Political Machines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Political Machines - Essay Example Therefore, the basis of political machines is on people who have dissimilar and varying interests. Theodore observes that the different people share a common link despite their fear and ignorance. Theodore perceives that the sole purpose of political machines were to develop American cities equally. This move aimed at promoting urban democracy (Lowi 84-85). Theodore allude that new machines replaced old ones. This essay rejects the arguments of Theodore Lowi. The new and old political machines display similarities signifying that nothing has changed in the governance of American cities. To start with, although some cities such as New York have experienced some reforms in their mode of governance, there are no considerable changes in others cities such as Chicago. For instance, Theodore asserts that Chicago maintained a strong hold of old political machines in the year 1967. This is opposite to the case of New York, which embraced new wave of political reforms. In the year 1967, Chicago reaffirmed and consolidated its old ways of doing political unlike New York, which ushered in political transformation (Lowi 85). This depicts that old machines is still in existence and did not disappear as Theodore claimed. The power of political machine still prevails in Chicago and there is no prediction of its disappearance. Second, new political machines depict many commonalities with the old ones. Methods of employment to senior positions resemble the old way of recruitment. This new method picks those candidates who have experience in their careers. This succeeds the dubious way of selecting candidates to the political seats. According to Theodore’s essay, the so-called reforms have painted politics as a dirt game. This is a perpetuation of the old political machines, which embraced such mode of electing people to occupy top ranks. Big cities such as New York have poor governance despite the fact that there is competent management team (Lowi 85-86).

The past world expo economy influence and effect on property market in Essay

The past world expo economy influence and effect on property market in previous host cities and countries - Essay Example The first of such exhibition was held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London in 1851. It was named at that time as â€Å"the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations† and rightly so because this exhibition celebrated the coming of age of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Thus the 1851 Great Exhibition was not only a trade fair but also a display of scientific, industrial and technological inventions. Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, possibly did not foresee that what he conceptualised would become today’s third grandest event after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games, considering its impact on culture, on society and the nation’s economies. Today, the World Expo has come a long way. It is not only a trade fair and a showcase of new scientific and technological advances and inventions but it is also a means of promoting cultural correspondence and transfer and a way of finding solutions to issues that hound humanity. Moreover, it becomes a platform of presenting a strong national image before the whole world. In other words, it affords countries to advertise their assets and perceived advantages over other nations. The pavilions that each country construct have become competitive in terms of lavishness, splendor, magnificence and cost. There is a contest as to who builds the most stunning and most memorable pavilion. So many World Expo historians are of the opinion that the geodesic dome of the US pavilion in the 1967 expo in Montreal, Canada is the most memeorable and the glass and iron Crystal Palce of UK in the 1851 World’s Fair in London as the most imposing. In each world expo, all countries try to express s ome theme via its architectural design and the contents of its pavilion Thus each World Expo is characterised by glitter, glamour, visions and images (Maddox 2004, p. 79). The

The context of Reward management

The context of Reward management In 1960s and 1970s the main cause behind introducing incentive schemes was to build path of giving workers wages and salaries at a time of government controls (Bowley et al 1982). Due to lack of proper strategy and policies, some of employers gain reduced cost and even below 50% of increased outcomes; in 1980s and 1990s the concept of paying people was changed where worker were paid for their performance rather than attendance; similarly taxation policy was slightly changed as lower rate in income tax(Marchington and Wilkinson, 2005). Payment system has been drastically changed in Britain over the last twenty years and lots of concepts are emerged in relation to compensation and remuneration which are directly in control of management; similarly, in USA, a new concept of payment has emerged under the rubric of the New Pay. This new pattern has great influence on Britains management practice and government as well (White, G and Druker, J, 2000). The new pattern of thinking about New P ay in Britain is reward management (term used by Armstrong and Murlis 1988) has same management concern. Then, these concepts fall upon two ground; 1) rewarding employees for work done and 2) remuneration system to be conditional upon business policy. Furthermore, the interest in reward system concept had been boosted by IPD professional syllabus which includes lots of unit and title on employee reward and a specific text book (Armstrong, M, 1999). The new syllabus by IPD provides higher emphasis on rewarding employees and employees satisfaction towards job. However, this holistic approach of payment has not, to date, reflected in academic literature, where controversy arises between micro-economics literature of labor economists and human resource literature. The former concern was about effect of pay on whole economy and impact on inflation, productivity and employment. Afterward, in contrast, draws both upon the industrial with regulation with employment relationship and organiza tional behavior (White, G and Druker, J, 2000). Now, the existing textbook focused largely realistic than imaginary, which ignore collective bargaining and employee voice, continue to play in lots UKs organization (Armstrong, M, 1999).The parallel employee relation also include title to describe pay bargaining systems (Gennard, J and Judge, G, 1997). Most importantly, the impact of control relation with in the work area and its impact on reward management plans and policies are polished over IPD texts. Core personnel and Development text (Marchington, M and Wilkinson, A, 1966) being an honorable exemption to this approach. Reward management has fascinated increased attention in recent years. Pay structure and system of payment are collectively determined and influenced by context of society in which they implemented (Steven, J, 1996). For most of the work is, in the main, a source of disutility, and they therefore require payment to compensate them for the time they devote to it. (Elliott R.F, 1991) Reward management is not only about money. It is also concerned with those non-financial rewards which provide intrinsic or extrinsic motivation (Armstrong, M and Murlis, H 1988) Reward is about how staffs are rewarded and valued in return of their performance towards organization which may includes both financial and non financial rewards and embrace the plan, policies , strategies, and reward layout prepared by an organization to maintain smooth reward system (Armstrong, M, 2009).It signifies one of the vital factors supporting the employment relationship (Kessler, 2005). It can be defined as fundamental expression of job relationship. It is concerned with the formulation, and implementation of plans and policies to reward employees fairly, equitably and consistently on the basis of their performance. The development, maintenance, designs and implementation of reward system is done to fulfill needs of both organization and employees (Armstrong, M, 2009). Both organizational and employees values are significant for align reward practices (Brown, D, 2001). It can influence a number of human resource policies, processes and practices which have great impact on organizational performance(Lawler, 2000a).It becomes an essential tool to coordinate, communicate and reinforce the organizational goal because it incentivizes staffs to achieve objectives and apply required capabilities and skills supporting them (Brett, S, 2006). As a result employee feels that they are considered as valuable asset of an organization (Jaques, E, 1961). All the organization has their own reward system without that employee would not join, come to work and perform less than they are supposed to perform with the mission statement of organization (Wilson, T, B, 2002). Reward system is a system which contains various interrelated process and activities done effectively in order to fulfill organizational goal and maintain employees value (Armstrong, M, 2009). It consists of monetary reward (Fixed and variable) and non monetary (employee benefits) which together mixed and form total remuneration. The main sections of reward system are process, practice, structure, scheme and procedure. Process includes job evaluation, market rate analysis and performance management, Practice includes financial benefits and non financial benefits provided to employees, Structure describe level of rewarding people on the basis of structure and their performance, Schemes explain financial rewards and incentives provided to employees, Procedure for maintaining system and ensuring that worker work according to standard and value of money. Reward system provides systematic way to deliver positive consequence (Wilson, T, B, 2002). Cost is the vital factor in reward and for service oriented organization, labor cost have important proportion on overall cost; however, lower labor cost doesnt always minimize cost , some time high labor cost leads towards increased turnover because of excellent performance due to motivation(Pfeffer, 1998). The proper implementation of strategic reward management helps to change employees behavior and attitude towards organization due to effective reward strategy; there are number of factors which mix along these type of straight-forward cause effect relationship; therefore, there is high possibility that reward strategy might helps in organizational change (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2005). Reward Issues Boardroom pay has been brought back under the attention after it emerged that CEO of FTSE100 companies receive around  £3.2 m in 2006 where analysis also emphasize that there is narrow gap between American and British pay(The Times, 29 October 2007).Employees of the largest UK companies are ultimately starting to contribute the decent amount of defined contribution and pension; Employers are tends to put much less defined into the defined payment pensions that has largely replace salary scheme for new employees- only 6-7% of salary, Paul Macro, senior consultant with the firm saidà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦approximately 15% of the salary that generally accepted as being the level of contribution needed to provide a decent income in retirement (Financial Times, 14th November 2007). Employee compensation, remunerations and reward (terms that may be used interchangeably in the literature, although compensation tends to predominant US commentary) may be defined as all forms of financial returns and tangible services and benefits employees receive (Milkovich and Newman, 2004:3). Reward Theory Labor Market Theory The term labor market implies that, the struggle on labor in capitalist society where product and services are traded in market; employee tries to spend their labor in maximum best prices and similarly employer bargain to purchase labor in minimum best price (Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). Classical labor Market Theory The concepts of constant choice by the groups to effort-reward relationship emphasize classical labor market theory; the demand of labor meets supply of labor exactly where pay will be determine in labor market is known as market clearing'(Black, J, 2002). The only effective policy is to pay what other do (Garhart, B and Rynes, S.L, 2003:15). Fig: According to above figure, the supply of labor is equal to demand of labor where employee will accept the job at the price that offer by employer: it is a value of marginal productivity of labor. This theory explain that there is tough competition among employer in term of paying their employees but finally every employer has to pay same as everyone pays. This theory indicates that paying strategy always leans toward symmetry where demand and supply of labor meets. This model of the employment system address the famous classical economist Adam Smith and its neo classical restatement by other neoclassical economists like: Jevons, Menger and Walrus; every one is free to choose their best price either employees or employers, employee compete with other employee for wages and similarly employer compete with other rivals for labor(Watson, M, 2005). Logically looking for Maximum utility, worker will accept work after comparing overall benefit of different works; thus work that are less satisfying, include more threat and hard to achieve mastery will require higher amount of wages compare to other work whose feature are opposite (Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). However, the concept of labor market was changed form middle of twentieth century, number of research indicate that the real situation of labor market doesnt run according to previous assumption given by classical economists; the paying system might effect in market force whereas some economists argues that it needs to remove market distortion'(Garhart, B and Rynes, S.L, 2003). Whether or not, labor supply by employees to employers is not the single economic issues; it is the effort employed by employees when employed (Rees, 1973) Stand as alternative economic theory of classical labor market theory, institutional Labor Economic Theory describes the different wage level and dependent on organizational issue; employees and employers anticipation will be rest on maximizing in their financial concern (Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). In term of strategic initiative, higher level executive plan the contract in such a way that it minimizes the economic cost by putting labor satisfaction in effective and efficient ways; in other word, both employees and employers make a decision about work relationship comparing all the economic issues and interest; rationality between both party and their interest and wants remain significant Transaction Cost Theory Assumption (Williamson, O, 1975). Similarly, Resource Based Theory of Firm explains that economic effectiveness and efficiency will be increase through subsidiary scheme to take benefits of organizational resources; employee reward are parallel to HRMs other features a nd is arranged to maintain organizational culture (Kessler, I, 2001; Purcell, J, 1999). Whereas, new institutional approach strategy theory describes the number of political and social issues tackling employees in an organization; organizational system (both internal and external) helps to design better employees reward system (Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). Human Capital Theory Human Capital Theory makes an assumption that individuals gather human capital by investing both time and money in training and development, education, and other various opportunities based program in order to increase their efficiency and productivity and as a result employees value to employers (Abercrombie, N et al, 2000). Human Capital Theory (developed by Schultz and Becker in the 1960s) differentiates between expenditure made on human capital and employees consumption; market are for the service of capital, not the reserve capital itself. In order to achieve HRM objectives of motivating employees and get work done through them, manager must balance between cost and skills (Hendry, C, 2003). Exchange Theory explains the relationship between production, employees and employers enter into the contract that employees are willing to accept work and perform their best; similarly, employers are agreed to pay extrinsic rewards and working environment; then employers change hired labor power into labor economic values where employer are likely to invest more in permanent workforce than in temporary workforce (Atkinson, 1984; Kalleberg, 2003). Efficiency Wage Theory According to theory, the managerial policy to gain more efficient employment agreement in medium term; worker will employ their capita; to secure optional work boost pay rate but it cause loss to the employer so, paying higher reward levels is a logical employers reaction in order to hold skilled employees (Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). This theory also describes a possible corrective aspect, concentrating on what economists do to labeled soldiering on the part of worker; more optimistically, this theory theoretically introducing a sorting effect'(Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). Those organization who needs more and skilled human capital to operate their business use above-market wage levels in order to attract expected employees; where close supervision will be reduced; this relates to Responsible autonomy policy (Friedman, A.L, 1984). Paying above-market reward for skilled workforce might be suitable option than to employ additional supervision; this concept will be attractiv e in case of knowledge workers (Rubery, J, 1997). Principle Agent Theory Principle Agent Theory is also known as Agency Theory with the concept the deferred payment method; it emerged as dominant theory on economics and management in term of pay determination process and results; according to this theory, reward system must be design in the way that it satisfies the employees in term of pay and internal ladder of advancement; employees need full payment of their work and effort in short term, in other hand if job length is long then employees stay beyond the below market rate in early phase of employment (Garhart, B and Rynes, S.L, 2003). This theory emphasize result based deferred reward such as profit sharing, gin sharing, incentive plans, stock ownership etc designed for high level staffs; the size of deferred reward depends upon job complexity; Employees potential total earning and career opportunity will determine the risk sharing behavior of employees (Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). Role of employees and employers should be designed effectively t hat it simply explain the characteristics of individual represent that position; thus role theory simply explain how behavior and attitude are socially influence (Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). Internal Labor Market Internal labor market where organization search for a constant association with their workforce; structured internal labor market may be created and maintained few or all the employees from external labor force effecting on organizations ability to preserve its worker (Keer, 1954, cited in Hendry, C, 2003). The theoretical construct of the labour marketà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦may be more precisely defined as an administrative unit within which the market functions of pricing, allocating and often training labor are performed. It is governed by the set of institutional rules which delineate the boundaries of the internal market and determines its internal structure. These or administrative hiring and work rules defines the ports of entry into the internal market, the relationship between jobs for purpose of internal mobility, and privilege which accrue to worker within the internal Market (Doeringer, 1967:207, cited in White, G, 2000) In united state, after the First World War the development of internal market emerged where demand of both products for equity from trade union and modern personnel management was emphasized in long-term planning (Cappelli, P, 1995). In contrast, most British entrepreneur didnt build internal labor relation but depends upon market mechanism for obtaining labor (Gospel, 1992). Under ILM, wages and salaries was attached with work rather than employees (Williamson, O, 1975). Workers are rewarded through long-term benefits and advantages rather than monetary reward where pricing and allocation of labor are determined by organizational rules and policies (Garhart, B and Rynes, S.L, 2003). Wage Gap Theory Another neo-institutionalist approach was Wage Gap Theory which indicate the same dominant power exercise by employers on their product market to distribute higher part than the normal profit with the employees and employees commitment towards organization for enduring of production (Heery, E, 2000). Wage rate across six OECD nation remained almost equal and controlling labor quality and effectiveness. (i.e. USA, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Norway and Germany); the wage paid to employees in return of their effort seems less considerable comparing with rate of trade union and collective bargaining (Zweimuller, J and Barth, E, 1992). Criticism of neo institutionalist arguments The practical role of employees reward construction and level of typical social science whether at national level or organizational level; management has required employment relationship on more flexible pattern in order to transfer risk from employer to employee and to facilitate organizational product market or to enhance return on shareholder investment. (Rubery, J, 1997).During 1980-1990, the institutional approach of designing fair wage and arrangement with reward enjoy by employees were reduced, supported by government policies that pay should be based upon organizational ability to pay which reduce the power of trade union and popularity of the collective bargaining (Beaumont and Hunter, 2000) The existing reward determination theory was found ineffective in its overruling importance on stability and mutuality building where as majority of interest is on employment relationship thats why labor market policies should be reconsider; more attention should be given for disputes that profit values are redistributed between organizational stakeholders to privilege economic capital over human capital; the expectation between groups, balance of policies have courageously transfer in the side of management (Rubery, J, 1997). Reward Objectives The success of any reward system fully depends upon clear and concise objectives; the first step in consulting a strategic corridor through the reward jungle is to set achievable objectives, basically, to make employees satisfied and get work done from them is a primary objective of reward system (Brown, D, 2001). Organizations are starting to understand that pay should not de considered in term of particular job and financial results; the compensation should be inextricably being attached to employees, their performance and organizational vision and goals as well as most valuable and important tools for communicate, coordinate and reinforce the attitude and behaviors for results (Flannery et al, 1996). Reward management aims to support the achievement of organizations strategic and operational objectives, helps to communicate, drive and support expected attitude and behavior, promote continuous development, compete in employment market, enhance teamwork, and promote flexibility, gai n fairness and equity (Armstrong, M and Murlis, H, 1998). Similarly, support culture management and change through matching pay and organizational culture as a whole, where as it cannot drive change or lead change process, cannot define change, cannot establish values and cannot establish effective leadership (Flannery et al, 1996). Furthermore, the European study under total rewards underpinned the following as a objectives and themes of rewards: introducing more flexible and changeability reward rather than control oriented and highly structured, market driven rewards, more flexible employee based, focused on variable pay, promoting boarder concept of reward in relation to contribution in their organization, implementing variety of reward tools, involving managers and staffs in those rewards cases and so on(Perrin,T, 1999). Total Reward Reward that include not only traditional, financial component (salary, wage, pay, benefit etc) but also non-financial component (job responsibility and accountability, career opportunities, training and development etc) provided by an organization in order to motivate its employees (Thumpson, 2002). Reward that covers not only tangible pay like pay and benefits, but also intangible factors, such as opportunity to work flexibly, career development, trainings and environment where employees feels respect and valued (Brett, S, 2006). It includes direct as well as indirect and intrinsic as well as extrinsic (Manus and Graham, 2003), which embrace everything that employee values in employment relationship (Oneal,Sandra 1998). The combination of both monetary and non-monetary reward which helps to address every staff whether they want financial or non financial; the tools that are used to attract, retain, motivate and satisfy employee in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness that drive desired attitude in workplace (World Bank, 2000). Total reward is vertically integrated organizational strategy and horizontally integrated with HR strategies to gain internal consistency (Armstrong, M, 2009). The success of totals reward strategy is almost all depends upon monetary and non-monetary rewards provided to employees by employers (Davis, M.L, 2007). an approach to providing a package of reward to employees in the way that optimize employee satisfaction with reward from their work, and which does this in such a fashion that the employees contribution to employer is optimized at an acceptable cost -Vicky Wright, CIPD vice president (CIPD National Conference 2001) It is fairly simple to understand but very complex in operation owing to the wide -ranging implications forà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..reward management (Richards and Hogg, 2007:4) All the employers available tools that may be used to attract, retain, motivate and satisfy employees, this encompasses every single investment that an organization makes in its people, and everything its employees value in the employment relationship. (World Bank, 2000) The termà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦adopted to describe a reward strategy that brings additional component such as learning and development, together with aspects of the working environment into the benefit package. It goes beyond standard remuneration by embracing the company culture, and is aimed at giving all employees a voice in the organization, with the employers in return receiving and engaged employee performance. (Richards and Hogg, 2007:1) Whistling the initial definition on offer, the relationship might be distinguish between total reward and various thoughts and ideas like employee well-being and psychological contract (Guest and Conway, 2004); similarly, emotionally intelligent leadership (Brown et al, 2006; Goleman, 2002; Palmer et al, 2001); mutual gain'(Bacon and Blyton, 2006); as well as employee involvement program (Cox et al, 2006) and high involvement work practice'(Huselid, 1995) and so on. Therefore, adopting the wide concept of reward, everything that employees get in return of their efforts is total reward (Davis, M.L, 2007). Therefore, the total reward component of World at Work can be summaries as follows: compensation, benefits, work-life, performance and recognition and development and career opportunities (Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). In USA, both old and new style organization are taking on board total reward strategy. In other hand, same author comment that too often, when companies talk about total reward they simply mean providing generous benefits and positive workplace. Guaranteeing jobs, supporting an attractive work-life balance, adding benefits and pay- scale, encouraging development and opportunities and making work area appealing all makes poor business sense without understanding the needs of high performance. They also told they feel most existing solutions ignore performance and encourage entitlement (Zingheim, P and Schuster, J, 2000). Transactional (tangible) Rational (intangible) Communal Individual Work Environment Core value of the organization Leadership Employee voice Recognition Achievement Job design and role development( responsibility, autonomy, meaningful work, the scope to use and develop skills) Quality of work life Work-life balance Talent management Benefits Pension Holiday Health care Other perks flexibility Learning and Development Work place learning and development Training Performance management Career development Pay Base pay Contingent pay Cash bonuses Long-term incentives Shares Profit sharing Figure: 2 Towers Perrin model of Total Reward Source: (Armstrong, M, 2009) In the above given figure, upper two boxes (i.e. Pay and Benefit) indicate transactional reward which are financial in nature. In other hand, lower two boxes (i.e. Learning development and work environment) indicate rational reward which are non financial in nature The effective reward is the one which consist of both transactional and rational rewards (Thompson, 2002). The success of organization depends upon its staffs. If staffs are satisfied and loyal towards organization than overall goals can be achieved. However, some business organization fails to motivate their employees in aspect of reward. So, considering the fact, organization should apply both financial and non financial reward (i.e. Total reward). Financial/ Extrinsic Reward Rewards like pay, benefit, salary, incentive are financial or extrinsic reward; various kinds of benefits and perks provided to employees in non-cash as a benefits and helps to motivate employees to perform better, similarly it also shows employers interest in employees well being(Perkins, J.S and White, G, 2008). Non-Financial/ Intrinsic Reward Intrinsic reward can be divided into two parts; Environmental reward and Development oriented reward (Kessler, I, 2001). Environmental rewards are like employees value shown by senior supervisor, managers in work place, sensitivity of supervision and leadership excellence; similarly, development oriented reward are individually targeted to enhance career development and opportunity as well as helps to built sense of accomplishment in employees(Milkovich and Newman, 2004). Intrinsic reward is also regarded as psychological reward which indicate psychological contract in work relationship (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.).

Comparison of Into Battle and Spring Offensive. Essay -- English Liter

Comparison of Into Battle and Spring Offensive. Spring Offensive and Into Battle In the comparison of Into Battle and Spring Offensive, it can be said that they are two opposing poems. Although both of their themes are about war, Spring Offensive is a bleak poem compared to Into Battle. One talks about the adversarial ways of the war whereas the other talks about the beautifulness of its. Both poets use 'nature' as a main object in order to describe war. In the poem of Into Battle the poet uses nature as warmth, something colorful and lively e.g. "The naked earth is warm with spring" but on the contrary to this, the poet in the Spring Offensive talks about the dark, cold, and sad sight of it e.g. "Halted against the shade of a last hill". In addition to this, the structures of the poems reflect the poets' moods. Spring Offensive's broken rhythm resembles grief of a soldier and Into Battle's half rhymes make the poem sound like a song. Into Battle seems to encourage people using both patriotism and propaganda of fighting together. Whereas, Spring Offensive is trying to protect the soldiers from war and make them realize how nonsense it is. The people (that seem to be) living in these poems have exactly opposite thoughts and mood. The soldiers that Spring Offensive talks about are worried, despondent and blank, while the ones in Into Battle are singing, as if they are going to a picnic, behaving like the enemies are the ants which are trying to steal their food. Both of them include death, but in Into Battle, death is emphasized as if it is an honor to die. The poet in the Into Battle talks about life in a pleasant manner. He sees life something colorful and worthwhile to live. On the contrary, ... ...ar is) in every stanza. Both of them set the scene before getting into the main theme. For example, in the first lines Wilfred Owen explained the location of war before actually setting the main theme, while Julian Grenfell by using the environment explained the optimistic side of war. I prefer Spring Offensive as it is more attractive than Into Battle because, it talks about the reality rather than the thoughts of an insane man who loves killing people. In addition, Spring Offensive is more convincing than Into Battle in a sense that it encourages people not to go and fight in war, with a strong emphasis by the use of language e.g. "and instantly the whole sky burned". Both of the poems are good examples of war poems. However, personally I enjoyed reading and analyzing Spring Offensive as it talks about the reality of being a soldier and life at war.

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan Essay

Amy Tan begins by announcing, â€Å"I am not a scholar of English†¦I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country and others.† How does this opening set up your expectations for the rest of the essay? Why do you think she chose to begin by denying her own authority? The introduction Tan decided to use presents the reader with a strong sense of the kind of individual she is. By saying â€Å"I am not a scholar of English†, Tan is revealing how humble she is. Amy Tan has written many novels and essays (some of which have been nationally recognized). Yet, she starts off her essay by stating that this is just a product of her opinion and that it is in no way superior to any others opinion. This manner of denying her own authority shows her strong belief that everyone can have their own interpretation of the value of the English language, much like she does. Her opening draws the reader in; it intrigues us. We are pleased with the idea that Tan is going to bring a new perspective to the â€Å"personal opinions on the English language†. Her opening also causes to reader to have a moment of self-reflection. We start to wonder what our opinion on the English language has been, momentarily stunned because, truly, we have never thought about this in-depth before. Therefore, our expectations for the rest of the essay increase. Tan writes about the different â€Å"Englishes† she speaks. What categories does she divide English into? Why are these divisions important to Tan? How does she say they affect her as a writer? At the beginning of the essay, Tan herself questions how to put a label on the complex â€Å"Englishes† that she has grown up with. To Tan, these â€Å"Englishes† do not just represent a way of speaking; they are multi-dimensional and a big part of her journey to find out who she truly is. Through self-reflection, at the end of her essay, she is able to come up with four categories of the English she uses: the kind of English she speaks to her mother (considered a â€Å"simple English†), the English her mother uses with her (considered a â€Å"broken English†), her translation of her mother’s Chinese (considered a â€Å"watered down† version), and the kind of English Tan aspires to capture (her mother’s internal language- the translation of Chinese if her mother could speak English  perfectly.) These divisions matter to Tan because each of these â€Å"Englishes† uniquely contribute in forming who Tan is. As a writer, this exposure to all of these â€Å"Englishes† has affected her greatly. She no longer focuses on writing to the readers who can understand English perfectly. Tan’s understanding of the multifaceted â€Å"Englishes† present in our nation allow her to get her message across to a larger audience. How does writing for a literary audience affect the language Tan primarily uses in the essay? What kind of English do you think she believes her audience speaks? Why? Support your answer with quotations from the text. Tan is aware that the literary audience will have a higher expectation of her writing. Therefore, she does not write in the manner in which her mother would speak (â€Å"broken English†). However, throughout her essay, any reader, whether an English scholar or student would easily be able to understand what Tan is trying to convey through her writing. In her essay Tan states: â€Å"Fortunately, for reasons I won’t get into today, I later decided I should envision a reader for the stories I would write. And the reader I decided upon was my mother.† Tan’s writing fully expresses the nature of her thoughts and ideas, but she writes in a way that will allow anyone to read her essay. Tan knows that there are people full of thoughts and emotions as complex as hers but are hindered by their lack of knowing English perfectly. She does not want her complex English phrasing to stop them from being able to gain something from her writing. How does Tan’s title – â€Å"Mother Tongue† – affect the way you read her argument? What other titles might she have chosen? Tan’s choice of title-â€Å"Mother Tongue†- allows the reader to understand Tan’s relationship with her mother. Although at some points, Tan was critical and embarrassed of her mother’s English, she has grown to understand and accept the idea that everyone can have their own kind of English. As a reader, the title allows you to have an open mind to the concept that â€Å"broken English† is not necessarily broken. People may not be able to speak English perfectly, but that does not mean you can label them as uneducated nor does it mean you are superior. Tan could have used a title that was patronizing or condescending. Her title could have swayed the reader to let go of whatever English they use and to start using â€Å"proper†/†formal† English. But as Tan said in her essay: â€Å"Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions..† Tan embraces the kind of English her mother uses because it plays a big part in who she is and how she speaks her own English and the title â€Å"Mother Tongue† is a testimony of that.

Respiration in Plants and Animals

Temperature and Its Effects on Respiration in Plants and Animals Introduction Cellular respiration is the process of breaking down organic compounds to create usable energy for plants and animals. Energy that results from this metabolic process is stored in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) but carbon dioxide and water are also end products of this reaction. This makes it possible to study the amount of respiration of a plant or animal by measuring the rate at which carbon dioxide is released by the organism.In this experiment, crickets and germinating seeds will be tested at three different temperature ranges and the carbon dioxide output measured and compared. Method To prepare the test, insert the CO? (carbon dioxide) probe into an empty respiration chamber and allow 90 seconds for the probe to warm up. Next, calibrate the CO? probe and allow 30 seconds for the CO? reading to be calculated and record the base reading. After the base reading has been taken weigh an empty res piration chamber in grams and then place 5 to 10 adult crickets, or 5 to 10 germinating seeds into the respiration chamber.Record the weight once again with both the respiration chamber and the organisms combined. Now, subtract the weight of the empty respiration chamber from the weight of the organisms and the respiration chamber together to determine the mass of the crickets or seeds. Continue to prepare the test by placing the probe snugly onto the respiration chamber and ensure that all other holes are sealed. Begin to measure the CO? output in ppm (parts per million) at 10-15Â ° C (ice bath), 20-25Â ° C (room temperature) and 35-40Â ° C (heated water bath. Allow five minutes for the temperature to stabilize when beginning to test a new temperature range and then proceed to collect data with the CO? probe. After a 3 minute period of data collection record the temperature inside the respiration chamber. Find the most linear part of the graph created from the data collected and determine the slope of the line. Divide the slope of the line by the mass of the crickets or seeds to determine the units in ppm/sec/g. Each temperature should be tested 2 to 3 times to get an average respiration rate for each temperature range tested. HypothesisThe test performed at the highest temperature will increase the rate of respiration of an organism, while the test conducted at the lowest temperature will decrease the rate of respiration of an organism. Results Respiration Rates at Various Temperature Ranges Respiration of Germinating Beans in ppm/sec/gRespiration of Crickets In ppm/sec/g TemperatureGroup 1Group 2Group 1Group 2 10-15Â °C0. 0020. 9231. 1430. 10 0. 18 1. 1790. 3830. 24 20-25Â °C0. 0960. 8940. 9630. 41 0. 2261. 0911. 1180. 50 35-40Â °C0. 273. 2552. 4621. 14 0. 473. 8662. 4771. 94 The rate of respiration in the germinating beans gradually increased as the temperature rose.However, groups 1 and 2 studying the germinating beans collected some inconsistent da ta in the 20-25Â °C temperature range. The overall trend was similar in the data collected from the crickets’ respiration rates. They also respired at a greater rate when the temperature was elevated. Additionally, group 1 studying the crickets also recorded some erratic measurements in the 10-15Â °C temperature range. Conclusion The results of this test supported the hypothesis. It is clear that there is a direct relationship between temperature and respiration in plants and animals.The tendency among both the germinating seeds and the crickets was an increase in respiration as the temperature intensified. The few inconsistencies that occurred throughout the test could have been attributed to not allowing sufficient time for the temperature to stabilize between testing different temperature ranges. Also, the CO? probe could have not been tightly sealed allowing oxygen to enter the respiration chamber and affecting the readings of CO? concentrations. When repeating this tes t it would be important to ensure that these errors are more closely controlled or corrected so that accurate readings could be recorded and evaluated.

International Relations Essay All You Need to Know about It

International Relations Essay All You Need to Know about It Studies in International Relations involve a wide spectrum of topics that range from sociology to political science. Because of the range of topics in international relations courses, the area of study is unique and demanding. As an international relations student, your lecturer expects you to be familiar with everything including historical aspects of international relations, economics, sociology, anthropology, human rights, political theories, and current affairs. Markedly, the interdisciplinary nature of the study of international relations blends the fields of history, economics, and political science to analyze topics, such as worldwide poverty, security, human rights, globalization, and social ethics. Professors test your familiarity of the different areas of study by assigning essays on international relations. Being an interdisciplinary field, it means that there is a wide set of guidelines followed when writing international relations essays. Lecturers may assign you the writing form of an assignment as a part of your course to examine what you know about the area of study, your ability to relate concepts, and your ability to apply theories in international relations into practical life experiences. It is important to keep the noted lecturer objectives in mind when planning and writing international relations essays because they help you understand your professor’s expectations and course grading expectations. You need to have a concrete idea of what to write about before beginning your writing journey. This guide includes powerful international relations essay tips and will provide step-by-step tips and prompts that will help you understand the way to write your international relations essay and why some elements in the writing process are important. Besides, the guideline will help hone your essay writing skills; thus, it can be used as a guide for your other essay assignments. Pre-Writing Tips for Your International Relations Essay The writing process begins the minute you read your assignment and ends when you submit it for grading. Pre-writing tips are guidelines to use in the intervention stage of writing; they help you do the following: Narrow the area of study possibilities down to a manageable and appropriate international relations essay topic; Generate ideas relating to a topic on international relations; Group ideas that belong together. You can use a variety of prewriting techniques, but not all of them may work well for you or for a particular area of your international relations course. You can try out several prewriting techniques until you find the ones that work for you. The common prewriting techniques include: This involves noting down a list of ideas and topics and then reviewing them to select those that fit your assignment objectives. Brainstorming and free writing. In both free writing and brainstorming, the bottom line is that you write down everything that comes to mind about international relations issues without censoring yourself. In free writing, set some time to write what you know about specific topics in international relations. Subsequently, go back through your written notes to find the best ideas, and repeat the process until you have enough ideas for your international relations essay. This involves using reporters’ questions, such as why, who, what, when, how, and where of your area of study. Journal writing. This entails writing a personal reflection on what several international relations topic and concepts mean to you and why. Journal writing helps you develop ideas and topics that you can explore in your essay. Once you have chosen a preferred prewriting technique, the next important steps entail selecting a topic for your essay, note taking, and planning for your essay outline. Topic selection. Topic selection is an important aspect of the essay writing process. Three scenarios may arise in topic selection, namely your lecturer may assign a specific essay topic in international relations, you may be provided with a set of possible international relations essay topics, or you may be required to formulate a topic as long as it is within the international relations area of study. If your instructor does not provide you with an international relations essay topic, conduct preliminary research on various topics in the area of study before settling on one subject matter. Moreover, select a variety of issues you are familiar with and those with readily available information. Note taking. Taking notes occurs once you are done with generating ideas for your international relations essay. The practical aspect is that the note taking process should accompany the researching process to lay down essential elements of your topic. Making a plan. The plan refers to an outline that shows what type of content should be written as the essay’s introduction, body, and conclusion. Making an outline helps in structuring your ideas into concrete pieces of information that can be written for informative purposes. Choosing a Suitable Topic for International Relations Essay: Sound Advice from Our Writers There is no secret formula to identifying and choosing an appropriate topic in the international relations field of study. However, the following key guidelines should be considered when choosing suitable essay topics: Brainstorm for possible ideas on international relations issues. In brainstorming, try to explore what interests you in international relations; Research for ideas on possible topics in books or in articles written by scholars whose work has interested you. Explore if these authors make any suggestions about areas that could be developed into essay topics in the international relations field of study; Think of two or more authors who have disagreed with each other in print about an issue in international relations and determine if you could write an essay that weighs up their opposing arguments; Be realistic when exploring and choosing a particular essay topic. You should only consider topics with readily available sources. Coming up with ideas and topics that fascinate you only to find that all the resources you need are unavailable can be demotivating; Ensure that you do not choose a topic that is too specific. Obscure topics make finding research materials difficult. Besides, a specialist type of research would be inappropriate for an essay; Select a topic that is appropriate to the length of your essay. Students are often tempted to pick topics that are too broad to be adequately covered. While broad topics lead to overgeneralization, narrow topics lead to close observation; Avoid topics that will tempt you to summarize rather than discuss or analyze concepts in international relations unless your professor requires a summary-type of an essay; Choose a topic that interests you to motivate you in research and compile the actual essay paper. Chances are that when an essay topic is interesting to you, the outcome of the essay will be equally interesting to the readers; Once you have picked and settled on a certain topic, do not be afraid to change it if it is not working out as expected. Possible topics for your international relations essay include: Compare and Contrast Atlantic and Pacific Commercial Business Discuss the Validity of the Cold War after the Collapse of the USSR Discuss the New Principles of the U.S. Foreign Policy How did the Cold War end? Did Any of the Sides Win? Discuss the United Nations and Its Peacekeeping Agenda Writing an Effective Title for Your International Relations Essay A common issue evident among students and seasoned writers is omitting or underusing a useful tool in their writing process, namely an essay title. When stuck, it is common for students to give up on generating a title for an essay or they merely label the essays by assignment numbers and sequences. The title of an essay helps in preparing readers to understand and believe the paper that is to follow. The first aspect in drafting an essay title should involve outlining the functions of the title. A good essay title: predicts contents of the essay; catches the reader’s interest; reflects the tone of your piece of writing; presents keywords that define the essay and make it easily identifiable during searches. When crafting the essay title, you need to think of title writing as a process and allow yourself to stretch your thinking during that process. Your title should have a hook that attracts the readers to your essay. This hook can be a collection of keywords from your essay or a quote that introduces your topic or the tone of the essay. Moreover, the title should have one or two key terms that provide the reader with a sense of the content and the angle of your essay. In other words, the title you choose for your essay should provide the reader with an overall overview of the essay even before the essay is read in depth. Despite the recommended short length, the title should summarize the entire essay in a few words. Appropriate Structure for Your International Relations Essay An appropriate outline of the international relations essay should have at least an introduction, main body, and a conclusion. The outline should appear as indicated below: Introduction. The introduction should occupy approximately 10% of the entire essay and it should explain how your essay interprets the title, issues it explores, and the conclusions that you draw from the essay discussion. The introduction should make the target reader interested in your essay, should tell what you are writing about, and must explain why the essay topic is relevant or why you have written the essay. An important aspect of the introduction part of the essay involves getting the readers interested in your work. Creating interest in a reader is what differentiates a B grade essay from an A grade essay. Therefore, choose your words carefully and meet all the introduction requirements. In this case, provide: an overview of the essay; objectives of the essay; the essays significance; a purpose statement; a thesis statement. Body. The main body of the essay should take up 80% of the essay content because it forms the main part of the essay. The content of the essay, at this point, is presented in paragraphs where each paragraph provides a unique theme or element of the essay. In this regard, you should ensure your paragraphs are thematic and based on major arguments. Depending on the ideas and themes you intend to explore in your essay, the number of paragraphs may vary from three to four. However, a one-page essay may only require one or two paragraphs for the body section of the essay. Each paragraph of the essay should develop and explore the major essay arguments and must have a topic sentence that presents your claims as well as evidence that supports claims made in each topic sentence. You should consider the following elements when writing the body of your essay in international relations: The major discussion points in each paragraph; The arguments and evidence that support the topic sentence in each paragraph; The practicality of the topic sentence; The paragraphs’ ability to link the thesis statement, essay topic, and essay title. If the body has three main paragraphs, the first paragraph should focus on the strongest argument in the essay. The topic for this paragraph should be stated within the first several sentences (the topic sentence) and appropriate content should be used to support the topic sentence. You should then provide a clear transition to your next paragraph. The second paragraph should contain the second most significant point of your essay. Similar to the previous paragraph, ensure you provide a topic sentence and supporting evidence. The weakest argument should be presented in the last paragraph and should tie into the essay’s thesis. Conclusion. Similar to the introduction, the last part of the international relations essay should slightly mirror the introduction and summarize the arguments you made in your previous paragraphs. Moreover, the conclusion should echo your thesis statement and provide a description of how you proved your thesis. You should be careful not to introduce new points and arguments in the conclusion section. However, you can provide an action plan where possible. The Last bit Not Least: Post-Writing Tips Proofreading and referencing constitute the most essential post writing process. These tips ensure your essay is appropriate and capable of helping you attain a high grade. Proofreading refers to the process of reviewing your essay to ensure it is free of grammar, sentence structure, and tense mistakes. It also involves reviewing the essay content to ensure it is coherent.

analysis of pulp fiction essays

analysis of pulp fiction essays The 1994 film Pulp Fiction may seem confusing and slow to some viewers. It is not until you fully understand the directors manipulations with time frames that you fully appreciate this film. This film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino is packed with action scenes as well as extensive dialogues between characters that illustrate the life of a small mob in Los Angeles California. Even though this movie may seem violent and cold there is certain humor created by the characters perspective of the crimes they commit. Like most of Quentin Tarantinos movies, Pulp Fiction has a circular path. The movie starts when an English couple decides to rob a coffee shop after going through an extensive discussion on why they should rob coffee shops and not liquor stores or gas stations. As the action is about to happen, the credits are shown on the screen. The movie then continues beginning with another chapter in the story. Julian, played by Samuel L. Jackson, and Vincent, played by John Travolta, are in a dialogue about Vincents trip to Amsterdam. They talk about the legalization of Marijuana. Later on they start talking about Vincent having to take care of his mob bosss wife for one night. This seemed like a delicate situation for Vincent since his boss, Marcellus Wallace played by Ving Rhames, was said to be very strict when it came to other men getting too close tohis wife. All of these facts from the movie we get just from the characters dialogue. One might think that so much dialogue could make a movie boring. The beauty of this idea by Tarantino is that we are forced to pay attention to the dialogues since they foreshadow upcoming events in the movie. All this conversation is happening while Vincent and Jules are on their way to take care of Mr. Wallaces business. They had been sent to get a suitcase that had been stolen by a group of young men. Again when the two enter the peoples ...

Best Summary and Analysis The Great Gatsby

Best Summary and Analysis The Great Gatsby SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Maybe you’ve just finished The Great Gatsby and need some guidance for unpacking its complex themes and symbols. Or maybe it’s been awhile since you last read this novel, so you need a refresher on its plot and characters. Or maybe you’re in the middle of reading it and want to double check that you’re not missing the important stuff. Whatever you need - we’ve got you covered with this comprehensive summary of one of the great American novels of all time! Not only does this complete The Great Gatsby summary provide a detailed synopsis of the plot, but it’ll also give you: capsule descriptions for the book’s major characters, short explanations of most important themes, as well as links to in-depth articles about these and other topics. (Image: Molasz / Wikimedia Commons) Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. The Great GatsbySummary: The Full Plot Our narrator, Nick Carraway, moves to the East Coast to work as a bond trader in Manhattan. He rents a small house in West Egg, a nouveau riche town in Long Island. In East Egg, the next town over, where old money people live, Nick reconnects with his cousin Daisy Buchanan, her husband Tom, and meets their friend Jordan Baker. Tom takes Nick to meet his mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle is married to George Wilson, who runs a gas station in a gross and dirty neighborhood in Queens. Tom, Nick, and Myrtle go to Manhattan, where she hosts a small party that ends with Tom punching her in the face. Nick meets his next-door neighbor, Jay Gatsby, a very rich man who lives in a giant mansion and throws wildly extravagant parties every weekend, and who is a mysterious person no one knows much about. Gatsby takes Nick to lunch and introduces him to his business partner - a gangster named Meyer Wolfshiem. Nick starts a relationship with Jordan. Through her, Nick finds out that Gatsby and Daisy were in love five years ago, and that Gatsby would like to see her again. Nick arranges for Daisy to come over to his house so that Gatsby can â€Å"accidentally† drop by. Daisy and Gatsby start having an affair. Tom and Daisy come to one of Gatsby’s parties. Daisy is disgusted by the ostentatiously vulgar display of wealth, and Tom immediately sees that Gatsby’s money most likely comes from crime. We learn that Gatsby was born intoa poor farming family as James Gatz. He has always been extremely ambitious, creating the Jay Gatsby persona as a way of transforming himself into a successful self-made man - the ideal of the American Dream. Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan get together for lunch. At this lunch, Daisy and Gatsby are planning to tell Tom that she is leaving him. Gatsby suddenly feels uncomfortable doing this in Tom’s house, and Daisy suggests going to Manhattan instead. In Manhattan, the five of them get a suite at the Plaza Hotel where many secrets come out. Gatsby reveals that Daisy is in love with him. Tom in turn reveals that Gatsby is a bootlegger, and is probably engaged in other criminal activities as well. Gatsby demands that Daisy renounce Tom entirely, and say that she has never loved him. Daisy can’t bring herself to say this because it isn’t true, crushing Gatsby’s dream and obsession. It’s clear that their relationship is over and that Daisy has chosen to stay with Tom. That evening, Daisy and Gatsby drive home in his car, with Daisy behind the wheel. When they drive by the Wilson gas station, Myrtle runs out to the car because she thinks it’s Tom driving by. Daisy hits and kills her, driving off without stopping. Nick, Jordan, and Tom investigate the accident. Tom tells George Wilson that the car that struck Myrtle belongs to Gatsby, and George decides that Gatsby must also be Myrtle’s lover. That night, Gatsby decides to take the blame for the accident. He is still waiting for Daisy to change her mind and come back to him, but she and Tom skip town the next day. Nick breaks up with Jordan because she is completely unconcerned about Myrtle’s death. Gatsby tells Nick some more of his story. As an officer in the army, he met and fell in love with Daisy, but after a month had to ship out to fight in WWI. Two years later, before he could get home, she married Tom. Gatsby has been obsessed with getting Daisy back since he shipped out to fight five years earlier. The next day, George Wilson shoots and kills Gatsby, and then himself. The police leave the Buchanans and Myrtle’s affair out of the report on the murder-suicide. Nick tries to find people to come to Gatsby’s funeral, but everyone who pretended to be Gatsby’s friend and came to his parties now refuses to come. Even Gatsby’s partner Wolfshiem doesn’t want to go to the funeral. Wolfshiem explains that he first gave Gatsby a job after WWI and that they have been partners in many illegal activities together. Gatsby’s father comes to the funeral from Minnesota. He shows Nick a self-improvement plan that Gatsby had written for himself as a boy. Disillusioned with his time on the East coast, Nick decides to return to his home in the Midwest. Other Ways to Study the Plot of The Great Gatsby See what happens when in actual chronological order and without flashbacks in our Great Gatsby timeline. Read our individualThe Great Gatsby chapter summariesfor more in-depth details about plot, important quotes and character beats, and how the novel’s major themes get reflected: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Learn the significance behind the novel’s title, itsbeginning, and its ending. List of the Major Characters in The Great Gatsby Click on each character's name to read an in-depth article analyzing their place in the novel. Nick Carraway - our narrator, but not the book’s main character. Coming East from the Midwest to learn the bond business, Nick is horrified by the materialism and superficiality he finds in Manhattan and Long Island. He ends up admiring Gatsby as a hopeful dreamer and despising the rest of the people he encounters. Jay Gatsby - a self-made man who is driven by his love for, and obsession with, Daisy Buchanan. Born a poor farmer, Gatsby becomes materially successful through crime and spends the novel trying to recreate the perfect love he and Daisy had five years before. When she cannot renounce her marriage, Gatsby’s dream is crushed. Daisy Buchanan - a very rich young woman who is trapped in a dysfunctional marriage and oppressed by her meaningless life. Daisy has an affair with Gatsby, but is ultimately unwilling to say that she has been as obsessed with him as he has with her, and goes back to her unsatisfying, but also less demanding, relationship with her husband, Tom. Tom Buchanan - Daisy’s very rich, adulterous, bullying, racist husband. Tom is having a physically abusiveaffair with Myrtle Wilson. He investigates Gatsby and reveals some measure of his criminal involvement, demonstrating to Daisy that Gatsby isn’t someone she should run off with. After Daisy runs over Myrtle Wilson, Tom makes up with Daisyand they skip town together. Jordan Baker - a professional golfer who has a relationship with Nick. At first, Jordan is attractive because of her jaded, cynical attitude, but then Nick slowly sees that her inveterate lying and her complete lack of concern for other people are deal breakers. Myrtle Wilson - the somewhat vulgar wife of a car mechanic who is unhappy in her marriage. Myrtle is having an affair with Tom, whom she likes for his rugged and brutal masculinity and for his money. Daisy runs Myrtle over, killing herin agruesome and shocking way. George Wilson - Myrtle’s browbeaten, weak, and working class husband. George is enraged when he finds out about Myrtle’s affair, and then that rage is transformed into unhinged madness when Myrtle is killed. George kills Gatsby and himself in the murder-suicide that seems to erase Gatsby and his lasting impact on the world entirely. Other Ways to Study Great Gatsby Characters Need a refresher on all the other people in this book? Check out our overview of the charactersor dive deeper with our detailed character analyses. Get some help for tackling the common assignment of comparing and contrasting the novel’s characters. Start gathering relevant character quotesto beef up your essay assignments with evidence from the text. List of the Major Themes in The Great Gatsby Get a broadoverview of the novel’s themes, or click on each theme to read a detailed individual analysis. Money and Materialism- the novel is fascinated by how people make their money, what they can and can’t buy with it, and how the pursuit of wealth shapes the decisions people make and the paths their lives follow. In the novel, is it possible to be happy without a lot of money? Is it possible to be happy with it? Society and Class- the novel can also be read as a clash between the old money set and the nouveau riche strivers and wannabes that are trying to either become them or replace them. If the novel ends with the strivers and the poor being killed off and the old money literally getting away with murder, who wins this class battle? The American Dream- does the novel endorse or mock the dream of the rags-to-riches success story, the ideal of the self-made man? Is Gatsby a successful example of what’s possible through hard work and dedication, or a sham whose crime and death demonstrate that the American Dream is a work of fiction? Love, Desire, and Relationships- most of the major characters are driven by either love or sexual desire, but none of these connections prove lasting or stable. Is the novel saying that these are destructive forces, or is just that these characters use and feel them in the wrong way? Death and Failure - a tone of sadness and elegy (an elegy is a song of sadness for the dead) suffuses the book, as Nick looks back at a summer that ended with three violent deaths and the defeat of one man’s delusional dream. Areambition and overreach doomed to this level of epic failure, orare theyexamples of the way we sweep the past under the rug when looking to the future? Morality and Ethics - despite the fact that most of the characters in this novel cheat on their significant others, one is an accidental killer, one is an actual criminal, and one a murderer, at the end of the novel no one is punished either by the law or by public censure. Is there a way to fix the lawless, amoral, Wild East that this book describes, or does the replacement of God with a figure from a billboard mean that this is a permanent state of affairs? The Mutability of Identity - the key to answering the title’s implied questions (What makes Gatsby great? Is Gatsby great?) is whether it is possible to change oneself for good, or whether past history and experiences leave their marks forever. Gatsby wants to have it both ways: to change himself from James Gatz into a glamorous figure, but also to recapitulate and preserve in amber a moment from his past with Daisy. Does he fail because it’s impossible to change? Because it’s impossible to repeat the past? Or both? Other Ways to Study Great Gatsby Themes Often, themes are represented by the a novel's symbols. Check out our overview of the main symbols in The Great Gatsby, or click on an individual symbol for a deeper exploration of its meaning and relevance: The green light at the end of Daisy's dock The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg The valley of ashes Themes are also often reinforced by recurring motifs. Delve into a guide to the way motifs color and enrich this work. The Bottom Line Our guide toThe Great Gatsbyoffers a variety of ways to study the novel's: plot characters themes symbols motifs Use our analysis, gathered quotations, and description for help with homework assignments, tests, and essays on this novel. What’s Next? More Great Gatsby Analysis and Study Guides! Understand how the book is put together by looking at its genre, narrator, andsetting. Learn the background of and context for the novel in our explanations of the history of the composition of the bookand the biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Get a sense of how the novel has been adapted by reading about its many film versions. Hammer out the nitty gritty basics of the novel’s hardest vocab words. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

What means have been retained for government agencies and officials to Essay

What means have been retained for government agencies and officials to run the Chinese economy - Essay Example The SOE’s constitutes of capital intensive industries and therefore absorbs a huge share of the state’s financial resources through financing. Additionally, in the Chinese stock market, the shares offer price lacks a reflection of real relation amid the shares supply and demand. The government restrictions on decision making rights, prices, control rights and trade have made it more challenging for enterprises and firms to grow (OECD 2010, 1-40). According to Tubilewicz (2006, 120-134), the government is the prime mover of the economy and the regulatory government should therefore ensure that the societal welfare is maintained and business persons have a better working environment. However, in China’s case, this has not yet been applicable. This clearly states that the government agencies and officials who have a major stake in Chinese economy should play a major role in boosting its performance and mitigating major economic challenges. In order to do this, it important to analyze ways through which the government officials can play their roles in the economy. By taking a look at the negative impacts that have resulted from the Chinese government paying extra attention to the SOE’s and overlooking other business enterprises, one gets clear picture of the negative economical impact caused by Chinese government excessive control on the economy. Around 1979, China’s government introduce their own profit retention mechanisms, mandatory planning reduction, production responsibility systems and profit tax reform thereby taking autonomous SOE’s managerial control in order to increase the SOE’s efficiency. However, the reforms which were inducted under the traditional state socialism allowed no room for ownership structure changes and hence, the state bore the SOE’s losses. The contracted managerial responsibility system made most managers maximize

Air pollution of fracking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Air pollution of fracking - Essay Example In this essay, we shall discuss the documentary and the changes that have occurred since its production in 2010. ‘Gasland’ is an American documentary film produced in 2010 by Josh Fox to educate and enlighten communities in the United States of America on the impact of natural gas drilling especially horizontal drilling otherwise known as fracking. Fox starts the movie with narrating how he received a letter in May 2008 requesting him to lease his family land in Pennsylvania for $ 100, 000 to drill for gas, a claim that Energy In Depth later refuted arguing that it did not offer anyone money to lease his land for drilling gas. Fox goes to the west where the process of mining natural gas through fracking has been for the last 10 years. He engaged and stayed with the residents as they narrated their stories and experiences of natural gas drilling in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Texas among other several states, he talked with residents of those areas who had developed chron ic ailments that can be directly traced to contaminated air quality and pollution of water wells and surface. Fox goes ahead to show how some of the residents who have been affected by the negative effects of pollution from fracking have obtained court injunctions and settlements in terms of money from the gas mining companies in order to replace the water supplies that have been affected with safe drinking water or portable water purification kits. In his documentary, Josh Fox tries to reach out to the scientists, politicians and executives and all stakeholders in the gas mining industry. In addition to congress sub-committee, which was tasked with discussing the ‘fracking responsibility and awareness of chemicals act’, which was intended to amend the ‘safe drinking water act’ to repeal the exemption of hydraulic fracturing from safe drinking water act. Since 2010, a lot of changes have happened in the gas mining industry with relation to the process of mi ning that uses hydraulic fracturing. despite the concerns that have been raised over the pollution levels of the process, the number of gas wells that are being sunk have been constantly increasing with estimations putting that there are at least 35 wells that are being drilled daily for the last one decade. This has been largely contributed by the federal government’s laxity to enact federal laws that regulate the use of hydraulic fracturing in mining gas. In 2012, more than 30 million cubic feet of natural gas were drilled, which signified about 25 per cent, increase since the year 2006 (Anonymous, 13). Most of the proponents of the process have argued that the process of hydraulic fracturing could help the country become energy independent by the year 2020 and supply the country with relatively cheap and clean energy for the next 90 years. In addition, the states that have been using hydraulic fracturing to mine natural gas have been able to create recession resistant econ omies that have withered the economic storm that had swept the country in the last 5 years. However, despite these benefits, people living within the areas that these mining companies operate have always complained about the noise and air pollution that include odours that comes from these companies. The environmental protection agency study in 2011, which tested water and air in Wyoming where

Everyday Use by Alice Walker Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Everyday Use by Alice Walker - Research Paper Example Alice Walker, the author of this story is considered to be a highly acclaimed writer of the contemporary black women lives. Walker reflects upon the Southern life of Black people as a result of white oppression, need for self-respect and for their survival (Hedges & Wendt 25). For Dee the blacks’ world is a more optimistic and Americanized version which compels her to change her name from Dee to Wangero to represent her African identity. There is a twist in the tale when the readers learn that this was not Mama’s intention. She merely wanted her to gain excellent education and keep her away from her younger child Maggie whom she felt would not be able to cope with Dee because of an earlier accident which physically damaged Maggie. As Dee returns home on vacation she brings with her a boyfriend who has a Muslim origin who does not eat pork. His name is Hakim which Mama fails to pronounce well. Dee is fascinated with her home’s interior as well as the outlook as sh e admires the preserving of heritage to Mama’s great surprise because at first she was least inclined towards such minor details. Dee and Maggie are shown contrasting with each other in many ways. While Maggie is shy, Dee is bold and outspoken. Maggie is ashamed of her scars that she got from house fire. Being always at home near Mama, Maggie learnt the worth of African American heritage. ... She wishes to keep the quilt which disturbs Maggie and infuriates Mama (Whitsitt 445). However when Maggie insists that Dee keep the quilt Mama takes it away from her and returns it to Maggie. For Dee this is the most conservative outlook towards life and this can be understood when she says: â€Å"â€Å"But they're priceless!" she was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper. "Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they'd be in rags. Less than that!†Ã¢â‚¬  (Walker 2009) For Mama this is altogether a strange experience seeing Dee talk about heritage and family values the way she does now. She strongly regrets sending Dee away for education because she believes it has shattered the family ties. She is much satisfied to keep Maggie at home because she has at least received the traditional upbringing with black community’s values deep ingrained. The quilt is a controversial figure in the story because its very existence is considered to be literal by many critics while Walker might have a different purpose in mind. She may be drawing an analogy between storytelling and quilting. â€Å"Quilt is a trope whose analogue (the quilt itself) provides the stitch that untropes the trope; it is a trope stitched to a reality...† (Whitsitt 447). The tightness of the stitching is indicative of the fact that the community or an individual is strongly and tightly knitted. Walker explores the â€Å"limits of art and the authentic† as she narrates the relationship between Mama, Maggie and Dee. According to critics, Dee is not only narrated out of the story but also from the sisterhood which is observed between Mama and Maggie. This, however, shuts the other possibility of keeping Dee in play. There is a sense of longing at the beginning of the story which reminds the

Us formative history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Us formative history - Essay Example They are document 1, document 2, document 3, and essay on the New World of Indians. Document 1 is a myth by Iroquois explaining the world’s beginning. The myth illustrates that the world never existed in the beginning, not even the land, the creatures, or the men. However, there was only the ocean that occupied entire space and the great air void above ocean surface. Document 2 illustrates the 1448 historic events of the battles between the Portuguese and the West Africans. The Portuguese directed their voyage to Cape Verder where two Guineas were captured in the past. On reaching the shore the Portuguese found a village with houses and men willing to defend it. Alvaro Fernandez killed the leader of the village, and the Guineas stopped fighting on realizing that their leader is dead (Jones 107). Document 3 explains the 1493 encounter of Christopher Columbus with the Native People. Christopher Columbus passed by Indies, using the fleet given by the King and the Queen, and saw several islands with many inhabitants. The inhabitants walk around naked; save for some women who cover their private parts with a plant leaf or some specially made cotton material (Morison 55). The essay explains the New World of the Indians. Even though the encounter of the Americas by the Europeans led to major effects in the Indian society; the indigenous people had inhabited the Americas for approximately millennia. The New World was experienced when the Indians encountered the Africans and the European, in the Virginia and also the California. The contact brought vast changes to the Indians society (Johnson 24). Document 1 describes the world origin myth. The sea had fish and deep sea creatures. The birds lived in the air, and the sky world had a man and his pregnant wife. The wife fell through a hole in the sky and landed on the back of the huge sea turtle. The woman gave birth to a daughter, who on reaching maturity bore quarrelsome twins. Right handed twin

Literature review including a research methodology, Objectives and Dissertation

Literature review including a research methodology, Objectives and research. Tobic (Internationalization) - Dissertation Example The University of Bradford is one organization that seeks to go the international way as a way of expanding its market share with the added advantage of increasing its profits among other benefits. However, there is a high risk associated with the internationalization of organizations evident in the number of organizations that have failed in the process. Some of the main challenges associated with internationalization is the complexity of the process of going international, the high costs involved and the complexity of managing internationalized entities. Objectives of the Study 1. To determine how feasible it is for the University of Bradford to internationalize 2. To determine the key issues that the University of Bradford will have to deal with in its internationalization 3. To establish the best strategy that the University of Bradford can adopt to successfully go through the internationalization process Research questions In achieving the objectives of this study, a number of q uestions will have to be answered. The following are the research questions for this project. 1. How feasible it is for the University of Bradford to internationalize? 2. What are the key issues that the University of Bradford will have to deal with in its internationalization process? 3. What strategies can the University of Bradford adopt in its bid to go through the internationalization process? 4. ... Reasons behind the Internationalization of Organizations Most economies thrive on the notion of imports and exports. Penetration into the foreign market is one of the major reasons why firms are venturing into internalization (Taylor, Walker and Beaverstock, 2002). In the 21st century, a lot of firms and businesses have been involved in international markets. Companies have been looking for ways to maximise their productivity and profitability by tapping into markets other the ones in their own home base of operations. There are different theories that have been formulated to explain the increase in international activities among different firms all across the world (Gankema, Snuif and Zwart, 2000). The absolute cost advantage is an internationalization theory that propagates the idea that institutions and firms should specialize in those products in which they have a sure advantage. This theory was popularised by Adam Smith and it implies that if a company can make a product without having to spend a lot in terms of costs per production unit (Welch and Welch, 1996). This view supports the idea that companies that have a comparative advantage do not have to have an absolute advantage to prosper in a market. Companies therefore internationalize so as to gain from comparative advantage (Taylor, Walker and Beaverstock, 2002). The prospects of new markets are another major driving force for internationalization. Internationalization opens up many opportunities for business, big and small. Advances in technology have led to the development of production techniques which ensure that companies can mass produce (Vahlne and Nordstrom, 1993). As a result, many of these companies have ventured into the international scene in search of new markets in which to sell

Bullying. Types of bullying. Age and gender differences in Bullying Research Paper

Bullying. Types of bullying. Age and gender differences in Bullying - Research Paper Example According to a recent statistics, â€Å"1 in 2 students experience occasional bullying during any school term. Moreover, 1 in 4 students in primary school are bullied more than once or twice at least in any term†(Statistics on Bullying, n. d.). According to Dune et al. (2010), â€Å"Bullying, aggression and other forms of violence in schools can blight student experiences of formal education and their abilities to make the best of the opportunities they have† (Dune et al, 2010, p.1). There are many cases in which school bullying cased not only psychological problems such as depression but also suicide tendency as well. In short, bullying should be prohibited in school compounds at any cost. This paper reviews the available literature to find out what intervention can a Case planner use with 12 grade students in a Long Island, Commack- New York day program classroom to discourage the issue of bullying with students. In order to formulate an intervention plan against bull ying a case planner should have ideas about things like; Types of bullying, Age and gender differences in Bullying, characteristics of victims, Participant’s role in bullying, Reporting of bullying etc Types of bullying Bullying occurs in many forms such as physical, verbal, social, and cyber. ... Physical bullying can be prevented up to certain extent by taking actions against unnecessary gang formation in schools. â€Å"Verbal bullying is name-calling, making offensive remarks, or joking about a person's religion, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or the way they look† (Types of bullying, n. d.). It is an act of teasing. It is normally performed by a group of people upon an individual. Verbal bullying can lead towards physical assaults or physical bullying. Verbal bullying usually develops psychological problems such as depression, anxiety etc. to the victim. It can cause loss of interest in studies and other daily activities. Schools should implement a code of conduct for in order to avoid verbal bullying. â€Å"Social alienation is when a bully excludes someone from a group on purpose. It also includes a bully spreading rumours, and also making fun of someone by pointing out their differences† (Types of bullying, n. d.). It is an act of isolation. In s ocial bullying, the offenders will prevent the victim from interacting with others. Offenders normally spread fabricated stories about the victim so that nobody will try to mingle with the victim. Schools should take stern actions against those who try to isolate somebody from the main streams of school life. â€Å"92 students aged 11-16 from 14 London schools completed a survey on bullying. 22% had experienced cyber bullying at least once. 6.6% had experienced being bullied in this way in the previous two months† (International Network, 2010). Cyber bullying is an act of spreading rumors or false stories against the victim with the help of internet. Electronic devices such as mobile

Literature review including a research methodology, Objectives and Dissertation

Literature review including a research methodology, Objectives and research. Tobic (Internationalization) - Dissertation Example The University of Bradford is one organization that seeks to go the international way as a way of expanding its market share with the added advantage of increasing its profits among other benefits. However, there is a high risk associated with the internationalization of organizations evident in the number of organizations that have failed in the process. Some of the main challenges associated with internationalization is the complexity of the process of going international, the high costs involved and the complexity of managing internationalized entities. Objectives of the Study 1. To determine how feasible it is for the University of Bradford to internationalize 2. To determine the key issues that the University of Bradford will have to deal with in its internationalization 3. To establish the best strategy that the University of Bradford can adopt to successfully go through the internationalization process Research questions In achieving the objectives of this study, a number of q uestions will have to be answered. The following are the research questions for this project. 1. How feasible it is for the University of Bradford to internationalize? 2. What are the key issues that the University of Bradford will have to deal with in its internationalization process? 3. What strategies can the University of Bradford adopt in its bid to go through the internationalization process? 4. ... Reasons behind the Internationalization of Organizations Most economies thrive on the notion of imports and exports. Penetration into the foreign market is one of the major reasons why firms are venturing into internalization (Taylor, Walker and Beaverstock, 2002). In the 21st century, a lot of firms and businesses have been involved in international markets. Companies have been looking for ways to maximise their productivity and profitability by tapping into markets other the ones in their own home base of operations. There are different theories that have been formulated to explain the increase in international activities among different firms all across the world (Gankema, Snuif and Zwart, 2000). The absolute cost advantage is an internationalization theory that propagates the idea that institutions and firms should specialize in those products in which they have a sure advantage. This theory was popularised by Adam Smith and it implies that if a company can make a product without having to spend a lot in terms of costs per production unit (Welch and Welch, 1996). This view supports the idea that companies that have a comparative advantage do not have to have an absolute advantage to prosper in a market. Companies therefore internationalize so as to gain from comparative advantage (Taylor, Walker and Beaverstock, 2002). The prospects of new markets are another major driving force for internationalization. Internationalization opens up many opportunities for business, big and small. Advances in technology have led to the development of production techniques which ensure that companies can mass produce (Vahlne and Nordstrom, 1993). As a result, many of these companies have ventured into the international scene in search of new markets in which to sell

Imagine Yourself 26 Years Ahead Essay Example for Free

Imagine Yourself 26 Years Ahead Essay It was flaming hot, the sand beneath my bare legs burned when it hit water. I thrived to keep my eyes open, but instead I drifted into my daydreams imaginations, and spontaneously everything was peaceful and utterly dreamy. It was more to a vision than a dream when I imagine myself in 2026, but within an instant I am blown away. I discover that I am the new legend in the genetic research field in the United States, not only that but a mother too. Consequently, I see an extraordinary day of my future sought life, a casual day yet inscribed within history: the day I discover the AIDS cure. Suddenly, a river of emotions erupts through my veins but I know it’s everything I want in my future and everything I want the world to remember me by, to be a person who changed the world. In my future life I’m married to a guy called Joseph khan, he becomes the first man to step on Jupiter. I linger in my visions and expectations of future, wanting nothing more but to reach for it and make it happen, but then I wake up. The sun was down but I can see my surroundings as still as they were, then out of nowhere I see a guy setting near, â€Å"what’s your name† the stranger said in a soft deep voice, â€Å"Mariah† I breathed, stunned. He walked slowly and stretched his tanned arm toward me â€Å"khan, Joseph khan.† I was hooked.

Performance Measure of PCA and DCT for Images

Performance Measure of PCA and DCT for Images Generally, in Image Processing the transformation is the basic technique that we apply in order to study the characteristics of the Image under scan. Under this process here we present a method in which we are analyzing the performance of the two methods namely, PCA and DCT. In this thesis we are going to analyze the system by first training the set for particular no. Of images and then analyzing the performance for the two methods by calculating the error in this two methods. This thesis referred and tested the PCA and DCT transformation techniques. PCA is a technique which involves a procedure which mathematically transforms number of probably related parameters into smaller number of parameters whose values dont change called principal components. The primary principal component accounts for much variability in the data, and each succeeding component accounts for much of the remaining variability. Depending on the application field, it is also called the separate Karhunen-Loà ¨ve transform (KLT), the Hotelling transform or proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). DCT expresses a series of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. Transformations are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images (where small high-frequency components can be discarded), to spectral methods for the numerical solution of partial differential equations. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Over the past few years, several face recognition systems have been proposed based on principal components analysis (PCA) [14, 8, 13, 15, 1, 10, 16, 6]. Although the details vary, these systems can all be described in terms of the same preprocessing and run-time steps. During preprocessing, they register a gallery of m training images to each other and unroll each image into a vector of n pixel values. Next, the mean image for the gallery is subtracted from each  and the resulting centered images are placed in a gallery matrix M. Element [i; j] of M is the ith pixel from the jth image. A covariance matrix W = MMT characterizes the distribution of the m images in Ân. A subset of the Eigenvectors of W are used as the basis vectors for a subspace in which to compare gallery and novel probe images. When sorted by decreasing Eigenvalue, the full set of unit length Eigenvectors represent an orthonormal basis where the first direction corresponds to the direction of maximum variance i n the images, the second the next largest variance, etc. These basis vectors are the Principle Components of the gallery images. Once the Eigenspace is computed, the centered gallery images are projected into this subspace. At run-time, recognition is accomplished by projecting a centered  probe image into the subspace and the nearest gallery image to the probe image is selected as its match. There are many differences in the systems referenced. Some systems assume that the images are registered prior to face recognition [15, 10, 11, 16]; among the rest, a variety of techniques are used to identify facial features and register them to each other. Different systems may use different distance measures when matching probe images to the nearest gallery image. Different systems select different numbers of Eigenvectors (usually those corresponding to the largest k Eigenvalues) in order to compress the data and to improve accuracy by eliminating Eigenvectors corresponding to noise rather than meaningful variation. To help evaluate and compare individual steps of the face recognition process, Moon and Phillips created the FERET face database, and performed initial comparisons of some common distance measures for otherwise identical systems [10, 11, 9]. This paper extends their work, presenting further comparisons of distance measures over the FERET database and examining alternative way of selecting subsets of Eigenvectors. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is one of the most successful techniques that have been used in image recognition and compression. PCA is a statistical method under the broad title of factor analysis. The purpose of PCA is to reduce the large dimensionality of the data space (observed variables) to the smaller intrinsic dimensionality of feature space (independent variables), which are needed to describe the data economically. This is the case when there is a strong correlation between observed variables. The jobs which PCA can do are pred iction, redundancy removal, feature extraction, data compression, etc. Because PCA is a classical technique which can do something in the linear domain, applications having linear models are suitable, such as signal processing, image processing, system and control theory, communications, etc. Face recognition has many applicable areas. Moreover, it can be categorized into face identification, face classification, or sex determination. The most useful applications contain crowd surveillance, video content indexing, personal identification (ex. drivers license), mug shots matching, entrance security, etc. The main idea of using PCA for face recognition is to express the large 1-D vector of pixels constructed from 2-D facial image into the compact principal components of the feature space. This can be called eigen space projection. Eigen space is calculated by identifying the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix derived from a set of facial images(vectors). The details are described i n the following section. PCA computes the basis of a space which is represented by its training vectors. These basis vectors, actually eigenvectors, computed by PCA are in the direction of the largest variance of the training vectors. As it has been said earlier, we call them eigenfaces. Each eigenface can be viewed a feature. When a particular face is projected onto the face space, its vector into the face space describe the importance of each of those features in the face. The face is expressed in the face space by its eigenface coefficients (or weights). We can handle a large input vector, facial image, only by taking its small weight vector in the face space. This means that we can reconstruct the original face with some error, since the dimensionality of the image space is much larger than that of face space. A face recognition system using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) algorithm. Automatic face recognition systems try to find the identity of a given face image according to their memory. The memory of a face recognizer is generally simulated by a training set. In this project, our training set consists of the features extracted from known face images of different persons. Thus, the task of the face recognizer is to find the most similar feature vector among the training set to the feature vector of a given test image. Here, we want to recognize the identity of a person where an image of that person (test image) is given to the system. You will use PCA as a feature extraction algorithm in this project. In the training phase, you should extract feature vectors for each image in the training set. Let  ­A be a training image of person A which has a pixel resolution of M  £ N (M rows, N columns). In order to extract PCA features of  ­A, you will first convert the image into a pixel vector à A by concatenating each of the M rows into a single vector. The length (or, dimensionality) of the vector à A will be M  £N. In this project, you will use the PCA algorithm as a dimensionality reduction technique which transforms the vector à A to a vector !A which has a imensionality d where d  ¿ M  £ N. For each training image  ­i, you should calculate and store these feature vectors !i. In the recognition phase (or, testing phase), you will be given a test image  ­j of a known person. Let  ®j be the identity (name) of this person. As in the training phase, you should compute the feature vector of this person using PCA and obtain !j . In order to identify  ­j , you should compute the similarities between !j and all of the feature vectors !is in the training set. The similarity between feature vectors can be computed using Euclidean distance. The identity of the most similar !i will be the output of our face recogn izer. If i = j, it means that we have correctly identified the person j, otherwise if i 6= j, it means that we have misclassified the person j. 1.2 Thesis structure: This thesis work is divided into five chapters as follows. Chapter 1: Introduction This introductory chapter is briefly explains the procedure of transformation in the Face Recognition and its applications. And here we explained the scope of this research. And finally it gives the structure of the thesis for friendly usage. Chapter 2: Basis of Transformation Techniques. This chapter gives an introduction to the Transformation techniques. In this chapter we have introduced two transformation techniques for which we are going to perform the analysis and result are used for face recognition purpose Chapter 3: Discrete Cosine Transformation In this chapter we have continued the part from chapter 2 about transformations. In this other method ie., DCT is introduced and analysis is done Chapter 4: Implementation and results This chapter presents the simulated results of the face recognition analysis using MATLAB. And it gives the explanation for each and every step of the design of face recognition analysis and it gives the tested results of the transformation algorithms. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Future work This is the final chapter in this thesis. Here, we conclude our research and discussed about the achieved results of this research work and suggested future work for this research. CHAPTER 2 BASICs of Image Transform Techniques 2.1 Introduction: Now a days Image Processing has been gained so much of importance that in every field of science we apply image processing for the purpose of security as well as increasing demand for it. Here we apply two different transformation techniques in order study the performance which will be helpful in the detection purpose. The computation of the performance of the image given for testing is performed in two steps: PCA (Principal Component Analysis) DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) 2.2 Principal Component Analysis: PCA is a technique which involves a procedure which mathematically transforms number of possibly correlated variables into smaller number of uncorrelated variables called principal components. The first principal component accounts for much variability in the data, and each succeeding component accounts for much of the remaining variability. Depending on the application field, it is also called the discrete Karhunen-Loà ¨ve transform (KLT), the Hotelling transform or proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). Now PCA is mostly used as a tool in exploration of data analysis and for making prognostic models. PCA also involves calculation for the Eigen value decomposition of a data covariance matrix or singular value decomposition of a data matrix, usually after mean centring the data from each attribute. The results of this analysis technique are usually shown in terms of component scores and also as loadings. PCA is real Eigen based multivariate analysis. Its action can be termed in terms of as edifying the inner arrangement of the data in a shape which give details of the mean and variance in the data. If there is any multivariate data then its visualized as a set if coordinates in a multi dimensional data space, this algorithm allows the users having pictures with a lower aspect reveal a shadow of object in view from a higher aspect view which reveals the true informative nature of the object. PCA is very closely related to aspect analysis, some statistical software packages purposely conflict the two techniques. True aspect analysis makes different assumptions about the original configuration and then solves eigenvectors of a little different medium. 2.2.1 PCA Implementation: PCA is mathematically defined as an orthogonal linear transformation technique that transforms data to a new coordinate system, such that the greatest variance from any projection of data comes to lie on the first coordinate, the second greatest variance on the second coordinate, and so on. PCA is theoretically the optimum transform technique for given data in least square terms. For a data matrix, XT, with zero empirical mean ie., the empirical mean of the distribution has been subtracted from the data set, where each row represents a different repetition of the experiment, and each column gives the results from a particular probe, the PCA transformation is given by: Where the matrix ÃŽÂ £ is an m-by-n diagonal matrix, where diagonal elements ae non-negative and W  ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ £Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  VT is the singular value decomposition of  X. Given a set of points in Euclidean space, the first principal component part corresponds to the line that passes through the mean and minimizes the sum of squared errors with those points. The second principal component corresponds to the same part after all the correlation terms with the first principal component has been subtracted from the points. Each Eigen value indicates the part of the variance ie., correlated with each eigenvector. Thus, the sum of all the Eigen values is equal to the sum of squared distance of the points with their mean divided by the number of dimensions. PCA rotates the set of points around its mean in order to align it with the first few principal components. This moves as much of the variance as possible into the first few dimensions. The values in the remaining dimensions tend to be very highly correlated and may be dropped with minimal loss of information. PCA is used for dimensionality reduction. PCA is optimal linear transformation technique for keep ing the subspace which has largest variance. This advantage comes with the price of greater computational requirement. In discrete cosine transform, Non-linear dimensionality reduction techniques tend to be more computationally demanding in comparison with PCA. Mean subtraction is necessary in performing PCA to ensure that the first principal component describes the direction of maximum variance. If mean subtraction is not performed, the first principal component will instead correspond to the mean of the data. A mean of zero is needed for finding a basis that minimizes the mean square error of the approximation of the data. Assuming zero empirical mean (the empirical mean of the distribution has been subtracted from the data set), the principal component w1 of a data set x can be defined as: With the first k  Ãƒ ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  1 component, the kth component can be found by subtracting the first k à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ 1 principal components from x: and by substituting this as the new data set to find a principal component in The other transform is therefore equivalent to finding the singular value decomposition of the data matrix X, and then obtaining the space data matrix Y by projecting X down into the reduced space defined by only the first L singular vectors, WL: The matrix W of singular vectors of X is equivalently the matrix W of eigenvectors of the matrix of observed covariances C = X XT, The eigenvectors with the highest eigen values correspond to the dimensions that have the strongest correlation in the data set (see Rayleigh quotient). PCA is equivalent to empirical orthogonal functions (EOF), a name which is used in meteorology. An auto-encoder neural network with a linear hidden layer is similar to PCA. Upon convergence, the weight vectors of the K neurons in the hidden layer will form a basis for the space spanned by the first K principal components. Unlike PCA, this technique will not necessarily produce orthogonal vectors. PCA is a popular primary technique in pattern recognition. But its not optimized for class separability. An alternative is the linear discriminant analysis, which does take this into account. 2.2.2 PCA Properties and Limitations PCA is theoretically the optimal linear scheme, in terms of least mean square error, for compressing a set of high dimensional vectors into a set of lower dimensional vectors and then reconstructing the original set. It is a non-parametric analysis and the answer is unique and independent of any hypothesis about data probability distribution. However, the latter two properties are regarded as weakness as well as strength, in that being non-parametric, no prior knowledge can be incorporated and that PCA compressions often incur loss of information. The applicability of PCA is limited by the assumptions[5] made in its derivation. These assumptions are: We assumed the observed data set to be linear combinations of certain basis. Non-linear methods such as kernel PCA have been developed without assuming linearity. PCA uses the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix and it only finds the independent axes of the data under the Gaussian assumption. For non-Gaussian or multi-modal Gaussian data, PCA simply de-correlates the axes. When PCA is used for clustering, its main limitation is that it does not account for class separability since it makes no use of the class label of the feature vector. There is no guarantee that the directions of maximum variance will contain good features for discrimination. PCA simply performs a coordinate rotation that aligns the transformed axes with the directions of maximum variance. It is only when we believe that the observed data has a high signal-to-noise ratio that the principal components with larger variance correspond to interesting dynamics and lower ones correspond to noise. 2.2.3 Computing PCA with covariance method Following is a detailed description of PCA using the covariance method . The goal is to transform a given data set X of dimension M to an alternative data set Y of smaller dimension L. Equivalently; we are seeking to find the matrix Y, where Y is the KLT of matrix X: Organize the data set Suppose you have data comprising a set of observations of M variables, and you want to reduce the data so that each observation can be described with only L variables, L Write as column vectors, each of which has M rows. Place the column vectors into a single matrix X of dimensions M ÃÆ'- N. Calculate the empirical mean Find the empirical mean along each dimension m = 1,  ,  M. Place the calculated mean values into an empirical mean vector u of dimensions M ÃÆ'- 1. Calculate the deviations from the mean Mean subtraction is an integral part of the solution towards finding a principal component basis that minimizes the mean square error of approximating the data. Hence we proceed by centering the data as follows: Subtract the empirical mean vector u from each column of the data matrix X. Store mean-subtracted data in the M ÃÆ'- N matrix B. where h is a 1  ÃƒÆ'-  N row vector of all  1s: Find the covariance matrix Find the M ÃÆ'- M empirical covariance matrix C from the outer product of matrix B with itself: where is the expected value operator, is the outer product operator, and is the conjugate transpose operator. Please note that the information in this section is indeed a bit fuzzy. Outer products apply to vectors, for tensor cases we should apply tensor products, but the covariance matrix in PCA, is a sum of outer products between its sample vectors, indeed it could be represented as B.B*. See the covariance matrix sections on the discussion page for more information. Find the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the covariance matrix Compute the matrix V of eigenvectors which diagonalizes the covariance matrix C: where D is the diagonal matrix of eigenvalues of C. This step will typically involve the use of a computer-based algorithm for computing eigenvectors and eigenvalues. These algorithms are readily available as sub-components of most matrix algebra systems, such as MATLAB[7][8], Mathematica[9], SciPy, IDL(Interactive Data Language), or GNU Octave as well as OpenCV. Matrix D will take the form of an M ÃÆ'- M diagonal matrix, where is the mth eigenvalue of the covariance matrix C, and Matrix V, also of dimension M ÃÆ'- M, contains M column vectors, each of length M, which represent the M eigenvectors of the covariance matrix C. The eigenvalues and eigenvectors are ordered and paired. The mth eigenvalue corresponds to the mth eigenvector. Rearrange the eigenvectors and eigenvalues Sort the columns of the eigenvector matrix V and eigenvalue matrix D in order of decreasing eigenvalue. Make sure to maintain the correct pairings between the columns in each matrix. Compute the cumulative energy content for each eigenvector The eigenvalues represent the distribution of the source datas energy among each of the eigenvectors, where the eigenvectors form a basis for the data. The cumulative energy content g for the mth eigenvector is the sum of the energy content across all of the eigenvalues from 1 through m: Select a subset of the eigenvectors as basis vectors Save the first L columns of V as the M ÃÆ'- L matrix W: where Use the vector g as a guide in choosing an appropriate value for L. The goal is to choose a value of L as small as possible while achieving a reasonably high value of g on a percentage basis. For example, you may want to choose L so that the cumulative energy g is above a certain threshold, like 90 percent. In this case, choose the smallest value of L such that Convert the source data to z-scores Create an M ÃÆ'- 1 empirical standard deviation vector s from the square root of each element along the main diagonal of the covariance matrix C: Calculate the M ÃÆ'- N z-score matrix: (divide element-by-element) Note: While this step is useful for various applications as it normalizes the data set with respect to its variance, it is not integral part of PCA/KLT! Project the z-scores of the data onto the new basis The projected vectors are the columns of the matrix W* is the conjugate transpose of the eigenvector matrix. The columns of matrix Y represent the Karhunen-Loeve transforms (KLT) of the data vectors in the columns of matrix  X. 2.2.4 PCA Derivation Let X be a d-dimensional random vector expressed as column vector. Without loss of generality, assume X has zero mean. We want to find a Orthonormal transformation matrix P such that with the constraint that is a diagonal matrix and By substitution, and matrix algebra, we obtain: We now have: Rewrite P as d column vectors, so and as: Substituting into equation above, we obtain: Notice that in , Pi is an eigenvector of the covariance matrix of X. Therefore, by finding the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix of X, we find a projection matrix P that satisfies the original constraints. CHAPTER 3 DISCRETE Cosine transform 3.1 Introduction: A discrete cosine transform (DCT) expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images, to spectral methods for the numerical solution of partial differential equations. The use of cosine rather than sine functions is critical in these applications: for compression, it turns out that cosine functions are much more efficient, whereas for differential equations the cosines express a particular choice of boundary conditions. In particular, a DCT is a Fourier-related transform similar to the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), but using only real numbers. DCTs are equivalent to DFTs of roughly twice the length, operating on real data with even symmetry (since the Fourier transform of a real and even function is real and even), where in some variants the input and/or output data are shifted by half a sample. There are eight standard DCT variants, of which four are common. The most common variant of discrete cosine transform is the type-II DCT, which is often called simply the DCT; its inverse, the type-III DCT, is correspondingly often called simply the inverse DCT or the IDCT. Two related transforms are the discrete sine transforms (DST), which is equivalent to a DFT of real and odd functions, and the modified discrete cosine transforms (MDCT), which is based on a DCT of overlapping data. 3.2 DCT forms: Formally, the discrete cosine transform is a linear, invertible function F  : RN -> RN, or equivalently an invertible N ÃÆ'- N square matrix. There are several variants of the DCT with slightly modified definitions. The N real numbers x0, , xN-1 are transformed into the N real numbers X0, , XN-1 according to one of the formulas: DCT-I Some authors further multiply the x0 and xN-1 terms by à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡2, and correspondingly multiply the X0 and XN-1 terms by 1/à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡2. This makes the DCT-I matrix orthogonal, if one further multiplies by an overall scale factor of , but breaks the direct correspondence with a real-even DFT. The DCT-I is exactly equivalent, to a DFT of 2N à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ 2 real numbers with even symmetry. For example, a DCT-I of N=5 real numbers abcde is exactly equivalent to a DFT of eight real numbers abcdedcb, divided by two. Note, however, that the DCT-I is not defined for N less than 2. Thus, the DCT-I corresponds to the boundary conditions: xn is even around n=0 and even around n=N-1; similarly for Xk. DCT-II The DCT-II is probably the most commonly used form, and is often simply referred to as the DCT. This transform is exactly equivalent to a DFT of 4N real inputs of even symmetry where the even-indexed elements are zero. That is, it is half of the DFT of the 4N inputs yn, where y2n = 0, y2n + 1 = xn for , and y4N à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ n = yn for 0 Some authors further multiply the X0 term by 1/à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡2 and multiply the resulting matrix by an overall scale factor of . This makes the DCT-II matrix orthogonal, but breaks the direct correspondence with a real-even DFT of half-shifted input. The DCT-II implies the boundary conditions: xn is even around n=-1/2 and even around n=N-1/2; Xk is even around k=0 and odd around k=N. DCT-III Because it is the inverse of DCT-II (up to a scale factor, see below), this form is sometimes simply referred to as the inverse DCT (IDCT). Some authors further multiply the x0 term by à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡2 and multiply the resulting matrix by an overall scale factor of , so that the DCT-II and DCT-III are transposes of one another. This makes the DCT-III matrix orthogonal, but breaks the direct correspondence with a real-even DFT of half-shifted output. The DCT-III implies the boundary conditions: xn is even around n=0 and odd around n=N; Xk is even around k=-1/2 and even around k=N-1/2. DCT-IV The DCT-IV matrix becomes orthogonal if one further multiplies by an overall scale factor of . A variant of the DCT-IV, where data from different transforms are overlapped, is called the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) (Malvar, 1992). The DCT-IV implies the boundary conditions: xn is even around n=-1/2 and odd around n=N-1/2; similarly for Xk. DCT V-VIII DCT types I-IV are equivalent to real-even DFTs of even order, since the corresponding DFT is of length 2(Nà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1) (for DCT-I) or 4N (for DCT-II/III) or 8N (for DCT-VIII). In principle, there are actually four additional types of discrete cosine transform, corresponding essentially to real-even DFTs of logically odd order, which have factors of N ±Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½ in the denominators of the cosine arguments. Equivalently, DCTs of types I-IV imply boundaries that are even/odd around either a data point for both boundaries or halfway between two data points for both boundaries. DCTs of types V-VIII imply boundaries that even/odd around a data point for one boundary and halfway between two data points for the other boundary. However, these variants seem to be rarely used in practice. One reason, perhaps, is that FFT algorithms for odd-length DFTs are generally more complicated than FFT algorithms for even-length DFTs (e.g. the simplest radix-2 algorithms are only for even lengths), and this increased intricacy carries over to the DCTs as described below. Inverse transforms Using the normalization conventions above, the inverse of DCT-I is DCT-I multiplied by 2/(N-1). The inverse of DCT-IV is DCT-IV multiplied by 2/N. The inverse of DCT-II is DCT-III multiplied by 2/N and vice versa. Like for the DFT, the normalization factor in front of these transform definitions is merely a convention and differs between treatments. For example, some authors multiply the transforms by so that the inverse does not require any additional multiplicative factor. Combined with appropriate factors of à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡2 (see above), this can be used to make the transform matrix orthogonal. Multidimensional DCTs Multidimensional variants of the various DCT types follow straightforwardly from the one-dimensional definitions: they are simply a separable product (equivalently, a composition) of DCTs along each dimension. For example, a two-dimensional DCT-II of an image or a matrix is simply the one-dimensional DCT-II, from above, performed along the rows and then along the columns (or vice versa). That is, the 2d DCT-II is given by the formula (omitting normalization and other scale factors, as above): Two-dimensional DCT frequencies Technically, computing a two- (or multi-) dimensional DCT by sequences of one-dimensional DCTs along each dimension is known as a row-column algorithm. As with multidimensional FFT algorithms, however, there exist other methods to compute the same thing while performing the computations in a different order. The inverse of a multi-dimensional DCT is just a separable product of the inverse(s) of the corresponding one-dimensional DCT(s), e.g. the one-dimensional inverses applied along one dimension at a time in a row-column algorithm. The image to the right shows combination of horizontal and vertical frequencies for an 8 x 8 (N1 = N2 = 8) two-dimensional DCT. Each step from left to right and top to bottom is an increase in frequency by 1/2 cycle. For example, moving right one from the top-left square yields a half-cycle increase in the horizontal frequency. Another move to the right yields two half-cycles. A move down yields two half-cycles horizontally and a half-cycle vertically. The source data (88) is transformed to a linear combination of these 64 frequency squares. Chapter 4 IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS 4.1 Introduction: In previous chapters (chapter 2 and chapter 3), we get the theoretical knowledge about the Principal Component Analysis and Discrete Cosine Transform. In our thesis work we have seen the analysis of both transform. To execute these tasks we chosen a platform called MATLAB, stands for matrix laboratory. It is an efficient language for Digital image processing. The image processing toolbox in MATLAB is a collection of different MATAB functions that extend the capability of the MATLAB environment for the solution of digital image processing problems. [13] 4.2 Practical implementation of Performance analysis: As discussed earlier we are going to perform analysis for the two transform methods, to the images as, <