Play It Again Rita Essays (274 words) - Conversation,

Play It Again Rita Annonymous By: Paule Marshall One woman tries to convey the variety of voices from West Indians and black American Engilsh which are her heritage. She gained her knowledge through her mother and her friens. She mentioned how listening to her mother affected her life as to being the person that she is tody. She has become a successful writer. (thesis) In The Making of a Writer, Paule Marshall demonstrates that although she grew up in a kitchen listening to her mother and friens talk, not being able to be heard, she learns a few things through her mother and her friends. (topic sentence 1) Marshall's mother and her friends got together for a cup of tea or cocoa and to talk a bit before heading home to their families. They got together in their brownstone home kitchen in Brooklyn everyday for about two hours. She and her sister would be seated doing homework while the ladies talked endlessly. They talked about political events and historical events like wars and the rumors that went on of wars that took place back then. They also talked about their home in the Caribbean and also their adopted home ---- AMERICA ----. (topic sentence 2) The rule for children in the 30's was for them to be seated in the corner of the room, being seen, but not heard. Marshall wasn't able to join in on any of her mother's conversations. She was only able to listen and not say a word. Marshall may not have been able to talk much within the crowd of older folks, but she sure did learn a lot about some events in the past and also about her heritage through listening to her mother's conversations as she grew up.

Business environment Essays

Business environment Essays Business environment Essay Business environment Essay Agility is the ability to thrive and prosper in an environment of constant and unpredictable change. The term agile manufacturing was coined by a US government sponsored research programme at Lehigh University and, Latterly, MIT. It is an enterprise-wide strategy in which the customer is the first priority, change is an opportunity to do things better, and delivering value is paramount. It seeks to cope with demand volatility by allowing changes to be made in an economically viable and timely manner. As the transition into the twenty-first century occurs there are radical changes taking place that are reshaping the industrial landscape of western economies. Customers want to be treated individually. The marketplace has become truly global and requires low volume, high quality, custom specific products. These products have both very short life cycles and development production lead times. Everything is changing very fast and unpredictably. The swift trend towards a multiplicity of finished products has lead many companies into problems with inventories, overheads, and efficiencies. Mass production does not apply to products where the customers require small quantities of highly customised, design-to-order products, and where additional services and value-added benefits like product upgrades and future reconfigurations are as important as the product itself. This leads to a people intensive, relationship driven operation. Perfect quality and very high levels of service are expected and required. Agility relates to the interface between the company and the market. Essentially it is a set of abilities for meeting widely varied customer requirements in terms of price, specification, quality, quantity and delivery. Agility has been expressed as having four underlying principles: delivering value to the customer; being ready for change; valuing human knowledge and skills; forming virtual partnerships. The company must remove the obstacles that prevent it from manufacturing with high velocity the set-ups, the excessive material handling, the poor physical flow, and all production interruptions. And the company must streamline the physical flow, integrate the processes and close the distances between supply, production, assembly, distribution, and the end customer. The emphasis must be on quickly satisfying the service chain of events from the time a customer delivers a request until he is satisfied. Although the word manufacturing is used with this concept, the principles of agility can equally apply to other functions of a business and to service industries. The agilitys success has attracted more than 150 Fortune-500 companies. Lean, flexible and agile in supply chain A supply chain is the process of moving goods from the customer order through the raw materials stage, supply, production, and distribution of products to the customer. Market demands, customer service, transport considerations, and pricing constraints all must be understood in order to structure the supply chain effectively Managing the supply chain for competitive advantage is not just to reduce costs. All physical and logical events within the supply chain must be enacted swiftly, accurately, and effectively. Leanness, flexibility and agility have to be utilised proactively at suppliers and their suppliers. These inter-company collaborations created can help to achieve desired economic outcomes that the individual firms can not achieve separately. Such networks allow firms to combine resources to gain economies of scale, acquire technologies and resources, gain knowledge, and enter markets beyond their individual capability. They also can help to achieve continuing gains in efficiency, labour productivity, and reduction of cycle time and inventory. Comparison of lean, flexible and agile Lean production allegedly combines the benefits of craft and mass production, without their disadvantages. It delivers quality and variety without the cost penalty of craft production and the large cost advantage of mass production. Flexibility is a feature of the companys production system. It is the inherent ability to adjust or modify its resource deployment according to new or changing demands in the market. Agility is the ability to thrive and prosper in an environment of constant and unpredictable change. Lean manufacturing is being very good at doing the things you can control. Agile manufacturing deals with the things we can NOT control. Agility is built upon the firm foundation of world class or lean manufacturing methods, coupled with an organisation that is physically, technologically, and managerial established for rapid and unpredictable change. Among the four underlying principles of agility: Delivering value to the customer, being ready for change, valuing human knowledge and skills, forming virtual partnerships, the first three can be found within the operating philosophies of companies generally thought to be lean as described in The Machine that Changed the World. To summarize this comparison, agility, flexibility and leanness are not alternatives, but are mutually supporting concepts. Together they improve competitiveness and the prospects of survival in an increasingly volatile and global business environment.

Gratitude and Congratulations

Gratitude and Congratulations Gratitude and Congratulations Gratitude and Congratulations By Mark Nichol Gratitude and congratulations, along with some other words with the element grat and associated with giving thanks, are related. Such words, and a couple of disguised cognates, are listed and defined in this post. Gratitude, and the other words discussed here, derive from the Latin adjective gratus, meaning â€Å"pleasing† or â€Å"thankful.† Gratitude is the state of being thankful, and a synonym for thankful is grateful. The antonym of that word is ungrateful, but someone who withholds gratitude is an ingrate. Gratify, though stemming from the same origin, has a different sense; it means â€Å"give pleasure or satisfaction,† and, depending on context, it can have a positive or negative connotation. For example, the noun form in â€Å"instant gratification† refers critically to an undesirable personal or cultural trait associated with seeking short-term satisfaction to the detriment of more productive habits or pursuits. Similarly, though gratuitous originally meant simply â€Å"free,† that sense has largely been overtaken by the meanings â€Å"unearned† and â€Å"unwarranted,† as in a reference to gratuitous sex or violence in a film; the element or scene is not integral to the plot and is therefore considered exploitative. A gratuity, however, is always welcome: It is something given voluntarily. (Often, the word is simply employed as a formal alternative to tip in the context of rendering services.) Centuries ago, when one expressed pleasure in the achievements of another, one offered gratulation. However, that form was superseded by congratulation, and now it is customary to pluralize that word. (Congrats is a slang truncation.) Unfortunately, thanks to the punning exclamation â€Å"Congradulations!† in the context of graduation from school or college, seen on greeting cards and the like, congratulations is sometimes inadvertently misspelled. Grate, meaning â€Å"grill† or â€Å"scraper,† is unrelated, but grace, meaning â€Å"mercy,† â€Å"elegance,† and â€Å"virtue,† and the identical verb form, meaning â€Å"show favor,† are descended from gratus. Something exemplifying grace in the sense of â€Å"elegance† is graceful, while something lacking that quality is graceless. Disgrace is the loss of favor or honor, and something that brings (or should bring) shame to someone is disgraceful. Meanwhile, scapegrace, on the model of scapegoat, means â€Å"someone who falls out of favor with God.† Another disguised descendant of gratus, by way of French, is agree, meaning â€Å"give assent or consent† or â€Å"coincide.† Something agreed on is an agreement. Something is said to be agreeable when it is acceptable, in harmony with what is desired, or pleasing, and a person with a pleasing or positive disposition is agreeable. In all cases, the antonym is represented by attaching the prefix dis-. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 "Home" Idioms and Expressions75 Idioms and Expressions That Include â€Å"Break†When Is a Question Not a Question?

The Man In The Iron Mask Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Man In The Iron Mask - Essay Example The one constant in the history of the myth seems to be the fact that he was indeed a prisoner in the Bastille and that his name was never revealed. Even upon his death the true name of the prisoner was left in question. The only reality of this particular prisoner's situation, is that he became the most famous and mysterious historical prisoner of his era thanks to the literary works of both Voltaire and Alexander Dumas who both christened him the â€Å"Man in the Iron Mask†. The historical records of the era within which the masked man was supposed to have been imprisoned in the Bastille seem to indicate that the man in question was of a noble status in life. Reports indicate that he arrived at the Bastille on a Thursday, September 18, 1698 under the protection of the newly assigned governor of the Bastille, Benigne d'Auvergne de Saint-Mars who described the prisoner as a long time prisoner who went with him to his various assignments. The man was to remain masked and his na me was never to be recorded in the official records. i According to Saint Mars' official records the man without a name or face was imprisoned in Pignerol at the start. He had been a prisoner for 18 years by the time he arrived at the Bastille, having been earlier 2 imprisoned from 1665 to 1681. There is a supposition that he had already been a prisoner for about 33 years at this point. It was during this time of his arrival at the Bastille that the first mention of a velvet, not iron mask was made in reference to the prisoner's face being covered. One of the wilder theories regarding the Man in the Iron mask is that he was the descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte. This was a claim that was made by Napoleon himself during his many military quests. Claiming that his father was the elder half brother of the king and therefore the rightful heir to the throne. Thus his imprisonment behind the mask. He propagated the theory that the man behind the mask was allowed to marry while in prison an d the union begot a son who was sent off to be raised in Corsica, that child was to become Napoleon Bonaparte. This however, is a theory that does not have any evidence to back it up as anything more than the claim of a mad man to a throne he wished to call his own. ii In order to understand the propagation of the myth, one has to first understand the kind of sociopolitical situation that was existing in France in the 1660's. The so-called â€Å"Sun King† Louis XIV had an absolute hold on political power and government at a time when his people were being ravaged by high taxes, food shortage, and a lack of guidance from their king. The war and religious unrest was also taking its toll on the economic situation of the country. The people were starved for hope of a better life in the hands of a king who once stated "L'etat, c'est moi!" ("I am the state!"). With such control over state affairs in the hands of one man, it is believed that anybody who fell out of favor with the ki ng ended up imprisoned for the rest of his life. Could the man in the mask be one of those people? What error could he have committed to have earned him such damnation in the eyes of the king? One of the 3 many theories about the masked stranger is that he was most likely one of the many nobles who had fallen out of favor with

Human Resources Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Human Resources Questions - Essay Example Source: (O’Boyle and Aguinis. â€Å"The Best and the Rest: Revisiting the Norm of Normality of Individual Performance†) The recent study that has been conducted reveals the fact that individual performance might not fit a bell curve, however, might follow a distribution where the average is unbalanced, the variance is countless and the pervasiveness of outliers is much elevated. The Paretian curve reveals the fact that the performance of larger number of the population is below the mean in comparison to what is predicted from the Normal Curve (â€Å"The Best and the Rest of Us†). It has been observed from the Paretian curve that the performance of most of the individuals is below the average and thus there is greater variation in the performances. However, the fact is that the performance of the individuals is supposed to be constant each time. By applying the new curve in performance management the performance of the individuals can be observed if they are below the expectations. Hence, it becomes significant to monitor how an individual actually performs in an organization. Inconsistent performance needs to be identified and thus training needs to be offered to the individuals so that the performance can be improved and efficiency of the organization can be increased to a greater extent. Question Two There are numerous assessment instruments that can be suggested for the first client, Rashid, so that he can decide what interests him. The numerous assessment tools related to career are Keirsey Temperament Sorter in which the user is supposed to fill a questionnaire comprising 70 questions that are scored on the Web automatically. The result obtained by the individual tends to be in the form of Myers-Briggs Types. With this approach, the user can gain an idea regarding suitable career options. The other evaluation tool is Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential Assessment. In this appraisal tool, the user is supposed to fill up a surve y form that consists of seventy one triads of three statements. This assessment tool has been created in order to guide and motivate the people to attain their greatest educational as well as career potential. There are other career assessment tools as well such as Myers Briggs personality tests from Ransdell Associates. It comprises personality as well as career preferences related tests along with other two tests such as Myers-Briggs and Strong Interest Inventory Tests where a person gets the scope to learn regarding him/her as well as his/her career options. JOBehaviors offers a person with numerous job-related assessments in high-demand industries where the goal is to assist the person at identifying the best job. It recognizes the behavior that is most significant for success as well as job compatibility. It further recognizes the job which tends to be the best behavioral fit for the person. JobDiagonals is a career assessment tool where the person is required to give a short t est so that he/she can evaluate their interests and competencies to identify what career path can be followed by them (â€Å"Career and Transition†). Work preference inventory is also another career assessment tool that can be effectively utilized by the person. It is generally based upon the belief that the method of value clarification is vital in career planning. It offers the

History of Movie Essay Example for Free

History of Movie Essay Jon Lewis claimed that the new movies that were being written and produced marked a period of time where it was the â€Å"end of the cinema as we know it. † This could be argued either way by anyone who has both watched some of the classic movies of the past and viewed the new movies of today. There are many reasons to believe that modern movies are just as great as the movies form the past. The modern movies do have some differences that are present in that there are better affects, better overall research, but still the same magical qualities and wonderful imagination that went into films of the past. Therefore it will be argued that it is not the end of the cinema as we know it. By looking at movies from the past, middle time periods and more recent times it can easily be argued that many movies of these time periods put together great plot lines, memorable characters and wonderful lasting interest among those who have watched them. In 1942 Casablanca was released. This movie introduced the world to some of the most memorable characters in film history. It was a true love story that enveloped the viewer and allowed them to feel close to characters like Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara. This movie also gave the viewer a hope that love could prevail above all else. In an argument about how there are still movies made that have these same values, a great story plot line that whisks the viewer into another world and a cast of unforgettable characters one could look at the movies ET and Mullholland Drive. ET was released in 1982 and again introduced the viewer to ET and the wonderful family that allowed him to be at home in their home. The movie brought hope to many that all people could be accepted and that no matter how different one was there was a way for them to be able to gain such acceptance. Mullholland Drive also used some of these same key factors although it was released years later in 2001. This movie’s plot was a bit difference and rather than giving hope about a life that could possibly happen it instilled some fear in people about what could possibly happen if luck were to strike one the other way. However the movie was a great a film that incorporated many different aspects of film technique and it also left a memory in the mind of the viewer as David Lynch (the film’s producer) was able to portray such a real portrayal of life. When looking through movies that are from the different time periods of the American cinema it is easy to see that the times and what is going on really do affect the movies that are popularized and remembered as being part of the time period. These movies depict both current things that are happening as well as looking at the historical events. In 1949 The Sands of Iwo Jima was released and quickly became a popular hit and movie and yet is another movie that has continued to be viewed by audiences over the past six decades. This movie was a portrayal of a group of U. S. Marines that were in a battle in World War II. In light of the times the movie was a portrayal of a part of the world that was unknown to many of the people who were living in the United States. Some more modern movies, although maybe a bit more far fetched, have also looked at the times and what is going on and have drawn their conclusions from these themes. One of these movies was 1999’s The Matrix. This movie was released during one of the largest technological booms that the country has seen. This movie portrayed aspects of the new forms of technology and what could happen if the world continued to grow technologically more advanced. Another movie that looked at problems associated with modern times was Sin City which was released in 2005. This movie looked at the world of crime and organized crime as it has been able to advance in more modern times. Another way that the cinema has been upheld is through the ways that values and beliefs have been portrayed through the movies of the time. Obviously through modernization there have been changes in the way that beliefs have been looked at but through the cinema these beliefs have been marked for all future generations in great pic time pieces that look at the things that are involved. This topic of values, although still portrayed in films has changed greatly. In 1959 Ben Hur was released and it promoted the standard values and beliefs of Christianity and the morals that are portrayed in The Bible. This movie was portrayed in this way as the majority of the country upheld these same beliefs and values. In the 1970’s the morals of the Untied States were changing drastically. By looking at films and the portrayal of interest in organized crime and more cynical events, as evidenced in 1972’s The Godfather, one can see that although the morality and the values of the country were still being upheld they were changing and the films were changing to meet the demands and interests of the people at the time. Much later in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, there was still this profound interest in crime and the ways that organized crime has been ran only there were much less morals in the overall themes than there had been previously in film. This is due in part to the continued evolution of change in the morality of the citizens of the United States. There have also been monumental portrayals of creativity and imagination in the movies that have been portrayed throughout the times. There have been different types of creativity and imagination has evolved but these features have given the viewer a place to escape to and somewhere that they would like to travel by watching the films over and over again. In 1965’s The Sound of Music, one is led into a world where a wonderful nanny moves in with some rather obnoxious children and learns how to befriend and be able to do her job through the magic of music. This movie whisked the viewer away to another place and led the viewer to hope that he/she was able to have that same type of sing-song wonderful life. In 1999’s The Blair Witch Project a group of college students decided to get creative and make a movie that would end up making them millions. This movie did focus a bit on the mythical belief that there could be modern day witches or members of the occult in the world around the viewer. The film was creatively filmed in a manner that led the viewer to believe that it was a work of non-fictional filming and that the events that were happen on camera were really happening to the actors. Another great portrayal of creativity has been in The Polar Express, released 2004. This film was the cinematic portrayal of a classic children’s book that was meant to show the viewer the wonder and mystery of Christmas and Santa Claus. All of these films used creative elements and things that the viewers could appreciate and that would add a little bit of mystery and fun to the viewers’ lives. In conclusion cinema has changed and evolved over the years. Although there is no way to say that cinema has ended as it was once known. Films are still portraying the same types of things as they have in the past. There are the films that are portraying a story line and are meant to whisk the viewer away, films that are looking at historical events and evolvement, films that are looking at the values and morals of the time period in which they are created, and films that are used purely to induce imagination and creativity. It is absurd to think that there was not supposed to be any type of evolvement in the world of film however it is also absurd to think that this has to be a negative thing and that it has to end the world of cinema or film as it was previously known. Therefore it is logical to disagree with Jon Lewis’ thoughts on the world of cinema changing in a negative way.

Graduation Speech: The Future is Bright :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Our most distinguished guests, beloved parents, members of the faculty of County High School, fellow members of the graduating class, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Four years ago, a new high school was established in the County area. Its establishment created mixed feelings. and expectations from the community. Questions such as: What kind of a high school could this be? Would this be able to uphold academic excellence as well as social and cultural values which most parents would like their children to internalize and live with? Would this be able to provide for the well-balanced development of a child's intellectual and artistic faculties? Would this institution be able to turn out students who could be responsible leaders, and patriotic citizens of the United States of America; citizens who could uphold the ideology many Americans had fought and died for? My fellow members of the class of 2012, after four years of being nurtured under the wings of that institution which is no other than our beloved Alma Mater of County High School, it is with pride and privilege that I say "Yes," rather, we say "Yes" -- County High School has met the community's expectations on the quality of graduates it could yield. We, the members of the class of 2012, are the epitome of what County High School is as training grounds for young adults and future leaders of our community and of our country. Our achievements as students in the last four years all attest to this legitimate claim. Yes, we are the proud graduates of County High School and to all my fellow graduates, please accept my warmest greetings on this momentous day. Next week's commencement exercises will mark the realization of our high school dreams and achievements, the dawning of new challenges and opportunities to pursue college education, and setting the vision for our own professional development. Equally deserving, I would also like to congratulate and express our heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to our parents, teachers and administrators, with whom we proudly share our achievements and our joys. This diploma is our gift to you who have cooperatively worked together to see us through four years at Washington High School. To our parents, your immense love and support had provided us with strength and determination to go on when in our youth we did not know which road to take; we could not discern what was appropriate and not; in those critical moments of indecision, you were always there to offer the best for us; in our painful moments of loss as well as our hard fought victories you were there to encourage and protect us.

Environment pollution argument Essay

Perhaps no invention affected American everyday life in the 20th century more than the automobile (UsHistory.org, 2008). Technology for the automobiles existed in the 19th century, but it took until the 20th century for Henry Ford to make automobiles accessible to the American public. The automobile drastically changed the lives of Americans for the better, not only did it improve transportation, it also created an economic boost for them. The demand for rubber skyrocketed and road construction created thousands of jobs. State and local governments began funding highway designs and the federal government became involved with the Federal Highway Act of 1921 (UsHistory.org, 2008). This act required each state to designate a system of state highways not to exceed seven percent of the total highway mileage in each state. Gas stations began to appear and mechanics could earn a living by fixing the inescapable problems with automobiles. Obviously two well established industries, oil and st eel, received a serious boost by the demand of automobiles. People could travel longer distances causing the need for motels, fast food places, and diners. In the beginning, automobiles made life better for humans, but with the growing number, environmental issues began to appear. In this unperfected world, the combustion process caused by automobile engines emits several types of pollutants. The exhaust from automobiles is generated by the chemical and mechanical process that occurs in order for a vehicle to work, this exhaust is what pollutes the air. Exhaust pollutants include hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Smog is a word formed by smoke and fog. The leading cause of smog comes from the releasing of pollutants in the air from gasoline and diesel-run vehicles, industrial plants and activities, and heating due to human activities. Burning gasoline in automobiles releases carbon dioxide, which is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in  the United States (Conserve Energy Future, 2013). Increased heat in the atmosphere causes ecosystems and weather patterns to change, such as the rise of sea levels and affects rainfall patterns. Humans can experience short term and long term affects due to exposure of air pollution. Short term effects, usually are temporary, can range from nausea to bronchitis. While long term effects can in clude heart disease and lung cancer leading to death. In 1952, over 3,000 people died in what became known as London’s â€Å"Killer Fog.† The smog was so thick that buses could not run without guides walking ahead of them carrying lanterns (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). Events like this alerted humans of the threats air pollution poses to human health. In 1963 several federal and state laws were passed including the original Clean Air Act, this produced funding to study the effects and help clean up air pollution. In 1970 Congress passed a stronger Clean Air Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency, known as the EPA. Again in 1990 Congress expanded the Clean Air Act, which gave the EPA more authority to implement regulations lowering pollutant emissions. Worldwide, many countries have taken steps to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming. The Kyoto Protocol, first adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, is an agreement between 183 countries that they will work to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. The United States has not signed that treaty (National Geographic Education, 1996) . Along with human health, automobiles pose a threat to the environment in ways of global warming, water pollution, and acid rain. Global warming is affected by the greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, which are emitted through automobile exhaust. Vehicles require fluids like motor oil, antifreeze, gasoline, and refrigerants. These fluids are easily leaked from a vehicle or can be disposed of improperly and can end up in aquatic ecosystems. When rain occurs it washes everything on the ground, including leaked car fluids, into sewage drains that lead into our oceans and other aquatic ecosystems. Automobile fluids are toxic to animals affecting their immune and respiratory systems. Acid rain changes the PH balance of waterways and can harm the organisms that rely on them. The nitrogen and sulfer oxides that are released from automobiles are major contributors to acid rain. Electrical motors date back to the 1800’s, with steam and combustion engines being attempted by the 1900’s, and it was undecided which engine would power  the automobile. At first the electrical motor was the most popular, but the battery life was short and would not allow travel over long distances. As mentioned earlier, Henry Ford introduced a combustion engine that rejected the idea of an electrical motor. In the late 1 960’s automobile manufacturers noticed concerns of the growing oil crisis and emissions of gasoline powered vehicles causing them to add electric cars into their line ups. By the 1990’s consumers were converting to electric powered automobiles because awareness of dependency on foreign oil and environmental issues were becoming more knowledgeable. Automobile manufacturers were making electric cars a larger part of their line ups. Modern day consumers have a choice between electric cars and hybrid cars as an alternative choice to gasoline powered engines. Recent electric cars are comparable to gasoline powered engines in terms of speed and travel distance due to recharging stations along the way. Electric cars are nonpolluting, however still have an environmental cost because the recharging of their batteries is done by burning fossil fuels. According to the Electrical Vehicle Association of Canada, even batteries recharged by coal-powered electric generators cut carbon emission roughly in half (Lampton, 1998) Hybrid cars are appealing to consumers who feel limited by electric cars. These cars have a traditional engine and a bank of rechargeable batteries that charge while the car is running. Limited demands of power, like driving around town, uses the charged batteries while high demand of power, like freeway driving, uses the gasoline engine. Although hybrid cars are low polluting, they still have some environmental issues of emissions as gasoline powered engines. The future for humans depends on what they are doing and consuming today. Fossil fuels are eventually going to be depleted and the sooner the dependency is lifted, the longer humans can make them last. Global warming is going to occur, but causing the release of carbon dioxide into the air through the burning of gasoline is only going to make it happen faster. Human health issues regarding air pollution are going to continue to get worse, death is already happening and those numbers are going to continue to rise. Humans depend on automobiles as their primary mode of transportation, but carpooling or public transportation would lessen their carbon footprint. If everyone just did one thing a day to help the envi ronment, maybe they could help sustainability of the Earth. References Conserve Energy Future. (2013). What is Smog. Retrieved from http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/SmogPollution.php Lampton, C. (1998-2013). How Electric Car Batteries Work. Retrieved from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/vehicles/electric-car-battery3.htm National Geographic Education. (1996-2013). Air Pollution. Retrieved from http://education.national geographic.com/education/encylopedia/air-pollution/?ar_a=1 United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2012, March 6). Understanding the Clean Air Act. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/airquality/peg_caa/understand.html UsHistory.org. (2008-2013). The Age of the Automobile. Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/us/46a.asp

The Roles of Tonal and Segmental Information in Mandarin Spoken

Assignment 1 – Article Summary In their article, â€Å"the roles of tonal and segmental information in Mandarin spoken word recognition: an eyetracking study†, Malins and Joanisse investigate how suprasegmental features affect on-line auditory word perception. Current speech perception models have fallen short in accounting for suprasegmental features because all have been based on Indo-European languages. In this study, Malins and Joanisse extend the potential of suprasegmental features by examining the role of tone in auditory word recognition.Preliminary studies on which Malins and Joanisse based their study show that features of stress alone could not account for word constraint activation. One of the reasons that stress was a poor candidate for word constraint during lexical priming tasks was that they were situated within polysyllabic structures. Tone features, on the other hand, are situated within monosyllabic structures. Listeners of tonal languages are require d to make distinctions based on these features alone. In addition, these preliminary studies showed that tonal information was processed after segmental information.However, these propositions were brought into question as Liu and Samuel (2007) discovered that most of the preliminary studies in speech perception did not utilize contextual constraints. More recent studies seem to show that tonal features are more effective in constraining word activation when in a sentential context and segmental features more effective in word constraint in a lack of contextual information. Malins and Joanisse set out to examine the role of tonal features in Mandarin word recognition by employing the visual world paradigm.This would allow the use of eye tracking which would measure the on-line auditory processing among four competitor categories – segmental, cohort, rhyme and tonal. The segmental category shared all phonemic features except for tones, the cohort shared all but word final phon emes, the rhyme differed in onset consonant, and the tonal shared only tone. The following was hypothesized: tonal and segmental information would be accessed at very similar points in time and share equal potential for word recognition constraint.Additionally, rhyme competitors would be viewed more than unrelated items and that tonal categories would produce little interference effect with target items. Twenty-four native Mandarin speakers were chosen as participants in this study. The mean age was 28, although seven were excluded from the study due to excessive use of peripheral vision (lack of eye movement data). Experimental stimuli comprised of 27 monosyllabic Mandarin words. The unrelated distractor tones were comprised of phonologically unrelated segments.A picture array was shown on screen for 1. 5s followed by a . 5 second transition at which point the central fixation point appeared. Participants focused on the fixation point while selecting the correct target picture for the spoken utterance. When the auditory stimulus was provided, the time course was measured through observing eye movements. If there were significant interference between tone and segment, then processing times would be increased therefore suggesting comparable roles in constraining word activation.The pictures in the array provided conceptual constraint. This ensured that sub-lexical access was being observed. This visual word picture matching task was used to create an environment that demanded lexical access using conceptual constraint. This method would supplement the hypothesis by leading participants to utilize tonal information. In the tasks, the act of pressing a button demanded lexical access and the four competitor pictures provided the conceptual constraint. There were 280 experimental trials.The experimental setting was kept monolingual as to eliminate the potential for confounding effects of bilingual interference. The results of this study show that the competition be tween target words and competitors was greatest for the segmental and cohort categories. This is crucial because the segmental category diverged from the cohort in tonal information only and the cohort category diverged in segmental information. This supports the hypothesis that both tonal and segmental information show an equal role in word recognition.Furthermore, the time course information for both cohort and segmental categories were similar. This seemed to indicate that segmental and tonal information are both accessed at the same time. There were no data supporting the claim that rhyme competitors would be looked at more than the distractors. This went against the second hypothesis and was likely a result of a discontinuity between rhyming features in Mandarin compared to English. This study could help improve existing models of speech perception by providing a firmer basis for tonal processing in auditory word recognition.This might raise the question of how tonal informatio n should be represented in a speech perception model. Ye and Connine (1999) have proposed the use of ‘tonemes’ since they act as contrastive units that can be categorically perceived like their segmental counterparts. Through summarizing, I have come to a better understanding of how this study would influence the TRACE model. Particularly, how different levels of word representations are shaped by spreading activation — tonemes possibly being the newest.By accounting for suprasegmental features, a speech perception model would be much more robust and functional. One particular thought that has arisen as a result of this study is how tone recognition contrasts between the modalities of speech vs. music. Do they share overlapping neurological locations and functions? Also of interest is whether individuals with amusia (tone deafness) are able to utilize tones as contrastive units in a language? References Liu, S. , & Samuel, A. G. (2007).The role of Mandarin lexica l tones in lexical access under different contextual conditions. Language and Cognitive Processes, 22(4), 566–594. Malins, G. M. & Joanisse, M. F. (2010). The roles of tonal and segmental information in Mandarin spoken word recognition: an eyetracking study. Journal of Memory and Language, 62(4), 407-420. Ye, Y. , & Connine, C. M. (1999). Processing spoken Chinese: The role of tone information. Language and Cognitive Processes Special Issue: Processing East Asian Languages, 14(5–6), 609–630.

Essential Beethoven essays

Essential Beethoven essays Beethoven was born in Bonn Germany on December 17, 1770. He became a professional musician at the age of eleven. His father hoped that Beethovens musical ability would earn him a fortune, just as Mozarts ability had for his father. However, Beethoven was very independent and he broke away from his alchoholic father at a young age. In 1792 Beethoven moved to Vienna, Austria where he studied with Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven was first recognized there for his emotional piano playing, but people soon learned that he was an excellent composer as well. Because of his great talent, Beethoven was supported by many private patrons. He is said to be the first important composer to make a living without receiving money from the court or the church. Beethovens music received special recognition, because it was both technically excellent and emotionally charged. Beethoven combined strong, loud notes with gentle, quiet notes to create the sense of changing emotions in his symphonic works. A very good example of this style is the widely celebrated ninth symphony. The intense feelings expressed in this and other works by Beethoven give his music a universal appeal. Beethovens status as one of the worlds greatest composers is especially remarkable, because he wrote many of his symphonies after he became deaf. By the 1820s, he was completely deaf and could only communicate with people through hand-written phrases and sentences. However, the music he composed at this time is considered to be his best work. During the last part of his life, Beethoven suffered from many emotional problems. The death of his younger brother Caspar Carl in 1815 was especially difficult for him. Beethoven took custody of his brothers son Karl. However, his desperate efforts to make Karl a great musician drove the young man to attempt suicide in 1826. Beethovens health began to fail shortly after, and he died on March 26, ...

Architecture and System Integration

The report has been made on the topic of architecture and system integration. The use of architecture and system integration would assist the operations of the organization. The case study selected for understanding the integration of the architecture and system is RetailCo. The existing system of RetailCo was outdated and slow. It created a hindrance for the development of new opportunities and globalization. The use of better technological equipments and techniques would provide the organization with scope for development and improvement. The following repot consists of five sections and each section has provided a unique diagram for the proposed system of RetailCo. The analysis has been done for being able to make the system context diagram, architecture overview diagram, logical architecture view diagram, component relationship diagram for sales operation, component interaction diagrams for sales operation, logical operational model diagram for infrastructure, and logical operational model diagram for sales operation.) The context level diagram is useful for understanding the boundary between the system and parts of system. It shows the environment of operations of the infrastructure system and the entities that are related to the system. The context level diagram for RetailCo has shown the various entities and their relationship with the Systematic Information System Infrastructure. The architecture overview diagram is helpful for getting a better visualization of the system architecture. The components of the diagram are in the form of blocks providing a better overview of the information system. The architecture overview diagram has divided the system components and operations in terms of users, channel, operations, data, and technology. The logical architecture diagram is useful for analysis of the system components by categorizing them in separate tiers/class (client, access, service, presentation, and data). The logical architecture diagram of RetailCo has been used for making the tiered structure of the organization’s infrastructure. Each of the tier has some services (security, persistence, runtime, and integration services) included for the information system of RetailCo. The component relationship model diagram is the study of the relationships of the components of the infrastructure system. The sale operation has been used for making the component relationship model for RetailCo and it has shown the manual and online shopping activities of the customers at RetailCo. The component interaction model diagram is the study of the interaction among the components of the infrastructure system. The sales operation has been used for making the component interaction model for RetailCo and it has shown the interactions among the components of the system with the operation included in sales process. The Logic Operational Diagram is used for making the model of business infrastructure and it consists of both data and process model of RetailCo. The use of the modeling technique is useful for understanding the difference between process model and data model of the business infrastructure for RetailCo. The Logic Operational Diagram has been used for understanding the sales operation of RetailCo and it consists of both data and process model of sales operation. The use of the modeling technique is useful for differentiating between process model and data model of the sales operation for RetailCo. The report had been made for the analysis of the new information system and business architecture of RetailCo. The project had the time duration of 5 years and budget of 1.2 billion US dollars. It has taken almost 5 years of time duration for completing the project and implementing the new information system and business infrastructure. The report has provided with many diagrams that would be helpful for understanding the operations and functions of the new information system. The analysis of the information system would assist the business organization for implementing any further development. The context level diagram has shown the boundary between the system and parts of system and the architecture overview diagram has provided a better visualization of the system architecture and divided the system components and operations in terms of users, channel, operations, data, and technology. The logical architecture diagram has analyzed the system components in a tiered structure. The component relationship model diagram has studied the relationships of the components of the infrastructure system. The Logic Operational Diagram consists of both data and process model of business infrastructure and sales operation of RetailCo. Baskerville, R.L. and Wood-Harper, A.T., 2016. A critical perspective on action research as a method for information systems research. In  Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems: Volume 2  (pp. 169-190). Springer International Publishing. Cai, G., Wang, B., Chen, B.M. and Lee, T.H., 2013. Design and implementation of a flight control system for an unmanned rotorcraft using RPT control approach.  Asian Journal of Control,  15(1), pp.95-119. Chong, S., 2014. Business process management for SMEs: an exploratory study of implementation factors for the Australian wine industry.  Journal of Information Systems and Small Business,  1(1-2), pp.41-58. Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J. and Reijers, H.A., 2013.  Fundamentals of business process management  (Vol. 1, p. 2). Heidelberg: Springer. Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E., 2014.  Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge. Gonà §alo, T.E.E. and Morais, D.C., 2015, October. Agent-Based Negotiation Protocol for Selecting Transportation Providers in a Retail Company. In  Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), 2015 IEEE International Conference on  (pp. 263-267). IEEE. Kim, Y., Koh, J., Xie, Q., Wang, Y., Chang, N. and Pedram, M., 2014. A scalable and flexible hybrid energy storage system design and implementation.  Journal of Power Sources,  255, pp.410-422. Li, S., Zhou, M. and Yu, X., 2013. Design and implementation of terminal sliding mode control method for PMSM speed regulation system.  IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics,  9(4), pp.1879-1891. Malhotra, A., Melville, N.P. and Watson, R.T., 2013. Spurring impactful research on information systems for environmental sustainability.  MIS Quarterly,  37(4), pp.1265-1274. McCormack, K.P. and Johnson, W.C., 2016.  Supply chain networks and business process orientation: advanced strategies and best practices. CRC Press. McKusick, M.K., Neville-Neil, G.V. and Watson, R.N., 2014.  The design and implementation of the FreeBSD operating system. Pearson Education. Merriam, S.B. and Tisdell, E.J., 2015.  Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. John Wiley & Sons. Neves, D., Silva, C.A. and Connors, S., 2014. Design and implementation of hybrid renewable energy systems on micro-communities: a review on case studies.  Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,  31, pp.935-946. Roth, L.J., 2016. Successful Business Process Management in Retail. Shin, J., Shin, S., Kim, Y., Ahn, S., Lee, S., Jung, G., Jeon, S.J. and Cho, D.H., 2014. Design and implementation of shaped magnetic-resonance-based wireless power transfer system for roadway-powered moving electric vehicles.  IEEE Transactions on Industrial electronics,  61(3), pp.1179-1192. Sousa, K.J. and Oz, E., 2014.  Management information systems. Nelson Education. Stair, R. and Reynolds, G., 2013.  Principles of information systems. Cengage Learning. Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A. and Bala, H., 2013. Bridging the qualitative-quantitative divide: Guidelines for conducting mixed methods research in information systems.  MIS quarterly,  37(1), pp.21-54. Ward, J. and Peppard, J., 2016.  The Strategic Management of Information Systems: Building a Digital Strategy. John Wiley & Sons. Zolnowski, A., Weiß, C. and Bà ¶hmann, T., 2014, January. Representing Service Business Models with the Service Business Model Canvas--The Case of a Mobile Payment Service in the Retail Industry. In  2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences  (pp. 718-727). IEEE.

How Do the NSC and APNSA Operate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

How Do the NSC and APNSA Operate - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the national security agency (NSA) is the U.S intelligence agency that has been given the responsibility of providing the United States government with encrypted information assurance and reading encrypted communication signals intelligence of other nations. The department that has been mandated with the duty to create and maintain secure computer network operations for the US government and prepare for impending network warfare. On the other hand, the assistant to the president for national security affairs   APNSA is the senior-most official in the executive office of the president who serves as the chief advisor stationed in the white house to the president of the United States on national security issues.   The person who seat in that chair also is a member of the national security council and is located in the west wing of the white house where he finds support from national security council staff that produces research, intel ligence, and briefings for the APNSA to review and present them to the president. The origin of NSA can be traced from 1917 after the Congress declared war on Germany in World War 1 during this time a code and cipher decryption unit was set up with its headquarters in Washington D.C. The NSA is responsible for the protection of U.S government communications and another information system, due to the growing practice of mass surveillance in the U.S. NSA collects all phone records of all Americans citizens that it uses in an analysis of the potential threat to the nation. However, NSA has no authority to conduct human source intelligence gathering although it is often portrayed doing so in popular culture and regions. Nevertheless, it remains its objective to coordinate and deconfliction of SIGINT components of otherwise non-SIGINT government organization. These organizations are prevented by law from engaging in such activities without the approval of the NSA through the secretary of defense. NSA has been reported to be doing the massive extent of the NSA’s spying both domestic and foreign that was revealed to the public in a series of detailed disclosures of internal NSA documents from June 2013 where most disclosures are said to have been leaked by former NSA contractor Edward snow den. Since everybody insists that they should have the privacy of what they do with their private lives, it is evident that with NSA there is nothing like privacy.