many sources and should be appropriate to the presenting condition. Assessment should be holistic and thorough. In this specific case, one should make particular enquiries relating to factors that are relevant to the patient’s lifestyle (relevance to their heart disease) and to their personal habits (relevance to their smoking pattern). One should pay particular attention to the factors that may make them wish to persist in their habit of smoking so that they can be specifically addressed when smoking cessation is discussed. Targeted interventions are more likely to be effective than blanket ones. (Rigotti et al. 2004). In consideration of their heart disease, one should make specific enquiries in relation to their eating and exercise habits as well as their willingness to participate in any proposed lifestyle change programme that may be suggested. Interventions and broad nursing strategies. Clearly the term â€Å"heart disease† covers a multitude of potential pathologies and it is not practical to consider specific interventions for all possibilities. In the context of this essay, one will consider broad strategies which are applicable to most situations. 1) Encourage compliance with drug regimens: Drugs are commonly prescribed in association with heart disease. They can be as part of a primary intervention such as controlling blood pressure (antihypertensives) or perhaps for improving cardiac output (digoxin) or for controlling secondary pathologies (viz. lipid lowering medication, diabetic treatment, anticoagulants). There is a case for using nicotine replacement medication. If this is the case then compliance with an appropriate dose and reducing regime will enhance the likelihood of success. (Parrott et al. 2004) The nurse can assist by encouraging the patient to comply with the regime. They may choose to do this by explaining to the patient why the various drugs are important and how they work or, if compliance is a persistent problem, by acting as the patient’s advocate and discussing with other healthcare professionals if alternative dosing regimes may assist compliance. 2) Facilitate recovery from the illness: This is a vast topic and will, to a large extent, be dependent on the disease process. Clearly the patient who has modest hypertension will require quite different input from the patient who has just sustained a major myocardial infarction. In the acutely debilitated patient, the nurse will need to play a more active and practical role than with the ambulant and largely well patient. Because of the emphasis of this essay on smoking cessation one can specifically include this as a major task in this area of the management plan. The specific details and treatment options will be discussed later. There is evidence that by assisting the patient to quit smoking, this will directly assist in the recovery process from the heart disease. (Siahpush et al. 2003) 3) Provide emotional support: This may be relevant in the patient who smokes primarily for reasons of anxiety or stress. Exploration of the causative factors is clearly relevant if any targeted approaches are going to be effective. If the heart disease is newly diagnosed, additional support may be required to help the patient adapt from a perceived wellness role to an illness role. (Roy. 1991). In this segment one should note that there is some suggestion that the anxiety sometimes caused by the process of smoking cessation can be counter-productive to the treatment of some forms of heart disease. There does not appear to be a strong evidence base to support this intuitive view however. (Sullivan et al. 2007) 4) Prevent the disease: It is known that patients who have smoked will always have a higher lifetime risk of disease than those who have never smoked. Absolute prevention is therefore not possible. Patients who smoke and are then persuaded to stop, can reduce their risks very considerably. It is known that patients who stop smoking will reduce their risks of myocardial infarction by 50% in the first year of smoking cessation. (Prescott et al. 1998) Expected outcome One can hope to assist the majority of patients to quit smoking. To a degree, one has to accept that there will always be a resistant nucleus of individuals who will (for whatever reason) simply not give up. It is not possible to predict, in advance of the intervention, which patients will be in the group that eventually relapses, therefore all patients should be helped equally aggressively. If one considers the results of the Hilleman trial, one is faced with the remarkable prospect that in a study of post CABG patients (who one might assume had the greatest incentive to quit smoking) a staggering 84% were back smoking within 10 weeks of the operation despite a huge input of anti smoking propaganda. (Hilleman et al. 2004) Patient empowerment and education A number of sources highlight patient empowerment and education as one of the prime predictors in a positive decision to quit smoking. (viz. Edwards 2004). If a patient understands the reasoning behind why they are being asked to undertake a health programme they are more likely to comply with it. Education is therefore one of the major factors in the various programmes designed to help patients give up smoking. Empowerment is another prime factor. Many studies have highlighted the need to stress self-belief in the patient and that the degree of self-belief equates strongly with a positive result. (viz. Miller et al. 2003) Smoking cessation A brief overview of the literature on smoking cessation will indicate that the subject is vast and that many different approaches have been tried with varying degrees of success. It is not appropriate to consider all of the various options, but this essay will cover those that appear to have the greatest reported degrees of success. Fung considered interventions that were suitable for hospitalised patients and of the four different regimes trialed, found that a regime which incorporated face-to-face counselling to identify risk factors for smoking Maintenance, individualising advice about quitting, involving patients in education measures (particularly exploration of the health effects and the benefits of quitting), was the most effective. (Fung et al. 2005). The authors also make the comment that the single most effective strategy was to get the smoker to adopt specific coping strategies such as disassociating the act of smoking from their normal daily routine and habits. They were asked not to smoke inside the home or inside the car, not to smoke with coffee or when reading or directly after a meal. Encouraging the family and friends to support them was the next most effective strategy. (Town et al. 2000) Many authorities advocate the use of nicotine replacement therapy (viz. Sullivan et al. 2007). Currently this is available in several presentations with the transdermal patches appearing to give the best rates of prolonged abstinence (about double that of placebo). Even the best results from trials however, do not give a success rate above 35% with the majority giving results in the region of about 20% abstinence at six months. (Hilleman et al. 2004) Follow up Because of the high relapse rate in smoking cessation programmes, follow up is an essential part of the management plan. The literature is full of various follow up strategies ranging from time intensive home follow ups to phone call contacts. It would appear that no one particular form of follow up is significantly more effective than any other. It has been found that any form of follow up is more effective than no follow up at all. Conclusions The evidence base to link cigarette smoking and heart disease is unchallengeable. Advising and helping a patient who has demonstrable heart disease to give up the habit is almost certainly going to have a beneficial effect on their long term health. In reaching this conclusion, one should not loose sight of the fact that there is a substantial failure rate. Any management plan to encourage the patient who smokes to quit, should make use of targeted interventions with follow up and consider using the approaches with optimum outcomes in order to achieve the best achievable response. References Edwards, R (2004) The problem of tobacco smoking. BMJ 328, 217 219 Ferguson, J A, Patten, C A, Schroeder, D R, et al (2003) : Predictors of 6-month tobacco abstinence among 1224 cigarette smokers treated for nicotine dependence. Addict Behav 2003; 28, 1203 1218 Frieden T R, Blakeman D E. (2005) The Dirty Dozen : 12 Myths That Undermine Tobacco Control. American Journal of Public Health . September 2005, Vol 95, No. 9 1500 1505 Fung P R, Snape-Jenkinson S L, Godfrey M T, Love K W, Zimmerman P V (2005) Effectiveness of Hospital-Based Smoking Cessation Chest. 2005; 128 : 216 223. Heiss C, N. Amabile, A. C. Lee, W. M. Real, S. F. Schick, D. Lao, M. L. Wong, S. Jahn, F. S. Angeli, P. Minasi, et al. (2008) Brief secondhand smoke exposure depresses endothelial progenitor cells activity and endothelial function : sustained vascular injury and blunted nitric oxide production. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., May 6, 2008; 51 (18) : 1760 1771. Hilleman D E, Mohiuddin S M, Packard K A (2004) Comparison of Conservative and Aggressive Smoking Cessation Treatment Strategies Following Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery. Chest. 2004; 125 : 435 438. Miller, M, Wood, L (2003) Effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions: review of evidence and implications for best practice in Australian health care settings. Aust N Z J Public Health 2003; 27 : 300 309 Missel E, G. S. Mintz, S. G. Carlier, J. Qian, S. Shan, C. Castellanos, R. Kaple, S. Biro, M. Fahy, J. W. Moses, et al. (2008) In vivo virtual histology intravascular ultrasound correlates of risk factors for sudden coronary death in men: results from the prospective, multi-centre virtual histology intravascular ultrasound registry Eur. Heart J., July 2, 2008; (2008) ehn 293 v1. Molyneux, A Nicotine replacement therapy. BMJ 2004; 328 : 454 456 OConnell E D, J. M Nolan, J. Stack, D. Greenberg, J. Kyle, L. Maddock, and S. Beatty (2008) Diet and risk factors for age-related maculopathy. Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, March 1, 2008; 87 (3) : 712 722. Parrott, S, Godfrey, C (2004) Economics of smoking cessation. BMJ 2004; 328 : 947 949 Prescott E, Hippe M, Schnohr P, Hein H O, Vestbo J. (1998) Smoking and risk of myocardial infarction in women and men : longitudinal population study. BMJ 1998; 316 : 1043 1047 Rigotti, N A, Munafo, M R, Murphy, M F G, et al (2004) Interventions for smoking cessation in hospitalised patients (Cochrane Review). The Cochrane Library. Issue 3, 2004 John Wiley Sons. Chichester, UK: Roy C (1991) An Adaption model (Notes on the Nursing theories Vol 3) OUP : London 1991 Siahpush, M, Borland, R, Scollo, M (2003) Factors associated with smoking cessation in a national sample of Australians. Nicotine Tob Res 2003; 5 : 597 602 Sullivan K M, Seed S E, DeBellis R J. (2007) State of the Art Reviews : Smoking Cessation. A Review of Treatment Considerations . American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, Vol. 1, No. 3, 201 213 (2007) Town, G I, Fraser, P, Graham, S, et al (2000) Establishment of a smoking cessation programme in primary and secondary care in Canterbury. N Z Med J 2000; 113 : 117 119 Wood-Baker, R (2002) Outcome of a smoking cessation programme run in a routine hospital setting. Intern Med J 2002; 32 : 24 28 ########################################################### 3.8.08 Word count 2,503 PDG

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Image Super-Resolver using Cascaded Linear Regression

Image Super-Resolver using Cascaded Linear Regression Abstract A number of existing super-resolution algorithms fail in modeling the relationship between high and low resolution image patches and time complexity in training the model. To overcome the above-stated problem, simple, effective, robust and fast image super-resolver (SERF) based on cascaded linear regression has been used for learning the model parameters. The image divided into patches are grouped into clusters using k-means clustering algorithm for learning the model parameter based on series of linear least square function, named cascaded linear regression to identify the missing detail information. This approach has been simulated using MATLAB for various images. The simulation results show that SERF gives better PSNR and less computation cost compared to existing methods. Keywords-Cascaded linear regression, example learning based image super-resolution, K-means. Super-Resolution (SR) is the process of producing a high-resolution (HR) image or video from low-resolution images or frames. In this technology, multiple low-resolution (LR) images are applied to generate the single high-resolution image. The image super-resolution is applied in a wide range, including the areas of military, medicine, public safety and computer vision, all of which will be in great need of this technology. The SR process is an ill-posed inverse problem, even though the estimation of HR image from LR input image has many possible solutions. There are many SR algorithms available to resolve this ill-pose problem. Interpolation Based method is the most intuitive method for the image super-resolution. This kind of algorithm has the low-resolution image registered on the grid of the high-resolution image to be calculated. Reconstruction based method is mainly based on iterative back projection method. This algorithm is very convergent, simple and direct, but the resoluti on is not steady and unique. Because of the limitation of the reconstruction algorithm, the learning-based super-resolution technology emerges as an active research area. Learning based approach synthesize HR image from a training set of HR and LR image pairs. This approach commonly works on the image patches (Equal-sized patches which is divided from the original image with overlaps between neighbouring patches). Since, learning based method achieves good performance result for HR image recovery; most of the recent technologies follow this methodology. Freeman et al [1] describe a learning based method for low-level vision problem-estimating scenes from images and modeling the relation between synthetic world of images and its corresponding images with markov network. This technique use Bayesian belief propagation to find out a local maximum of the posterior probability for the scene of given image. This method shows the benefits of applying machine learning network and large datasets to the problem of visual interpretation. Sun et al [2] use the Bayesian approach to image hallucination where HR images are hallucinated from a generic LR images using a set of training images. For practical applications, the robustness of this Bayesian approach produces an inaccurate PSF. To overcome the estimation of PSF, Wang et al [3] propose a framework. It is based on annealed Gibbs sampling method. This framework utilized both SR reconstruction constraint and a patch based image synthesis constraint in a general probabilistic and also has poten tial to reduce the other low-level vision related problems. A new approach introduced by Yang et al [4] to represent single image super-resolution via sparse representation. With the help of low resolution input image sparse model, output high resolution image can be generated. This method is superior to patch-based super-resolution method [3]. Zedye et al [5] proposed a sparse representation model for single image scale-up problem. This method reduces the computational complexity and algorithmic architecture than Zhan [6] model. Gao et al [7] introduce the sparsity based single image super-resolution by proposing a structure prior based sparse representation. But, this model lags in estimation of model parameter and sparse representation. Freedman et al [8] extend the existing example-based learning framework for up-scaling of single image super-resolution. This extended method follows a local similarity assumption on images and extract localized region from input image. This techn ique retains the quality of image while reducing the nearest-neighbour search time. Some recent techniques for single image SR learn a mapping from LR domain to HR domain through regression operation. Inspired by the concept of regression [9], Kim [10] and Ni Nguyen [11] use the regression model for estimating the missing detail information to resolve SR problem. Yang and Wang [12] presented a self-learning approach for SR, which advance support vector regression (SVR) with image sparse co-efficient to make the model relationship between LR and HR domain. This method follows bayes decision theory for selecting the optimal SVR model which produces the minimum SR reconstruction error Kim and Kwon [13] proposed kernel ridge regression (KRR) to train the model parameter for single image SR. He and siu [14] presented a model which estimates the parameter using Gaussian process regression (GPR).Some efforts have been taken to reduce the time complexity. Timofte et al [15] proposed Anchored neighbourhood regression (ANR) with projection matrices for mapping the LR image patches onto the HR image patches. Yang et al [16] combined two fundamental SR approaches-learning from datasets and l earning from self-examples. The effect of noise and visual artifacts are suppressed by combining the regression on multiple in-place examples for better estimation. Dong et al [17] [18] proposed a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) to model the relationship between LR and HR images. This model performs end-to-end mapping which formulates the non-linear mapping and jointly optimize the number of layers. An important issues of the example learning based image SR technique are how to model the mapping relationship between LR and HR image patches; most existing models either hard to diverse natural images or consume a lot of time to train the model parameters. The existing regression functions cannot model the complicated mapping relationship between LR and HR images. Considering this problem, we have developed a new image super-resolver for single image SR which consisting of cascaded linear regression (series of linear regression) function. In this method, first the images are subdivided into equal-sized image patches and these image patches are grouped into clusters during training phase. Then, each clusters learned with model parameter by a series of linear regression, thereby reducing the gap of missing detail information. Linear regression produces a closed-form solution which makes the proposed method simple and efficient. The paper is organized as follows. Section II describes a series of linear regression, results are discussed in section III and section IV concludes the paper. Inspired by the concept of linear regression method for face detection [19], a series of linear regression framework is used for image super-resolution. Here, the framework of cascaded linear regression in and how to use it for image SR were explained. A. Series of Linear Regression Framework The main idea behind cascaded linear regression is to learn a set of linear regression function for each cluster thereby gradually decreasing the gaps of high frequency details between the estimated HR image patches and the ground truth image patches. In order to produce the original HR image from LR input image, first interpolate LR image to obtain the interpolated LR image with same size as HR image. This method works at the patch level, each linear regressor parameter computes an increment from a previous image patch, and the present image patch is then updated in cascaded manner. (1) (2) denotes the estimated image patch after t-stages. denotes the estimated increment. denotes feature extractor by which the f-dimensional feature vector can be obtained. Linear regressor parameters at t-stage T Total number of regression stages. The next step is learning of the linear regression parameters and for T stages. Relying on these linear regression T stages, parameters for regressors are subsequently learnt to reduce the total number of reconstruction errors and to make presently updated image patch more appropriate to generate the HR patch. Using least squares form to optimize and , it can be written as, (3) The regularization term accomplishes a constraint on the linear regression parameters and to avert over-fitting and ÃŽÂ ² be the data fidelity term and the regularization term. At each regression stage, a new dataset values can be created by recurrently applying the update rule in (1) with learnedand. Next, and can be learned subsequently using (2) in cascade manner. Fig. 1. Flow of cascaded linear regression framework B. Pseudo code For Cascaded Linear Regression Algorithm The Pseudo code for cascaded linear regression algorithm for training phase is given below, Input: , image patch size à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡d xà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡d for t=1 to T do { Apply k-means to obtain cluster centres for i = 1 to c do { compute A and b. update the values of A and b in . } end for } end for The output of this training phase is and cluster centroid. C. SERF Image Super-Resolver This section deals with cascaded linear regression based SERF image. The process starts by converting color image from the RGB space into the YCbCr space where the Y channel represents luminance, and the Cb and Cr channels represent the chromaticity. SERF is only applied to the Y channel. The Cb and Cr channels reflect G and B channels of the interpolated LR image. D. SERF Implementation To extract the high frequency details from each patch by subtracting the mean value from each patch as feature patch denoted as . Since the frequency content is missing from the initially estimated image patches, the goal of a series of linear regression is to compensate for high frequency detail (4), (4) To diminish the error between HR feature patch and the estimated feature patch, it is normal that the regression output should be small. Hence, by putting the constraint on regularization term to (4), the output is, (5) Where, ÃŽÂ » is the regularization parameter. t Denotes the number of regression stages. denotes the feature extractor. ÃŽÂ ² and ÃŽÂ » are set to 1 and 0.25. A closed-form solution for equation (5) can be computed by making the partial derivative of equation (5) equal to zero. In testing phase, for a given LR image, bicubic interpolation is applied to up sample it by a factor of r. This interpolated image is divided into M image patches. Feature patches are calculated by subtracting the mean value from each image patch. At the tth stage, each feature patch is assigned to a cluster l according to the Euclidean distance. To obtain the feature subsequently, linear regression parameters are applied to compute the increment. Concurrently, the feature patch is updated using, (6) After passing through T-stages, reconstructed image patches are obtained by adding mean value to the final feature patches. All the reconstructed patches are then combined with the overlapping area and then averaged to generate the original HR image. E. Pseudo code For SERF Image Super-Resolver Algorithm The pseudo code for SERF image super-resolver algorithm is as follows: Inputs: Y, a, r, for t=1 to T do { Adapt each patch clusterto a cluster. Compute. Update the values of A and b in } End for The output will be the High Resolution image (HR). The simulation of the SERF image super-resolver is done by using MATLAB R2013a for various images. The LR image is read from image folder and is processed using the algorithms explained before. The output HR image is taken after regression stages. The implementation is done by considering many reference images. The colour image (RGB) is first converted into YCbCr space, where Y channel represents luminance. Cb and Cr are simply copied from the interpolated LR image. The number of cluster size is 200. Image patch size 5 x 5 and magnification factor is set to 3. a)LR input b)HR input (c)Zooming result Fig.2. SERF Result under Magnification Factor 3 a)LR input b)HR output c)zooming result Fig.3. SERF Result under Magnification Factor 2 a)LR input b)HR output c)zooming result Fig.4. SERF Result under Magnification Factor 1 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) Fig.5. Comparisons ResultsButterfly (a) ground truth image (original size is 256 ÃÆ'- 256); (a)super-resolution results of (b) SRCNN, (c) ScSR, (d) Zeydes, (e) ANR, (f) BPJDL,(g) SPM, and (h) SERF. Zeydes [5] method gives noiseless image, but texture details are not well reconstructed as shown Figure (d). The BPJDL [14] methods generate sharper edges when compared to other methods as shown Figure (f). Figure (h) shows the zooming results of SERF method that performs well for both reconstruction and visual artifacts suppression. TABLE I:PSNR AND SSIM VALUES UNDER MAGNIFICATION FACTOR OF 1, 2 AND 3. Magnification Factor PSNR SSIM TIME(s) 3 29.0775 0.839 0.4323 2 30.5 0.812 0.4000 1 38.4 0.798 0.3870 TABLE II:PSNR AND SSIM VALUES UNDER MAGNIFICATION FACTOR OF 3 FOR TESTING IMAGES. S.NO IMAGES PSNR SSIM TIME(s) 1 Baboon 23.63 0.532 0.3115 2 Baby 35.29 0.906 0.4148 3 Butterfly 26.87 0.883 0.2018 4 Comic 24.32 0.755 0.2208 5 Man 28.19 0. 778 0.5468 6 zebra 29.09 0.839 0.4324 For magnification factor of 3, SERF outplays ScSR method by an average PSNR gain of 0.43dB, Zeydes [5] method by 0.37dB, ANR [15] by 0.44dB, BPJDL [14] method by 0.23dB and the SPM [7] method by 0.16dB. SERF gives average SSIM value of 0.8352 and it is fastest method compared to existing methods (TABLE III). TABLE III: PSNR AND SSIM VALUE COMPARISON OF SERF METHOD WITH EXISTING METHODS UNDER MAGNIFICATION FACTOR OF 3. EXISTING METHODS PSNR SSIM TIME(s) ScSR [4] 23.69 0.8835 7.27 Zeydes [5] 23.60 0.8765 0.06 ANR [15] 24.32 0.8687 0.02 BPJDL [14] 24.17 0.8890 17.85 SPM [7] 24.63 0.8982 0.74 SERF 29.0775 0.8352 0.23 SERF has few parameters to control the model, and results in easy adaption for training a new model when the experimental settings, zooming factors and databases were changed. The cascaded linear regression algorithm and SERF image super-resolver has been simulated in MATLAB2013a. SERF Image super-resolver achieves better performance with sharper details for magnification factor up to 3. This model reduces the gaps of high-frequency details between the HR image patch and the LR image patch gradually and thus recovers the HR image in a cascaded manner. This cascading process promises the convergence of SERF image super-resolver. This method can also be applied to other heterogeneous image transformation fields such as face sketch photo synthesis. Further this algorithm will be implemented on FPGA by proposing suitable VLSI architectures. REFERENCES [1] W. Freeman, E. Pasztor, and O. Carmichael, Learning low-level vision, International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 25-47,2000. [2] J. Sun, N. Zheng, H. Tao, and H. Shum, Image hallucination with primal sketch priors, in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2003, pp. 729-736. [3] Q. Wang, X. Tang, and H. Shum, Patch based blind image super resolution, in Proceedings of IEEE international Conference on Computer Vision, 2005, pp. 709-716. [4] J. Yang, J. Wright, T. Huang, and Y. Ma, Image super-resolution via sparse representation, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 19,no. 11, pp. 2861-2873,2010. [5] R. Zeyde, M. Elad, and M. Protter, On single image scale-up using sparse-representations, in Proceedings of Curves and Surfaces, 2012, pp. 711-730. [6] X. Gao, K. Zhang, D. Tao, and X. Li, Joint learning for single-image super-resolution via a coupled constraint, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 469-480, 2012. [7] K. Zhang, X. Gao, D. Tao, and X. Li, Single image super-resolution with multiscale similarity learning, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 1648-1659, 2013. [8] G. Freedman and G. Fattal, Image and video upscaling from local selfexamples, ACM Transactions on Graphics, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 1-10, 2011. [9] K. Zhang, D. Tao, X. Gao, X. Li, and Z. Xiong, Learning multiple linear mappings for efficient single image super-resolution, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 846-861, 2015. [10] K. Kim, D. Kim, and J. Kim, Example-based learning for image super resolution, in Proceedings of Tsinghua-KAIST Joint Workshop Pattern Recognition, 2004, pp. 140-148. [11] K. Zhang, D. Tao, X. Gao, X. Li, and Z. Xiong, Learning multiple linear mappings for efficient single image super-resolution, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 846-861, 2015. [12] M. Yang and Y. Wang, A self-learning approach to single image super resolution, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 498-508, 2013. [13] K. Kim and K. Younghee, Single-image super-resolution using sparse regression and natural image prior, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 1127-1133, 2010. [14] H. He and W. Siu, Single image super-resolution using gaussian process regression, in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2011, pp. 449-456. [15] R. Timofte, V. Smet, and L. Gool, Anchored neighborhood regression for fast example-based super-resolution, in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Computer Vision, 2013, pp. 1920-1927. [16] J. Yang, Z. Lin, and S. Cohen, Fast image super-resolution based on in-place example regression, in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2013, pp. 1059-1066. [17] C. Dong, C. Loy, K. He, and X. Tang, Learning a deep convolutional network for image super-resolution, in Proceedings of European Conference on Computer Vision, 2014, pp. 184-199. [18] C. Dong, C. Loy, K. He, and X. Tang, Image super-resolution using deep convolutional networks, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, DOI:10.1109/TPAMI.2015.2439281, 2015. [19] P. Viola and M. Jones, Robust real-time face detection, International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 137-154, 2004.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Claude Monet Essay -- Artists Impressionism Painters Painting Essays

Claude Monet Claude Monet made the art community address a revolutionary type of art called impressionism. In a style not previously before painted, impressionism captured a scene by using bright colors with lots of light and different shades to create the illusion of a glance. The traditional method of working in a studio was discarded and the impressionist artists carried any needed supplies with them into the countryside and painted the complete work outside. The manufacture of portable tin tubes of oil paints as well as the discovery of ways to produce a wider range of chemical pigments allowed artists to paint in a way unimaginable before this period in time (Stuckey 12). Monet and others, such as Pierre Auguste Renior, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley, took this style of art to a new level never seen before. Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris, France and moved to LeHavre with his family at age five (Skira 21). As a schoolboy, Monet doodled in the margins of his books. His artistic career began by drawing caricatures of his schoolmasters distorting their faces and profiles outrageously. By the time he was fifteen, people would pay ten or twenty francs for one of his drawings (Skira 22). In 1857 Monet met the famous landscape painter Eugene Boudin, who was in the LeHavre area. Boudin noticed Monet's talent when he saw his caricatures. Boudin took Monet to the countryside and showed him what it was to paint something of art. Monet was quoted as saying, "it was as if a veil was torn from my eyes and I understood what painting should be (Stuckey 186)." Monet used the money earned from selling his caricatures to pay for a trip to Paris in 18... ...f 86 and after outliving many of his fellow artists, Claude Monet died leaving a legacy of works devoted to the way he saw the world. Everything in life was a magnificent symphony of colors in Monet's eyes. He brought to canvas the technique of preserving one particular moment in time by developing the style of presenting the first impact of what an eye would capture in one glance before the brain had the chance to create the exact image of the subject in the mind. Today over 2,000 oil paintings and 600 pencil sketches are exhibited in museums, galleries, and with private art collectors (Stuckey 10) allowing the world to appreciate Monet's vision forever. Works Cited House, John. Monet. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1977. Skira, Albert. Claude Monet. NY: Crown Publishers, 1972. Stuckey, Charles F. Claude Monet 1840 – 1926. NY: Thames & Hudson, 1995.

The Death Penalty;Does It Deter Crime :: essays research papers

Does the Death Penalty Deter Crime? Scientific studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments. The most recent survey of research findings on the relation between the death penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and updated in 1996, concluded: "Research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment and such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole still gives no positive support to the deterrent hypothesis..." (Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-wide Perspective, Oxford, Clarendon Press, revised edition, 1996, p. 238, paragraph 328) w.web.amnesty.org The death penalty has never deterred crime. When the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970’s crime rates were sky high. In research conducted for the United Nations in 1996, crime rates were the same as those in the 70’s. Depending on the exact year since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. crime rates have dipped or risen 10-15%. Normally the ladder. In the United Sates we call the death penalty, capital punishment. The word capital speaks of the head. This is because throughout history the most common way of executing criminals was by severing the head. Now when I hear capital punishment I will be reminded of something even more grotesque and morbid than previously. In a survey taken by prisoners serving life terms, 55-60% said that they would have rather received the death penalty than life terms. www.religioustolerance.org/execute.htm It seems to me that, since more prisoners would prefer to be killed, it is a lesser form of punishment. However that by no means makes this cruel and degrading form of punishment acceptable. We are denying the right of life. Regardless of the fact that those on death row did take that right away from another human being, it is not our place to take theirs.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Soliloquies Essay - Claudius Soliloquy in Hamlet :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Claudius' Soliloquy in Hamlet  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Claudius' soliloquy about his remorse over his murder of Hamlet's father is important to the play because it's the one place where we learn how Claudius feels about what he has done. The rest of the play is all about how Hamlet feels about what Claudius has done, and I think it rounds out the play to get it from a different perspective. From the soliloquy I can see that Claudius feels sorry for the murder, but not sorry enough. He says, "Oh, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven." He wants to pray for forgiveness of his offense, but laments, "Pray can I not," because "I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder - My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen." He murdered Hamlet's father in order to get those things and he is not willing to give them up. He realizes that true repentance would be willing to give then up, and therefore, he is not really repentant. This is why at the end of his prayer, he says "Words without thoughts never to heaven go." There's no point in saying he is sorry because God knows he doesn't really mean it. So, the best he can do is pray that God will make him sorry, by pleading, "Heart with strings of steel, be as soft as the sinews of a new-born babe." All of this shows that Claudius is introspective and honest with himself. It also does contradictory things to my opinion of him. Depending on how I look at it, this prayer can make me feel sympathetic towards Claudius as I learn about the inner torture he is going through and how awful he feels about killing Hamlet's father. On the other hand, it also makes me more angry with him because I realize he fully understood how terrible what he did was, but he chose to do it anyway, and now he knows he should repent, but refuses to. As terrible as his guilty feelings are, they obviously aren't bad enough to make him change. Claudius still holds out some hope for himself, though, saying "All may be well." But he shows there really isn't much hope left, when, a few acts later, he plans Hamlet's murder to preserve the same things he killed Hamlet's father to get.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Stefan’s Diaries: The Craving Chapter 23

We hailed a carriage heading uptown – Lexi told me I needed to save my strength for whatever came next – and got out without bothering to pay. This was what life was like for one such as Lexi, powerful and simple in her wants and desires. She didn't need any intricate, crazy plans for amassing wealth. She could compel anyone to do anything she asked, and life was incredibly easy. It was tempting, especially the aspect that was nonviolent. No one was hurt in any of her activities, except financially. Lexi must have read my thoughts because she grinned at me and waggled her eyebrows. â€Å"You should stick with me, my friend. Life like this can be sweet, not a curse,† she offered. I shook my head, smiling. â€Å"Thanks, but as you keep saying, I have my own path.† By the time we made it to the Sutherland mansion, its windows were dark and already draped in festoons of black crepe. In the strange half-light of the early hour, dew sparkled eerily off the matte cloth. The house was cordoned off. I gently forced the lock. Neither Lexi nor I made any noise until we came into the living room, when she gave a gasp. The coroners had removed the bodies but not done any cleanup work. The vast amounts of blood from their ripped-up bodies had seeped into the carpet and stained the marble floors beneath. Dark black splatters of dried blood covered the walls, matching the crepe outside. â€Å"My god,† Lexi whispered. â€Å"He massacred them.† I fell back into a chair, overwhelmed with guilt. It hadn't been long since I had discovered the poor family here, their bodies still warm with rapidly fleeting life. Backward and backward my thoughts ran, remembering the things I had done wrong, all of which had led up to this sad climax. If I hadn't run away from the reception†¦ If hadn't gone along with my brother's plans to begin with†¦ If I hadn't saved Bridget†¦ If I hadn't fled to New York†¦ If I hadn't made Damon drink blood to complete his transformation†¦ â€Å"This is my fault,† I moaned. I put my head in my hands. The trail of blood and death that wasn't even of my own devising followed me like a curse. â€Å"No, it's Damon's,† Lexi corrected promptly. â€Å"And Klaus's.† â€Å"I should never have come here†¦. I should have stayed as far away from humans as possible.† â€Å"Hey.† Lexi walked over to me, kneeling down and looking up into my face. She put a hand on my chin, forcing me to look back at her. â€Å"You didn't do this. Klaus did – he ordered this. And you had no intention of marrying into this family. That was Damon's idea. You told me yourself – he threatened to kill that roomful of people if you didn't go along. I would have killed him at that point, but he's not my brother.† I gazed into her dark eyes. â€Å"I've done so much wrong.† She bit her lower lip. â€Å"You made mistakes in the past. Bad ones. But you know that, and were doing your best to correct them, or at least avoid them in the future. That's why I am here, Stefan. You're worth saving.† A pain that had nothing to do with thirst made my throat ache. â€Å"Lexi, please†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I can see into your heart, Stefan,† she said softly. â€Å"I don't just appear out of the blue to save any vampire. You're different. And someday, maybe, you'll know that. And part of your curse will be over.† She leaned forward and pressed her lips against my cheek. I could feel the soft flutter of her eyelashes as she closed her eyes against my face. â€Å"Come on,† she said, backing up and chucking me under the chin. â€Å"We have work to do. I'll look around down here. You go get whatever things of yours the police haven't confiscated. I think you're moving out of this town for a while.† Between one breath and the next, between a trick of the light and the deepest shadow, she had changed. Sunny, friendly Lexi now had bloodred eyes and black veins around her face. Fangs glistened in what little light there was. She was in full predator mode, hunting for the slightest sign of the vampire. Even though she was just an older version of what I was, seeing her that way still sent a chill down my body. Lurking just beneath our skin, the monster was always ready to come out. With a heavy heart I plodded up the grand, dark wood staircase. There was no need to be completely silent; the few servants who remained were in their quarters in a distant wing, far away from the death and mess. I could hear their overloud voices, their discussions of prospects and other households – all desperate attempts to fend off the darkness that their employers had slipped into so suddenly. I wondered what Margaret was doing, vowing to get word to her about Klaus and his vendetta. She was probably in her own home with her husband, mourning her sisters and parents. Which was harder? To be dead, or to live with the memory of the dead? As a vampire, I would never know the former, but always experience the latter. I soon reached my room, where a night ago Bridget had thrown herself at me. I smelled traces of the violet perfume she had doused herself with. It had infiltrated my pillow and sheets. So much more childish than Katherine's scent, the subtle, alluring, complicated mix of citrus and spice†¦. I took a valise – another gift from Winfield, planning for our honeymoon, I suppose – and threw the few things I considered mine into it. My old clothes, some spare change, my journal. I flipped to an old page where I'd written about Katherine. September 8, 1864 She is not who she seems. Should I be surprised? Terrified? Hurt? It's as if everything I know, everything I've been taught, everything I've believed in my past seventeen years is wrong. I can still feel where she kissed me, where her fingers grasped my hands. I still yearn for her, and yet the voice of reason is screaming in my ears: you cannot love a vampire! If I had one of her daisies, I could pluck the leaves and let the flower choose for me. I love her†¦ I love her not†¦ I†¦ I love her. I do. No matter the consequences. Is this what following your heart is? I wish there was a map or a compass to help me find my way. But she has my heart and that above all else is my North Star†¦ and that will have to be enough. I snapped the book shut, curling my lip at my foolishness. Downstairs was the present reality and thinking about the past did no good. I threw the book into the valise and went downstairs. But instead of finding Lexi there to greet me, there was emptiness and a horrible, familiar scent. Death and decay. A faint breeze whistled through broken wood; the back door was left wide open. I shivered despite myself. The silence, Lexi's absence, howled like a banshee. A single piece of paper, the size of a ticket, fluttered on the floor. I picked it up, feeling dread prickle my skin. All it said was: PAYMENT NUMBER TWO – LUCIUS.

Friday, August 16, 2019

For My Health Care Interview Paper

She works with me at Trihedral in Cincinnati, OH, as an Insurance Coordinator. Also, she is a University of Phoenix graduate class of 2012. I work very close with Tomcat Goodwin in the Insurance Verification department, as an Outpatient Surgery Financial Counselor Rep II. In my paper will discuss my interview I had with her. During the interview, she described her primary responsibility, her career path and did her college education prepare for her current job. She will discuss her length of employment at Trihedral , and identify the customer she assist.She gave me information for education requirements to become an Insurance Coordinator, and grow in the health care field. Lastly, she explained how she interacts with others in their environment. To become a Health care Insurance Coordinator formal education along with well versed knowledge on various health insurance policies. Tomcat G (2014) suggests that an individual needs to be current on different health care policy, so they can coordinate the patient's benefits. The Insurance Coordinator has several responsibilities for assisting patients, health insurance companies, and various departments within the company.Tomcat G. (2014) says, â€Å"As an Insurance Coordinator you will be responsible for assisting patients in dealing with the health insurance claims. It's your job to contact insurance companies and patients regarding outstanding balances. The person must be initiative to resolve and research billing issues. † Tomcat daily routine consists of preparing administrative and functional reports for our manager. She prepares invoices on behalf of the department manager. Finally, job duties include receiving incoming calls, and making outbound calls to other divisions.She has to have good communication skills. Growing up Tomcat always had a passion of helping others. As a little girl she planned to be a fire fighter, but she got older she found a passion for the healthcare field. When her grandmother become ill and she discovered the lack of health care coverage her grandmother had. During her grandmother illness, Tomcat came across a few people and seeing the passion they had in their eyes to help others. Tomcat wanted that same feeling, while working with the community. After her grandmother passed away, she decided to go o school and study healthcare.Tomcat wasn't interested in being a physicians or nurse; she wanted a road less traveled. She knew she wanted to do something in healthcare, but what she didn't know. After, several conversations with her Academic advisor, Tomcat knew she was making the best decision of life. Tomcat gradated from the University Of Phoenix 2012, with BBS in Healthcare Admit Management. She is currently working on her MBA at the University of Phoenix. Her long term goal is to be the director of Oral Surgery. Tomcat G feels that University of Phoenix prepared for the lath care industry.Her education prepared different promotions at Trihedral. Tomcat encouraged me to return back to school, and complete my degree. Tomcat has worked at Trihedral for 8 years and within these years she has been promoted 4 times to higher levels in the company. The department she works in goes beyond the job requirement. We help family members manage emotional and financial challenges of caring for their family members or loved ones. To be in this department the employee must have sympathy and compassion towards the customer. The employee customer will change day o day based on the employee is working.At times my customer may be the health insurance company; am calling them to verify coverage and co payments for the patient. A few calls later my customer maybe the claims department, and other various departments. Tomcat feels that working in health care you were different hats to get the job done correctly. Tomcat thrives on being a leader in patient satisfaction through excellence and quality care to any customer. Trihedral is physicians, hospitals , and communities working together to help people live better. Trihedral is located in Cincinnati, OH.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Brainology Essay Essay

Carol S. Dweck wrote an article talking about transforming student’s motivation to learn. In the article, he states that there are two types of mindsets; the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. Dweck describes the fixed mindset as students who worry about how much the intelligence they posse is fixed, whereas students believe that the growth mindset is potential intelligence that can be learned. He explains that confronting challenges, profiting from mistakes, and dealing with setbacks is a way of becoming smarter. Dweck talks about how in the 1990s parents and schools felt that the most important thing or students was self-esteem. They felt that if students felt good about themselves then they would be good and successful in life. Dweck also talks about students being praised for their intelligence vs. being praised for their effort. At the end of the article, Carlos discuss how our society worships talent and how our talent is portrayed as a gift. He explains how worshiping talent was not motivating to our students. After reading this article, I’ve learned that it’s better to have a growth mindset because the more I challenge myself to grow with intelligence the more chances I will have of becoming successful. I always knew that it was important to learn and never give up but I never took it serious. I now see the importance of never giving up. I feel like now I can motivate myself to keep going no matter how tough things get and to always accept in any challenge in my classes because that’s the only way I can really enhance my intelligence. Also after reading this article, I see the importance of being praised for my hard work and effort rather than my talents.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

The debate between essentialism and social construction

The debate between essentialism and social construction is a very complicated one. Since both essentialists and social constructionists have different perspectives on matters, in order to be able to decide whether or not there was a presence of homosexual persons over time and place certain aspects have to be taken into consideration. Such as, was it biologically inherited, was it brought about with a preference on acts and desires or overtime influenced by religion, culture, beliefs, social norms, and acceptance has a define answer is a tough decision to make. Essentialists are stereotypical; they choose to have a set definition of a homosexual, whereas a social constructionist would have variations in their idea of what makes a homosexual. A social constructionist would disagree with whether the presence of homosexual persons over time and place have a set thought as to homosexuality was biologically inherited because they would feel that, that would be limiting the thought of other aspects influencing homosexuality. Social constructionists would feel that there is not just one set category or definition that makes you a homosexual. For example, an essentialist would say that a homosexual is someone who has black hair; therefore everyone who has black hair to an essentialist would be a homosexual. Whereas, a social constructionist would say black hair, brown, yellow, purple it doesn't matter it is in fact what that person felt that made him a homosexual. So taking an essentialist point of view stating that there was homosexual persons throughout time and place would discriminate other homosexuals who had different sexual desires, preferences, and acts that transcended through time due to other influencing matters. Matters such as culture, social norms and acceptance, beliefs, and backgrounds are good examples. Whereas Gordon and Abott state, â€Å"Social Constructionism usually has to do with categorizing. † This statement could be viewed as someone stating that religion is a deciding factor to whether someone is homosexual and someone else saying that background is a deciding factor to deciding homosexuality. There are two ideas or theory's stated here that both do influence homosexually. A social constructionist would be able to figure out what is means to be influenced by religion and what is meant to be influenced by background, and be versatile between the two the groups allowing homosexual individuals themselves to decide which factor influenced them even if it was both religion and background.. While an essentialist would simply state those definitions and state which category he/she would fall into there would be not switching into groups. (Gordon and Abott). In the article the Hijras of India by Serena Nanda, the Hijras of India are viewed as a separate group just like gay, lesbian and bisexual people in any other cultures, countries, religions, etc, just because their differences are not viewed as a social norm. They are also treated differently in every aspect because of different influences such as births and weddings. Hijras are a religious group of men who dress and act like women either because they are men who are bisexual and gay, or because when they were young boys they were castrated because of religious beliefs. The Hijras that were castrated when the where young boys are neither men nor women and cannot reproduce so they are viewed as powerful, able to curse those who disrespect them, yet outsiders in their contribution to this India society. Considering gay, lesbian and bisexual lives are not accepted in this culture, would it be reasonable to say that these men who started this religious belief where gay or bisexual men are looking for a way to express there emotions in this non accepting society? This would be a social constructionist view because over time actions and desires have changed in this society because acceptance, beliefs, culture, etc have become more accepting and understanding of the true meaning behind this religious belief. Some other things that came up were are these acts still being performed to younger boys and is this against their religion to deny a human being the right to be male and reproduce (source: Nanda)? In Class on Tuesday September 23, 2003 we had a class discussion on biological differences or mishaps that happen to babies that make it confusing to decide what sex that baby really is. In this class discussion we looked at different examples of baby girls who had their chromosomes in tact but their ovaries were inside of them and had larger clitorises. Should they have been men? We also looked at many other different situations pertaining to that subject. This could also relate back to the Hijras because they could not help what was done to them and this was only done because of social norms and social acceptance. This being an essentialist point of view there was a need for order and meaning. A social constructionist would just simply say that they could fall into many categories and find out what it means to be an XYYY baby or an XX baby with no vagina hole. â€Å"Thus, social constructionists spend much time â€Å"deconstructing† things: demonstrating that a group of categories have no truth and showing how they are socially accomplished (Gordon and Abbott)† Instead of the doctors, parents or the Hijra men who decided what sex a child should be a social constructionist would not follow the social norm in a need to have order and find an answer they would except the difference and make it a category with meaning. Ancient Greece provides another example of how there has always been a presence of homosexuality with an influence from culture. There was presence of homosexuality then and still is today but it has been influenced throughout time by culture, acceptance, social norms etc†¦ , because over time religion, cultures, etc have become more important and more needed for order to place people by the essentialists (Vance). Social constructionist views are more acceptable to differences and variations form the social norms of order and judging. They have shown that there has been a presence of a homosexual person over time and place but not just one type of homosexual person variations of unique homosexual persons. Social constructionism proves that there is not just one way to be but many ways and many categories we can all fit in not judging upon sexual orientation.

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership Personal Statement

Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experience - Personal Statement Example However, I realized that due to my relative inexperience, I would be facing two immediate problems. First, I had no experience of how to allot shares and at what prices. I approached managers of the firm to know their intentions and discussed with them the different parameters to be followed in the proposed buyout. I than approached a Merger & Acquisition expert to work as our consultant. Through formation of dynamic and multi-dimensional team, I succeeded in defining criteria for allotting shares as well as their prices. Secondly, due to my unknown business characters, I was unaware of how to acquire bank loans to finance the acquisition of shares by the managers. I had to coordinate with the local municipal government to facilitate us through banks and pursue them to provide necessary finance for buyout. I pursued them because my mother grew in reputation because of her contribution to the local society and government. Finally, we were able to sign off the deals with the banks to get bank financing for our managers to get the shares in acquisition. The second occasion when I was able to demonstrate leadership was during 2007 when I was working at IBM's China Development Lab. I served as the project manager for the renovation of the Next Generation TPMS (Translation Planning and Management System), a tool for managing the IBM globalization and localization processes. The previous generation system, developed by a team in Egypt, had failed to deliver what users really needed, which translated into super-low customer satisfaction ratio at 26 percent. My background investigation suggested four important variables which were the main cause of the failure of the system to deliver the results. This included the fact that system was slow, did not cater user requirements, too complicated as well as difficult to use. Building on that information, I thought that an upgraded system should be built around with more of the customer focus rather than technology driven as it should attempt to reflect what actually end users require. During our investigation, some of the users required us to develop a web based application whereas some of the users demanded that the system may be developed as a desktop application therefore we also decided to build a system which serve both the purposes. We begun our work around this idea and succeed in developing a systems which was hybrid of a web application as well as desktop application and which catered most of the needs of our end users. Subsequent testing by most of the users across different countries appreciated our efforts and due to my strong presentation and persuasion they agreed to test the application and provide their feedback on the new system after thoroughly using it. Both of these situations were unique for me however I believe an MBA would have provided me a better understanding of both the situations and I would have been able to address both of these issues with much more details as well as professional maturity. An MBA would also provide me more theoretical as well as practical education regarding the nature of leadership and how it can be effectively used to get things done through others. I also believe that an MBA will make my

Thought, Force and Selfishness in Ajax and Prometheus Bound Essay

Thought, Force and Selfishness in Ajax and Prometheus Bound - Essay Example Sophocle's Ajax is a mighty Greek warrior in the time of the Trojan war, second only to Achilles in "perfect prowess" (Sophocles, Ajax 1415). His wife is "spear-won", and his entire presence on stage is marked by Hector's bloody sword, a room-full of "sword-slain cattle", or his "self-dealt wound". After Achilles' death, a competition is set up between him and Odysseus over who will inherit Achilles' armor, symbolizing the inheritance of the latter's prized status. When the Atreidae decide that Odysseus should get the armor, instead of humbly accepting the judges' decision, Ajax's pride over his power and valor spurs him in revenge against Agamemnon and Menelaus, a wild act that is only thwarted by the duplicitous intervention of Athena, the patron goddess of Odysseus. She drives Ajax mad and instead of massacring the Atreidae, he slaughters cattle instead. The double humiliation and the rancor that he has stirred up in the Greek camp against him drive him to commit suicide. Ajax's actions-both the madness-inducing revenge, and his suicide-show not only a lack of wisdom but selfish pride in his lust for power. Despite his wife's pleas not to do anything rash and so cause her and his son to become slaves and to be mistreated by the Greeks, he only responds by insulting her - "Woman, silence graces women" (Ajax 292) - and deceiving her and his friends (Chorus) about his suicidal intentions: "I feel the keen edge of my temper softened by yon woman's words; and I feel the pity of leaving her a widow with my foes, and the boy and orphan" (652). His brother Teucer bemoans the taunts and the revilement that he will receive both at home and abroad because of Ajax's selfish act (1020-2), and the Chorus the future lack of protection that "bold Ajax" provided for him (1214). Ajax's pride in his might is such that he is unable to weigh the effect of his actions on others, and sees everyone else as less than himself (even king Odysseus). Furthermore, we see that it is selfish pride and arrogance that instigates Athena against him, as he spoke arrogantly against her, which is not befitting of his place as a mortal. The messenger reveals that "Ajax, even at his first going forth from home, was found foolish" (760), and when his father encouraged him with the wisdom of his years, "haughtily and foolishly he answered: 'I, even without [the gods'] aid, trust to bring glory within my grasp'" (770). More foolhardily, he spurned the help of the goddess Athena, thinking that he is mighty enough to win any battle as, "where Ajax stands, battle will never break our line" (776). The messenger rightly concludes that Ajax's "thoughts were too great for man" (788). Ajax's downfall or hubris then is that he is nothing more than an empty-headed muscle man, a dangerous comb ination of force and lack of intelligence. Throughout the play, Ajax's use of force is misplaced: against the "poor sheep", in his language to Tecmessa, and against himself. Regaining his right mind, he bemoans: "Seest thou the bold, the strong of heart, the dauntless in battles with the foe,-seest thou how I have shown my prowess on creatures that feared no harm" (364-6). While we can say that the first instance of misused force is as a result of Athena's intervention, his brutish manner to his wife and his suicide are done when he is in full

Monday, August 12, 2019

Mustang Ford Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mustang Ford - Assignment Example egies that enable them to retain and also attract more customers, for instance, by lowering their costs, improving quality of their products, and producing vehicles with attractive features. Ford is forced to adopt the same strategies to compete with these industries and stay competitive in the ever changing market. A strategic group in the automobile industry consists of industries which face the same factors of competition and carry out the same strategies in similar strategic dimensions. According to Mahoney (2005), strategic groups in the automobile industry usually begin with the choice of dimensions of strategies. Different dimensions will be employed in defining strategic groups: quality of products, cost position, identification of brand, services, financial leverage, and specialization. Reluctance of banks to give car loans. Unavailability of credits from banks puts much strain on Ford’s capital. Ford has to ensure that its sales are stabilized, or it may be forced to seek monetary assistance from the government. More customers are now opting for environmentally friendly vehicles. Ford has taken advantage of this opportunity by developing an ‘Eco Boost’ technology, which the industry is using to manufacture cars that have 20% greater efficiency in fuel use and also have reduced carbon dioxide emissions (Hitt et. al, 2012). Due to the increased environmental awareness, manufactures make environmentally friendly vehicles that are more marketable because of the need to conserve one’s environment. There are few manufacturing automobile industries compared to the number of consumers. New technology is available in this industry, and this has made it possible to manufacture cars according to what consumers prefer. Mobility barriers will prevent the industry from moving to a different strategic group. These mobility barriers will ensure that the industry does not face increased rivalry and that it still is able to make sufficient economic profits

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Assignment on Microeconomics 5 questions (350 words to each question) Essay

Assignment on Microeconomics 5 questions (350 words to each question) - Essay Example Cost when unoccupied $76.00, Minus dog care $8.00, Minus security firm $10.00 the balance is $58.00. We also consider depreciation that occurs in excess when someone is living in the house, the excess depreciation is $5, so we add the balance above which gives us $58 plus $5 equals $63. On the gardener's services, because the person renting the house takes care of the gardening services his cost of leaving his house unoccupied reduces by $10 therefore we get $63 minus $10 we get $53. The surgeon should reduce his tent by both the value of dog care and need for a security firm because this are taken care by the person living in the house so our value will be 53-18=35. Therefore the minimum amount the surgeon should accept to receive, as rent should be $35. Substitute goods are products that are similar in that they satisfy the same want, if one's good is not available one can substitute it with another example butter and margarine that are consumed with bread. Butter and margarine can be substitutes of one another. Perfect competitive market is a theoretical market structures in which there are many buyers and sellers with no individual power to influence market price. Prices are determined by demand and supplies in the market assumptions of a perfect competitive market are: Many buyers and sellers, Perfect mobility of factors of production, perfect knowledge, homogenous products, absence of externalities. (Hardwick, Khan & Langmead, p 91, 1997). The analysis of equilibrium price and quantity was by Alfred Marshall (1842-1924). He analyzed the demand curve and the supply curve and stated that where the two curves intersect, they give us the equilibrium price and quantity in the market. (Hardwick, Khan & Langmead, 1997). Qo is the equilibrium Quantity Po is the equilibrium price a) Equilibrium price of butter has increased and that the equilibrium quantity of bread has increased. Possible explanations are: I. Price of milk has decreased - If the price of milk decreases then we expect the price of butter to go down. This is explained by the fact that in production of butter, milk is the key input in the process. Therefore, a decrease in the price of butter cannot explain an increase in price of butter. II. Price of flour has decreased - If price of flour decreases we expect price of bread to go down because flour is the key input in production of bread. If price of bread decreases we expect an increase in the quantity demanded of bread. Therefore this explains the increase in equilibrium quantity of bread. On butter - as the bread demanded increases and having in mind that bread and butter are complementary goods. We expect the price of butter to go up also due to increased demand. Demand and Supply Curve for Bread Price Po P1 SSo 0 Quantity The decrease in price of flour causes the supply curve of bread to shift downwards from SSo to SS1 . our