Fahrenheit 451 Summary

Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 is set in a dystopian society that burns books in order to control dangerous ideas and unhappy concepts. The novel tells the story of Guy Montag, a fireman who questions the book-burning policy and undergoes extraordinary suffering and transformation as a result. Part 1: The Hearth and the Salamander When the novel begins, fireman Guy Montag is burning a hidden collection of books. He enjoys the experience; it is a pleasure to burn. After finishing his shift, he leaves the firehouse and goes home. On the way he meets a neighbor, a young girl named Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse tells Montag that she is crazy and she asks Montag many questions. After they part, Montag finds himself disturbed by the encounter. Clarisse has forced him to think about his life instead of simply offering superficial responses to her questions. At home, Montag discovers his wife, Mildred, unconscious from an overdose of sleeping pills. Montag calls for help and two technicians arrive to pump Mildreds stomach and perform a blood transfusion. They tell Montag that they no longer send doctors because there are so many overdoses. The next day, Mildred claims to have no memory of the overdose, believing she went to a wild party and woke up hungover. Montag is disturbed by her cheer and her inability to engage with what happened. Montag continues to meet Clarisse almost every night for talks. Clarisse tells him that she is sent to therapy because she does not enjoy the normal activities of life and prefers to be outside and to have conversations. Some weeks later Clarisse suddenly stops meeting him, and Montag is saddened and alarmed. The firemen are called to a book hoarder’s house. An old woman refuses to give up her library, and the firemen break in and begin to tear the house apart. In the chaos, Montag steals a copy of the Bible on impulse. The old woman then shocks him by setting herself and her books on fire. Montag goes home and attempts to engage Mildred in conversation, but his wife’s mind has regressed and she is incapable of even simple thoughts. He asks her what happened to Clarisse and she is able to tell him that the girl was hit by a car and killed a few days prior. Montag tries to sleep but imagines a Hound (a robotic assistant to the firemen) prowling around outside. The next morning, Montag suggests he might need a break from his work, and Mildred panics over the thought of not being able to afford their home and the large wall-sized televisions that provide her parlor wall family. Hearing of Montag’s crisis, Montag’s boss, Captain Beatty, explains the origin of the book-burning policy: because of shortening attention spans and increased protest against various books content, the society decided to voluntarily dispense of all books in order to prevent future trouble. Beatty suspects Montag has stolen a book, and tells Montag that a fireman who has stolen a book is usually given 24 hours to burn it. After that, the rest of the firemen will come and burn down his house. After Beatty leaves, Montag reveals to a horrified Mildred that he has been stealing books for a while, and has several hidden away. She attempts to burn them, but he stops her and says they will read the books and decide if they have any value. If not, he promises to burn them. Part 2: The Sieve and the Sand Montag hears the Hound outside the house, but tries to force Mildred to consider the books. She refuses, angry at being forced to think. Montag tells her that something is wrong with the world, that no one is paying attention to the bombers overhead that threaten nuclear war, and he suspects books might contain information that could help fix it. Mildred becomes angry, but soon gets distracted when her friend Mrs. Bowles calls to arrange a television viewing party. Frustrated, Montag telephones a man he’d met many years before: a former English professor named Faber. He wants to ask Faber about books, but Faber hangs up on him. Montag goes to Faber’s house via subway, taking the Bible with him; he attempts to read it but is constantly distracted and overwhelmed by the advertising being played incessantly. Faber, an old man, is suspicious and afraid. He initially refuses to help Montag in his quest for knowledge, so Montag begins to rip pages from the Bible, destroying the book. This act horrifies Faber and he finally agrees to help, giving Montag an earpiece so that Faber can guide him verbally from a distance. Montag returns home and interrupts Mildreds viewing party, turning off the parlor wall screens. He tries to engage Mildred and their guests in conversation, but they are revealed to be thoughtless and callous people who don’t even care for their own children. Disgusted, Montag begins reading from a book of poetry despite Faber’s pleas in his ear. Mildred tells her friends that this is something firemen do once a year to remind everyone how terrible books and the past were. The party breaks up, and Faber insists that Montag burn the poetry book to avoid arrest. Montag buries the rest of his book collection and takes the bible to the firehouse, handing it to Beatty. Beatty informs him that he himself was once a book-lover, but he realized that none of the knowledge in books was of any real use. A call comes in for the firemen and they climb onto the truck and race to the destination: Montag’s house. Part 3: Burning Bright Beatty tells Montag that his wife and her friends reported him. Mildred leaves the house in a daze and gets into a taxi without a word. Montag does as ordered and burns his own house down, but when Beatty discovers the earpiece and threatens to kill Faber, Montag burns him to death and attacks his fellow firemen. The Hound attacks him and injects tranquilizers into his leg before he can burn it as well. As he limps away he wonders if Beatty had wanted to die, and set up Montag to kill him. At Faber’s house, the old man urges Montag to flee into the wilderness and make contact with the Drifters, a group of people who have escaped society. They see another Hound being released on television. Montag meets the drifters, who are led by a man named Granger. Granger tells him that the authorities will fake Montag’s capture rather than admit to any flaw in their control, and sure enough, they watch on a portable television as a another man is identified as Montag and executed. The Drifters are former intellectuals, and they have each memorized at least one book with the intention of carrying its knowledge into the future. As Montag studies with them, bombers fly overhead and drop nuclear bombs on the city. The Drifters are far enough away to survive. The next day, Granger tells them about the legendary Phoenix that rose from the ashes, and muses that humans can do the same, except with the knowledge of their own mistakes to guide them. The group then begins walking towards the city to help rebuild society with their memorized wisdom.

The Fight to Be Beautiful Essay - 1949 Words

The Fight to be Beautiful Growing up we are surrounded by the media, and without acknowledging what is taking place, we are formed into gender roles that dictate our perspective and place in society. I remember opening my very first Seventeen Magazine. Flipping the pages I found images of beautiful girls, expensive clothing, and what would be, my very first diet plan. Headlines filled the pages on ways to improve your physical appearance, how to make all the boys want you, and what you would have to buy in order to make this happen. As a girl I did not question the path that these popular sources of media were leading me down. My friends and I would crowd around the television screen watching depictions of women that we envied.†¦show more content†¦The band geeks accompanied by their instruments at all times, the nerds consumed in large, glass frames, and the Goths that dripped black, industrial clothing from head to toe were just a few of the stereotypes frowned upon in thi s movie. Many young, impressionable girls fit the harsh characteristics of these so-called â€Å"losers.† Seeing the negative affiliation placed upon people similar to them delivers a negative message to these girls. The main character of this 2004 classic is Caddy Heron, played by Lindsey Lohan. Caddy changes every aspect of her life in order to become one of â€Å"The Plastics.† She diverts her intelligence in calculus in order to impress the perfectly sculpted jock, her conservative wardrobe becomes minimal, risquà ©, and of course pink, and her once good-hearted nature ceases to exist. She loses many friends on her way to the top of the high school totem pole , but being popular is her only concern. The plastics consist of three similarly beautiful, fake, and conceded young women: Gretchen, Karen, and queen bee, Regina George. The girls partake in a Burn book, that is used to gossip, hate, and ultimately humiliate the people who fill the pages. Scrutiny of thes e women’s looks are laid out in viscous words throughout the book. Not only do they place harsh judgement on every otherShow MoreRelatedThe Movie: Flicka838 Words   |  4 Pagesmisfit. One day, while out riding, Katy finds a beautiful black mustang and instantly feels an emotional connection with the wild horse. Katy begs her father, Rob McLaughlin (Tim McGraw), to let her keep the animal but he is convinced that the mustang would be bad for both his thoroughbred horses and his daughter. But Katy is certain she can break the strong-willed mustang and make her a champion. Katy then names her Flicka, a name meaning beautiful, young girl. As she struggles to tame the headstrongRead MoreHelen Of The And The Odyssey1342 Words   |  6 Pagesmuch deeper. The word/name Helen, in general, is known to be associated with beauty, however neither Homer nor Walcott goes into depth of her physical appearance to describe her beauty. Both Helen of the Odyssey and Omeros are still des cribed as beautiful, though it isn’t backed up with descriptions of their physical attributes but instead their actions and the actions of others towards them. One of the very few physical characteristics we know of between the two women is Helen of the Odyssey is white-skinnedRead MoreTroy and Trojan War850 Words   |  3 Pagesman do anything, Helen being a famous female character in this ancient time made the power of beauty strike. In this period of time walked many strong warriors, many famous warriors. But they all seemed to let Helen has the power. When being this beautiful I believe it came with a big price. She was blamed for the war. She was called the innocent, the guilty, the dangerous, the sinful, the irresponsible, and the woman who â€Å"launched a thousand ships†. She was blamed because these men were fools to herRead MoreSymbolism in Salvage the Bones787 Words   |  4 Pageseverything is important to her. She says, â€Å"For though I’m small , I know many things/ And my body is an endless eye/ Through which, unfortunately, I see everything† (Ward 66). Esch calls her body an endless eye, with which she sees hunger, poverty, dog fights, devastation, accidents, thefts, and finally, the Hurricane. She has seen how it is being motherless, and now she is experiencing the pregnancy from a man who has fallen in love with another woman. So, her body has also made her seen un-faithfulnessRead MoreRomeo And Juliet by William Shakespeare967 Words   |  4 Pages location and mood of the scenes. Props would also be used for this purpose. For example, if a scene was set during the night, there might be a number of torches on stage to depict darkness. The actors would carry swords ready for fight scenes and the actors playing servants would be seen carrying pots or items of clothing to convey their station. Shakespeare uses costume to tell the audience information. The higher class people would wear expensive formal clothes andRead More An Analysis of Brooks First Fight.Then Fiddle Essay949 Words   |  4 PagesAn Analysis of Brooks First Fight.Then Fiddle  Ã‚   Gwendolyn Brooks First fight. Then Fiddle. initially seems to argue for the necessity of brutal war in order to create a space for the pursuit of beautiful art. The poem is more complex, however, because it also implies both that war cannot protect art and that art should not justify war. Yet if Brooks seems, paradoxically, to argue against art within a work of art, she does so in order create an artwork that by its very recognition of artsRead MoreAn Analysis Of Homer s The Iliad 975 Words   |  4 Pagesthe Greeks are there in the first place coming to fight for the return of Helen to Menelaus. Which Paris brought on himself by seducing the beautiful older Helen with his young, handsome charm, and blaming it on Aphrodite’s gift, Paris only being a man next to a beautiful women could not hold back his charm and whit and begun pleasuring Helen in Menelaus home. With that not being enough Paris went one step more and stole away this absolute beautiful creature with no warning or hesitation. Instead ofRead MoreLife Is Beautiful Critical Analysis1137 Words   |  5 PagesLife is Beautiful A fable is a story that teaches a moral lesson. Life is Beautiful is a fantastic story of love and heartbreak, along with a powerful moral message tied into the film. Life is Beautiful starts out as a love story, like the typical funny romantic tale of a man who falls for a beautiful lady and tries to win her affection, Life is Beautiful is also a story of a man who holds it together, for the sake of his young son, during a period of terrible horror and sadness, throughout Hitler’sRead MoreBody Image And Self Esteem Among Adolescents1685 Words   |  7 Pagesof body image is an issue that we see amongst many adolescents all around the world. This huge issue can be dealt by adults but the main victim of body imaging are adolescents. Everywhere, anyone goes, there is example of what society considers â€Å"beautiful.† Even if someone is not completely studying it, their subconscious is still registering all of the images and words to what society thinks is a perfect body . Everyday there are people that walk by magazines in stores, drive by billboards with modelsRead MoreThe Role of the Women in Greek Mythology1321 Words   |  6 Pageswas valuable about them but their beauty. When a woman was beautiful she was wanted by many men: a man would do almost anything to have the possession of a beautiful woman and have her as his property. It was as if a woman’s role was to only be a man’s beautiful possession and to procreate the lineage of a male or if he had a daughter, the means to secure power through marriage. Atalanta a character from the text Mythology, was a beautiful maiden who was the daughter of the king. When her father

David Hume- Aesthetics Free Essays

David Hume is one of the most significant thinkers among the Enlightenment. He is motivated by the question what is beauty, and how certain responses to artwork reflect objectivity. Hume’s essay of 1757,â€Å"Of the Standard of Taste† elegantly describes examples of the tradition of aesthetic judgment The growth of scientific knowledge influenced a sense of general optimism among Enlightenment thinkers. We will write a custom essay sample on David Hume- Aesthetics or any similar topic only for you Order Now This sense of optimism in result called for a more critical use of human intellect. By overturning long established dogmas, people scrutinized the very prerogatives of reason in relation to political and religious institutions. During this same time, theorists were trying to take account of all the various creative activities that were occurring such as poetry, music, dance, architecture, and sculpture etc. They generalized them into one category of â€Å"fine arts† or â€Å"beaux arts† assuming all activities were unified by the common function and purpose; pleasure. Hume devotes his aesthetic philosophy to describe and analyze art and taste within the field of criticism. clea Humes essay â€Å"Standard of Taste† is divided into four major parts. First part compares the two views of artistic values. He supports the idea of common sense what it comes to judging artwork. It seems from this philosophy that no response to artwork can be wrong because personal taste varies throughout people and therefore cannot be dismissed. Hume rejects the conclusion that beauty simply equates with the sentiment of pleasure received by the object or thing. This is because he says sentiment â€Å"exists merely in the mind† which makes no individual response more superior than another. The Second stage of Humes argument The third stage that Hume discusses in his essay (17 through 27) outlines what he believes constitutes a true judge of art and what may be required to improve ones own standard for judging art. Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice. † These specific factors in his mind would result in an individual worthy of a true judgment of at least a certain kind of artwork. In the fourth and concluding stage Hume stems from the third in the concept of who is the true stand ard. While seeking this specific critic of beauty one has to also take into account peculiar circumstances that may effect the experience and overall judgment of works. Circumstances can arise from unavoidable prejudices, which even the best critics cant avoid. Factors of natural differences such as age can result in generational differences, as well as cultural biases. A critics moral outlook constitutes as another circumstance that may complicate the judgment of certain kinds of works. Moderate moralism, Hume advocates as the best position to view works in because it confine circumstances where a work will be blemished by improper moral attitudes. David Hume was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 7, 1711. He was a philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist. He is regarded as one of the most important thinkers of Western philosophy and the Enlightenment. He is known especially for his philosophical empiricism or sense derived knowledge and skepticism and also for his influence on another important thinker during the Enlightenment, Emanuel Kant. Hume constantly tried to describe how the mind works in regards to knowledge and how the mind works. Experience meant a lot to Hume because he thought it served as the basis of his theory of knowledge. Hume attended the University of Edinburgh at the extraordinarily young age of 10 or 12. At first his family and him thought that a career in law was what his future may entail due to a family tradition on both sides. Yet, later he had become inspired by the different pursuits of philosophy. After a nervous breakdown and a few years to recover in 1729, he tried a job in a merchants office in 1734. He then came to a turning point in his life where he retired to France to spend the majority of his time studying and writing. During this time spent Hume produced a writing which was separated into three books called A Treatise of Human Nature. These books was the first of Hume’s attempts at a full fledged philosophical endeavor. It was certainly his most thoroughly written product of his thoughts mostly explaining his theories about mans process of thought and knowledge. During his younger years, Hume was earning enough money to gain leisure for his philosophical studies. In this time he wrote, rewrote, and added to the book, Treatise. It was in this set of three books that Hume developed his mature thought about the nature of reasoning in regards to fact and experience. The growth of scientific knowledge influenced a sense of general optimism among Enlightenment thinkers. This sense of optimism in result called for a more critical use of human intellect. By overturning long established dogmas, people scrutinized the very prerogatives of reason in relation to political and religious institutions. Hume was the first philosopher of the post medieval world to reformulate the skepticism of the ancients. (Cranston) His conclusion that man is more a creature of senses and practical sentiment or taste than that of reason guided many prominent philosophers to follow. Hume’s general analysis of measuring the aesthetic experience of an object or thing is generated from a personal taste. He believes that there is no wrong evaluative response to a work of art. No reaction or opinion can be dismissed simply because it maybe disfavored by the majority. If something is beautiful to someone then this fact cannot be argued or judged upon by another. Of course, this philosophy comes with certain limitations and specifications determining who is worthy of true judgment of works according to David Hume. In Hume’s essay he outlines what people can do to improve one’s taste and what kind of qualities must be instilled to qualify as a true judge of at least some kinds of works of art. Five qualities, Hume says, would qualify for this job. â€Å"Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice†. These conditions he believes need to be evident in order to achieve a more qualified personal taste towards a specific kind of work. Even with the best critics there can be certain complicating circumstances that can interfere with judgment. Hume believes these kinds of unavoidable prejudices come from a matter of moral outlook. Bias that comes from individual morality varies greatly and Hume thinks that this can be a huge flaw when it comes to a persons judgment of work. Hume advocates a position of moderate moralism when it comes to â€Å"the natural boundaries of vice and virtue†. This way the works being exposed to the individual judge will not be blemished by overt premonitions. When interpreting Hume’s essay about taste it is hard not to consider the possibility of contradiction because he recommends two very different standards. Hume seeks to find the true rule regarding how to measure sentiments of beauty in regards to personal taste. In doing so, the reader receives two sources of ideas from this search. The question now is whether a good critic defines good art, or good art in terms of good critics. Another aspect regarding Hume’s essay is the very idealistic vision of the most qualified judge of beauty. I find that this ideal critic couldn’t possibly exist because it is only natural for our different background of culture, morals, and religion to effect our opinions. Tastes in Hume’s context are the pleasures or displeasures that a person can take in the beauties of poems, paintings, and other artistic compositions. For Hume, taste is the capacity for one to react and conceive responses based on external stimuli. This ability to correspond external stimuli with an initial response or reaction is what we would call an â€Å"aesthetic experience†. When looking at works of art one can either accept it as pleasurable and attractive or disregard it as ugly or unpleasant. Both of these separate reactions require such experience to occur. In addition, the value judgments that occur in result indefinitely effect our value of taste. The position Hume holds in the essay is that some people who qualify as the â€Å"true† judges determine the good works of art. Hume discuss’ the receptive side of art criticism rather than the creative side that actually conceives and creates the art itself. The position Hume holds in the essay is that some people who qualify as the â€Å"true† judges determine the good works of art. For Hume, taste is the capacity for one to react and conceive responses based on external stimuli. This ability to correspond external stimuli with an initial response or reaction is what we would call an â€Å"aesthetic experience†. When looking at works of art one can either accept it as pleasurable and attractive or disregard it as ugly or unpleasant. Both of these separate reactions require such experience to occur. In addition, the value judgments that occur in result indefinitely effect our value of taste. Hume contends that differences in aesthetic taste are too obvious and great to deny. It is the extent of these differences that indicate whether the reality of universal approval or disapproval effects an individuals taste. In almost every culture there will be a consensus or general analysis when evaluating certain works. Hume does not see a big difference between artistic and moral values. He corresponds the two as related and both a factor in the judgment of arts. Tastes are â€Å"sentiments† and opinions or â€Å"judgments†. While all sentiments coming from any individual could be considered right, only few judgments or opinions remain right. Taste is considered a sentiment and therefore subjective by all means. In relation things that exist such as beauty and deformity are also extremely subjective qualities. The sentiment therefore exist merely in the mind of the individual who contemplates them. Yet, this existence does not constitute a valid opinion or judgment based on what existing in the mind. Taste is irredeemably subjective, individual in scope, culturally and historically conditioned, therefore relativistic. It seems as if Hume is stuck between two different conclusions, relativism and objectivism. He mostly settles between the two How to cite David Hume- Aesthetics, Papers

Risk Management In Project Management Data From The Check-in Element

Question: Describe about the Risk Management in Project Management for Data from the Check-in Element? Answer: Introduction and Background Research Risk management is the process of prioritization, assessment and the identification of risks followed by practical as well as a coordinated application of the resources. The process of risk management is implemented to minimize, control and monitor the impact and the probability of unfortunate events or to maximize the opportunity realization (McNeil, Frey and Embrechts 2015). This study would focus on the discussion that is related to the difficulties experienced at the time of the expansion of Abu Dhabi Airport. Therefore, the study would shed light on the discussion of the risk considerations that should be taken into consideration while managing as well as constructing a complex and an ambitious international project by concentrating more on the points of Risk Management. The background of the research is relating to the Abu Dhabi International Airport expansion. It has owned five airports in the UAE, and this airport is one of the fastest-growing airport hubs all over the globe. Now, it is serving from 56 countries, in 97 destinations. 20 million passengers, in 2014 have passed through the airport that is an increase of twenty percent on 2013 (Abudhabiairport.ae 2016.). Therefore, Abu Dhabi International Airport has decided to consider an ambitious strategy to expand the airport for meeting the surging demand. Thus, the airport authority has taken a decision of constructing "Midfield Terminal Building" (MTB) to make an appropriate expansion. This building with 700000 m2 area would incorporate the largest baggage-handling system around the globe, catering and cargo facilities, utilities and other infrastructures about the expansion. On the other hand, the MTB would also become the passenger's primary gateway as well as Etihad Airway's home (Abudhabiai rport.ae 2016). Analysis and Synthesis Critical Analysis of Difficulties faced during to Abu Dhabi Airport Expansion Any business expansion cannot be implemented without facing any risks or challenges. In the case of the expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport (Breysse et al. 2013), several risks are also there, and these risks can become obstacles in the way to their success. According to Wilke, Majumdar and Ochieng (2014), airports have the highly complicated structure, as well as the construction and the expansion of the airports, require an aimed, proactive and focused approach towards the delivery of their projects. The Abu Dhabi International Airport has considered an ambitious strategy of the expansion for meeting the surging demands of the airport. The major expansion project of the Abu Dhabi International Airport is the construction of the "Midfield Terminal Building" (MTB). MTB would serve several services incorporating the biggest baggage handling system in the world, with catering and cargo facilities, utilities and other important infrastructure (Fewings 2013). Hence, in this scenario, one of the biggest challenges or risks of this vast project is the complexity associated with the construction of the project. For example, the difficulties that Abu Dhabi Airport Authority has faced, are risks associated with the project controls, project-level scheduling, contract administration and commercial management as well as consultancy and modeling of ongoing building information on the gateway process development (Squalli 2014). The Abu Dhabi Airport Expansion is not just a scheme of constructi on of the Midfield Terminal Building, but it is the delivery of system interaction (Kaabi 2014). This systems interaction delivery with a central space sits within a single building which can even capture three football pitches with full size. Therefore, with the size of the building, it can easily be understood that some constraints are also large. The reason is the amount of constraints or risks associated with the project are always directly proportional to the size of the project (Rauda Al Saadiand 2013). Hence, in this scenario, such an undertaking of the project of the expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport needs a huge amount of interfaces as well as resource to implement the entire construction of Midfield Terminal Building. According to Asif (2016), the insufficient amount of resources or in other words, the shortfall of resources and interfaces is a very crucial problem for any construction project. In the case of this expansion project, this kind of risk has also created a huge impact on the implementation of the construction of Midfield Construction building (Haimes 2015). On the other hand, the construction of Midfield Terminal Building faces some very critical risks or challenges. For example, such risks are involved in the taxes for the construction, failure to meet the cost and quality targets and meeting deadlines (Artto and Kahkonen 2013). In spite of being one of the fastest-growing airport hubs worldwide, Abu Dhabi International Airport has faced these difficulties or constraints while implementing this project. According to Al-Dhaheri and Kang (2015), the reason for this difficulty is that the construction of any huge project is an undeniably risky project, as well as the risks associated with the project, are often become very difficult to avoid. A very important fact is associated with these risks is that all the challenges or difficulties faced in a project are correlated and connected with each other (Wilke, Majumdar and Ochieng 2014). Some of the risks have a great dependency on each other. For an instance, the occurrence of delay always results in the increase in costs. On the other hand, according to Al-Dhaheri (2015), the injury to workers is one of the most common risks for any construction project. Hence, this kind of risk has also arised in this expansion project. The teams of construction projects like this expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport are made up of diverse multicultural individuals. Therefore, without a proper plan to manage these issues, it has resulted in a critical difficulty or challenge towards the execution of this project. In this current scenario, Abu Dhabi International Airport expansion has also faced such difficulties while constructing Midfield Terminal Building (Kelly, Male and Graham 2014). The combination of all the difficulties or risks into a coherent whole meant giving concise as well as clear information for supporting the decisions of investment taken from Abu Dhabi International Airport, helping the airport authority for progressing with enough confidence and also assuring that both of the risks and costs were proactively managed and recognized as well. Discussion on Risk Consideration After identifying risks associated with certain construction, it is required to recognize or to consider the key risks those would create the most significant impact on the project. Hence, in this construction project of Abu Dhabi International Airport expansion, certain risks should be taken into consideration (Roumboutsos and Pantelias 2015). These risks would be considered while managing as well as constructing a complex and an ambitious international construction project about the expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport (Wilke, Majumdar and Ochieng 2014). Therefore, Abu Dhabi Airport authority must consider a set of factors of risks to determine whether to take on the project and how to schedule and price the construction once they have involved in it (Fewings 2013). There are various kinds of risks are associated with a particular project. These risks can be categorized into five segments. However, the risks those have been mentioned and critically analyzed in the previous section can be categorized into those five categorized. Political Risks These kinds of risks are mainly faced by the governments, corporations and investors. This kind of risk can also be managed and understood with the reasoned investment and foresight (Asif 2016). For instance, it may result in the politically motivated risks among the risk management team of the project. Another political constraint associated with the project is to keep the framework, the requirements of governance bodies and templates easy for understanding (Haimes 2015). Financial risks This kind of risk is comprised of several kinds of risks associated with financing, incorporating financial transactions that incorporate the loans of a particular company in risk of default. Poor schedule performance and cost of this international construction of Midfield Terminal Building often result in more financial risks or difficulties for this project (Kelly, Male and Graham 2014). Social Risk The social risks are associated with the difficulties faced by the stakeholders to the business practices of a particular company due to perceived or real impacts of business on a wide range of risks in relation to the human welfare (Roumboutsos and Pantelias 2015). In the case of this Abu Dhabi Airport expansion, a significant social challenge or risks that the airport authority has to face during the expansion has included a disparate range of stakeholders in the project at various levels to understand the risk management (Al-Dhaheri 2015). Technological Risks These kinds of risks threaten processes and assets pivotal to any business and can also prevent the compliance with impact profitability, regulations and also damage the regulation of that organization in the marketplace (Artto and Kahkonen 2013). As an example, the technical risks of this project are associated with the management of risk data across the program through more than 30 Excel sheets and the effort of risk management that was being siloed inefficiently at the project level (Rauda Al Saadiand 2013). Contractual Risks This kind of risk is associated with the probability of loss arising from the reneging of buyers on the contract, as opposed to the inability of buyers for paying. As an example, a limited amount of research that has been carried out for addressing these exceptional issues and most efforts for evaluating and assessing the risks those generated along with the international construction are failed and fragmented for providing adequate assistance towards the project management department (Kaabi 2014). This kind of challenge involves a low maturity level of entire risk with limited information about risk for supporting the process of decision making and the reporting of risk management (Al-Dhaheri and Kang 2015). Conclusions and Recommendation Recommendation To mitigate the risks associated with the expansion project of Abu Dhabi International Airport, the risk management teams have identified the requirement for identifying and mitigating the risks in the project at the most suitable level. They have also fixed the initial brief for the team of managers who deal with the risk mitigation. The team of the clients of Abu Dhabi International Airport overcame the issues of insufficient risk management in several ways. Therefore, the risk management team of clients has designed the plan of risk management for "Abu Dhabi Airport" for ensuring a very consistent as well as a relevant approach towards the risk management of the project. However, to analyze the need for a full-fledged growth in the expansion sector, The recommended phase can be enlisted below as primary and secondary recommendations done before and after the project management to avoid risk. Primary recommendations Phasing expansion- To avoid the elongated period of phasing involving risk, the phasing should be extended to a time that gives more flexibility in the planning process to monitor the changes done politically and economically for optimum scenarios. Systematic measurement- The establishment of key performance indicators that may be beneficial for risk management at the service level whether it is accompanied risk from the employees, stakeholders or environment. Encourage distribution traffic on off-peaks hours- the pricing is done to avoid risk to the expansion factor as well as the company should be recommended with pricing like peak pricing, incentive program, penalties and slot actions. Secondary Recommendations The adoptable structure of terminal The Abu Dhabhi airport expansion known by Midfield Terminal Building should keep in mind the growth of demand and the capacity to build. However, this can be possible by making an additional modular section in the airport that does not replicate the terminals but provides modifications. Employee management- The risk management team of the project of Midfield Terminal Building construction also has to remember that the risk data with a higher quality result in meaningful and significant outcomes to both increases the buy-in of senior management and support the decision-making process for contributing to the process of risk management. Furthermore, a more efficient process of reporting has conveyed that the clear risk management understanding towards the various organization layers. Therefore, the risk management team should create more awareness regarding managing risks throughout including the contractor, the design team, the construction management agency and the client team. Meanwhile, the risk management team has changed the risk management implementation from silo-based information as well as the disparate spreadsheets to a centralized enterprise database of risk management. To mitigate the risks of creating gateway process, Abu Dhabi Airport Authority has to support the collaborative working development. It would ensure that the project is ready for proceeding towards the next level by controlling each gateway for improving the visibility of cost, scope and time targets with the entire stakeholder's approval. In such a way, MTB's continuous success would largely come from an effective gateway process as well as a combination of proactive management technique of risks. However, future research can be based on more in-depth analysis according to passenger's expectations and their services regarding service level. Hence, the insight of passenger's expectations can also lead to planning areas with additional capacity for expansion that decreases the risk involves in those areas. Conclusion This entire study has mainly aimed at the risk management process in the context of the expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport. However, the overall study has successfully implemented the critical analysis of the risks associated with the project of MTB construction. Most importantly, the study has identified the most important risks associated with the program such as the complexity of the project and the gateway process. However, to sustain the success and the popularity of Abu Dhabi International Airport, the risk management team has to implement all the possible recommendations those would result in a huge improvement of the project. Reference List Abudhabiairport.ae. 2016. [online] ABUDHABI AIRPORT. Available at: https://www.abudhabiairport.ae/english/ [Accessed 7 Mar. 2016]. Al-Dhaheri, A. and Kang, P.S., 2015. Lean Improvements to Passenger Departure Flow in Abu Dhabi Airport: Focus on Data from the Check-in Element. Al-Dhaheri, A., 2015. Developing an Integrated Method of Controlling the Flow of Departing Passengers: A study of passenger departure processes at Abu Dhabi International Airport. Artto, K.A. and Kahkonen, K., 2013.Managing risks in projects. Routledge. Asif, M., 2016. Growth and sustainability trends in the buildings sector in the GCC region with particular reference to the KSA and UAE.Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,55, pp.1267-1273. Breysse, D., Tepeli, E., Khartabil, F., Taillandier, F., Medhizadeh, R. and Morand, D., 2013. Project risk management in construction projects: Developing modelling tools to favor a multidisciplinary approach.Safety, Reliability, Risk and Life-Cycle Performance of structures and Infrastructures. Fewings, P., 2013.Construction project management: an integrated approach. Routledge. Haimes, Y.Y. 2015.Risk modeling, assessment, and management. John Wiley Sons. Kaabi, K.A.S., 2014. 3 The air transport system of United Arab Emirates during the global financial crisis and Arab Spring.Airports, Cities and Regions, p.47. Kelly, J., Male, S. and Graham, D., 2014.Value management of construction projects. John Wiley Sons. McNeil, A.J., Frey, R. and Embrechts, P., 2015.Quantitative risk management: Concepts, techniques and tools. Princeton university press. Rauda Al Saadiand, A.A., 2013. The Use of Public-Private Partnership In Infrastructure Development In Gulf Cooperation Council Countries.University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) Preston, UK 1820 March 2013, p.379. Roumboutsos, A. and Pantelias, A., 2015. Allocating Revenue Risk in Transport Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Projects: How it Matters.Transport Reviews,35(2), pp.183-203. Squalli, J., 2014. Airline passenger traffic openness and the performance of Emirates Airline.The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance,54(1), pp.138-145. Wilke, S., Majumdar, A. and Ochieng, W.Y., 2014. Airport surface operations: A holistic framework for operations modeling and risk management.Safety Science,63, pp.18-33.

Biography of Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft

Biography of Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft Bill Gates (born Oct. 28, 1955) is the principal co-founder of Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest personal-computer software company and one of the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. Since he stepped down as chairman of Microsoft Corp., he has focused on and contributed billions of dollars to several charities, especially the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, the worlds largest private charitable foundation. Fast Facts: Bill Gates Known For: Co-founder of MicrosoftAlso Known As: William Henry Gates IIIBorn: Oct. 28, 1955  in Seattle,  WashingtonParents: William H. Gates Sr., Mary MaxwellPublished Software: MS-DOSSpouse: Melinda French GatesChildren: Jennifer, Rory, PhoebeNotable Quote: I think its fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool weve ever created. Theyre tools of communication, theyre tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user. Early Life Bill Gates (full name: William Henry Gates III) was born on Oct. 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, the son of William H. Gates Sr., an attorney, and Mary Maxwell, a businesswoman and bank executive who served  on the University of Washington Board of Regents from 1975 to 1993. He has two sisters. Gates wrote his first  software  program at 13 and in high school  was part of a group, which also included childhood friend Paul Allen, that computerized their school’s payroll system and developed Traf-O-Data, a traffic-counting system that they sold to local governments. Gates and Allen wanted to start their own company immediately, but Gates parents wanted him to finish high school and go on to college, hoping he eventually would become a lawyer. In 1975 Gates, then a sophomore at  Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, joined Allen, who was working as a programmer for Honeywell near Boston, to write software for the first  microcomputers, later called PCs. They started by adapting  BASIC, a popular programming language for large computers. Starting Microsoft With the success of this project, Gates left Harvard during his junior year and, with Allen, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, planning to develop software for the newly emerging personal computer market. In 1975 they started what Allen named Micro-Soft by combining micro from microcomputers and soft from software. The hyphen later was dropped. In 1979, they moved the company to Bellevue, Washington, just east of Seattle. Microsoft became famous for its computer operating systems and killer business deals. In 1980, Gates and Allen licensed an  operating system  called  MS-DOS  to IBM, at the time the worlds largest computer maker, for its first microcomputer, the  IBM PC. They were smart enough to retain the right to license the operating system to other companies, which eventually made them a fortune. Finding Success By 1983, the year Allen left the company for health reasons, Microsofts reach had become global with offices in Great Britain and Japan and 30% of the worlds computers running on its software. A few years earlier, Gates had developed a partnership with Apple to work on some shared projects. Gates soon realized that Apples graphics interface, which displayed text and images on the screen and was driven by a mouse, appealed to the average user more than Microsofts text-and-keyboard-driven MS-DOS system. He launched an ad campaign claiming that Microsoft was developing an operating system that would use a graphic interface similar to Apples products. Called Windows, it would be compatible with all MS-DOS system software. The announcement was a bluff- Microsoft had no such program under development- but it was sheer genius as a marketing tactic: It would encourage people using MS-DOS to wait for new Windows software releases instead of changing to another system, such as Apples Macintosh. In November 1985, nearly two years after his announcement, Gates and Microsoft launched Windows.  Then, in 1989, Microsoft launched Microsoft Office, which bundled office applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel into one system. Perils of Success All the while, Gates was defending Microsoft against lawsuits and Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice investigations of claims charging unfair dealings with computer manufacturers. Yet the innovation continued. Windows 95 was launched in 1995 and in 2001 Microsoft debuted the original Xbox gaming system. Microsoft appeared untouchable. In 2000, Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO and was succeeded by Harvard friend and longtime Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer. Gates assumed the new role of chief software architect. In 2008 Gates left his daily job at Microsoft but retained his position as board chairman until 2014, when he stepped down as chairman but retained a board seat and began serving as technology adviser. Marriage and Family On Jan. 1, 1994, Gates married Melinda French, who has an MBA and a bachelors degree in computer science and met him while she was working at Microsoft. They have three children- Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe- and live in Xanadu 2.0,  a  66,000-square-foot mansion overlooking Lake Washington  in  Medina, Washington. Philanthropy Gates and his wife founded the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation with the mission of improving the quality of life for people around the world, primarily in the areas of global health and learning. Their initiatives have ranged from funding tuition for 20,000 college students to installing 47,000 computers in 11,000 libraries in all 50 states. In 2005, Bill and Melinda Gates and rock star Bono were named Time magazine persons of the year for their charitable work. According to the foundations website, in 2019, the foundation had made nearly $65 million in grants by mid-April to recipients around the world. The foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Legacy Back when Bill Gates and Paul Allen announced their  intention to put a computer in every home and on every desktop, most people scoffed. Until then, only the government and large corporations could afford computers. But within only a few decades, Gates and Microsoft had indeed brought computer power to the people. Gates also has had an impact on millions of people throughout the world with his charitable efforts, especially with the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, and he has made large personal donations to a number of educational institutions. Sources About Bill. Gatesnotes.com.Bill Gates: American Computer Programmer, Businessman, and Philanthropist. Encyclopedia Britannica.Bill Gates Biography: Entrepreneur, Philanthropist. Biography.com.Awarded Grants. Gatesfoundation.org.

mcdonaldization essays

mcdonaldization essays The way that Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers does business and markets it's product to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization, where the ideology of McDonald's has come to dominate the world, has caused Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers to emulate McDonald's style of running a franchised restaurant chain in terms of efficiency, calculability, and control. However, since McDonald's has become the epitome of "fast-food" in our society, Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers has had to change their focus to giving the consumer a higher quality product in a relatively fast amount of time. So, Wendy's still cater s to a McDonaldized society in terms of giving them a meal as fast as possible but making quality their number one priority to give people a viable option from McDonald's. In addition, I have used my girlfriend who manages at Wendy's and observations I gathered while at McDonald's as further information for this paper. First, before I discuss the impact of McDonaldization on Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, I will define what McDonaldization is. McDonaldization is the process by which the principles of fast-food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society, as well as, of the rest of the world. (Ritzer 1998,Page 1) George Ritzer created this concept of McDonaldization as a continuation of Max Weber's theories on bureaucracies. Max Weber defines a bureaucracy as a large hierarchical organization that is governed by formal rules and regulations and has a clear specification of work tasks. Its three main charac...

Commercial speech Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Commercial speech - Research Paper Example Indeed, Cynthia Montgomery asserts that business leaders can appreciate the crucial role of being a strategist for purposes of defining and driving the objectives and advantages of their business in the industry. Indeed, the author teaches businesspersons how to develop the skills and sensibilities that living strategy and real leadership demand. The book, The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs by Cynthia Montgomery teaches us the need to become strategists in our businesses. Indeed, the author uses relevant examples to show how leaders play vital roles that depict strategists rather than setting a new set of models for learning and applying in a business. Indeed, the book asserts that there is an overlap between strategy and execution. With this information, the author challenges the businesspersons to consider the design and implementation of their current business strategy. The business leaders with thus establish whether they are strategists or they are just setting a new set of models for learning and applying in a business. Indeed, the author encourages business leaders to become strategists rather than just defining a strategy. This will significantly depict strategy as a continuous process in a business and not a chance to manifest leadership. The author equally teaches us that strategy is the most powerful means a leader has for shaping their business and not just a tool for outwitting the competition in the industry. Indeed, through her course, Montgomery derives a better understanding to all established business executives, owners, and CEOs on how to integrate leadership with strategy by being visionary and subjecting to defined values. Indeed, there is abject need for businesspersons to develop the skills and sensibilities that living strategy and real leadership demand for purposes of establishing significant competitive advantage in the industry. Ideally, in absence of strategy, leaders cannot succeed in their objectives since a leader

Financial Markets after Enron and WorldCom Collapse Assignment - 3

Financial Markets after Enron and WorldCom Collapse - Assignment Example This necessitated legal, social and financial reforms. One such legislation, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has meant that public companies spend additional millions for compliance, (Roy and Walter, 56). The NYSE also proposed a new governance proposal, which focused on eliminating conflicts of interest. The financial markets with time recovered with fears of the costs of regulation and financial intermediation being passed on to consumers. Government efforts to clean up the mess began with the state of the Union address on 29th January 2002 by then-President George Bush on the impact of corporate failures on markets and society. Enforcement agencies were formed by the SEC, Justice Department and Congress in an effort to punish offenders. Several were indicted and jailed. Billions of out of court settlements were reached compensating investors albeit minimally. The financial crisis of 2008 emanated from a mix of bad political, financial, corporate and economic decisions. Though it may take time for effects of decisions to manifest, the private sector greed for short-term profit is responsible for escalating the financial crisis. The ensuing events were set in motion by three related factors. First off, there were large inflows of foreign funds into the United States following the Asian financial crisis of the late 90s and the debt crisis in Russia. Availability of credit led to a boom in the construction industry, most of which was debt financed. Further, a noble liberal political idea that encouraged and pressured banks to help poor people transform into homeowners began during the Clinton administration. This led to the creation of numerous sub-prime loans to borrowers with poor creditability, with no down payments, and no verification of assets and liabilities setting them up  for defaults, (Michael, 253). This was fuelled in part by the greed of lenders, bankers and related financial institutions.

Court Stucture in United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Court Stucture in United States - Essay Example Usually a complaint is filed in the district court which is also known as the trial court. When the case is heard and a decision is rendered one can appeal that decision within thirty days of receiving the final order of the trial court. The decision is also known as a judgment. The purpose of the appeal is to get the decision of the lower court reversed. Here, some sort of legal error must be demonstrated. Because there is no higher jurisdiction, once the court of appeals has heard the case, there is no more appellate relief to be had. This piece is strictly the court system. The rules governing the court system are set forth in the procedural codes which are creatures of statute. Every criminal case has two components. They are the actus reus and the mens rea. This assignment asks me to define only the mens rea. Mens rea is the "intent level" of a crime which must be proven to sustain a conviction of the crime. It must be met, or the prosecution has utterly failed to meet its' burden and the case must be dismissed against a defendant. These terms relate to policing and the courts. They relate to policing because it is really the police officer who initially determines what the arresting charge will be. Ultimately, the court will decide if the evidence presented will withstand a motion to dismiss the charge.

Framework for Speech Enhancement and Recognition

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

Alien And Sedition Acts :: essays research papers

ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1798, when Congress passed both the Alien and Sedition Acts, it was very much constitutional. These acts were definitely in the best interest of America. America was a significantly young nation, at the time, and could not afford to create problems caused by foreigners coming to America. They did not have enough national power to sustain order if everyone was attacking the newly created laws, and many of those rebels being citizens from foreign countries, nevertheless.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These acts were, of no questions asked, surly constitutional. The Federalist Party presented these acts, later consequently passed by Congress, because they were and fair and just laws in accordance to the nation at that time. For the sake of argument, the nation and government was very inexperienced, and did not know what to expect in their near future. John Adams became the second president of the United States of America, subsequently, having to accept many challenges and responsibilities to fulfill the job in office. He had the task of making sure that the newly founded nation kept running smooth. That is a big burden if there are activities going on in the country that one has no control, nor knowledge of (i.e. foreigners coming into the nation and starting trouble by disrupting the form of government, or having radicals trying to protest and perturb the running government in office-Federalists, at this time). John Adams was smart enough to realize the signif icance of these factors. Thus, taking his duty of President of USA seriously, he, along with the Federalist-controlled Congress, took action to protect the new country. Hence, were the creation and passing of the four, debate-causing laws (Naturalization, Alien, Alien Enemies, and Sedition Acts).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These all made sense to be in effect for the time and date because many of the immigrants coming to the USA were Irish exiles (for plotting against British rule), British radicals, and French people (wanting to rebel against Adams). On these grounds, and many more, President Adams and the Federalist-controlled Congress had reason to believe that they had to protect their country from stirring troubles. In view of that, the government was permitted to the authority of deporting or imprisoning any foreigner that he saw fit. This is a very sensible power that the president ought to have had back then, given the particular situation. They also were entitled to enforce such laws to protect against from just any, unintelligent foreigners from intruding in their country to vote and such for legally binding decisions of the nation.

Stress in the life of young people today Essay

Stress can sometimes be good but if it lasts for a long time it can have negative effects on us, like lack of concentration, tiredness and headaches. The sources of stress are different for everyone but among young people, there are still some main causes that affect almost everyone. To begin with, one of the main sources of stress among adolescents is school. Not only homework, tests and exams cause stress but also the pressure of being successful and comparing themselves to other people make them feel insecure. In addition, parents can put a lot of pressure on their kids so they would get better grades. As a result, children may feel that however hard they try, they are still not good enough. Therefore, I believe it is important to take a break every once in a while and have fun (e.g. read, go to cinema, spend time with friends). Furthermore, thinking about future causes a lot of anxiety for youngsters. Most people want to be successful and have a bright future ahead of them so they are constantly worrying about how to make their dreams come true. I’ve come to the conclusion that everything will eventually work out, wether I worry or not. It is important to stay positive and do things today. To sum up, stress is an inseparable part of our lives and we need to learn how to cope with it. It is essential to relax and maintain a positive attitude. Stress can sometimes be good but if it lasts for a long time it can have negative effects on us, like lack of concentration, tiredness and headaches. The sources of stress are different for everyone but among young people, there are still some main causes that affect almost everyone. To begin with, one of the main sources of stress among adolescents is school. Not only homework, tests and exams cause stress but also the pressure of being successful and comparing themselves to other people make them feel insecure. In addition, parents can put a lot of pressure on their kids so they would get better grades. As a result, children may feel that however hard they try, they are still not good enough. Therefore, I believe it is important to take a break every once in a while and have fun (e.g. read, go to cinema, spend time with friends). Furthermore, thinking about future causes a lot of anxiety for youngsters. Most people want to be successful and have a bright future ahead of them so they are constantly worrying about how to make their dreams come true. I’ve come to the conclusion that everything will eventually work out, wether I  worry or not. It is important to stay positive and do things today. To sum up, stress is an inseparable part of our lives and we need to learn how to cope with it. It is essential to relax and maintain a positive attitude. Stress can sometimes be good but if it lasts for a long time it can have negative effects on us, like lack of concentration, tiredness and headaches. The sources of stress are different for everyone but among young people, there are still some main causes that affect almost everyone. To begin with, one of the main sources of stress among adolescents is school. Not only homework, tests and exams cause stress but also the pressure of being successful and comparing themselves to other people make them feel insecure. In addition, parents can put a lot of pressure on their kids so they would get better grades. As a result, children may feel that however hard they try, they are still not good enough. Therefore, I believe it is important to take a break every once in a while and have fun (e.g. read, go to cinema, spend time with friends). Furthermore, thinking about future causes a lot of anxiety for youngsters. Most people want to be successful and have a bright future ahead of them so they are constantly worrying about how to make their dreams come true. I’ve come to the conclusion that everything will eventually work out, wether I worry or not. It is important to stay positive and do things today. To sum up, stress is an inseparable part of our lives and we need to learn how to cope with it. It is essential to relax and maintain a positive attitude. Stress can sometimes be good but if it lasts for a long time it can have negative effects on us, like lack of concentration, tiredness and headaches. The sources of stress are different for everyone but among young people, there are still some main causes that affect almost everyone. To begin with, one of the main sources of stress among adolescents is school. Not only homework, tests and exams cause stress but also the pressure of being successful and comparing themselves to other people make them feel insecure. In addition, parents can put a lot of pressure on their kids so they would get better grades. As a result, children may feel that however hard they try, they are still no t good enough. Therefore, I believe it is important to take a break every once in a while and have fun (e.g. read, go to cinema, spend time with friends). Furthermore, thinking about future causes a lot of anxiety for youngsters. Most people want to be successful and have a bright future ahead of them so  they are constantly worrying about how to make their dreams come true. I’ve come to the conclusion that everything will eventually work out, wether I worry or not. It is important to stay positive and do things today. To sum up, stress is an inseparable part of our lives and we need to learn how to cope with it. It is essential to relax and maintain a positive attitude. Stress can sometimes be good but if it lasts for a long time it can have negative effects on us, like lack of concentration, tiredness and headaches. The sources of stress are different for everyone but among young people, there are still some main causes that affect almost everyone. To begin with, one of the main sources of stress among adolescents is school. Not only homework, tests and exams cause stress but also the pressure of being successful and comparing themselves to other people make them feel insecure. In addition, parents can put a lot of pressure on their kids so they would get better grades. As a result, children may feel that however hard they try, they are still not good enough. Therefore, I believe it is important to take a break every once in a while and have fun (e.g. read, go to cinema, spend time with friends). Furthermore, thinking about future causes a lot of anxiety for youngsters. Most people want to be successful and have a bright future ahead of them so they are constantly worrying about how to make their dreams come true. I’ve come to the conclusion that everything will eventually work out, wether I worry or not. It is important to stay positive and do things today. To sum up, stress is an inseparable part of our lives and we ne ed to learn how to cope with it. It is essential to relax and maintain a positive attitude.

Irish Immigrants essays

Irish Immigrants essays The Irish first arrived in Canada nearly 400 years ago, and to this day they have almost been fully integrated into our Canadian society. Years ago, they tended to move to large American cities, however they also moved to Canada and spread into the Canadian countryside. They have made a significant influence on the history of this country and they have very much became a part of the Canadian identity today. The Irish first came to Canada due to dire economic conditions in their homelands, and due to the lack of jobs. Some also came because of poverty, and others because the British wanted to get ride of Irish troublemakers who rebelled against the British rule in Ireland. The first Irishman settled in Canada near Newfoundland in 1622. Later that century, the Irish began to settle in Newfoundland in larger numbers. Most of them came on English fishing vessels, however they planned on returning in a few years. Most stayed and established Canada as they new home. By the 1830s, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Upper and Lower Canada contained significant Irish populations. Though the Atlantic Provinces have strong links to Ireland, the strongest Irish-Canadian connections are in Quebec, where 40 per cent of the population are of Irish ancestry. Canadas port of entry was Quebec City and many immigrants settled in the area. They were able to bridge the cu ltural gaps between the French majority, whose religion they shared, and the English minority, whose language they spoke. The Great Famine struck Ireland in the 1840s and this drove approximately two million people out of Ireland, hundreds of thousands of them to British North America. However most of the Irish preferred America, and thousands left by the 1860s. Most of Canadas Irish communities were established before the famine. Unfortunately most of the Irish who came during the famine did not survive because thou ...

Cam Profile Essays

Cam Profile Essays Cam Profile Paper Cam Profile Paper {text:bookmark-start} {draw:frame} TERMPAPER of PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY SUBMITTED By- Name- Gurpreet Singh Class- Mech. Diploma {B-Tech 6yrs} Section- Rj0708 Roll No. Rj0708x30 Reg. No. 4180070122 INRIDUCTION {text:bookmark-start} A Simple Experiment: What is a Cam? {text:bookmark-end} {draw:frame} Simple Cam experiment Take a pencil and a book to do an experiment as shown above. Make the book an inclined plane and use the pencil as a slider (use your hand as a guide). When you move the book smoothly upward, what happens to the pencil? It will be pushed up along the guide. By this method, you have transformed one motion into another motion by a very simple device. This is the basic idea of a cam. By rotating the cams in the figure below, the bars will have either translational or oscillatory motion. Task Basic Principle Graphical Layout of Cam Profiles Simulation Task The task is too determining the exact shape of the cam. Surface required to dwliver a specified follower motion, we assume here that the reqired motion has been completely determine,,,, graphically as well as analytically. We will only address the case of plate cams. Basic principle In constructing the cam profile, we employ the principle of kinematic inversion, imagining the cam to be stationary and allowing the follower to rotate apposite to the direction of cam rotation. Talking the cam with knife-edge follower for example, the locus generated by the trace point as the follower moves relative to the cam is identical to cam surface. By this way cam surface can be figured out. GRAPHICAL LAYOUT OF CAM PROFILE For the case of reciprocating knife-edge follower {draw:frame} As shown in figure the displacement diagram of follower is given s=s. onstruct the plate cam profile. For the case of reciprocating knife-edge follower {draw:frame} Step 1; divide the displacement-diagram abscissa into a number of segments. Step 2:- divide the prime circle into corresponding segments. Step 3:- transfer distances, by means of dividers, from the displacement diagram directly onto the Cam layout to locate the corresponding positions of the trace point. For the case of reciprocating knife-edge follower {draw:frame} Step 4:- draw the smooth curve through these points. The curve is just the required cam profile. For the case of reciprocating offset roller follower {draw:frame} As shown in figure, the displacement diagram of the follower is given S=S. For the case of reciprocating offset roller follower Construct the plate cam profile. {draw:frame} Step 1:- construct the prime circle with radius ro. step 2 ;- construct the offset circle with radius equal to the amount of offset e. For the case of reciprocating offset roller follower {draw:frame} Step 3:- Divide the displacement-diagram abscissa into a number of segments. Srep4: Divide the offset circle into corresponding segments and assign station number to the boundaries of these segments. Step 5:- Construct lines tangent to the offset circle from these station, dividing the prime circle into corresponding segments Step 6:- Transfer distances, by mean of dividers, from the displacement diagram directoly onto the cam layout to locate the corresponding positions of the trace point, always measuring outward from the prime circle. For the reciprocating flat-face follower {draw:frame} As shown in figure, the displacement diagram of the follower is given, S=S. Construct the plate cam profile Step 1; Divide the displacement-diagram abscissa into a number of segments. Step 2:- Divide the prime circle into corresponding segments. Step 3:- Transfer distances from the from the displacements diagram directly onto the cam layout. Step 4:- Construct a line representing the flat face of the follower in each position. Step 5:- construct a smooth curve tangent to all follower positions. This curve is required cam profile For the case of oscillating follower As shown in figure, the displacement diagram of the follower, radious of prime circle, and follower length are given. draw:frame} Construct the plate cam profile Step 1:- Divide the displacement-diagram abscissa into a number of segment. Seep 2:- Draw a circle about camshaft center O with radius OA. Step 3:- Divide the circle and give the station number correspond to the displacement diagram. {draw:frame} Step 4; Draw arcs about each of these centers, all with equal radial corresponding to the l ength of follower. Step 5:- Calculate the angular displacement at each station traveled by the follower. Step 6; Measure outward along the arc from the prime circle to locate trace point at each Station. draw:frame} Step 7:- construct a smooth curve through these points. The curve is just the required cam profile. For the case of reciprocating offset roller follower As shown in figure, the displacement diagram of the follower is given. S=S. The offset distances e, radius of prime r, are also known. Formulate the equation of plate cam profile. {draw:frame} Step 1:- Equation prime curve circle, offset circle, and the initial position of the follower. Draw prime circle, offset circle, and the initial position of the follower. Define the Cartesian coordinate system O-xy. Rotate the follower backward arbitrary angle around the camshaft center O. {draw:frame} Determine the coordinate (x,y) of trace point B. The synthesis results can be validated by simulation. Here is an example. The simulation is done with software ADAMS/VIEW. Example : Design a plate cam profile, as shown in below. {draw:frame} Knowing: the cam profile rotates with constant angular velocity in clockwise. The radius prome circle ro=30mm. the knife-edge follower rises with uniform motion, and the lift is 50mm during which the rotates 180’. Then the follower dwells during which the cam rotates 60’. With cam rotating 120’ to complete the work cycle, the follower returns to its initial position with paraboric motion. {draw:frame} Follower displacement: Solid dark line- actual displacement Dash linegiven displacement {draw:frame} Simulation shows that the error b/w the actual follower displacement and given follower displacement varies, but the maximum absolute error is 0. 3747mm. The error is brought by step lenth of programming and simulation and is accepatable. Therefore the the synthesis result is proved to be correct.

The Main Development of e Marketing and its Effect on Tourism Essay

The Main Development of e Marketing and its Effect on Tourism - Essay Example This essay will seek to address some of the major developments of e marketing and their effects on tourism. Additionally, it will also look at the major issues related to technology and innovation as well as their impacts on global tourism. Understanding and managing technological change and innovation To begin with, the recent advances and developments in connectivity and power processing facilitated by Information Communication Technology are undeniable. It is also agreeable and true that the expansion of broadband is part of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, which, once the world overcomes it, will witness the end of the ‘plague of distance’ that exists globally. Simultaneously, the ‘smart world’ in which are living in whose landscape albeit experiencing a permanent process of evolution is offering clearer, becoming friendlier, and presenting solutions that serve in reducing money and time and opening new paths towards the personalization of pr oducts and services. At this point, it is understandable that, in this world, in spite of its tones of inequalities offers an immense space to increase travel, because many barriers that once prevented or slowed global travel are gradually declining (Alipour, 2011:1). As of today, combination of technology and price comparison is increasingly shaping the activities of tourism. Experts are developing new applications for mobiles that offer a wide range of opportunities, social networks are consolidating themselves within a more transparent market where citizens are in a position to develop and provide services together, and changes in the concept of the value chain are producing new business models. In other words, change is becoming more constant and obvious, just as the opportunities that it is creating and presenting. However, technological advancements are presenting a challenge for the tourism industry. It is therefore vital understand the main trends that are influencing supply and demand, to know what is managing the change in the external environment while evolving at the same rate (McMaster, Kato, and Khan, 2005:12). Moreover, it is congruent to converse with the improved capacity for tourism organizations to respond via policies that can better integrate diverse interests, taking into account the whole range of potential of a destination. Business analysts recognize the internet as a widely and extremely valuable tool of marketing. This is because; the internet gives substantial merits over traditional methods of communication. The offers increased customer involvement in controlling transactions, increases the speed of transferring and retrieving information, and reduces the costs involved in communication. The internet is offering the tourism industry a greater flexibility of using the marketing mix (Kim, 2004:5). As such, it increases internal and external communications as well as facilitates market research. Tourism industry depends highly on int ernet in intensifying and improving customer services, product development, market penetration, cost saving via reengineering, product delivering, and in direct marketing. The use of internet transformed the tourism indus

In-house production Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

In-house production - Article Example Globalization is both a cause and a result of the modern information revolution. It is driven by dramatic improvements in telecommunications, incredible increases in computing power, and the development of information networks, such as the Internet. These technologies are helping to overcome the barriers of physical distance. With what results' According to its proponents, globalization can be a whirlwind of trade and investment that builds economies and spurs development in even the world's poorest countries. For example, during the 1990's alone, foreign investors have poured one'trillion dollars into developing economies. This phenomenal increase in international investment has made the building of roads, airports, and factories possible in poorer nations. Globalization has indeed been a force that has raised living standards for some across the world. Peter Sutherland, chairman of the Overseas Development Council, says that "until recently, it took at least two generations for living standards to double, but in China, living standards now double every 10 years" (as quoted by Bendor-Samuel, 24). Globalization is perceived as bringing unprecedented opportunities to billions of people. The staggering expansion of world trade has induced a wave of productivity and efficiency and has created new'jobs. Its critics,Its critics, however, counter that globalization can also bring down economies overnight. A few clicks of a computer mouse can devalue a national currency very quickly, washing away the life savings of millions of breadwinners. Ominous words from the mouth of an influential Wall Street analyst can instantly cause a herd of panicked investors to sell their stocks in Asia, creating a huge capital vacuum that could eventually drive millions into poverty. A board of directors can decide to close a plant in Mexico and open up one in Thailand instead-creating jobs in Asia while condemning hundreds of families in Latin America to destitution. Certainly, as governments from different countries try to get into the bandwagon of globalization, outsourcing has been the main focus of many government officials when it comes to the shift of industrial culture that their own countries have to take. However, outsourcing has not been so much of an accepted agreement for everyone, especially for the local workers in the United States. What are the reasons behind this' What really is outsourcing and how does this economic strategy affect the whole working force of the business industries' The Truth behind Outsourcing Strategies Universally, globalization has placed great pressure on working people as governments force down wages and labor standards in an attempt to attract foreign investment with the promise of low costs. While some newly industrialized countries have profited from increased exports as a result of freer global trade, poorer nations have been largely excluded from the feast. Along with this, the economic enthusiasts saw the possibilities of using the low-cost options of taking the skills of other poorer countries in becoming a part of the work force of their growing economies. It all seemed so practical at first; however, some considerations placed some pressures on the matter. True, the skills of the third world communities are