Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Environment and Climate Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Environment and Climate Change - Essay Example This programme will focus on all the issues related to the environmental concerns such as resource management, energy conservation, pollution etc. The complete duration of the programme will be five years i.e. from 2011 to 2015. The activities involved in this programme will be divided into different phases. Each phase will be followed after a period of six months from the preceding phase. This phase will start from January 2011 and the first six months will be directed towards the awareness as well as the implementation of the activity. In this phase, the management will encourage the use of recycle bins throughout the university. It can be possible by placing more and more recycle bins around the campus as it will help reduce and recycle the organic waste. It will also create a habit of recycling the wastes in the minds of the individuals. This phase will introduce the ‘green transport’ idea with the collaboration of the transport companies and will be introduced by July 2011. The idea is to discourage the use of private cars and single occupancy car journeys. It encourages walking, cycling and the use of public transport for travelling purposes. This can be done by offering cheaper bus rates to the students as well as the faculty and other staff members. The third phase will begin from January 2012. In this phase, the university will support the students in bringing their own cutlery for tea/ coffee etc. This will help in reducing the number of disposable cups available in the canteen as well as in minimizing the costs involved in the purchase of the disposable items. This phase will start from July 2012. In the fourth phase, the individuals will be asked to bring their own reusable bags for shopping and other purposes to promote an eco-friendly environment. It will not only save a large amount of money used for

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Effects of the War on Nationalism and Unionism

Effects of the War on Nationalism and Unionism The Great War proved to be a catalyst for profound change across the whole of Europe and beyond. Ireland proved to be no exception as the effects of the Great War changed nationalism and unionism in various ways. Some of those changes could have been predictable in 1914, whilst others could not have been. The constitutional future of Ireland had already caused much controversy before the Great War and that controversy did not decline just because Britain and therefore Ireland were fighting a war. Unionism was perhaps a more unified feature of Irish society and politics. In contrast, nationalism was split between the moderates that supported Ireland having Home Rule within the United Kingdom and the republicans that favoured a united Irish republic. The circumstances created by the Great War plus the actions of unionists, nationalists, republicans, and finally the British government all brought changes to nationalism and unionism. These changes will now be outlined. England and later Britain had been trying to impose its control over Ireland since the 12th century. Nationalism and unionism had been the reactions of the Irish to those attempts to make them obedient, if not loyal subjects of the British State. The nationalists were descended from the Irish who had resented, or even resisted British control. The overwhelming majority of the nationalists were Catholics and formed around two-thirds of the Irish population. The unionists on the other hand were strongly in favour of maintaining the union of Britain. Unionism was strongest in the Protestant dominated counties of Ulster amongst the descendants of the Ulster plantations. Unionism held the advantage of having aims that never changed whilst nationalism had the disadvantage of being divided between moderates and republicans, even though people with nationalist or republican sympathies formed a majority of the population (Wilson, 1989 p. 21). Nationalism had failed to achieve Home Rule in the 1880s, yet under the Liberal government that the Irish nationalist MPs backed, Home Rule seemed destined to be implemented after it passed through Parliament in 1912. The House of Lords managed to block its passing for two years, although it had just lost its power to veto legislation after the passing of the Parliament Act of 1911 (Ferriter, 2005 p. 123). However, the move towards Home Rule had provoked a militant unionist response in the form of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) countered by the moderate Irish Volunteers and the more hard-line Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The UVF, which was led by Sir Edward Carson used all the means possible to prevent Home Rule, and would have proved a formidable force for any Irish government in Dublin to defeat (Stewart, 2001 p. 166). The British were concerned about instability and possible civil war in Ireland during 1912 through to 1914. The first change the Great War brought was that many nationalists and unionists got behind the British war effort. Home Rule was put on ice until after the war finished. The British government could have used that extra support from both nationalism and unionism to its ultimate advantage yet proved incapable of doing so (Ferriter, 2005 p.111). Before any of the thousands of volunteers had been sent to the front line the British government’s decisions meant that the Great War would change nationalism and unionism. Instead of maintaining the good will of nationalists, the British government clearly showed its preference to those unionists who had volunteered for military service. The UVF seemed to be rewarded for its almost treasonable resistance to Home Rule by being enlisted as a whole and as a separate division. The moderate nationalists who had been in the Irish Volunteers were denied their own division. Redmond and the other moderates felt that the nationalists were being treated unfairly, despite supporting the British war effort (Madden, 2005, p.92). Nationalism more than unionism started to change once Irish troops started to get killed in the Great War. The Unionists views about remaining within the United Kingdom did not alter, regardless of how many of them were killed in the war. For nationalism, the deaths of so many of its most capable and moderate advocates changed the balance between moderate nationalism and republicanism. However, even as the death toll mounted amongst the nationalist volunteers fighting in the Great War, the majority of nationalists did not favour the foundation of a republic, just the implementation of Home Rule. There was resentment that the unionists received better treatment in the army than the nationalists did. There was also resentment that the unionist dead received more respect, even though nationalists also paid the ultimate price for fighting in the Great War. The Irish Volunteers had split over the issue of enlisting in the British Army. The vast majority of the volunteers did enlist and ca lled themselves National Volunteers whilst only a minority refused to enlist yet kept the name of Irish Volunteers. Between 150,000 to 158,000 joined the British Army, whilst 8,000 to 12,000 stayed behind to safeguard Home Rule from unionism or a change in British policy (Jackson, 1999 p. 198). However, it would not be Irish blood spilt in France or Belgium that would change nationalism and unionism during the Great War. In the end it would prove to be Irish blood spilt in Dublin that caused the most dramatic changes. Members of the IRB believed the Great War offered the opportunity to launch a major rebellion against the British whilst the British Army was fighting and therefore unable to concentrate its firepower against any rebellion. Republicans claimed such a strategy was taking advantage of circumstances that might only be available for a short period, if Britain were on the winning side in the Great War such opportunities would be lost. The IRB were joined by Sinn Fein and the Irish socialist movement of James Connelly (Moody Martin, 2001, p.256). The plans of a national uprising by the IRB were scuppered by the Royal Navy, which captured the German ship bringing weapons to the rebels. Instead of cancelling the rebellion altogether the IRB uprising still went ahead in Dublin. Slim chances of victory had been turned into no chance of survival let alone victory. The majority of people in Dublin originally saw the uprising as foolish and unjustified (Ferriter, 2005 p. 130). The Easter Rising of 1916 was an unmitigated disaster from a military and strategic perspective that resulted in around 450 deaths. (Madden, 2005, p.95). From the aspect of turning a majority of nationalists towards supporting a united Irish republic it was success, yet it was not the rebels that died in the fighting that aroused the upsurge in republican sentiment. This upsurge was due to the British government allowing the British Army to execute a handful of rebels after the rising. The executions were a serious blunder as it made the rebels martyrs for the Irish Republican cause and greatly undermined the British control of Ireland, except for Ulster. The British Army had intended to execute over 90 rebels, yet the death of the 15 rebels it did execute proved disastrous (Madden, 2005 p. 96). The Unionists regarded the Easter Rising as an act of treason; a sign that nationalism in general and republicanism in particular could not be trusted (Wilson, 1989 p. 45). Perhaps the greatest change to unionism as a result of the Easter Rising was the determination to remain within the United Kingdom, even if that meant partitioning Ireland in to two distinct nationalist and unionist parts. The Great War used up men, money, and resources in great quantities. The British government compounded its loss of support within the nationalist community by contemplating to extend conscription to Ireland. The Somme offensive in 1916 forced the introduction of conscription to the rest of the United Kingdom following the catastrophic losses caused. (Stewart, 2001, p.167). In all the British Army lost 794, 000 troops killed, wounded and missing in action during the Somme offensive, Irish nationalists and unionists were killed in their thousands (Castleden, 2005 p. 460). The republicans made further in roads into persuading nationalists that a republican solution was the best way to get the British out of Ireland. The British government did not introduce conscription into Ireland; the republicans in general and the Irish Republican Army / Sinn Fein (IRA) had gained further propaganda successes specifically. David Lloyd George met with both Carson and Redmond, promising Carson a permanent partition, whilst assuring Redwood it would be only a short-term partition (Madden, 2005, p.99). The Great War offered chances for nationalism and unionism to change, the war itself did not change everything. It was the republicans that prospered most from these changes due to Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins taking advantage of the circumstances the Great War had brought, especially after the Easter Rising (Wilson, 1989 p. 47). The Great War revealed the flaws in the political thought and strategy of the moderate Irish nationalists. The Irish Parliamentary Party had seen its greatest achievement of Home Rule suspended by the start of the war. Redmond believed that nationalism could achieve a compromise with British imperialism, a belief shattered by the Great War. Redmond also underestimated the potential of republicanism and misunderstood the aspirations of unionism. It was unionism and republicanism that changed Ireland profoundly after the end of the Great War (Ferriter, 2005 p. 130). Therefore, the Great War did change nationalism and unionism in various ways. Its first change was to suspend the Ulster crisis of 1912-14 and prevent the possibility of civil war in Ireland at that time. The outbreak of war was initially greeted with enthusiasm within nationalism and unionism. The British government gained a great deal of support from both communities, although it would eventually squander support from the nationalists. Only the republican fringe within nationalism did not support Britain’s war effort, regarding the Great War as an opportunity to end British rule in Ireland. Moderate nationalism was greatly changed by the Great War. The finest supporters of moderate were gunned down on the Western Front, whilst unionism increased its influence with the British government, with Carson serving in the war cabinet, whilst Redmond refused to do so. Unionism was proud of the sacrifices it made for King and country whilst moderate nationalism was weakened by being s een as sacrificing so many lives for an occupying power that did not seem to appreciate those sacrifices. The Easter Rising and its brutal suppression and the unwise execution of 15 rebels was the main catalyst for change with the British government foolishly making martyrs for the Irish republicans. Moderate nationalism was the main casualty of the Great War in Ireland. Republicanism was greatly strengthened after the Easter Rising, whilst unionism was grimly determined to hold onto Ulster. The Great War only delayed civil war in Ireland; the end of moderate nationalism and the misjudgements of the British government would allow extremism to take hold. This cause of events almost inevitably led to the partition of Ireland. Nationalism, unionism, republicanism, or the British government could no longer expect to control the whole of Ireland. The Great War changed things in favour of the republican and unionist extremists, the IRA and Sinn Fein proving especially astute at taking adv antage of those circumstances. Bibliography Castleden, (2005) Events that changed the world, Time Warner Books, London Ferriter D, (2005) The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, Profile Books, London Jackson A, (1999) Ireland 1798 – 1998: Politics and War, Oxford Madden F J M (2005) teach yourself – the history of Ireland, Hodder Education, London Moody T W Martin F X (2001) The Course of Irish History, Mercier Press, Cork and Dublin Stewart A T Q, (2001) The Shape of Irish History, The Blackstaff Press, Belfast Wilson T, (1989) Ulster Conflict Consent, Basil Blackwell Ltd, Oxford

Friday, October 25, 2019

A Clean Well-Lighted Place Essay -- A Clean Well Lighted Place Ernest

A Clean Well-Lighted Place A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway looks at age from the viewpoint of an inexperienced and experienced individual, with the aid of an old man to emphasize the difference between the two. This story takes place late one night in a caf. The caf is clean, pleasant, and well lighted, which brings some kind of comfort to the atmosphere. Here in the caf sits a deaf, lonely, older man, who although is deaf can feel the difference that the night brings to the caf, a younger waiter, who believes people stay around the caf to make his life miserable, and a waiter who is a bit older and seems to understand that this place, the caf, is comforting. The older man spends his late nights in the caf, because at his home there is nobody, he is widowed. All he has is the comfort that the light inside the caf brings to him at night, and the appearance and thought of other human beings may bring him. The old man is under the care of his niece, who last week had to cut him down from his attem pting to commit suicide. Why did he attempt to kill himself? He was in despair. Stated one waiter, and I am assuming it is the younger waiter because he goes on to state that he was in despair over nothing because he has plenty money. Money would be the answer to any problem to an individual of youth because when one is younger he/she has not yet come to realize the importance of relationships. The older waiter shows us the importance of relationships by stating, Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the caf. This appearing to mean that he knows that there are many lonely people in the world without relationships and no one to turn to in time of need or having some one to just be ... ...per meanings. Looking at my critical approach New historicism and comparing it with my piece A Clean Well-Lighted Place, only from the point of view of a new historicist without doing any additional research into the ties or times of the author I believe I have a well understanding of what it means to be a new historicist and how it applies to my piece that I have chose. I tend to think that knowing more about Hemingway and the life he led might give me a better understanding of his reasons for writing A Clean Well-Lighted Place. The meaning of Hemingways piece also will differ greatly across cultures and how it is a particular society looks at the differences in age and communication factors. . Work Cited Hemingway, Ernest. A Clean Well-Lighted Place Literature Reading and Writing The human Experience. Donna Erickson. New York: St. Martins press, 1998. 115

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Feminism

â€Å"Feminism isn't about making women strong. Women are already strong. It's about changing the way the world perceives that strength† ( G.D. Anderson).Challenges that women face like domestic violence, gender equality in the business world, unfair maternity and reproductive issues, women require that both government and corporate America take notice and provide equality. There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and every nine seconds a woman gets sexually assaulted or beaten. Domestic violence is an utmost issue in the world and affects around 9 million couples. Domestic violence can be characterized as any type of abuse or harm inflicted on a person by their spouse or partner. Anyone can be a victim. Victims can be of different cultures, sex, race, and religion. The abuse can range from intimidation and name-calling to threats and physical/ sexual harm. It is not a new epidemic, it has been ongoing in history throughout all cultures. The Common Law of England permitted a man to beat his wife, provided the diameter of the stick so used was not wider than the diameter of his thumb, hence, the term â€Å"Rule of Thumb† ( Burnett). In the 15th century, the Catholic Church ruled the husband was the judge of his wife, and had all power over her. After centuries of domestic violence, in today's society there are athletes beating their wives in elevators, in homes, and publicly abusing woman on social media. What part of famous athletes beating their wives in elevators is okay? The number of American troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012 was 6,488, the number of American women who were murdered by their current or ex male partners during that time was 11,766 (Vagianos). The number of women killed is almost double of the amount of casualties lost at war. The world has been inundated with millions of stories, but the stories don't go away and the problem will not stop quietly. The numbers involving domestic violence continue to rise every day. As stated previously, in every nine seconds a woman is getting beaten or sexually assaulted. On an average that is roughly twenty people per minute which also means 28,800, people a day are getting abused or sexually assaulted. The list could go on with continuously high numbers. Around 70% of these cases go unreported and of the ones that are reported, the victim has been assaulted or beaten by their intimate partner around 35 times before contacting the police. The main reason is because victims are terrified of coming forward. Women should not have to be so afraid to confide in authorities, but they hide it away because they believe it is a personal matter. While it might be true that women experience domestic violence more than men, still all in all, men can be victims of domestic violence as well. About one in seven men have been subject to sexual/ physical abuse by their intimate partners, and two in five gay/ bisexual men are subject to it (Vagianos). Society only hears what's on the news, about 85% of women being victimized, but nothing regarding the 15% of men being victimized. The only talk concerning men being assaulted are ones coming from the comedians about prison rape jokes. Society strongly stereotypes it as men as the abusers, and women as the victims which sometimes isn't always necessarily the case. In fact 46%, of male victims have a female perpetrator (Rosin). According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, maternity leave is time off from a job given a mother to take care of a newborn child. The first couple months of a newborn's life can be very crucial for both mother and baby as both of them need this time for bonding and adapting. The average maternity leave is around six weeks if a mother has a normal birth, or eight weeks if the mother has a c-section. With some companies offering a paid maternity leave, but most offering an unpaid maternity leave. Some companies offer a longer twelve week period, but the catch, it is unpaid. For a new mother, a twelve week maternity leave is sort of arbitrary because companies don't understand the difficulties of having a newborn. The major problem is that it is unpaid. Workplaces look at motherhood as a choice, meaning they refuse a paid maternity leave. This makes it harder for the families with low incomes who want to procreate, because this puts mothers in the spot of either working full time or staying home and having more children resulting in a financial strain for the family. The infant mortality rate can be impacted by paid maternity leave. Most countries have a lower rate, however, the United States has a rate of 6.1. A baby born in the U.S. is nearly three times as likely to die during her first year of life as one born in Finland or Japan. That same American baby is about twice as likely to die in her first year as a Spanish or Korean one (Ingraham).For each additional month of paid maternity leave offered in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), infant mortality is reduced by 13%, according to a new study by researchers from McGill University and UCLA Fielding School of Public Health (Science Daily McGill University). That means for every 1,000 births, eight of them die. That seems like a little amount, but in the United States babies arrive every eight seconds, but worldwide there are at least 251 babies born per minute. Over the years women have overcome numerous obstacles in the workplace, but a never ending obstacle is gender inequality. At every corporate level women are continuing to still be unrepresented and make up a little less than half the workforce. That means four out of ten families have a female as the â€Å"breadwinner† compared to their male counterparts. Given in today's society there is a strong emphasis on women being the stay at home moms/caregivers while the men are earning the family income. If women are in the workforce they are less likely to have any type of â€Å"S.T.E.M.† occupations and more likely to have a job pertaining to caregiving like a nurse. According to the report, only 4.6% of women work in STEM occupations, compared to 10.3% of men (Van Kampen Law, PC). On average, women working full-time earn just seventy nine cents for every dollar men earn (Van Kampen Law, PC). This is because of the gender wage gap, the ratio of a male to females earnings. It can affect all types of women in different ways. For example, a black women would have to work for eighteen months to make the earnings of a white male in one year. They are paid sixty seven cents for every dollar that a man would earn. A hispanic woman would earn fifty nine cents. Colored women are being targeted with gender and discrimination in the workplace.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

How do The Odyssey and The Crucible use the hero in order to explore the concerns of their times?

The concept of what constitutes a hero varies according to the values, culture, context and setting of the society in question. Homer in his epic poem The Odyssey and Arthur Miller in The Crucible through the portrayal of the hero's in their texts; Odysseus and John Proctor, reflect the values of the time in which the text was set but more importantly provide a social commentary on the context of the texts. Both looking to the past to provide answers and draw parallels with the present. The Odyssey was written approximately in 700 BC and was set in twelfth century BC, in what was known as the Bronze Age. The Greeks believed that this earlier period was a more glorious and sublime age, when Gods still frequented the Earth and heroic, godlike mortals with superhuman attributes populated Greece. The Odyssey is episodic in nature and in many ways consisted of nation building myths which were unifying and drew on what was common in Greek culture by detailing the exploits of the classical archetypal Greek hero, Odysseus. Essentially it is an epic tale in which the wicked are destroyed, right prevails, and the family is reunited. On the other hand, The Crucible was written in the early 1950's in America and is set in 1692 in Salem, a small town in colonial Massachusetts. It follows the witch-hunts of 1692 which began when several young girls were stricken with an illness characterized by symptoms of hallucinations and seizures, which were ascribed to witchcraft. This led to the eventual execution of thirty individuals for the crime of witchcraft. They were tried and convicted in an atmosphere of moral absolutism through which Miller alludes to the events which took place in the 1950's before the House of Un-American Activities Committee in Washington. The Crucible can be viewed as allegorical text not for anti-communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, but as a powerful timeless description of how intolerance and hysteria can intersect and tear a community apart. Furthermore, in contrast with Odysseus, John Proctor is a tragic hero, who would rather die then confess and lived with a marred name. This idea of nobility is inseparable from the tragedy genre. Tragedy in many ways enlightens, in that it points the heroic finger at the enemy of a man's freedom. The quest for freedom is the quality in the tragedy which exalts. Both texts are framed by religious imagery. In The Odyssey Odysseus does not question the power of the Gods and in many ways Homers text can be viewed as a moral lesson, through the omnipresent nature of the god's as they guide the wandering hero home. This reflects the Greek notion that the gods exercise absolute power over the mortal world. In the poem mortals are constantly making sacrifices to the gods to earn their favour. Conversely, offending the gods creates immense problems as is illustrated through Poseidon's grudge against Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemos. Moreover, it is only through Athena's guidance throughout the text that Odysseus can survive his dangerous adventures. This distinguishes an important point as it reiterates not only the all-powerful nature of the gods but also introduces the idea that if Odysseus the hero cannot survive without guidance from the gods then the rest of the members of society must accept their fate as lying in the hands of the gods. What must also be noted however are the characteristics of the gods, which were a mixture of magical, immortal powers and basic human instincts, the gods were not perfect. Through this portrayal of the gods in the text Homer presents a more glorious time in Greek culture in a time when Greece was only a shadow of its former greatness. This however varies in The Crucible which is set in a theocratic society, in which church and state are one and the religion practised was very austere form of Protestantism known as Puritanism. In this form of society there is no room for deviation from social norms, since any individual whose private life does not conform to the established moral laws presents a threat not only to society but also to the rule of God: â€Å"You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between†. John Proctor challenges this religious identity of time and shows how man has used god to manipulate and control individuals and it is ultimately his choice not to confess to witchcraft, which is a true religious and personal stance. In this way The Crucible can be viewed a symbolic of the paranoia of the communism which pervaded America in the 1950s. Several parallels existed between the witch hunts of 1692 and the House Un-American Activities Committee's rooting out of suspected communists. As with the alleged witches of Salem, suspected Communists were encouraged to confess their crimes and to â€Å"name names,† identifying others sympathetic to their radical cause. Miller through the actions of the hero Proctor foregrounds the McCarthyist excesses, which wronged many innocents, making a strong political statement. Furthermore, both Odysseus and Proctor are flawed and fallible and both of them fall into the seductive charms of the ‘seductresses' as is portrayed in the texts. Women are presented as either ‘sainted virgins'; Elizabeth and Penelope or ‘seductresses'; Abigail and Calypso this dichotomy represents the patriarchal structures of the context of the texts. Moreover the texts also highlight the dangers of giving women power and of female sexual potency. Odysseus' infidelity when he is trapped by Calypso serves to reflect gender roles and the double standard in Greek society. Homer does not invite the responder to view Odysseus' infidelity with any disdain or disapproval: â€Å"withdrawing into the cavern's deep recesses, long in each others arms they lost themselves in love† (#250-51). It is somehow acceptable for Odysseus to sleep with another woman, while Penelope is represented as morally dubious for allowing the suitors to remain in the house. It is only Calypso who challenges these gender roles: â€Å"You unrivalled lords of jealously/ scandalized when goddess sleep with mortals†¦ † (#131-32). While Homer portrays these sexist views, he also through Calypso's dialogue brings to attention the double standards of the society and more importantly introduces a new idea which may have been viewed as subversive in Greek culture at the time. On the other hand in The Crucible, John Proctor as the play's tragic hero is honest, upright and blunt spoken, Proctor is a good man however his fatal flaw is his lust for Abigail Williams which leads to their affair. Proctor is very self-critical and this in a way reflects how his moral code is a product of the society in which he exists: â€Å"But I will cut my hand off before I'll ever reach for you again†. Once the trials begin, Proctor realizes that he can stop Abigail's rampage through Salem but only if he confesses to this adultery. This highlights how the hero must face a series of trials and tribulations in order to be redeemed, in Proctor's case these are more physiological battles whereas Odysseus faces more physical challenges. This illustrates the way in which the different contexts result in the formation of varying hero's reflecting the values of that particular society. Finally, Arthur Miller once said: â€Å"Nobody wants to be a hero†¦ but in every man there is something he cannot give up and still remain himself†¦ If he gives that up, he becomes a different man, not himself†¦ It is Proctor's self-critical nature which distinguishes him because he does not set out to be a hero. Normally he would not be considered a saintly individual, and he has not great eagerness to be a martyr due to his underlying guilt at his infidelity, which in turn he projects on Elizabeth: â€Å"I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. † Nevertheless when put to the final test, the meaning here of ‘crucible', he will go to his death rather than irrevocably compromise his integrity. Through his representation of Proctor as the tragic hero Miller creates a new post-modern ideology of the hero in which the hero is not extraordinary physically or mentally but rather what is heroic is the individual who stands by his personal principals, he does not set out to be the hero but rather the situation merely reveals the hero within. This notion explores the concerns of 1950 America in which the hero's were not the McCarthyist's as it might seem on outward examination but rather those who only through their personal actions transpired to be essentially heroic. In conclusion, The Odyssey and The Crucible through the representation of the hero in text foreground the concerns of their times. The texts have revealed to me that what constitutes the hero varying according to context and setting and can help us gain further insight into the concerns of the society in question. Essentially the characteristics, which form the hero, are fluid subject to the values and culture of the times.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Solutions to a Perplexing Problem (On Prison Problems)

Solutions to a Perplexing Problem (On Prison Problems) Solutions to a Perplexing ProblemAt the Medford Correctional Facility, prisoners, guards, deputies, and civilian staff members are having problems with the way the limited budget is organized and distributed. Because of this, the prisoners have gone on a hunger strike. The hunger strike has gotten the attention of the warden. Now the problems are to be resolved, compromising were possible, in a satisfactory way for all who are concerned.The prisoners are experiencing problems such as unsanitary conditions, health related issues including abuse both mentally and physically, and inadequate education. Inmates are only allowed one shower a week and one bar of soap each month. Every day they are given an insufficient two quarts of water to wash-up. Important toiletries such as a toothbrush aren't provided by the prison. As punishment, on occasion, the prisoners have been given buckets to use instead of toilets. This brings the health conditions of the prison to an unsettlingly low level.E nglish: Female prisoners in a Mississippi state p...There are only two doctors at the prison from eight A.M. to eleven A.M. on Monday through Friday. This is a problem because there is not sufficient time for the doctors to see all the prisoners who need medical attention. Moreover, limiting the hours to the morning may make the prisoners suffer for a significant number of hours before they can see a doctor even if they don't have a waiting-list. In addition, the lack of sufficient sanitation makes the number of sick prisoners substantially larger than otherwise, consequently increasing the need for more doctors.Furthermore, the prisoners suffer mental and physical abuse from the guards and prison regulations. Guards use their authority over the prisoners to justify verbal and physical forces as a means to control them. Extensive hours of solitary confinement in their cells may create mental problems for...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Forensic speaker identification Essays

Forensic speaker identification Essays Forensic speaker identification Essay Forensic speaker identification Essay Introduction Forensic talker designation is the application of scientific discipline to work out the jobs related to designation of the unknown talker in condemnable probe. A voice is much more than merely a twine of words. Although grounds from DNA grabs the headlines, but the fact is that DNA ca nt speak. It ca nt be recorded planning, transporting out or squealing to a crime1. The voice of a individual can be successfully used as a biometric characteristic as it is good accepted by the users and can be easy recorded utilizing mikes and hardware of low costs2. It can supply an option, more unafraid agencies of allowing entry without any demand of retrieving a watchword, lock combination etc and therefore, interrupting all limitations of accessing a secured country utilizing keys, magnetic card or any other fallible device which can be easy stolen. In the present epoch, widely available installations of telephones, Mobiles and tape recording equipments consequences in the abuse of the device and therefore, doing them an efficient tool in committee of condemnable offenses such as snatch, extortion, blackmail menaces, obscene calls, anon. calls, torment calls, ransom calls, terrorist calls, lucifer repairing etc. The felons has seen the possibility for abuse of the assorted manners of communicating of voice, believing that he will stay incognito, and therefore, cipher would acknowledge him. It is fortuitously no longer true. The voice can place him and trap the offense on him3. Speaker designation is less complicated and leads to a more definite sentiment when the expert has to cover with the normal or ideal voice acknowledgment. The job arises when the instances of cloaked voice samples, affecting both inadvertent every bit good as attempted camouflage, comes for the intent of designation. There is another facet that makes the accomplishment of this end of talker designation a spot hard i.e. the instance of about similar sounding talkers, sharing the same sex, age and idiom. Address Address is the voice signifier of human communication4. Human existences express their thoughts, ideas and feelings orally to one another through a series of complex motions that alter and mold the basic tone created by voice into specific, decodable sounds5. Speech development is a gradual procedure that requires old ages of pattern. Communication is a procedure, a series of events leting the talker to show ideas and emotions and the hearer to understand them. Speech communicating begins as idea that is transformed into linguistic communication for expression6. : Speech signal is a multidimensional acoustic wave7 ( as shown in fig 1 ) , which conveys the information about the words or message being spoken, individuality of the talker, linguistic communication spoken, the presence and type of address pathologies, the physical and emotional province of the talker. The individual s address besides contains the characteristics that may uncover their geographical beginning, ethnicity or race, age, sex, instruction degree and spiritual orientation and background8, 9, 10. Often, worlds are able to pull out the individuality information when the address comes from a talker they are acquainted with. Address is a compelling biometric for several good known grounds and peculiarly because it is the lone 1 available mode in a big set of situations11 SPEECH MECHANISM AND ITS UNIQUENESS The mechanism of address is a really complex one and to set about analysis of any linguistic communication it is of import to understand the procedures that go to do up the message that a talker transmits and a hearer receives12. For production of any sound, there must be some perturbation in the air. Such perturbation in the address sound is provided by motion of certain variety meats of organic structure such as musculuss of thorax, vocal cords, lingua, lips etc. This perturbation in the signifier of sound moving ridges travels to the ear of the hearer, who interprets the moving ridge as sound. By the procedure of inspiration the air from the environment is drawn into the lungs, stored in the lungs for a short period of clip and eventually expelled from the lungs under force per unit area by the procedure of halitus. During halitus, air under force per unit area is sent from the lungs to the voice box. The map of the voice box, peculiarly that portion known as the vocal creases, is to put the molecules of this breath watercourse into vibration13 ( as shown in fig 2 ) . For sound to be produced, these molecules have to vibrate at a rate that falls within a peculiar scope. The procedure by which molecules of air are set into quiver is known as voice. The quiver form of molecules produced by voice is complex. It contains a broad scope of frequences and has a buzzing sound. This bombilation is moulded into address sounds by vocal piece of land. The vocal piece of land consists of the throat ( pharynx ) , unwritten pit and rhinal pit. The constellation, or form, of the vocal piece of land at a peculiar minute determines what address sound will be produced. The constellation of the vocal piece of land can be changed by motion of several constructions within it specifically, the lingua, lips, lower jaw and soft palate14. Representation of address mechanism For identical voice, the two persons should hold the indistinguishable vocal mechanism and indistinguishable coordination of their articulators, which is least likely. Hence the human voice is alone personal trait. SPEAKER RECOGNITION Speaker acknowledgment may be defined as any activity in which a address sample is attributed to a individual on the footing of its acoustic or perceptual properties15.The information content of a spoken vocalization are talker features, spoken phrase, emotions, extra noise, channel transmutations etc16.It can be divided into Speaker Identification and Speaker Verification. Speaker designation determines which registered talker provides a given vocalization from amongst a set of known talkers. The unknown talker is identified as the talker hose theoretical account best matches the input vocalization. Speaker confirmation accepts or rejects the individuality claim of a talker is the talker the individual they say they are17, 18, 19? In talker acknowledgment, you do nt do the designation by analyzing the linguistic communication used, by retrieving what the talker looks like or by any other agencies. This is sometimes used when a individual is non rather certain whether the procedure is that of confirmation or identification20. In a strategy for the mechanical acknowledgment of the talkers, it is desirable to utilize acoustic parametric quantities that are closely related to voice features that distinguish talkers. It involves choice of such parametric quantities which are which are motivated by known dealingss between the voice signal and vocal-tract forms and gestures21. In talker acknowledgment we differ between low-level and high-ranking information. High level-information is values like a idiom, an speech pattern, the speaking manner, the capable mode of context, phonetics, prosodic and lexical information22. These characteristics are presently merely recognized and analyzed by worlds. The Low-level characteristics are denoted by the information like cardinal frequence ( F0 ) , formant frequence, pitch, strength, beat, tone, spectral magnitude and bandwidths of an person s voice23. An ideal characteristic would: Have lower intraspeaker variableness and high interspeaker variableness Be robust against noise and deformation Occurs often and of course in address Be easy to mensurate from speech signal Difficult to mime Not be affected by talker s wellness or long term fluctuations in voice There are different ways to categorise the characteristics. From the point of view of their physical reading, we can split them into24: Short-run spectral characteristics -These characteristics, as the name suggests, are computed from the short frames of approximately 20 to 30 msecs in continuance. They are normally the forms of the resonance belongingss of the supralaryngeal vocal piece of land. Voice beginning characteristics -These characteristics characterize the glottal excitement signal of sonant sounds such as glottal pulse form and cardinal frequence, and it is sensible to presume that they carry speaker-specific information. Spectro-temporal characteristics -It is sensible to presume that the spectro temporal Signal inside informations such as formant passages and energy transitions contain utile speaker-specific information. Prosodic features Prosody refers to non-segmental facets of address, including syllable emphasis, modulation forms, talking rate and beat. One of import facet of inflection is that, unlike the traditional short-run spectral characteristics, it spans over long sections like syllables, words, and vocalizations and reflects differences in talking manner, linguistic communication background, sentence type and emotion of the talker. High degree characteristics -These characteristics attempt to capture conversation-level features of talkers, such as characteristic usage of words ( uh-huh , you know , oh yeah , etc. ) . Other characteristics are the idiom of any linguistic communication used in the conversation by the talker, speech pattern of the talker and the manner of speech production. DISGUISED SPEECH Any type of change, deformation or divergence from the normal address, irrespective of the cause, is defined as the address camouflage. Disguise can take many signifiers, and can be really detrimental to both ballad every bit good as to proficient talker identification25.The condemnable frequently disguises his or her voice. The consequence of the camouflage is that, the acoustic characteristics of the condemnable example, is altered to go less similar to the acoustic characteristics of the existent felon s undisguised vocalizations. There tended to be two types of research. One type was non-electronic and attempted to mensurate the ability of non-expert worlds to place other worlds who were masking their voice in a assortment of ways. The 2nd type was electronic, frequently affecting speech spectrographs, or alleged voiceprints 26. The inquiry of voice camouflage sensing appears as cardinal in forensic applications. Different sorts of attacks provide important consequences of favoritism. A complementary survey based on formant and automatic analysis could be fused to increase the acknowledgment rate27. MOTIVATION IN STUDYING DISGUISED SPEECH28 By and large, the adept faces two types of challenges while analyzing the questioned. First, cloaked voice is frequently used in the commitment of a offense where the felon has the fright of being caught. Often, it is necessary to place or verify a suspect based on the cloaked voice. Some agencies is needed to: Determine that a voice has been disguised on a voice recording, Determine the method of camouflage Perform computing machine talker designation despite the camouflage. The 2nd challenge is that the talker designation basically is incapable of accurately finding the individuality of a talker when a trial sample of his cloaked address is compared to a mention based on his normal speech production manner. To day of the month, and to the best of our cognition, the above statement remains true. One end of forensic talker acknowledgment is to set about research to change by reversal that state of affairs, at least for a big and utile subset of camouflage types. TYPES OF DISGUISE Disguised address can be of two types: Non- deliberate or inadvertent disguise- This signifier of voice camouflage involves changes that consequence from some nonvoluntary province of the person. The instances of inadvertent camouflage involve the impermanent alteration in individual s address due to alter in physical province like due to masticating, eating and illness or emotional province of individual like emphasis, choler, fright, jitteriness, sunniness, surprise, sadness etc. Research has been done for developing robust and precise automatic talker confirmation system based on these talker based fluctuation in features29. Deliberate or attempted disguise- The samples of attempted camouflage are often encountered in the instances of anon. calls, ransom calls and endangering calls where the talker makes a calculated attempt to alter their voice by altering its phonic, phonemic and prosodic characteristics, in order to conceal their individuality due to the fright of being caught. TECHNIQUES USED FOR SPEAKER RECOGNITION In this epoch of telephones, wireless and tape recording equipment communications, the human voice may frequently turn out to be valuable grounds for tie ining an person with condemnable act. The telephoned bomb menace, obscene calls or tape recorded ransom messages have become frequent plenty happenings to justify the involvement of jurisprudence enforcement functionaries in scientific techniques capable of transforming the voice into a signifier suitable for personal identification31. Speaker designation is to find who the talker of the given vocalization is. To make so it is necessary to cognize a great trade about that individual s address feature ( a rare happening ) or to be able to fit the voices of the unknown speaker to one from the group of suspects. Assorted methodological analysiss for nearing the job of talker designation have been proposed. For designation intent, different good recognized criterion techniques will be used for keeping the cogency of the work done and the pick will be as per the demand: 1 ) Listener method or Auditory analysis- The voice of a individual is as easy distinguishable by the ear, as face by the oculus. This method of talker acknowledgment by listening is the oldest amongst all. In this state of affairs a individual attempts to acknowledge a voice by its familiarity32. The extraordinary ability of worlds to acknowledge many familiar people by their voices is exceeding both in truth and adaptability33. In this method, the determination of similarity and unsimilarities is taken by human experts after hearing of address samples. One method is of perennial hearing of the available audio files by a group of experts looking for similarities in lingual, phonic and acoustic characteristics. The different vocalizations of the talkers are segregated in regard of each talker by manner of perennial hearing of recorded conversation. The unintegrated conversations of each talker are repeatedly heard to place lingual characteristics and phonic characteristics like articulation rate, flow of address, grade of vo wels and harmonic formation, beat, dramatic clip, pauses etc. The hint words are selected from both questioned and specimen samples of the talker and are so used for instrumental analysis. Human hearers are robust talker recognizers when presented with the debauched address. Listener public presentation is a map of acoustic variables such as, the signal to resound ratio, address bandwidth, the sum of speech stuff, deformations in the address signals introduced by address cryptography, transmittal systems, etc. This is owing to the fact that there are beginnings of cognition that contribute in assorted ways to speaker acknowledgment ; supplying weak, moderate and high know aparting power. Auditory talker acknowledgment has long been used and accepted in forensics as portion of the testimony of a victim or informant. Prior to the innovations of the telephone and sound recording equipments, it could be the cardinal grounds on behalf of which a suspected person could be identified or excluded from an offense committed in the dark or when a victim has been blindfolded34. However, with any human determination procedure, it is stressed that the hearer method leads to a subjec tive determination. However, this method is still used in some states for forensic talker designation. 2 ) Instrumental analysis or Spectrographic method- The spectrographic method for talker acknowledgment makes usage of an instrument that converts the address signals into a ocular show. Today voice analysis has matured into a sophisticated designation technique, utilizing the latest engineering scientific discipline has to offer. Both aural and spectrographic analyses are combined to organize the decision about the individuality of voice in question35. In 1941, an electro mechanical acoustic spectrograph was developed by Dr. Raleph Potter, Bell Telephone Laboratory, with an thought to change over sounds into pictures36. A sound spectrograph is an instrument which is able to give a lasting record of altering energy-frequency distribution throughout the clip of a address wave37, ( as shown in fig 3 and fig 4 ) . Spectrograms are ocular representations of the speech signal ; they convey information about the message by the talker every bit good as about the talker himself. In this method, the sentiment about similarities or unsimilarities between two samples will be taken on the footing of their phonic and acoustic elements such as, frequences, amplitude, plosive continuance, voiceless signals at different places etc. The sound spectrograph is more normally known as the Voiceprint analyzer. Voice forms are transformed into ocular forms on a graph that moves through an instrument at a controlled velocity, and forms drawn on the paper as it moves. By analyzing the charts, you can compare a tape of an person s normal address form with a tape of the same individual being questioned about his or her engagem ent in some type of offense or other misbehaviour38. These voiceprints may be an of import in assisting the jurisprudence enforcement bureaus in placing the felons. Much like fingerprints, voiceprint designation uses the alone characteristics in the spectrographic feelings of people s utterances39. In the classical parallel spectrograph a magnetic tape recording equipment and playback unit is used to treat the sounds into electronic signals. These signals are so sent through a variable electronic bandpass filter, which selects a frequence set that is to be analysed, before a stylus measures its energy and records the consequences on electrical sensitive paper. The paper is mounted on a membranophone, which is revolving during playback in order to plot the clip fluctuations in the signal. When the whole length of the address sample in analysed at a specific frequence set, the set of the filter and the place of the stylus are correspondingly altered. The tape is so played once more in order to analyze a new portion of the frequence spectrum. This procedure is repeated over once more until the full coveted frequence scope is analysed. In each spectrograph, the horizontal dimension is clip, the perpendicular dimension represents frequence and the darkness represents the strength on the compaction scale40.The differences in amplitude values are shown in a Grey scaling where black represents the most intense and white the least intense wave form constituents. However since 1962, it was considered as a fool- cogent evidence method of personal designation, voice designation by spectrographic analysis, the voiceprint technique has been in a legal oblivion. But the recent developments in both scientific discipline and the jurisprudence, nevertheless, indicate that despite ab initio inauspicious scientific and judicial reaction, spectrographic voice designation is possibly coming of legal age41. 3 ) Computerized approach- This is a semi automatic attack for acknowledgment of address samples which involves three phases: Feature Extraction Feature Comparison Categorization In this method the parametric quantities of the signals are extracted by agencies of spectrum analyser and acknowledgment is made by agencies of computing machine system on the footing of stored informations in regard of controlled samples of the talkers. However it is observed that the mistake rates of machines are frequently more than an order of magnitude greater than those of worlds, as machine public presentation degrades below that of worlds in noise, with channel variableness, and for self-generated speech42. 4 ) Modern technique utilizing a package: BATVOX 3.043- BATVOX 3.0 is an automatic talker acknowledgment application designed to let the biometric designation of talkers in an probe comparing voice theoretical accounts to a set of sounds added in the system. The audio files entered in BATVOX 3.0 have to carry through certain conditions: BATVOX 3.0 accepts audio files in the undermentioned format: .wav files with additive PCM cryptography, trying frequence 8 KHz, 16-bit declaration and glandular fever. Manages audio files of at least 7 seconds of net address. Manages audio files whose signal to resound ratio is more than 10dBs The trial and the preparation audio files should possess the voice of the talkers sharing the same sex, same linguistic communication and have same channel features LIMITATIONS OF SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION44 Short continuance samples should be analysed decently The dissimilar linguistic communication in questioned and specimen are hard to analyse Emotion Variability in questioned and specimen samples45 Misspoken or misread prompted phrases Ill recorded/noisy samples are hard to analyze46 Insufficient figure of comparable words Disguise in address samples poses a job in talker acknowledgment and/or the grade of camouflage is decided by the expert Extreme emotional provinces ( e.g. emphasis or duress ) 47,48 Change in physical province of the talker ( e.g. feeding, consequence of ethyl alcohol, etc ) 49 The attitude of the how the address is said by the talker Channel mismatch or mismatch in entering conditions ( e.g. utilizing different mikes for registration and confirmation ) 50 Different pronunciation velocity of the trial informations compared with the preparation informations. Illness 51,52 Aging ( the vocal piece of land can float off from theoretical accounts with age ) 53,54 ACCURACY IN SPEAKER RECOGNITION In order to acquire accurate consequences from talker acknowledgment, one must give more accent on following factors: The minimal continuance of the gathered samples should be of 60 seconds Conditionss under which the voice samples are recorded should possess less noise or the signal to resound ratio of the samples should be greater The features of the instruments used The accomplishment of the tester doing judgement Examiners knowledge about the instance Examiners knowledge about the linguistic communication in question55 Properties of the voice involved Delay in scrutiny of samples56 The linguistic communication of the questioned and controlled samples should be similar The expert should be competent plenty to cover with the instances affecting cloaked address samples. CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFICATION A hearer may acknowledge a voice even without seeing the talker. There are cues in voice and address behavior, which are single and therefore do it possible to acknowledge the familiar voices57. A individual s mental ability to command his vocal piece of land musculuss during vocalization is learned during his childhood. These wonts affect the scope of sound that may be efficaciously produced by an person. The scope of sounds is the subset of the set of possible sounds that an person could make with his or her personal vocal piece of land. It is non easy for an single to alter voluntarily these physical characteristics58. The address moving ridge is the response of the vocal piece of land filter system to one or more sound beginning. Speech moving ridge may be unambiguously specified in footings of beginning and filter characteristics59. Datas obtained from measurings of the acoustic belongingss of human voices are really different from Deoxyribonucleic acid profiles. Acoustic inform ations are uninterrupted non distinct and the talker neer says the same thing, precisely the same manner twice. The strength of grounds from a forensic voice comparing can non be expressed as a lucifer chance and must be expressed in signifier of a full likeliness ratio60. It is observed that really dependable determinations can be made by trained professional testers when samples are obtained in the mode described. The surveies produced strong grounds that even really good mimics can non double an- other s address patterns61. The standards of designation of address samples utilizing different techniques are discussed as follows: Auditory analysis- In this method, the designation is done on the footing of following voice characteristics- Quality of speech sample- Synthetic address can be compared and evaluated with regard to intelligibility, naturalness, and suitableness for used application62. Pronunciation, Accent, Speech sounds like vowels and consonants, stop consonants, spirants, nasal and pharynx sounds and matching consequence, Grammar, Stress, Syllable emphasis, Intonation, Rhythm, Fluency, tempo, Phrasing and Blending63. Each individual possesses a alone voice quality which depend on figure of anatomical characteristics, such as, dimension of unwritten piece of land, throat, rhinal pit, form and size of lingua and lips, place of dentition, tissue denseness etc. Linguistic features- Linguistics is the scientific survey of natural linguistic communication. These characteristics involves, the fashionable feeling of address, bringing of address ( the manner in which the address is delivered i.e. , Manuscript, Memorized, Impromptu, and Extemporaneous64 ) , Phonation ( the procedure by which the vocal creases produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic quiver or any oscillating province of any portion of voice box that modifies the airstream, of which voicing is one example65 ) . Articulatory speech- This is a type of address produced by motion or articulation of the articulators. This involves, flow of address ( depends upon the eloquence of the speaker66 ) , plosive formation ( First, a complete closing of the transition of air at the same point in the vocal piece of land, so the remotion of the closing, doing a sudden release of the out of use air with some explosive noise ) , nasality ( Nasal consonants have a uninterrupted full closing at some point in the unwritten pit. Since the veil is set in the low place, opening the velopharyngeal port, air is let out through the rhinal pit ) . Prosodic analysis- It involves the modulation form, moral force of volume ( kineticss refers to the volume of a sound or note and volume is the strength of esthesis received through the ear ) , speech rate ( comparative timing of different address events in spoken vocalizations ) , speech fluctuations, striking clip characteristics, intermissions ( number/length/pattern ) . Voice impairment- Speech or linguistic communication damage ( SLI ) means a communicating upset, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, linguistic communication damage, or a voice damage, that adversely affects a individual s educational public presentation. Speech and linguistic communication upsets refer to jobs in communicating and related countries such as unwritten motor map. These holds and upsets range from simple sound permutations to the inability to understand or utilize linguistic communication or utilize the oral-motor mechanism for functional address and eating. Some causes of address and linguistic communication upsets include hearing loss, neurological upsets, encephalon hurt, mental deceleration, drug maltreatment, physical damages such as cleft lip or roof of the mouth, and vocal maltreatment or abuse. Frequently, nevertheless, the cause is unknown. Temporal measurements- The temporal belongingss of address play an of import function in lingual contrast. Address can be said to be comprised of three chief temporal characteristics based on dominant fluctuation rates ; envelope, cyclicity and all right construction. Each characteristic has distinct acoustic manifestations, auditory and perceptual correlatives and functions in lingual contrasts67. These measurings involves phonation-time ( P/T ) ratio, address clip ( S/T ) rate, address explosion ( its number/length/patterns ) . Spectrographic analysis- The spectrograph is an instrument used to analyze the complex wave forms of sound and their changes in clip. This is done through spectrographs, which are in writing shows of the amplitude as a map of both frequence and time68. In this method, the hint words are selected from the questioned and the specimen samples on the footing of audile analysis. These are so selected for voice spectrographic analysis. A trained tester may be able to give an sentiment about the similarity between the two samples on the footing of features like: Cardinal frequency- It is the frequence of quiver of vocal cord produced during the rapid gap and shutting of vocal cord69, ( as shown in fig 5 ) . The cardinal frequence of a periodic signal is an opposite of period length. The period, in bend, is the smallest reiterating unit of a signal70. In voice spectrograph, horizontal distance between perpendicular striations is an indicant of cardinal frequence. It besides includes the pitch of voice i.e. , the rate of quiver of vocal cords. Software, BATVOX 3.0- The working of this package depends upon the undermentioned elements43: Case- It is the depository of audio files, theoretical accounts and computations portion of the same probe or forensic instance. Audio file- this is the first component to come in into the system in order to construct the theoretical accounts and calculate some biometric computations. The audio files in BATVOX can chiefly classified in two types Trial sound: Unknown sound file used to be compared to a fishy theoretical account in order to happen it out if both belongs to the same talker Training sound: sound file recorded from the known talker, used to make a voice theoretical account which can be compared with the trial sound files. Model- A theoretical account generated from the sound files is the representation of features of the talker s voice. Training of a model- A biometric procedure which extracts the features of the voice from the sound samples and therefore, generates a theoretical account. Session- Group of computations gathered together because of some common facets harmonizing to the standards of the user. The computations included in a session can be designation and a LR computation. Identification- The aim of the talker designation is to sort a voice whose beginning is non known. Likelihood ratio ( LR ) It is a relationship of chances. First, we have the likeliness that the trial belongs to a suspect and secondly, the trial does non belong to the suspect. One of the differences between the LR and designation is the manner of showing consequences. Normalization- It is the procedure of rectifying the effects that the deficiency of alliance has on statistical marking. This deficiency of alliance is caused by the heterogenous nature of the sound system. Reference population- These types of samples are fundamentally required for the standardization of the instrument. For a proper choice of the mention population, the features of the population should fit the features of the disputed talker. These features include the sex of the talker, channel type, net spoken length and language75. Mentions Phil Rose A ; James R Robertson, Forensic Speaker Identification , Taylor A ; Francis,1999 MohamedChenafa et Al, Biometric System Based on Voice Recognition Using Multiclassifiers , Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, Volume 5372/2008 B.R. Sharma, Scientific Criminal Investig

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Geography and History of Finland

Geography and History of Finland Finland is a country located in Northern Europe to the east of Sweden, south of Norway and the west of Russia. Although Finland has a large population at 5,259,250 people, its large area makes it is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The population density of Finland is 40.28 people per square mile or 15.5 people per square kilometer. Finland is also known for its strong educational system, economy and it is considered one of the worlds most peaceful and livable countries. Population: 5,259,250 (July 2011 estimate)Capital: HelsinkiBordering Countries: Norway, Sweden, and RussiaArea: 130,558 square miles (338,145 sq km)Coastline: 776 miles (1,250 km)Highest Point: Haltiatunturi at 4,357 feet (1,328 m) History It is unclear about where the first inhabitants of Finland came from but most historians claim that their origin is Siberia thousands of years ago. For most of its early history, Finland was associated with the Kingdom of Sweden. This began in 1154 when Swedens King Eric introduced Christianity in Finland. As a result of Finland becoming a part of Sweden in the 12th century, Swedish became the regions official language. By the 19th century, however, Finnish again became the national language. In 1809, Finland was conquered by Czar Alexander I of Russia and became an independent grand duchy of the Russian Empire until 1917. On December 6th of that year, Finland declared its independence. In 1918 a civil war took place in the country. During World War II, Finland fought the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1940 (The Winter War) and again from 1941 to 1944 (The Continuation War). From 1944 to 1945, Finland fought against Germany. In 1947 and 1948 Finland and the Soviet Union signed a treaty that resulted in Finland making territorial concessions to the USSR. Following the end of World War II, Finland grew in population but in the 1980s and early 1990s it began to have economic problems. In 1994 Martti Ahtisaari was elected as president and he began a campaign to revitalize the countrys economy. In 1995 Finland joined the European Union and in 2000 Tarja Halonen was elected as Finland and Europes first female president and prime minister. Government Today Finland, officially called the Republic of Finland, is considered a republic and its executive branch of government is made up of a chief of state (the president) and a head of government (the prime minister). Finlands legislative branch is composed of a unicameral Parliament whose members are elected by popular vote. The countrys judicial branch is made up of general courts that deal with criminal and civil cases as well as administrative courts. Finland is divided into 19 regions for local administration. Economics and Land Use Finland currently has a strong, modern industrialized economy. Manufacturing is one of the major industries in Finland and the country depends trade with foreign nations. The main industries in Finland are metals and metal products, electronics, machinery and scientific instruments, shipbuilding, pulp and paper, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, and clothing. In addition, agriculture plays a small role in Finlands economy. This is because the countrys high latitude means that it has a short growing season in all but its southern areas. The main agriculture products of Finland are barley, wheat, sugar beets, potatoes, dairy cattle, and fish. Geography and Climate Finland is located in Northern Europe along the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland. It shares borders with Norway, Sweden and Russia and has a coastline of 776 miles (1,250 km). The topography of Finland is relatively gentle with low, flat or rolling plains and low hills. The land is also dotted with many lakes, over 60,000 of them, and the highest point in the country is Haltiatunturi at 4,357 feet (1,328 m). The climate of Finland is considered cold temperate and subarctic in its far northern areas. Most of Finlands climate is moderated by the North Atlantic Current, however. Finlands capital and largest city, Helsinki, which is located on its southern tip has an average February low temperature of 18 F (-7.7 C) and an average July high temperature of 69.6 F (21 C). Sources Central Intelligence Agency. (14 June 2011). CIA - The World Factbook - Finland.Infoplease.com. (n.d.). Finland: History, Geography, Government, and Culture- Infoplease.com.United States Department of State. (22 June 2011). Finland.Wikipedia.com. (29 June 2011). Finland - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Language and Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Language and Communication - Essay Example The same is true for India? McDonalds required some localization, taking into account various cultural components, to be successful. What adaptation and localization were inevitable for a successful launch of McDonalds in India? Various cultural components help in developing and determining the cultural identity of the person and the nation at large. The cultural identity of a person is basically one’s own perception of self which in turn is depicted in knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, traditions and ways of life. Thesis Statement Although various cultural factors had their role to play in the adaptation policy of McDonalds, only three major and relevant components of cultural identity i.e. Class, Geography and Philosophy, will be discussed here. How McDonalds has successfully managed the localization strategy yet retaining its brand image and global value chain. Class is a vital factor of cultural components and is determined by economic, social and educational class (J ameson, 2007). India has a huge population almost four times greater than United States (US), and hence the middle class population is the astounding figure of around 300 million. India is the fourth largest economy of the world with the eating out sector, growing at the rate of 6 percent, and urban fast food sector growing at the rate of 20 percent (Rangnekar, 2000). ... McDonalds was not a substitute to the local Indian food and it was not advertised as such. To cater to the concept of family meals, McDonalds introduced home delivery service or McDelivery and various family deals. In addition to this India’s working class is growing, in order to cater to the needs of the busy young executives, McDonalds opened kiosks at store entrances for customers in a hurry. Another aspect is the high literacy rate in the target market of McDonalds. For them, McDonalds not only introduced a range of low fat products and premium salads but also launched educational campaign about the active and healthy life style. Such efforts included a variety of wholesome and premium menus to increase repeat customers. So what McDonalds did in an attempt to adapt to this cultural component of class is to produce a bundle of product and service variations along with the marketing strategy to sell its products. Geography is another important cultural component which define s the attitudes, behavior and values of a large group of people and determine their cultural activities. Cultural activities cannot be restricted to the dance, music, sports and politics only; it also has a very strong impact on the eating habits and lifestyle of the people (Anderson, 2010). Geographic distinctions such as urban and rural population, density, small and big town actually transcend all boundaries and define the attitude and behavior of the people. So the values about privacy, property, time and space and other factors will be more or less the same for a particular cultural group (Jameson, 2007). The target market for McDonalds was the big cities mostly inhabited by upper and middle class educated people.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Pizza hut Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Pizza hut - Research Proposal Example Executive Summary of the research Proposal: This research proposal will help to conclude for Pizza Hut to analyze the most important element in the profitability of the organization as well as to conduct a brief customer analysis to go for their preferences in the food sector. This will also help us in developing and re-positioning a broad vision about the future sales and maximizing the business share of the UK market. Introduction: Pizza Hut has been established since 1958 and owes a well known reputation in the Food market because of its exceptional services as well as the outstanding project. Pizza Hut has also received the best performance certifications from all over the world in the available best food and restaurant chains. The original design of the Pizza was adapted firstly in Wichita. Since 1977 it is the best of all available food restaurants in the market and is leading the market position in a reputable manner with an extended product range and customers. The history of Pizza Hut tells that it has always been the most successful in delivering the best products and services with highest available quality to its customers at very economical rates thus making it as a first choice for the food lovers. Research Design: Aims of the research design: To highlight the preferences and the demands of the current customers To focus the best quality of the products considering it the ultimate factor responsible to contribute towards growth and establishment To find out the key weaknesses and the strengths of the Pizza hut and its services for a better evaluation for future proceedings Research components and Infrastructure: The current research is going to be conducted at the Pizza Hut organization with inclusions of all the key members of the marketing committee, key administration, customer references and above all the quality assurance service department. Type of research design: The type of research that we are going to proceed with is; Theoretical Descrip tive Areas of questioning: This will basically involve the key sectors from which the information needs to be collected from the market, from the customers and for the quality of the products. The key areas of our research questioning will relate the following sectors: i. Customer overview: This is the main sector which will involve the collection of the satisfactory data from the customers about the overall products overview and services offered by Pizza hut. What is the sum up view of our customers? What they want to get changed? What is in fact they want a price compromise or a quality? This is best interpreted as Mind scanning of the customers so that to evaluate us with the eye of our customers. ii. Market competition overview: This is the major concerned area for the marketing manager to have the key questions answered by his market survey about the presence of all the key competitors present in the market and to develop a background that what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses. A sound knowledge of the basic competitors is very important to put forth any of the growing strategy in ground for the Pizza Hut. For example we will evaluate the

Marketing Management College Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing Management College - Assignment Example It has recently co-sponsored "The Kustom Jetty Surf Pro Junior" with prize moneyof $30,000AUD at Torquay, Fairhaven VIC from 8 January 2007to 14 January 2007. Clothing is one of basic human need and whole population is potential market for a clothing company. Though the company in question i.e. Jettysurf, presently doesn't have the capability in terms of presences as well as range of cloths, fulfilling the exact demand of all variety of customers, at every place. So it has to take up a portion of the total market for which it can provide its offerings with its current resources. Jettysurf is having around 20 stores which are mainly located in Southern and western part of Australia, and it has one website which is providing only information about Jettysurf, without any online ordering facility. Even if the website had an online order facility, customer would not have liked to order online, as for making a buying decision for cloths, customer normally likes to have a feel of cloth and fitting. This limits the total available market to population near the stores. Purchase of cloths can mainly be driven by various needs like replacement for torn or faded cloths, new cloths for some important occasion, change in anatomy like growing children or persons attending gym for slimming down and lastly just to be in latest fashion and to have some change. First reason can be more dominant for older people who would not like to change a cloth until it has been used fully. These are the people who have seen tough time in there life and are best described by Meredith Schewe and Karlovich (cited in Kotler 2003) as The Dispersion Cohort, The Word War II Cohort and The Post wart Cohort and are above 55 yrs age. This group can also have younger people also but relatively in less number. Purchase decision due to this reason sees a static demand of cloths throughout the year and this group sees cloth as means of covering up the body, though decently. Occasion based purchases are more concentrated during festive seasons or on personal events like birthdays, marriages or anniversaries and this group generally encompasses all age groups. Purchases done just for a change are normally seen in youth, Young at hearts or in one having low responsibility and having disposable income. Since cloths are being purchased for being in latest fashion (which also changes relatively rapidly), to accommodate physical changes or just to satisfy urge for shopping, purchase rate is high in this segment. Further, these impulsive or fashion driven purchase act is relatively seen more in females. This is somewhat true for occasion based purchases also. Census data of Australian Bureau of Statistics, as reproduced below, shows that more than fifty-five percent of Australians are between 15-55 years of age and around fifty percent of Australians are females. AGE Population of Australia % of total persons for Australia Age groups: 0-4 years 1,243,969 6.6% 5-14 years 2,668,506 14.2% 15-24 years 2,566,346 13.7% 25-54 years 8,159,808 43.5% 55-64 years 1,759,742 9.4% 65 years and over 2,370,878 12.6% Population of Australia % of total persons for Australia Males 9,270,466 49.4% Females 9,498,783 50.6% Jettysurf stores provide more of casual clothing and accessories which are

Global and Substantive Revision Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Global and Substantive Revision - Coursework Example The analysis directed in the paper initially gives a statistical snapshot of ration within the American population affected by obesity. Additionally, the theoretical aspects towards the food consumption trends are listed showcasing the change in food tendency since the year 1990. This occurrence is progressively documented towards a dedicated and oriented future population that exercises healthy eating habits. The key argument in the paper although lacks a broad and exemplified demonstration of how the proposed approaches for solving the unhealthy eating habits would improve and promote healthy eating trends. For example, the development of healthy foods via the use of technology ought to have been thoroughly emphasized on through the use of instances like food processing plants or industries. The sources and evidence material used in this paper are appropriately referred to within the text of the document. The sources effectively fulfill and facilitate the conveyance of information to the reader through aiding them to achieve a better understanding of the opinion highlighted in the paper. The introduction described requires a clear and well defined subjective statement with original text expounding on the main topic of the paper. The information in the paper is directed towards the general population with the main aim of offering positive advice to the emergent trends and the suitable or healthy foods to consume as an individual. The paper categorically addresses the trends in human food consumption form the past to the present backed up with duly accredited sources that aid in further illustration of the prevailing eating trends. The organization, arrangement and general formatting of the information require review in order to offer a more presentable, informative and good looking paper. Certain section so of  the paper requires reconsideration in order to provide feasible and neat content that a reader would find interesting.  

Thursday, October 17, 2019

War Reply Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

War Reply - Coursework Example t Britain revoke the order declaring the allowance of the interceptions and seizures of American ships, Britain initially did not and America declared war. (Nash, 2012) When Britain realized how seriously willing America was to go to war, Britain rescinded the very order that began this dispute. Therefore the initial cause for the war had been eliminated; negating the necessity of future warfare. The fact that Britain was so quick to react to avoid war, than, perhaps, other means other than war may have been possible. More so, even after the war ended, and treaty was signed, many of the issues of contention that had been so relevant during the course of the war were not even addressed. Several were not resolved until the following decade. If a just war is one that occurs because all other option for peaceful resolution was lost then this war would not seem to be just at all. It may have been entirely

Zionism Overview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Zionism Overview - Essay Example The essay "Zionism Overview" talks about the Zionism in terms of today and historical events and the importance of the Zionism for today Jews and the government of Israel. Zion is the biblical term used for Jerusalem as well as the Land of Israel. Jews have yearned to return to Zion ever since their exile from Zion almost 2000 years ago. This learning is embedded in the literature, rituals, culture, and prayers of the Jews. Contemporary Zionism evolved during the late half of the 19th century as a result of anti-Semitism in the Western Europe and Jews’ violent persecution in the Eastern Europe. â€Å"Modern Zionism fused the ancient Jewish biblical and historical ties to the ancestral homeland with the modern concept of nationalism into a vision of establishing a modern Jewish state in the land of Israel†. Theodor Herzl is the pioneer of modern Zionism. He consolidated the different aspects of Zionism into a structured political movement, thus drawing global attention toward the establishment of a Jewish state and motivating Jews to migrate to the land from all over the world. The way he saw Zionism reflects in this statement, â€Å"I believe that Zionism will not cease to be our ideal even after we come to settle in the land of our forefathers in Eretz Israel, for within the Zionist idea is contained the aspiration to moral and spiritual perfection†. Today, several decades have passed since the establishment of the Jewish state and Zionism serves as the leading nationalist movement for most of the Jews all over the world.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

War Reply Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

War Reply - Coursework Example t Britain revoke the order declaring the allowance of the interceptions and seizures of American ships, Britain initially did not and America declared war. (Nash, 2012) When Britain realized how seriously willing America was to go to war, Britain rescinded the very order that began this dispute. Therefore the initial cause for the war had been eliminated; negating the necessity of future warfare. The fact that Britain was so quick to react to avoid war, than, perhaps, other means other than war may have been possible. More so, even after the war ended, and treaty was signed, many of the issues of contention that had been so relevant during the course of the war were not even addressed. Several were not resolved until the following decade. If a just war is one that occurs because all other option for peaceful resolution was lost then this war would not seem to be just at all. It may have been entirely

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Quantitative reasoning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Quantitative reasoning - Essay Example According to Thomas Day: â€Å"If adverse drug reactions were classified as a disease it would rank as the fifth leading cause of death in the United States.† (â€Å"About Medical Care for The Elderly†, n.d.) Elderly people consume nearly 30% of all drugs. This group of people takes drugs more than any other social group. Elderly people have many different problems with their health, that’s why they take medicine to relieve pain in different parts of body. One of the main problems for them is taking medicine. The interaction of drugs is the most dangerous. The average elderly person takes nearly three-four prescription medicine at a time. Sometimes people don’t understand that there are some side effects. The combination of drugs can be very necessary for effective treatment, but it needs special attention and care. Elderly people are more sensible to medicine than young ones are, because of the changes in functions of the organs such as kidneys, liver, etc. If there is too much medicine in the blood elderly people can face such side effects as memory loss, dizziness, retention of fluids, confusion, internal bleeding, sometimes even death. They are also more sensible to particular side effects. Dosage is very important. It must be taken into consideration that the level of dosage for young people won’t do for older ones. Usual doses and their frequencies are too high for them. Inappropriate dosage can be dangerous and cause many problems. But there are exceptions when older patient needs a high level of medications, for example, in case when resistance in the cells is being treated. Another problem is inobservance of dosage and its frequency by older people. Some of them take more than it is prescribed trying to recover faster, some neglect taking all necessary medicine in time or refuse to take it at all, some of them have problems with memory or confusion. That’s why it is extremely important for care

Monday, October 14, 2019

The Most Satisfying Proportion In Todays Design Philosophy Essay

The Most Satisfying Proportion In Todays Design Philosophy Essay What is the most satisfying proportion in today design? The Greeks thought they knew. Their temples were designed according to certain rules relating to the golden section. (Which is what we, layman, know as the Divine Proportion, the Golden Proportion, the Golden Number or even the Golden hat Mean.) In the 13th century, Fibonnaci, an Italian mathematician, put it all down on paper. He said, the golden section or perfect proportion was 0.618034 to 1 (about 5 to 8). The Parthenon (a temple in the Athenian Acropolis that the Greeks built, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena) fits into Fibonnacis Golden rectangle. Incidentally, so do the pyramids at Giza. Does this make the Golden proportion a necessary rule to follow in design? In the 16th century, Leonardo Da Vinci wrote a book on geometric recreations called Divine Proportion. In 1948 Le Cobusier also wrote a book on mathematical proportioning. Others who have benefited this ratio are biologists, artists, psychologists and even mystics have pondered and debated on the basis of ubiquity and appeal. It is fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other numbers in the history of mathematics. Throughout the generations, many architects have also searched for the golden rule of design, thinking that it is that of the Golden Ratio. However, their search is far from over. This is because mathematics alone will not tell you what the most eye-pleasing proportion for a buildings structure is. Proportion must be generically correct and determined by the nature of the material. In other words, it is one thing for stone, another for concrete, and something else for steel. This, we would discuss further in another segment. Present technology has also given architects and engineers unlimited range to compose new forms of design and exciting spaces. My stand is that the Golden Ratio is an important aspect in designing a building but it is not the most crucial. Besides having proportion in a building, functionality is also important. A creative design through the creative intuition of a designer will make the building outstanding. Renaissance Period The Golden Ratio is related to many things in the world today, not only during the times of Renaissance, LeCobusier and Alberti. It exists in architecture, art, music, design and even fashion. Since Renaissance, many artists and architects have proportioned their works to the Golden Ratio, especially in the form of golden rectangle, in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter in the GR, causing this proportion to be aesthetically pleasing. Mathematicians have studied this because of its unique and interesting properties applying it to geometry. Since then, it has opened up doors for me how I view design and architecture and how it balances harmony to architecture design in this modern world. Others who have benefited this ratio are biologists, artists, psychologists and even mystics have pondered and debated on the basis of ubiquity and appeal. It is fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other numbers in the history of mathematics. Body Presence of Golden Ratio Contribution of the Golden Ratio in architectural designs Le Corbusier is said to have contributed to many modern international style architecture, centering on harmony and proportion. Its faith in the mathematical order was closely bound by the GR and the Fibonacci series. He uses the GR in his modulor system for the scale of architectural proportion. He saw this system as a continuation of the long tradition of Vitruvius, and others who used the proportions of the human body, to improve the appearance and function of architecture. In addition to Golden Ratio, Le Corbusier based the system on human measurements, Fibonacci numbers and the double unit. He took Leonardos suggestion of the Great Ratio in human proportions to an extreme, he sectioned his model human bodys height at the navel with the two sections in the Golden Ratio, then subdivided those sections in Golden Ratio at the knees and throat; he used these Golden Ratio proportions in the Modulor system. The Villa Stein in Garches exemplified the Modular system. The Villas rectangular ground, elevation and inner structure closely approximate golden rectangles. Fractal Dimensions in modern architecture Recently, fractal dimensions have been calculated to be used frequently for Frank Lloyd Wrights and Le Corbusiers buildings. It can be found that both architects use the method of increasingly smaller rectangular grids. Frank Lloyd Wrights buildings display a self-similar characteristic over a wide range of scales (far and spaced versus micro small sizes), so those buildings are intrinsically fractal. However for this specific project, Wright was following the brilliant example of his teacher, Louis Sullivan. By contrast, Le Corbusiers architecture displays a characteristic over only two or three of the largest scales. In more detail, Le Corbusiers architecture is flat and straight, and therefore has no fractal qualities. A fractal dimension between one and two characterizes a design that has an infinite number of self-similar levels of scale, whereas the fractal dimension of Le Corbusiers buildings immediately drops to one. (Bovill, 1996. Salingaros, 1999.) The Golden Ratio as seen in painting Leonardo da Vincis illustrated yet another divine proportion in the infamous painting of Mona Lisa. Other equally well known painting which has made use of the Golden Ratio is The Sacrament of the Last Supper by Salvador Dali. The Golden Ratio as seen in our natural world The Golden Ratio is expressed in the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants and of veins in leaves and even to the skeletons of animals including their veins and nerves, to the proportions of chemical compounds and the geometry of crystals, to the use of proportion in artistic endeavours. From this, the Golden Ratio has become a universal law in strive to create completeness and beauty, with both nature and art, in structure, forms and proportions, organic and inorganic, in the human form. According to Volkmar Weiss and Harold Weiss the Golden Ratio also affects the clock cycle of brain waves, known as psychometric data. Relevance in Present Times Modernising the Traditional Intimate Relationship Between Architecture and Mathematics The traditional intimate relationship between architecture and mathematics has changed in the 20th century. Architecture students no longer need to have a mathematical background according to the article Architecture, Patterns and Mathematics by Nikos Salingaros. It may be promoting an anti-mathematical mindset. Mathematics is a science of patterns, the presence or absence of patterns in our surroundings influences how easily one grasp the concepts that rely on patterns. However, it has been seen that an increase in technological advances, rather especially in the area of environmental factors, has made mathematics almost redundant in architecture. Environmental psychologists know that our surroundings influence the way we think, so if we are raised in an anti-mathematical environment, then we would deem to subscribe more human qualities. This is not an argument about preferences or styles, it concerns more about a trained functionality of the human mind! An example to illustrate the meaning of functionality in the human mind is made by Christopher Alexander where: the need for lights from two sides of a room; a well-defined entrance; interaction of footpaths and car roads; hierarchy of privacy in different rooms of a house and etc. It speaks about specific building types, about building blocks that can be combined in an infinite number of ways. This implies a more mathematical and combinatoric approach to design in general. Alexandrine patterns represent solutions which repeat itself in time and space, thus relating to visual patterns transforming into other dimensions. A new concept: Organic Architecture In recent years, there has been a shift in architecture looking away from GR to other ways in which design can still have a sense of proportion by looking at nature for inspiration; the term given is Organic Architecture. The term organic architecture was coined by the famous modern architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), though never well expressed by his cryptic style of writing: So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no traditions essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but instead exalting the simple laws of common sense or of super-sense if you prefer determining form by way of the nature of materials Frank Lloyd Wright, written in 1939. Rules of Organic Architecture Architect and planner David Pearson proposed a list of rules towards the design of organic architecture. These rules are known as the Gaia Charter for organic architecture and design. It reads: Let the Design: be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving, and diverse. unfold, like an organism, from the seed within. exist in the continuous present and begin again and again. follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable. satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs. grow out of the site and be unique. celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise. express the rhythm of music and the power of dance (Pearson, 2001) While Organic Architecture does describe some form of individuality, it also expresses our need to connect the designs, we create, to Nature. Using Nature as a fundamental for design, from there a building or design must grow, as Nature grows, from the inside out. Many architects design their buildings as that similar to a shell and force their way inside. Nature grows from the idea of a seed and reaches out to its surroundings. A building thus, is akin to an organism and mirrors the beauty and complexity of Nature. Where the Golden Ratio Fits In However, in the research that I have done on this topic, many of the historic scholars who devoted their entire lives to studying the GR has always studied nature for inspiration and they derived the GR from nature itself. Modern architects who claim to move away from the GR as it is too conformist and look towards nature for their inspiration for proportion instead still end up following the GR as it was from studying nature that led to the discovery of GR. Hence the continuing relevance of GR in todays architecture. How the Golden Ratio is evident in our everyday lives The Golden Ratio seen in Music Rhythm is everywhere in nature, at every scale from cosmic phenomena to the oscillations of atoms. Our every cell has its own clock, governing its own repetitive rhythms. Time itself, once measured by the motion of earth, sun and stars, is now defined, less memorably, as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a single atom of an obscure metal. At the scale of the biosphere, the fidelity of replication in the genetic system is such that no more than about 200 errors are made in copying the 300 million bases strung into the chromosomes that hoard the design of our bodies. Without those errors, however, there could be no change and so no evolution. With this is mind, we shall now look at how rhythm ties in with the GR. Much of the rhythm and movement and design of our bodies and normal everyday life experiences all tie in with the Golden Ratio, how we perceive an object and whether we find it pleasing all goes back to the Golden Ratio. Because it is the one of the universal constants that allow for the interactions between all things on earth, it continues to hold relevance in our lives, regardless of the advancements in technology, which in fact is actually discovering more and more how life and design is so intimately associated with the Golden Ratio. Architectural evidence of the Golden Ratio Take a look at modern architecture and you will soon realize that the last decades have produced an increasing number of buildings with exotic shapes. Of course, also in earlier times the design of buildings has been influenced by mathematical ideas regarding, for instance, symmetry. Both historical and modern developments show that mathematics can play an important role, ranging from appropriate descriptions of designs to guiding the designers intuition. C Case study Case Study One: Republic Poly Technology of Singapore by Fumihiko Maki Fumihiko Maki designed the new campus attempting to preserve the green qualities and the topography of the original site introducing landscape elements that contrast with the natural widerness and strengthen the sense of place based on Golden Ratio. Case Study Two: Palladios Villa Rotunda. The Villa Rotonda is symmetrical on all axes, including diagonals. Any architect will tell you this is hard to do, much less sell to a client; even Palladio only did it once, probably just to see if he could. Palladio based his design on simple progressions in the Fibonacci series leading to the Golden Mean. This is also hard to do. Case Study Three: Taj Mahai In India, the Golden Mean was used in the construction of the Taj Mahal, which was completed in 1648. http://archgeom.blogspot.com/2010/03/golden-section-in-taj-mahal.html Case Study Four: CN Tower in Toronto The CN Tower in Toronto, the tallest tower and freestanding structure in the world, has contains the golden ratio in its design. The ratio of observation deck at 342 meters to the total height of 553.33 is 0.618 or phi, the reciprocal of Phi! Case Study Five: California Polytechnic State University The College of Engineering at the have plans for a new Engineering Plaza based on the Fibonacci numbers. 4.2. What I have perceived until this moment In my analysis, GR forms the basis of understanding of architecture, however it is not the entirety. Because form follow function, function plays an important part of the architectural design because without understanding the functionally of form, it is not possible to develop a building of good use, for example a good architect must be able to understand the utility of function. For example,the architect must know how many rooms a house needs, whether a swimming pool is required or a badminton court needed. After a form is selected and function must go beyond the concerns of biotechnical materialism. The creative architects must go beyond utility technical knowledge to an awareness of experiential associations and symbolic meanings that lies behind the visible form. Beauty in design is not guaranteed when all of the above is satisfied. Some intuition is required by the architect and an outstanding design depends also in skill and intuition with functionality. Therefore, the great architect of age and every culture, the basis of which is mathematical.