Rikki Tikki Tavi

Andrew  Ward Period:  Ã‚  7 Date:  2/6/13 Rikki  Tikki  Tavi  Perseverance â€Å"This  is  the  story  of  the  great  war  that  Rikki  Tikki  Tavi  fought  single  handed, through  the  bathrooms  of  the  big  bungalow  in  segowlee cantonment. †(594). it  is  also  about  Rikki  Tikki’s  perseverance  by  continued effort  to  do  or  achieve  something  despite  difficulties,  failure,  or opposition. Rikki  Tikki  shows  perseverance  by  going  on  journeys, overcoming  obstacles,  and  accomplishing  goals. Rikki's  journeys  demonstrate  perseverance  because  he  was  washed  by  a flood  to  the  bungalow/garden  and  he  explored  the  garden  where  he  met Darzee  and  his  wife.Rikki  was  washed  away  Ã¢â‚¬Å"One  day,  a  high  summer flood  washed  him  out  of  the  bu rrow  where  he  lived  with  his  father  and mother,  and  carried  him,  kicking  and  clucking,  down  a  roadside ditch†(594). Rikki  stopped  by  finding  a  wisp  of  grass  and  held  onto  it,  but lost  his  senses. Rikki  found  himself  on  the  middle  of  a  garden  path  were teddy,  a  little  boy,  found  Rikki. After,  Teddy  and  his  family  helped  Rikki back  on  his  feet,  Rikki  Ã¢â‚¬Å"then  went  outside  into  the  garden  to  see  what  was to  be  seen†(596). It  was  Darzee  the  tailor  bird  and  his  wife,  who  made  a beautiful  nest. But  lost  an  egg  and  was  eaten  by  Nag†(596 ­597). Nag  is  a 8ft  long  snake  with  a  symbol  on  his  hood  who  he  say  he  got  it  from  god. Rkki  found  Darzee  while  he  was  sniffing  around  he  heard  a  very  sorrowful voice  how  was  Darzee  and  his  wife. Since  there  were  snakes  in  the garden  stayed  since  each  mongoose  wants  to  be  a  household  pet. Even though  he  was  almost  killed  by  Nagaina,  Nag’s  wife  who  looks  exactly  like him.

9/11 Research Paper Essay

The official account of 9-11 does not give a sound explanation of where any extremely hot material in the WTC collapse piles could have come from, nor does it give a sound explanation for the unusually persistent heat at Ground Zero. Numerous misleading and misinforming statements are disseminated to conceal this dilemma of the official account. In Part I several sources are compiled relating to the exceptionally high temperatures, and/or to the persistent heat at Ground Zero. Most of these sources compiled have a background in science or in engineering. Some sources are statements by people who participated in the management of Ground Zero. The background of some of the sources is given in detail. In the subsection â€Å"Thermal images† some features of published thermal images are addressed. Some of them are in conflict with the assumption that the high temperatures/persistent heat phenomenon was due solely to burning fires See more: Experiment on polytropic process Essay In Part II disinformation strategies, techniques and arguments are addressed that serve the purpose of avoiding a thorough public debate about the phenomena of â€Å"molten steel†, exceptionally high temperatures and persistent heat at Ground Zero. The articles and excerpts discussed are from NIST, from so-called â€Å"debunking† websites, and from mainstream mass media. It will be shown that the statements and suggestions by NIST and â€Å"debunkers† in respect of these phenomena are misleading or wrong. In some of the cases the wrong or misleading statements or suggestions are directly stated. In these cases it will be shown why a statement or suggestion is wrong or misleading, and indications will be discussed that the authors must have been aware of the fact that their statements or suggestions are wrong or misleading. These statements or suggestions have the quality of disinformation1. With respect to the other cases it will be shown that misleading suggestions are spread by the use of language that is purposely manipulative. In addition to the articles and excerpts that are directly related to the high temperature/persistent heat phenomena at Ground Zero some mass media articles are discussed that deal with these phenomena implicitly by dealing with the broader subject.

Midterm Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Midterm - Assignment Example As has been evident in the recent wars and the virility of drone technology use, it is sufficient to state that robotics, inclusive of drone warfare, represent technological revolution in warfare and global security. Drones are now at the top of the robotic weapons employed by the U.S. since 2004. Since their inception, winning wars has not only become simpler, but world politics are also taking a more positive approach. One of the biggest roles played by drones so far has been in counterinsurgency fights. In the Afghanistan, Iraqi, and Libyan Wars, the American commanders were awarded a great advantage by drones. First, they could survey enemy territory without being noticed. As such, they would plan their attacks to attain maximum effectiveness. In short, they knew where to hit, and when, using what kind of power, and what the likely outcome was. In this way, they had greater command over the battlefield. This justifies that warfare has undergone significant revolution unlike ancient times when rivals blindly went into battlefields with the least idea of what awaited them. Second, unarmed drones played a key role in undermining enemy’s networks of communications. Before and during the wars, spy drones would invade enemy airspaces and bypass their communication systems. Back at headquarters, the drone operators would collect intelligence from the information being relayed by the UAVs. As such, they knew much of what the enemy was planning, or they could easily locate insurgents’ hideouts. This advancement in collecting intelligence enabled the United Sates to suppress terror attacks as well as take the enemy by surprise. In the event that an enemy is caught unawares in battle, the war is a win-win situation. More importantly, drones can be used to interrupt enemy communications thus disrupt their activities. One of the most popular

Write a report assessing the feastibility of dufferent techniques for Assignment

Write a report assessing the feastibility of dufferent techniques for providing fresh water to arid region of the world - Assignment Example Use of desalination process is applicable in most parts of the world with its feasibility being based on aspects energy and eco-friendliness. On the other hand, rainwater harvesting is suitable in those areas that are agriculture oriented and their rainfall distribution can allow for runoffs. Most parts of the Middle East meet its viability. Desalination is the process of eliminating that solid material that has dissolved in water especially salts and other lifeless variety. Desalination takes place in the normal natural setting as water evaporates from the seas, lakes, and oceans to move upwards, precipitate, and form clouds. Historical descriptions and records, including the setting of some of the earliest Greek philosophers reveal that humanity has been using desalination since long ago to come up with drinking water. The arid situation in some parts of the world has contributed towards the increased use of desalination to create fresh water that can enable them carry out various purposes with it. Studies reveal that desalination technology is used in about 125 countries globally, with the United States leading in its application (National Research Council, 2004, p.12). Several desalination know how are used in different parts of the world to remove salt from seawater. The type of technology used is dependent on some factors such as quality of the water source, anticipated purpose for the water being desalinated, size of the plant, capital, and energy charges and the possibility of energy reuse. In desalination process, thermal technologies are used to heat seawater, which then evaporates forming vapor. The vapor is then condensed to become fresh water. The use of thermal technologies was common many decades ago. From 1950, there was a shift from thermal use to use of membranes to desalinate brackish water (Escobar and Schafer, 2009, p. 10). The Middle East is among the main users of

The Problem of Adder-Tariff-Scheme in Thailand Essay

The Problem of Adder-Tariff-Scheme in Thailand - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Thailand is one of the successful countries that have made the progressive step in the use of solar energy in South East Asia. The government of Thailand has implemented photovoltaic support programme, which aims at increasing their renewable energy targets. This project has been made possible due to their outstanding policies that they have put in place. The country currently is in the process of implementing policies that will increase the solar energy production from 1,000MW to 3,000MW by the next years to come. These policies come after the government of Thai fails to accept the introduction of feed-in premium. The policies include the solar rooftop programme and community solar-based programme, which is still in development stage. The research shows that the government of Thailand spent many billions importing energy in the neighboring countries.This indicates that the country will continue spending a lot of money in the energy sector due to the risin g demand for the energy supply. This will increase the cost of dependency in foreign energy due to a projected rise in global energy prices. The research advocates for access to affordable and sustainable energy in Thailand. The major interest involved in energy systems are the difficulties that most developing government face in getting access to the energy. Therefore, for the government to improve its access to energy the previous endeavors of the energy department in order to pave way for new technology in the sector to be successful.

Is killing animals , or making them suffer, for human ends morally Essay

Is killing animals , or making them suffer, for human ends morally defensible - Essay Example My opinion extends to other human activities that put harm animal which are not necessary, such as poaching or game hunting or animal fights. There is a fundamental moral principle which permits us to share a kind of equal treatment that concerns all human beings and with every kind of differences that exist between and every one of us. I believe that this moral code is not only limited to human beings, but also to other living sentient beings in our environment. I believe that respect for life even extends to non-human living organisms and that animals have every right to be treated with much care and equanimity as we do with a fellow human being. Even if non-human animals are lacking superior and complex rational faculties and capabilities compared to humans, their existence is something to be valued and not to be brushed aside so brusquely. If one were to look at it, an average person would rather dismiss the issue of animal rights while not being able to sit down and swallow the problems of racial discrimination. The reason behind this is that people in general, most of the time ignorantly or unintentionally, have speciesism as part of their mindset. Speciesism could be defined as the belief that one kind of species among all other members of the group is more superior to the rest, therefore the rationale for dominance, subjugation or annihilation of the superior specie against the more inferior. In this case, humanity has seen itself at the highest pedestal of the food chain. Singer made this observation on speciesism in this manner: This attitude reflects a popular prejudice against taking the interests of animals seriously - a prejudice no better founded than the prejudice of white slaveowners against taking the interests of their African slaves seriously. It is easy for us to criticise the prejudices of our grandfathers, from which our fathers freed themselves. It is more difficult to distance ourselves from our own views, so that we can dispassionately search for prejudices among the beliefs and values we hold. What is needed now is a willingness to follow the arguments where they lead, without a prior assumption that the issue is not worth our attention (55-56). I would now come to think that if animals were in the same level as human beings, perhaps in the eyes of a Higher Being such as God, animals were and are still the most abused group of organisms on the Earth. Yet, most of us human beings are not too concerned about this because there is either lack of care or concern. It can be said then that the lack of compassion is what kills animals by human hands. I think there is more to that than just a lack of care for life, something that is more logical. For example, If a person were to be asked whether it is better to put a human being or an animal as a test subject for a scientific experiment that could find a cure for a deadly disease and save millions of lives, would it be certain to say that the person would choose another human being to be put under the knife than an animal? Even if the person being asked was an animal lover or animal rights advocate, I most certainly doubt that any psychologically normal person would choose another human being in a heartbeat. People would rather have an animal go under the experimentation instead since it human beings have more attachment and concern for another human being than an animal. I will not be a hypocrite to say that I know any better about this matter. If being asked the same question, I would

HUM200_ESSAY1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HUM200_ESSAY1 - Essay Example The foremost among them was its glorification of man instead of God and that man was the gauge of all things and had indefinite potential. The Renaissance started in the city of Florence in Italy, and subsequently expanded into the rest of Italy and afterwards into Northern Europe. Artistically, the Renaissance shaped a completely new approach to express human emotions and ethics by the use of architecture, sculpture and in particular painting. As history reveals, the painters of the Renaissance, like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and many others, did not evaluate their work merely evaluate on the feats of their large number of predecessors. They utilized the new scientific theories of their age and related their points of view to create paintings that reflected practical and realistic images. They mostly painted idealized figures and pictures based on humanistic concepts and principles, which manifested their ideals of man being separate from God and showed that his environment was a natural occurrence and not the result of a higher power. The paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, for example, reflect the ideals of humanism and materialism. Leonardo da Vinci often referred to as the Renaissance man, was an expert in a number of fields and had an extensive range of interests. He was not only an artist and musician, but also a sculptor, painter, architect as well as a scientist. He dissected the dead bodies of human beings to make the way muscles and bones functioned. His sketchbooks consist of diagrams and operational schemes of flying machine and undersea boats. His famous paintings include Mona Lisa, The Last Supper (which was painted on a plaster wall using oil) and Madonna and Child with Saint Anne. Leonardo da Vinci’s keen interest in human anatomy leads to the perfection of his paintings. He was very skilled with the drawings of the human face and no better painting than that of the

Human computer interaction Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human computer interaction - Assignment Example This made me to access outdated and irrelevant source of ideas that lowered my knowledge and competence levels. Equally, there were cases in which hackers and introduction of malware made accessing the sites impossible hence completely blocking my access to the sites. The major contributing factors to the problems were unprofessional management of the sites plus poor site designs. The site hosts assumed that the sites operated perfectly despite the poor maintenance approaches provided. Progress is achievable through improved maintenance and constant updating of the sites ensuring stable site access throughout the year. Future designs of these sites need to factor in issues of proper site maintenance with regular upgrades to avoid inconvenience to all the users. Question 2 HCL is supposed to offer quick solutions in an effective and comprehensive way without compromising the quality of products and services in question. The use of mobile technology to get solutions for common problems is one of the great samples. Many present day scanners use heuristic signatures for virus and malware detection in an efficient and faster means. This is sustainable model for handling the problems with a properly designed tool and framework without compromising of the status of data under threat. ... Therefore, it offers a sustainable and manageable solution to lives and property. The essence of Berkun apply to HCL since the algorithms in HCL are quite compressive and user friendly that they are able to offer solutions to most common problems in technology use and academic endeavours of people presently. In gaming and social media application of this technology has enriched and fastened the use of this services.HCL applies the search of task through search trees accomplishing it effectively .The amount of information and games in the internet is quite high therefore it offers efficiency due to its selectiveness and specialization. Instead of giving all the possible solution branches, it provides the branch most likely possible to the necessary outcomes in relation to other branches and options. From experiences in using this technology its specific in selection of information and materials at the points of need. Question 3 Connection with technology challenges the status quo thro ugh offering various opportunities and possibilities to human connection rather than the physical communication. The examples and real applications presented by Sherry Turckle represent an illustration of what is going on in the world of technology today. The society expects much from technology in relation to what we receive and expect from humans. It has provided an opportunity and illusion of companionship without friendship hence no cost and incurred within the companionship model provided by technology. Parents and the children fail to provide one another with companionship and attention as witnessed in cases where parents get busy with emailing and texting to colleagues during meals instead of

Social Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Social Media - Essay Example The company had not even finalized the process of informing the family since it was only thirty minutes from the accident. Her weighty question was, ‘Has facebook introduced dying in real time’. During my use of social media, I have always found status updates from friends on facebook that are either announcing the passing on of the friends’ parents, children, siblings, friends or relatives. I almost always wonder the motivation behind sharing such personal information was. The question that always lingers on the mind is what will one feel when they learn of the demise of their loved ones through facebook or twitter? Are social networks making us so inhuman as not to consider the feelings of others? Are we in a race to establish who breaks news of an event without considering the humane and ethics side of our actions? For the research, I choose to look for respondents who had either reported a death on social media or one who had learnt of the demise of a loved on e from the media. I requested my friends to try to remember if anybody in their connections had ever posted anything close to that. From my friends, I got a list of eleven possible candidates. I then visited these candidates’ profiles to try and pull up these updates and found that three of them had already deleted the posts or ‘unfollowed’ them. The first consideration I made was the time elapsed since the post was made. This was necessary since I did not want my interviewees to be people who were recently bereaved on such a sensitive subject. Next I narrowed down by geographical location since I preferred to do a face to face interview. At the end, I settled on two candidates, one a college student and the other a married man who only gave his age as ‘in the mid thirties’ For the purposes of this write up, I will only use alliances of Joe and Mary for the man and the college lady respectively. Both candidates had been using facebook for upwards of four years and as thus were well versed in uses and limitations. The college student was on a camping trip when one of her friends drowned. Immediately most of her friends went online to announce the incident with some mentioning the name of the victim in their posts or through the auto name link function of facebook. Mary insisted that she was not among the first to post this but on reflection she felt that the only reason might have been because she had been too much shocked and had to be taken to the hospital. Asked how it would have been had she been the relative and learnt of the occasion on facebook, she said she would be extremely troubled and actually termed it ‘disgusting’. Joe lost his young son after a short illness. Being a Muslim, the young boy’s body had to be interred the same day. His wife was in shock and all planning was left to Joe. With family to be notified and logistics to be handled, it was all too much for him. Then an idea hit him, why no t just it on facebook? He did exactly that, and he says he has no regrets. The post acts as his condolence book and most of his friends and family even those who live in faraway places were able to condole with him. Ilana Gershon uses the term Idioms of practice to describe the situation where people decide communally how to use various media and their appropriateness in certain situations (2010, p.6). This implies that a majority of the users of social

Ethics †Current Events Essay Example for Free

Ethics – Current Events Essay The issue between the United States accusing China of hacking the Pentagon’s computer network is in a way a violation of the Data Protection Law and international law. For many years the Pentagon has been the subject of cyber intrusion and attempts to penetrate its most kept defense data which if this system will be intruded there would be a possible attempt for an international terrorism. Although the intrusion was only discovered recently according to the US Defense Department it was possible that China has been trying many ways and means to penetrate Pentagon’s database system. The problem here lies not only to the People’s Liberation Army which Pentagon was pointing but China’s Foreign Minister, Jiang Yu is denying the accusations saying his country has no part in the intrusion attempt to the Defense Department’s systems. Fortunately, the US defense system is equipped with the most advance military technology that could detect and tract such intrusion. The Pentagon greatly considers the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in staging such hacking although it did not disclose that Beijing which is China’s seat of Socialism is involved here. Although the US Department of Defense confirmed that the existence of such group could be a small group formed out of the PLA, its intention is anticipated in trying to get information using technological advances (Starr, Todd and Payne). But it is just obvious that even the most highly advanced technology could not stop an ever changing development of computer viruses, spywares and worms to mutate into a more advance and destructive programs. All of these are man-made and unfortunately those people on the other parts of the world are trying to take advantage and could developed these into more powerful and persistent programs so they can merge themselves to the existing programs for destructive purposes. Not only the US is grieving about such violation of international law but even London as well who holds the same position as a powerful country is confirming such an intrusion. Although at this time China is showing its meekness with the present issues, no one can really tell if this is the result of a shadowing another Cold War between the two large countries. The US cannot totally eliminate espionage on its defense system and has a rich history in violation of its secret information. But what causes other personalities or even countries to have an interest to gather information from the US is still unfathomable to the ordinary people. China with its olden years of co-habiting principles with the old Russia has not totally erased its personality as a communist country. Indeed it has grown in terms of its economy because of the free trade but many believe that this was just superficial because China was trying secretly to be another growing superpower in the making. In terms of manpower and number of armies indeed China has not lost its capability to be an independent country. President Bush still wanted to play it safe and could not directly convict China of such intrusion. After all he is trying to build rapport to avoid another international issue that could destroy relationships between nations. On the contrary, the people in the White House are all aware of this issue and are not sleeping with two eyes closed. Fortunately, the incident only happened on the surface attacking the unclassified e-mail in the Defense department before it can penetrate the military’s database. The Pentagon had to shut down its unclassified e-mail for a few weeks although it is not networked to military network that contain confidentialities. No harm done so far and Pentagon officials said none of their operations were disrupted. Not only has Washington is confirming such an assault from the group but even the Britain’s Parliament and the Foreign Office has been hacked according to the Associated Press and Guardian newspaper of London. AP who is keen on making research involving China and international espionage has made a report that the day before the German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Beijing, the local newspaper Der Spiegel said they found Trojans (spy programs) at the Chancellery computer system. Everybody is not safe even to the extent of breaking laws and bypassing international boundaries. There are only countries that are only moving for their advantage notwithstanding privacy and securities. Indeed, the technology has made a great advancement with great leaps and development. It is only unfortunate that sometimes leaps and bounds are crossing the borders and surmounting other people’s space of confidentiality.

Static Analysis of Uncertain Structures

Static Analysis of Uncertain Structures Static Analysis of Uncertain Structures Using Interval Eigenvalue Decomposition 1Mehdi Modares and 2Robert L. Mullen 1Department of Civil and Environmental   Engineering Tufts University Medford, MA, 02155 2Department of Civil Engineering Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH, 44106 Abstract: Static analysis is an essential procedure to design a structure. Using static analysis, the structures response to the applied external forces is obtained. This response includes internal forces/moments and internal stresses that is used in the design process. However, the mechanical characteristics of the structure possess uncertainties which alter the structures response. One method to quantify the presence of these uncertainties is interval or unknown-but-bounded variables. In this work a new method is developed to obtain the bounds on structures static response using interval eigenvalue decomposition of the stiffness matrix. The bounds of eigenvalues are obtained using monotonic behavior of eigenvalues for a symmetric matrix subjected to non-negative definite perturbations. Moreover, the bounds of eigenvectors are obtained using perturbation of invariant subspaces for symmetric matrices. Comparisons with other interval finite element solution methods are presented. Using this method, it has shown that obtaining the bound on static response of an uncertain structure does not require a combinatorial or Monte-Carlo simulation procedure. Keywords: Statics, Analysis, Interval, Uncertainty  © 2008 by authors. Printed in USA. REC 2008 Modares and Mullen In design of structures, the performance of the structure must be guaranteed over its lifetime. Moreover, static analysis is a fundamental procedure for designing reliable structure that are subjected to static or quasi-static forces induced by various loading conditions and patterns. However, in current procedures for static analysis of structural systems, the existence of uncertainty in either mechanical properties of the system or the characteristics of forcing function is generally not considered. These uncertainties can be attributed to physical imperfections, modeling inaccuracies and system complexities. Although, in a design process, uncertainty is accounted for by a combination of load amplification and strength reduction factors that are based on probabilistic models of historic data, consideration of the effects of uncertainty has been removed from current static analysis of structural systems. In this work, a new method is developed to perform static analysis of a structural system in the presence of uncertainty in the systems mechanical properties as well as uncertainty in the magnitude of loads. The presence of these uncertainties is quantified using interval or unknownbut-bounded variables. This method obtains the bounds on structures static response using interval eigenvalue decomposition of the stiffness matrix. The bounds of eigenvalues are obtained using the concept of monotonic behavior of eigenvalues for a symmetric matrix subjected to non-negative definite perturbations. Furthermore, the bounds of eigenvectors are obtained using perturbation of invariant subspaces for symmetric matrices. Using this method, it has shown that obtaining the bound on static response of an uncertain structure does not require a combinatorial or MonteCarlo simulation procedure. The equation of equilibrium for a multiple degree of freedom structure is defined as a linear system of equations as:   [K]{U}={P}   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (1) where, [K]is the stiffness matrix, {U}is the vector of unknown nodal displacements, and {P} is the vector of nodal forces. The solution to this system of equation is:   {U} = [K]−1{P}   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (2) The concept of interval numbers has been originally applied in the error analysis associated with digital computing.   Quantification of the uncertainties introduced by truncation of real numbers in numerical methods was the primary application of interval methods (Moore 1966). A real interval is a closed set defined by extreme values as (Figure 1): ~l ,zu ] ={z∈â„Å"| zl ≠¤ z ≠¤ zu} (3)   Z = [z ~ x = [a,b] Figure 1. An interval variable. In this work, the symbol (~) represents an interval quantity. One interpretation of an interval number is a random variable whose probability density function is unknown but non-zero only in the range of interval. Another interpretation of an interval number includes intervals of confidence for ÃŽ ±-cuts of fuzzy sets. The interval representation transforms the point values in the deterministic system to inclusive set values in the system with bounded uncertainty. Considering the presence of interval uncertainty in stiffness and force properties, the system of equilibrium equations, Eq.(1), is modified as an interval system of equilibrium equation as: ~~   [K]{U}={P}   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (4) ~ where, [K]is the interval stiffness matrix, {U}is the vector of unknown nodal displacements, and {P} is the vector of interval nodal forces. In development of interval stiffness matrix, the physical and mathematical characteristics of the stiffness matrix must be preserves. This system of interval equations is mainly solved using computationally iterative procedures (Muhanna et al 2007) and (Neumaier and Pownuk 2007). The present method proposes a computationally efficient procedure with nearly sharp results using interval eigenvalue decomposition of stiffness matrix. While the external force can also have uncertainties, in this work only problems with interval stiffness properties are addressed. However, for functional independent variations for both stiffness matrix and external force vector, the extension of the proposed work is straightforward. 3.1. DETERMINISTIC EIGENVALUE DECOMPOSITION The deterministic symmetric stiffness matrix can be decomposed using matrix eigenvalue decomposition as:   [K] = [ÃŽ ¦][Λ][ÃŽ ¦]T   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (5) where, [ÃŽ ¦] is the matrix of eigenvectors, and [Λ] is the diagonal matrix of eigenvalues. Equivalently, N   [K] =∑Î »i{à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢i}{à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢i}T   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (6) i=1 where, the values of ÃŽ »i is the eigenvalues and the vectors{à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢i}are their corresponding  eigenvectors.   Therefore, the eigenvalue decomposition of the inverse of the stiffness matrix is: equivalently, [K]−1 =[ÃŽ ¦][Λ]−1[ÃŽ ¦]T   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (7) −N 1T [K] 1 =∑ {à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢i}{à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢i}   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (8) i=1 ÃŽ »i Substituting Eq.(8) in the solution for the deterministic linear system of equation, Eq.(2), the solution for response is shown as:   {U}= ( N 1 {à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢i}{à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢i}T ){P}   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (9) 3.2. INTERVAL EIGENVALUE DECOMPOSITION Similarly, the solution to interval system of equilibrium equations, Eq.(4), is:   {U~}= (∑N ~1 {à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢~ }{à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢~i}T ){P}   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (10) i i=1 ÃŽ »i ~~ } are their where, the values of ÃŽ »i is the interval eigenvalues and, the vectors {à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢i corresponding interval eigenvectors that are to be determined. 4.1. BACKGROUND The research in interval eigenvalue problem began to emerge as its applicability in science and engineering was realized. Hollot and Bartlett (1987) studied the spectra of eigenvalues of an interval matrix family which are found to depend on the spectrum of its extreme sets. Dief (1991) presented a method for computing interval eigenvalues of an interval matrix based on an assumption of invariance properties of eigenvectors. In structural dynamics, Modares and Mullen (2004) have introduced a method for the solution of the interval eigenvalue problem which determines the exact bounds of the natural frequencies of a system using Interval Finite Element formulation. 4.2. DEFINITION The eigenvalue problems for matrices containing interval values are known as the interval ~ ~ nn ) and [A] is a member of the eigenvalue problems. If [A] is an interval real matrix (A∈â„Å" ~ interval matrix ([A]∈[A]) , the interval eigenvalue problem is shown as: ~ 4.2.1. Solution for Eigenvalues The solution of interest to the real interval eigenvalue problem for bounds on each eigenvalue is ~ defined as an inclusive set of real values (ÃŽ ») such that for any member of the interval matrix, the eigenvalue solution to the problem is a member of the solution set. Therefore, the solution to the interval eigenvalue problem for each eigenvalue can be mathematically expressed as: ~l ,ÃŽ »u ]|∀[A]∈[A~]: ([A]−Î »[I]){x} = 0}   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (12)   {ÃŽ »Ã¢Ë†Ë†ÃŽ »= [ÃŽ » 4.2.2. Solution for Eigenvectors: The solution of interest to the real interval eigenvalue problem for bounds on each eigenvector is defined as an inclusive set of real values of vector {~x} such that for any member of the interval matrix, the eigenvector solution to the problem is a member of the solution set. Thus, the solution to the interval eigenvalue problem for each eigenvector is: 4.3. INTERVAL STIFFNESS MATRIX The systems global stiffness can be viewed as a summation of the element contributions to the global stiffness matrix: n i=1 where [ Li ] is the element Boolean connectivity matrix and [Ki ] is the element stiffness matrix in the global coordinate system. Considering the presence of uncertainty in the stiffness properties, the non-deterministic element elastic stiffness matrix is expressed as: ~ in which, [li ,ui ] is an interval number that pre-multiplies the deterministic element stiffness matrix. This procedure preserves the physical and mathematical characteristics of the stiffness matrix. Therefore, the systems global stiffness matrix in the presence of any uncertainty is the linear summation of the contributions of non-deterministic interval element stiffness matrices: ,ui ])[Li ][Ki ][Li ] =∑ i=1i=1 in which, [Ki ] is the deterministic element elastic stiffness contribution to the global stiffness matrix. 4.4. INTERVAL EIGENVALUE PROBLEM FOR STATICS The interval eigenvalue problem for a structure with stiffness properties expressed as interval values is:   [K~]{à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢~} = (ÃŽ »~){à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢~} (17) Substituting Eq.(16) in Eq.(17): ]){à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢} = (ÃŽ »){à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ i=1 This interval eigenvalue problem can be transformed to a pseudo-deterministic eigenvalue problem subjected to a matrix perturbation. Introducing the central and radial (perturbation) stiffness matrices as: i 1 [K~R ] =∑i=n1 (ÃŽ µi )(ui 2−li )[Ki ]    ,  Ã‚  Ã‚   ÃŽ µi =[−1,1]  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (20) Using Eqs. (19,20), the non-deterministic interval eigenpair problem, Eq.(18),   becomes: Hence, the determination of bounds on eigenvalues and bounds on eigenvectors of a stiffness matrix in the presence of uncertainty is mathematically interpreted as an eigenvalue problem on a ~ central stiffness matrix ([KC ]) that is subjected to a radial perturbation stiffness matrix ([KR ]). This perturbation is in fact, a linear summation of non-negative definite deterministic element stiffness contribution matrices that are scaled with bounded real numbers(ÃŽ µi ) . 5. Solution 5.1. BOUNDS ON EIGENVALUES The following concepts must be considered in order to bound the non-deterministic interval eigenvalue problem, Eq.(21). The classical linear eigenpair problem for a symmetric matrix is: with the solution of real eigenvalues (ÃŽ »1 ≠¤ÃŽ »2 ≠¤ ≠¤ÃŽ »n ) and corresponding eigenvectors ( x1, x2,, xn ). This equation can be transformed into a ratio of quadratics known as the Rayleigh quotient:   R(x) =  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (23) The Rayleigh quotient for a symmetric matrix is bounded between the smallest and the largest eigenvalues (Bellman 1960 and Strang 1976).    (24) Thus, the first eigenvalue (ÃŽ »1) can be obtained by performing an unconstrained minimization on the scalar-valued function of Rayleigh quotient: ( (25) x∈ For finding the next eigenvalues, the concept of maximin characterization can be used. This concept obtains the kth eigenvalue by imposing (k-1) constraints on the minimization of the Rayleigh quotient (Bellman 1960 and Strang 1976): ÃŽ »k = max[minR(x)]   (subject to constrains(xT zi = 0),i =1,k −1,k ≠¥ 2 ) (26) 5.1.1. Bounding the Eigenvalues for Statics Using the concepts of minimum and maximin characterizations of eigenvalues for symmetric matrices, the solution to the interval eigenvalue problem for the eigenvalues of a system with uncertainty in the stiffness characteristics (Eq.(21)) for the first eigenvalue can be shown as: n x∈Rn{x}T {x} for the next eigenvalues: ~{x}T [K~]{x}{x}T ([K ]+[K~ ]){x} 5.1.2. Deterministic Eigenvalue Problems for Bounding Eigenvalues in Statics Substituting and expanding the right-hand side terms of Eqs. (27,28): ~T [K ]{x}~ui (li +u{x} (29) Since the matrix [Ki ] is non-negative definite, the term () is non-negative. Therefore, using the monotonic behavior of eigenvalues for symmetric matrices, the upper bounds on the eigenvalues in Eqs.(19,20) are obtained by considering maximum values of interval coefficients of uncertainty (ÃŽ µ~i = [−1,1]), ((ÃŽ µi )max = 1), for all elements in the radial perturbation matrix. Similarly, the lower bounds on the eigenvalues are obtained by considering minimum values of those coefficients, ((ÃŽ µi )min =−1) , for all elements in the radial perturbation matrix. Also, it can be observed that any other element stiffness selected from the interval set will yield eigenvalues between the upper and lower bounds. This imonotonic behavior of eigenvalues can also be used for parameterization purposes. Using these concepts, the deterministic eigenvalue problems corresponding to the maximum and minimum eigenvalues are obtained (Modares and Mullen 2004) as: n n 5.2. BOUNDS ON EIGENVECTORS 5.2.1. Invariant Subspace The subspace χ is defined to be an invariant subspace of matrix [A] if:   Aχ⊂χ (32) Equivalently,   if χ is an invariant subspace of [A]nn and also, columns of [X1]nm form a basis forχ, then there is a unique matrix [L1]mm such that: The matrix [L1 ] is the representation of [A] on χ with respect to the basis [X1] and the eigenvalues of [L1] are a subset of eigenvalues of [A]. Therefore, for the invariant subspace, ({v},ÃŽ ») is an eigenpair of [L1] if and only if ({[X1]{v}},ÃŽ ») is an eigenpair of [A]. 5.2.2. Theorem of Invariant Subspaces For a real symmetric matrix [A], considering the subspace χ with the linearly independent columns of [X1] forming a basis for χ and the linearly independent columns of [X2] spanning the complementary subspace χ⊠¥ , then,   χ is an invariant subspace of [A] iff: Therefore, invoking this condition and postulating the definition of invariant subspaces, the symmetric matrix [A] can be reduced to a diagonalized form using a unitary similarity transformation as:   [X1X2]T [A][X1X2] = à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¡[X1]TT[[AA][][XX11]] à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ £[X2] where [Li ] =[Xi ]T [A][Xi ], i =1,2. 5.2.3. Simple Invariant Subspace [X1]T [A][X2]à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¤ à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¡[L1] [X2]T [A][X2]à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¥Ãƒ ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¦= à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ £[0] [0] à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¤ [L2]à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¥Ãƒ ¢Ã… ½Ã‚ ¦ (35) An invariant subspace is simple if the eigenvalues of its representation [L1] are distinct from other eigenvalues of [A]. Thus, using the reduced form of [A] with respect to the unitary matrix [[X1][X2]], χ is a simple invariant subspace if the eigenvalues of [L1] and [L2] are distinct: 5.2.4. Perturbed Eigenvector Considering the column spaces of [X1] and [X2]   to span two complementary simple invariant subspaces, the perturbed orthogonal subspaces are defined as:   [Xˆ1] =[X1]+[X 2 ][P] (37)   [Xˆ 2 ] =[X 2]−[X1][P]T (38) in which [P] is a matrix to be determined. Thus, each perturbed subspace is defined as a summation of the exact subspace and the contribution of the complementary subspace. Considering a symmetric perturbation[E] , the perturbed matrix is defined as: Applying the theorem of invariant subspaces for perturbed matrix and perturbed subspaces, and linearizing due to a small perturbation compared to the unperturbed matrix, Eq.(34) is rewritten as: This perturbation problem is an equation for unknown [P] in the form of a Sylvesters equation in which, the uniqueness of the solution is guaranteed by the existence of simple perturbed invariant subspaces. Finally, specializing the result for one eigenvector and solving the above equation, the perturbed eigenvector is (Stewart and Sun 1990):   {xˆ1} = {x1}+[X 2 ](ÃŽ »1[I]−[L2 ])−1[X 2 ]T [E]{x1} 5.2.5 Bounding Eigenvectors for Statics For the perturbed eigenvalue problem for statics, Eq.(21),   the error matrix is: (41) ~nu [E] = [KR ] = (∑(ÃŽ µi )( i − li )[Ki ]) (42) i=12 Using the error matrix in eigenvector perturbation equation for the first eigenvector, Eq.(33) the perturbed eigenvector is: in which, {à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢1}is the first eigenvector, (ÃŽ »1) is the first eigenvalue, [ÃŽ ¦2 ] is the matrix of remaining eigenvectors and [Λ2 ] is the diagonal matrix of remaining eigenvalues obtained from the deterministic eigenvalue problem. Eq.(30,31 and 43) is used to calculate the bounds on interval eigenvalues and interval eigenvectors in the response equation, Eq.(9). In order to attain sharper results, the functional dependency of intervals in direct interval multiplications in Eq.(9) is considered. Also, input intervals are subdivided and the union of responses of subset results is obtained. 6. Numerical Example Problem The bounds on the static response for a 2-D statically indeterminate truss with interval uncertainty present in the modulus of elasticity of each element are determined (Figure 2). The crosssectional area A, the length for horizontal and vertical members L , the Youngs moduli E for all ~ elements are E = ([0.99,1.01])E . Figure 2.   The structure of 2-D truss The problem is solved using the method presented in this work. The functional dependency of intervals in the response equation is considered. A hundred-segment subdivision of input intervals is performed and the union of responses is obtained. For comparison, an exact combinatorial analysis has performed which considers lower and upper values of uncertainty for each element i.e. solving (2n = 210 =1024 ) deterministic problems. The static analysis results obtained by the present method and the brute force combination solution for the vertical displacement of the top nodes in are summarized Table (1). Lower Bound Present Method Lower Bound Combination Method Upper Bound Combination Method Upper Bound Present Method Error % U à ¢Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ º PL à ¢Ã… ½Ã… ¾ à ¢Ã… ½Ã…“à ¢Ã… ½Ã… ¸ à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚  AE à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚   -1.6265 -1.6244 -1.5859 -1.5838 % 0.12 Table1. Bounds on Vertical Displacement of Top Nodes The results show that the proposed robust method yields nearly sharp results in a computationally efficient manner as well as preserving the systems physics. 4.Conclusions A finite-element based method for static analysis of structural systems with interval uncertainty in mechanical properties is presented. This method proposes an interval eigenvalue decomposition of stiffness matrix. By obtaining the exact bounds on the eigenvalues and nearly sharp bounds on the eigenvectors, the proposed method is capable to obtain the nearly sharp bounds on the structures static response. Some conservative overestimation in response occurs that can be attributed to the linearization in formation of bounds of eigenvectors and also, the functional dependency of intervals in the dynamic response formulation. This method is computationally feasible and it shows that the bounds on the static response can be obtained without combinatorial or Monte-Carlo simulation procedures. This computational efficiency of the proposed method makes it attractive to introduce uncertainty into structural static analysis and design. While this methodology is shown for structural systems, its extension to various mechanics problems is straightforward. References Bellman, R. Introduction to Matrix Analysis, McGraw-Hill, New York 1960. Dief, A., Advanced Matrix theory for Scientists and Engineers, pp.262-281. Abacus Press 1991. Hollot, C. and A. Bartlett. On the eigenvalues of interval matrices, Technical Report, Department   of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 1987. Modares, M. and R. L. Mullen. Free Vibration of Structures with Interval Uncertainty. 9th ASCE Specialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics and Structural Reliability 2004. Moore, R. E. Interval Analysis. Prentice Hall, Englewood, NJ 1966. Muhanna, R. L. and R. L. Mullen. Uncertainty in Mechanics Problems-Interval-Based Approach. Journal of Engineering Mechanics June-2001,   pp.557-566 2001. Muhanna, R. L., Zhang H. and R. L. Mullen. Interval Finite Element as a Basis for Generalized Models of Uncertainty in Engineering Mechanics, Reliable Computing, Vol. 13, pp. 173-194, 2007. Neumaier, A. Interval Methods for Systems of Equations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990. Neumaier, A. and A. Pownuk. Linear Systems with Large Uncertainties, with Applications to Truss Structures, Reliable Computing, Vol. 13, pp. 149-172, 2007. Strang, G. Linear Algebra and its Applications, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976. Stewart, G.W. and J. Sun. Matrix perturbation theory, Chapter 5. Academic Press, Boston, MA   1990.

Relationship Roadblocks :: essays research papers

Relationship Roadblocks   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first major topic the text brings forward in chapter 6 is the concept of relationship roadblocks. As the name implies these seven categories act as the downfalls to relationships. The concepts cover a wide range of types of problems from being tongue tied to giving up too much of your self to have a relationship. These concepts also happen at many different stages in relationship development however they primarily occur during the beginning or pre-relationship period. The first roadblock to a relation ship is high expectations. This concept describes how pop culture; media and even friends relationships can make us want to have the perfect relationship when that perfect relation ship does not exist. I do want the perfect relationship but do realize that in order to achieve this takes much effort on both persons part.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second is holding the believe that a relationship should be easy. This makes the claim that because people communicate everyday that communicating in a relationship should be very easy. I do fall victim to this roadblock. I like to enjoy relationships and all the fun and happiness that go along with them however I do not like to deal with the inevitable problems that come up with them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fear of failure is the third roadblock to relationships. This is when people are scared to get into a relationship. I do not suffer from this roadblock. I believe that if you don’t try and fail sometimes you have zero chance of trying and succeeding.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The forth roadblock states that If I just relax, a good relationship will find me. This states that people expect friendships and relationships will just appear and present themselves in front of you. This philosophy believes that if you put forth effort to find someone you won’t find them. This makes no sense to me finding a good relationship   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The bozo pill is the ultimate mistake when trying to start a relationship. This is when you see an attractive person and your mind goes to mush. You can’t discern words, even your own name to say them. The bozos could also be tripping or running into something. Generally the bozos is embarrassing yourself during the first impression and ruining any chances you had for beginning a friendship. The most important point is that the first impression is unforgiving you need to try to be smooth. The book makes the point that this happens to every one at some time.

Literature and Experience :: Free Essays Online

Literature and Experience When I wrote my first work, The Naked Tree, I was an ordinary housewife. I had been a passionate literature lover, but I had never practiced writing or studied literature. The Naked Tree began as non-fiction. One day I saw a posthumous show of artist Pak Su-gun, and I found myself swept by an incomprehensible confusion. He suffered from poverty all his life, but after his death, he became the artist whose works commanded the highest prices in the ROK. During the Korean war, he eked out a living by painting cheap portraits in the PX of US Forces, and I worked there trying to talk US soldiers into having their portraits made. In order to maintain a hand-to-mouth existence, both he and I led a life of the bottom, in which the least level of self-esteem could not be maintained. After the war, he was never free of poverty; he struggled to make a living and died at the young age of 51. When I saw that he was evaluated as the best artist in Korea and treated as such, I was swept by complicated emotions, a mixture of fury, sadness, and joy. Such feelings gradually developed into a passion that I wanted to bear witness to how he had lived. I wanted to write a good biography, which would help understand everything about him, and I wanted to shock art dealers, who were intent on making profits by trading his works at high prices without knowing anything about how he had lived. That was how I began to write a biography, hoping to apply for an annual open competition for nonfiction works held by Sindong-a, a monthly magazine. The deadline approached, but my writing did not progress. There were spurts of good writing, though, and in those moments I was elated. However, next day I would read the parts that had gone particularly well, and discover that they were the lies I had made up, not real episodes. I was not supposed to make up stories in the name of writing a biography. I had no choice but to throw them away, and I would be back to the slow- progressing stage. In writing his biography, there was another difficulty, aside from the battle with lies. I wanted to talk about my own stories. Literature and Experience :: Free Essays Online Literature and Experience When I wrote my first work, The Naked Tree, I was an ordinary housewife. I had been a passionate literature lover, but I had never practiced writing or studied literature. The Naked Tree began as non-fiction. One day I saw a posthumous show of artist Pak Su-gun, and I found myself swept by an incomprehensible confusion. He suffered from poverty all his life, but after his death, he became the artist whose works commanded the highest prices in the ROK. During the Korean war, he eked out a living by painting cheap portraits in the PX of US Forces, and I worked there trying to talk US soldiers into having their portraits made. In order to maintain a hand-to-mouth existence, both he and I led a life of the bottom, in which the least level of self-esteem could not be maintained. After the war, he was never free of poverty; he struggled to make a living and died at the young age of 51. When I saw that he was evaluated as the best artist in Korea and treated as such, I was swept by complicated emotions, a mixture of fury, sadness, and joy. Such feelings gradually developed into a passion that I wanted to bear witness to how he had lived. I wanted to write a good biography, which would help understand everything about him, and I wanted to shock art dealers, who were intent on making profits by trading his works at high prices without knowing anything about how he had lived. That was how I began to write a biography, hoping to apply for an annual open competition for nonfiction works held by Sindong-a, a monthly magazine. The deadline approached, but my writing did not progress. There were spurts of good writing, though, and in those moments I was elated. However, next day I would read the parts that had gone particularly well, and discover that they were the lies I had made up, not real episodes. I was not supposed to make up stories in the name of writing a biography. I had no choice but to throw them away, and I would be back to the slow- progressing stage. In writing his biography, there was another difficulty, aside from the battle with lies. I wanted to talk about my own stories.

Critique of Geoffrey Canadas Fist Stick Knife Gun Essay -- Fist Stick

Critique of Geoffrey Canada's Fist Stick Knife Gun The Book â€Å"Fist Stick Knife Gun† by Geoffrey Canada is a biographical account of his childhood in the south Bronx. He and his 4 brothers were raised by only their mother. She would survive on no more than ten dollars a week. He moved several times as a child until finally landing on union avenue, the place were many of his life lessons were learned and at times applied. He learned about the ranking process of kids on union Ave. and how the only way to improve your status was to use your fists to fight your way up the chain. Looking back Geoffrey Canada notices the major shift in attitudes concerning the rules of the streets. What once was harmless fist fighting has now turned over to guns. His opinions can be seen in his title â€Å"Fist Stick Knife Gun†. One of the earliest lessons he ever learned was from his mother. She told all four of her boys to never let people think they were afraid and that they were never to become victims. This is shown with each word that Canada uses in his title. The first phase of his life consisted of â€Å"Fist†. He recalls the time when he first moved to Union Ave and he was trapped inside his apartment because he hadn’t established himself in the neighborhood. He would sit up in his 3rd floor apartment and jealously looked on, as all the other kids would play in the streets. One day his older brother John had enough and walked outside to face his fate. The rest of his brothers followed and eventually each got beat up as a pass to the streets. None of them showed their fears or their pain, a lesson that they first learned from their mother. This was only one of many steps/ factors in becoming an established individual not to be reckoned with. Age was the other factor to be considered. Th e older you were, the more respect you got from others. There were the young adults, who were the biggest and badest on the block. They weren’t usually around to defend their turf because they all belonged to a gang, however everyone knew they ruled all. Next were the mid-teen boys who were the â€Å"real rulers of Union Ave (18)† They were the ones who enforced the rules. The lower categories were the early teens and the pre teens. The early teens were just learning the rules whereas the pre teens couldn’t go off of the sidewalk. Geoffrey belonged to the lowest rung, the sidewalk group. As time wen... ...hese rules. They may seem unfair and even ridiculous to us outsiders, but that’s because we have more options of obtaining success than those caught in the belly of the slums. These codes are all that they have and without them, they would have no meaning in their lives, nothing to live up to day in and day out. They give these people a reason to wake up in the morning and a sense of pride that can’t be provided in any other way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Geoffrey Canada gives his readers a rare opportunity to look inside the life of a ghetto kid and what they have to go through just to survive. He also provides answers to the many questions asked of why certain things happen the way they do in the Bronx. He used his childhood experiences and turned them into a unique tool when helping the youth of today. Now that he works as a youth councilor he sees that the problem in the slums has gotten dramatically worse with the emergence of guns. It used to be about pride and status, now any thug with a gun can be feared in the community. This, to Canada is a major problem because guns gives kids a sense of power, a strong feeling that is often abused and results in someone, even an innocent person dead.

The Ethics of Belief

Argumentative Essay on â€Å"The Ethics of Belief† PHIL 2641 Online – Section 001 February 13, 2008 William K. Clifford sets out to show in â€Å"The Ethics of Belief† that â€Å"it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In this paper, I will show that his argument lacks key definitions needed in order to found his inference upon and that it begs the question as to what qualifies as â€Å"insufficient† evidence. Furthermore, I will show that the primary issue is not the belief but the results of the belief that is important and that all judgment and interpretation should be based upon said results. Clifford introduces his argument by using the example of a shipbuilder who allows his ship to be used on a transoceanic voyage despite its age and the supposed need for repair. The vessel sinks and Clifford asserts that the ship owner is guilty of the death of the passengers because his belief in the ship’s seaworthiness was unsupported and ill-founded. However, there are several problems with his conclusion. First, Clifford ignores the ship owner’s reliance on the vessel’s past sailing history as being sufficient evidence as to its stable condition. The fact that the vessel had made many a voyage without incident can be viewed as sufficient proof of its ability to set sail safely. This begs the question, â€Å"How can one determine what constitutes sufficient evidence? † The ship owner by relying on the history of the ship alone could have met his obligation. A second problem with Clifford’s argument is that he likely oversimplified the cause of the ship’s sinking. Perhaps the ship sank because there was a collision with another ship. Perhaps it sank because it struck an iceberg in the water. It may have sunk because of human error. In all of these scenarios no amount of fortification of the ship’s structure would have Argumentative Essay on â€Å"The Ethics of Belief† Page 2 of 3 prevented the demise of the voyage. Any one or combination of these causes could have been responsible for the ship’s fate, yet the ship’s age and need for repair is identified as the sole cause of the ship’s sinkage. Finally, Clifford fails to address the source of the ship owner’s doubt and therefore leaves a multitude of unanswered questions. If the question of right or wrong has to do with the origin of belief and whether or not one has the right to believe in the first place, then would the ship owner have been culpable had the doubts about the ship’s condition not been introduced? Is a person required to investigate EVERY doubt or question that is raised by another, which directly or indirectly impacts their belief? What if the source of doubt is unreliable? Without properly addressing these questions it is difficult to determine what the ship owner’s (or anyone else’s) responsibility was in the first place. This, I assert, is the fundamental problem with Clifford’s argument. To implicitly assume that one is guilty for simply believing without â€Å"sufficient† evidence can not be easily determined because the standards and thus the determination for â€Å"right† and â€Å"wrong† are too vague. The solution follows immediately. Since a person can have a different belief at any given point in time and there is no metric by which to determine the sufficiency of evidence upon which they are based, it is not the belief that is to be judged, but rather the action and the positive or negative impact upon society that results from it. Clifford’s primary concern was how beliefs impact humanity, and the impact can only be determined by assessing actions, not beliefs. Argumentative Essay on â€Å"The Ethics of Belief† Page 3 of 3 We can now see that Clifford’s uncogent argument is the result of a lack of clarity as to how one could determine whether or not given evidence was sufficient and the vagueness surrounding the definitions of â€Å"right† and â€Å"wrong†. In its amended form, however, the argument is valid and can serve as a useful tool to determine and measure the overall impact beliefs have on society. My central argument is an inductive argument. Here are the premises and the conclusion: Premise 1: Premise 2: Conclusion: There are no clear metrics to measure the sufficiency of evidence from which a person’s beliefs are derived. Actions and their impacts on society are definite and measurable. Therefore, people should probably be judged based upon their actions and not their beliefs. My argument is cogent because my premises are true and it is improbable that my conclusion is false. Furthermore, no evidence which would have rendered a different conclusion has been ignored.

Disembowelment In Japanese History

Honor was defined in Dr Johnson’s Dictionary in several senses. The first sense described honor as â€Å"nobility of soul, magnanimity, and a scorn of meanness. † This sort of honor derives from the perceived virtuous conduct and personal integrity of the person endowed with it. On the other hand, Johnson also defined honor in relationship to â€Å"reputation† and â€Å"fame†; to â€Å"privileges of rank or birth†, and as â€Å"respect† of the kind which â€Å"places an individual socially and determines his right to precedence.†This sort of honor is not so much a function of moral or ethical excellence, as it is a consequence of power. Finally, for women, according to Dr Johnson, honor is synonymous with â€Å"chastity†. On the other hand, dishonor means loss of honor, respect, or reputation; the condition of having lost honor or good repute. Many Japanese heroes choose to engage in disembowelment because it forms the way of gr aceful suicide by a samurai in Japan. By this method, samurais are deemed to be free from the dishonor. A samurai is a professional warrior belonging to the Japanese feudal military aristocracy.Disembowelment or evisceration is the removing of some or all of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. The results are, in virtually all cases, fatal. It has historically been used as a severe form of capital punishment. The last organs to be removed were invariably the heart and lungs so as to preserve the victim's life force for the full procedure. In Japan, disembowelment also formed part of the method of execution of or graceful suicide by a samurai. In killing themselves by this method, they were deemed to be free from the dishonor resulting from their crimes.The most common form of disembowelment was referred to in Japanese as seppuku (where the term â€Å"hara-kiri,† literally â€Å"stomach cutting,† is regarded as vulgar), involving two cuts across the abdomen, sometim es followed by pulling out one's own innards. The act of beheading, in most cases by one's best servant, was added to this ritual suicide in later times in order to shorten the suffering of the samurai or leader, an attempt at rendering the ritual more humane. In the English language, hara-kiri and seppuku are often treated as synonyms.Seppuku was a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate shame. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyo (feudal lords) to commit seppuku. Later disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to commit seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner. Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one's honor as a warrior, those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to commit seppuku. Samurai women could only commit the act with permission.In his book The Samurai Way of Death, Samurai: The World of the Warrior (ch. 4) , Dr. Stephen Turnbull states: Seppuku was commonly performed using a tanto. It could take place with preparation and ritual in the privacy of one's home, or speedily in a quiet corner of a battlefield while one’s comrades kept the enemy at bay. In the world of the warrior, seppuku was a deed of bravery that was admirable in a samurai who knew he was defeated, disgraced, or mortally wounded. It meant that he could end his days with his transgressions wiped away and with his reputation not merely intact but actually enhanced.The cutting of the abdomen released the samurai’s spirit in the most dramatic fashion, but it was an extremely painful and unpleasant way to die, and sometimes the samurai who was performing the act asked a loyal comrade to cut off his head at the moment of agony. Sometimes a daimyo was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement. This would weaken the defeated clan so that resistance would effectively cease. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which effectively ended a dynasty of daimyo forever, when the Hojo were defeated at Odawara in 1590.Hideyoshi insisted on the suicide of the retired daimyo Hojo Ujimasa, and the exile of his son Ujinao. With one sweep of a sword, the most powerful daimyo family in eastern Japan was put to an end. In time, committing seppuku came to involve a detailed ritual. A Samurai was bathed, dressed in white robes, fed his favorite meal, and when he was finished, his instrument was placed on his plate. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem.With his selected attendant (kaishakunin, his second) standing by, he would open his kimono (clothing), take up his wakizashi (short sword) or a tanto (knife) and plunge it into his abdomen, making a left-to-right cut. The kaishakunin would then perform daki-kub i, a cut in which the warrior was all but decapitated (a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body). Because of the precision necessary for such a maneuver, the second was often a skilled swordsman. The principal agreed in advance when the kaishaku made his cut, usually as soon as the dagger was plunged into the abdomen.This elaborate ritual evolved after seppuku had ceased being mainly a battlefield or wartime practice and become a para judicial institution. The second was usually, but not always, a friend. If a defeated warrior had fought honorably and well, an opponent who wanted to salute his bravery would volunteer to act as his second. In the Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo wrote: From ages past it has been considered ill-omened by samurai to be requested as kaishaku. The reason for this is that one gains no fame even if the job is well done.And if by chance one should blunder, it becomes a lifetime disgrace. In the practice of past times, there were instances w hen the head flew off. It was said that it was best to cut leaving a little skin remaining so that it did not fly off in the direction of the verifying officials. However, at present it is best to cut clean through. Some samurai chose to perform a considerably more taxing form of seppuku known as jumonji-giri (. â€Å"cross-shaped cut†) in which there is no kaishakunin to put a quick end to the samurai's suffering.It involves a second and more painful vertical cut across the belly. A samurai performing jumonji-giri was expected to bear his suffering quietly until perishing from loss of blood, passing away with his hands over his face. While the voluntary seppuku described above is the best known form and has been widely admired and idealized, in practice the most common form of seppuku was obligatory seppuku, used as a form of capital punishment for disgraced samurai, especially for those who committed a serious offense such as unprovoked murder, robbery, corruption, or treas on.The samurai were generally told of their offense in full and given a set time to commit seppuku, usually before sunset on a given day. If the sentenced was uncooperative, it was not unheard of for them to be restrained, or for the actual execution to be carried out by decapitation while retaining only the trappings of seppuku; even the short sword laid out in front of the victim could be replaced with a fan. Unlike voluntary seppuku, seppuku carried out as capital punishment did not necessarily absolve the victim's family of the crime.Depending on the severity of the crime, half or all of the deceased's property could be confiscated, and the family stripped of rank. Seppuku as judicial punishment was officially abolished in 1873, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, but voluntary seppuku did not completely die out. Dozens of people are known to have committed seppuku since then, including some military men who committed suicide in 1895 as a protest against the return of a conquer ed territory to China by General Nogi and his wife on the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912; and by numerous soldiers and civilians who chose to die rather than surrender at the end of World War II.In 1970, famed author Yukio Mishima and one of his followers committed public seppuku at the Japan Self-Defense Forces headquarters after an unsuccessful attempt to incite the armed forces to stage a coup d'à ©tat. Mishima committed seppuku in the office of General Kanetoshi Mashita. His second, a 25-year-old named Masakatsu Morita, tried three times to ritually behead Mishima but failed; his head was finally severed by Hiroyasu Koga. Morita then attempted to commit seppuku himself.Although his own cuts were too shallow to be fatal, he gave the signal and he too was beheaded by Koga. In 1999, Masaharu Nonaka, a 58-year-old employee of Bridgestone in Japan, slashed his belly with a sashimi knife to protest his forced retirement. He died later in the hospital. This suicide, which became widel y known as ‘risutora seppuku', was said to represent the difficulties in Japan following the collapse of the bubble economy. Well-known people who committed seppuku: Disembowelment in Japanese History Seppuku or ritual disembowelment is often considered by those of us in the western world to be a common form of institutionalized (by ritual) suicide: an ancient custom dating back to the age of Samurai under the code of bushido. However, in Japanese culture, it escapes this easy stereotype and is considered something much more complex and meaningful than mere suicide. T. Harada, writes: ‘It was not mere suicide. It was an institution, legal and ceremonial†¦by which warriors could expiate their friends or prove their sincerity'.From historical evidence as well as by contemposrary Japanese cultural identification with seppuku we can ascertain that â€Å"it is at least questionable whether thinking of seppuku as a variety of suicide is justified† (Fairbairn 144). Seppuku, in its original form as practiced by the bushi, involved slicing open the abdomen normally with a cross-cut from left to right and then slicing upward to the navel. The method might result in the vic tim living on for hours before death. For a bushi who was accused of a crime, whether innocent or guilty, seppuku was often the only honorable death.One central reason for the form of seppuku was the fact that the Japanese believed the soul or spirit of a person resided in the abdomen. By cutting open his abdomen the bushi could ‘lay bare his soul' and show his firmness to atone for his crime, or demonstrate innocence and earnestness. For a bushi who actually committed crimes seppuku was considered a lenient punishment, which preserved his honor and property. â€Å"A samurai might commit seppuku after having felt duty- bound to give his lord sensible but unwelcome advice, as a means of demonstrating his absolute sincerity† (Blomberg 75).Disembowelment in Japanese History Page -2- The sensational nature of seppuku as a painful and self-punishing act, as it is most commonly viewed by Western eyes is founded on a number of divergences in philosophy and spirituality that di vide the East and West culturally. Foremost among these divergences is the perception of death. In Western society death is viewed in linear terms, with little or no expectation that the â€Å"soul†would be reborn into earthly life.Japanese culture regarded death as cyclical and based in reincarnation; therefore to die honorably was more important than to live at all costs. â€Å"The connection with death is another part of the image we have of the samurai. The way of the samurai is found in death. aspects of the samurai connection with death figured prominently in Shogun† (Hurst 520). The belief in honor, coupled with the belief in reincarnation and in the cyclical, ever-present force of death, allowed the Japanese to regard seppuku as an act of preservation rather than an act of suicide.To Western eyes, the samurai willingly commits suicide, but to the Samurai, death and disembowelment is a much preferable remedy to shame or disgrace than living on past the point of moral or martial defeat. To atone for a crime or to accept responsibility for some error, by seppuku, or to gain glory and honor by the sword in battle: these concepts are one and the same to the Eastern mind. The samurai were conditioned to slaying others, especially peasants, with calm.â€Å"Although the bushi alone were entitled to be executed by decapitation with a sword, zanzai, a public execution was regarded as a disgrace† (Hurst). Disembowelment in Japanese History Page -3- â€Å"The convicted criminal was paraded through the streets to the common execution ground, with placards recording his crime carried before him. He had to kneel on the ground in order to be dispatched by the public headsman, and his severed head was then gibbeted for a certain period,with a wooden sign proclaiming his name and the nature of the crime† This disgraceful type of public ridicule disgusted the bushi; â€Å"only samurai proper could be sentenced to commit seppuku as punishment for a crime† (Hurst 521). So, far from an appalling and self-despising act, seppuku evolved out of a Japanese sense of honor and integrity, which, in its formality and tradition becomes rigidly different from contemporary Western standards for moral, ethical or legal punishment. For the Samurai the punishment lay in living, not dying.Because the seat of the soul was in the abdomen, the naked â€Å"exposure† of one’ soul also confirmed that the act of seppuku was not so much rooted in suicide or self-abnegation, but in revelation and in a (final) demonstration of personal will and moral fortitude. Over the centuries, common citizens sought to copy the ethical system of the leading elite, widening the practice of seppuku far beyond its original elitist conception. In fact, the tradition persisted well into the twentieth century: â€Å"Especially among military men of bushi stock the custom of seppuku lingered on [†¦] Many of the conspirators behind the attemp ted military coup of 1936 killed themselves in this manner when the coup failed† (Blomberg 191). In due time a non-lethal, symbolic variant of seppuku penetrated Japanese culture: â€Å"Imagine that the ritual of seppuku was further attenuated so that it involved nothing more than reaching out to a ceremonial dagger after which the seppuku's aide whirled a ceremonial sword round his head Disembowelment in Japanese History Page -4- three times, then shook the seppuku's hand.In this case, seppuku could not be suicide because the individual engaging in it would be aware that by doing so he could not arrange his death. And yet he would have done seppuku†(Fairbairn 145). If there is a widely understood Western parallel to the Japanese practice of seppuku, it may lie in the famous death of Socrates which has been much discussed by historians and philosophers. Socrates' death as recorded by Plato noted that he had been accused, among other things, of introducing unusual religi ous practices and of corrupting young people. At his trial he defended himself but was found guilty and sentenced to death.In the month leading up to his execution by means of a self administered cup of hemlock, Socrates did not accept the possibility for escape arranged by friends because it would have gone against his sense of duty to avoid the punishment decreed by Athens. Then on the appointed day, he drank the hemlock before the hour stipulated for his death. (Holland, 1969, p. 74) Though Socrates drank the cup of hemlock (and so could technically be said to have died by his own hand) â€Å"yet even this cannot make a man a suicide, given the fact that his death was not decreed by him [†¦]. Suicide would have to have been the case that by acting as he did Socrates intended not only to do that which he ought to do or had to do, but that he wanted to be dead and intended to bring about his death† (Fairbairn 148). The ritual of seppuku is, then, far from being a desper ate act of a suicidal nature, an act of self and soul preservation that, viewed through the prism of Japanese history and culture, emerges as a strong symbol of national and racial orientation, particularly impacting views of ethics, honor, and personal responsibility.

Perception Towards Successful Brand Essay

Rev. of â€Å"Building Brands Without Mass Media.† Joachimsthaler, Erich, and David A. Aaker. Harvard Business Review 3 March 2009: 4-6. Print. In this article, the authors emphasize that a company must have a clear brand identity with depth and texture so it will not convey confuse messages to customers. Also, they provide some marketing strategies for the brands to set up a clear and effective brand identity. Besides, they illustrate six companies that have a strong and clear brand identity in which The Body Shop and Haggen-Dazs are examined in detail. Apart from these, they use various examples to demonstrate the operations of The Body Shop and Haggen-Dazs. Last but not least, they have compared The Body Shop and Haggen-Dazs with their competitors. Lastly, they discuss the advertising methods of Haggen-Dazs in which they think the Farggi strategy that can confuse the customers the most. (Melanie) Hartman, Cathy L., and Caryn L. Beck-Dudley. â€Å"Marketing Strategies and the Search for Virtue: A Case Analysis of The Body Shop, International.† Journal of Business Ethics 20.3 (1999): 253-257. Print. In this journal, the authors use some historical examples to discuss three organizational virtues—excellence, integrity and judgment in which they think that the virtues are now defined and extended to community, membership and holism. Most importantly, they believe that the virtues are now widely applied in the companies. However, they agree with the researchers that it is difficult to theorize the concept of community. Besides, they use the founder of The Body Shop—Anita Roddick as the main example to illustrate the virtues can be utilized in a big company in multifarious aspects. (Melanie) Salver, Jessica. Brand Management in the Hotel Industry and its Potential for Achieving Customer Loyalty. Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2009. Print. In this book, the author mainly discusses some product requirements for a brand to become successful. Although it is not her intention to suggest that a brand will not become successful without the listed requirements, she examines numerous factors that can build up a successful brand in detail, such as high and differentiated demand for product class, the product is easy to identify and product quality is easy to maintain. Also, she has used The Body Shop and McDonald as the examples to explain her factors in detail. Besides, she believes that if the brand offers a reasonable price for the customers, they will certainly buy the products. Rev. of Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service. Moon, Youngme, and John Quelch. Harvard Business Review 10 July 2006: 3-4. Print. In this book, the authors have used Starbucks as an example to evaluate the value proposition and they use â€Å"live coffee† to describe the national coffee culture of it. Also, they use three components to illustrate the branding strategy of it. For example, it imports the best coffee beans from the world, develops a close intimacy with the customer and creates a good atmosphere. Besides, they discuss the locations of the Starbucks in which they are usually located in high-traffic and high-visibility places, such as commercial centers and universities. In addition, they investigate different products and the welfares of the employees in the Starbucks. Adubato, Steve. You Are the Brand. Canada: Rutgers University Press, 2011. Print. In this book, the author uses his personal experience to show Starbucks is not an accidental brand and it does not really keep a connection with customers. However, he agrees that Starbucks has built on â€Å"comfortable† and â€Å"familiar† for him in the end of the chapter. Besides, he believes Starbucks’ reputations are built on the word of mouth from the customers and excellent services from the employees. In addition, he has cited the book from the original chairman and CEO of Starbucks to demonstrate the objectives of the company and the reasons that it starts to lose customers. Lastly, although he laments the Starbucks has become more commercial, he still enjoys his leisure time in it.

Science of Stars

Stars are well recognized astronomical objects in our solar system and represent building blocks of galaxies. The history and dynamics of a star in a galaxy depends on its age, distribution, and composition. The stars are responsible for elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. A star’s life begins very small, like many more things in the universe. They begin as, apart from anything else, particles in clouds of dust and gas. They remain cold for ages. The disturbance of a comet or other object that moves through the cloud will then make particles collide and clumps will begin to form. Over the course of a million years, clumps will grow into what we call â€Å"protostar† and draw in more gases and grow even hotter. This is how stars are formed and is a point in a star’s life. Astronomers determine composition, color, and temperature of stars and other distant objects with an essential tool called a spectroscopy. Astronomers have used this tool since the 1800’s to analyze emitted light spectra. When a star gives off light and the light splits by prism, the spectral pattern reflects a star’s composition. All stars are 95% hydrogen, so the variations in composition reveal its age, luminosity, and origin. Composition of gases can be determined by observing the light of a star. Astronomers can determine the temperature of a star from its color and its spectrum. All stars have different colors. They have different colors due to its light radiation. There are a few different ways astronomers can determine a star’s temperature. One way is to measure a star’s color. They use three filters that transmit light in three different wavelength ranges. Astronomers then take the intensity ratio of the light. Another way to determine the temperature of a star is to examine the spectral lines in the starlight. Science of Stars3 Astronomers also use a tool called the electromagnetic spectrum to determine the composition, temperature, speed, and rotation rate of stars and other distant objects. Rotation rates are measured by using telescopes or space probes. Astronomers pick a particular feature on an object and then determine how long the feature takes to move from one side to the other side. For an example, the Sun has a rotation rate of about 25 days. One planet in our solar system that is difficult for astronomers to observe rotation rate is Earth. That is because we live on Earth and rotate with it. As stars progress through their lives they move around in the H-R diagram since their properties change over a period of time. In the H-R diagram it plots luminosity, spectral type, and also temperature. If a star is plotted higher up on the diagram on the vertical plane, this means that the stars are brighter. If a star is plotted in the horizontal plane to the left, this means that these stars are the hottest. Stars spend most of their lifetime in what is known as the main sequence in the H-R diagram. In this phase of a star’s life, they burn hydrogen into helium. Also at this point, the star’s size and luminosity remain constant because their forces have reached a near-equilibrium. Stars will remain in the main sequence until they reach a certain mass. Stars that are called supergiants in the H-R diagram and lie along the top right are luminous and cool. The stars that are called white dwarfs and are plotted at the bottom left of the diagram are fainter, hotter stars. The red giant stars are the stars of great luminosity and size. They form a thick horizontal band that joins the main sequence. All the stars on the H-R diagram are plotted by their color horizontally and their luminosity vertically. All the colors are coded from O (blue), B (blue), A (blue-white), F (white), G (yellow), K (orange), and M (red). Science of Stars4 In the center of our solar system lies a star called â€Å"the Sun†. Its color is white, but appears to us on Earth as yellow and is considered a main sequence star. The life cycle of the Sun, just like any other star starts with a cloud of gas and dust composed mainly of hydrogen collapses under gravitational forces. It was formed about 4. 5 billion years ago determined by scientists using the Sun’s current main sequence age. Right now, the Sun is believed to be about halfway through its main sequence evolution. The Sun should spend about 10 billion years as a main sequence star. It will enter the red giant stage in about 5 billion years. By the time it reaches to be a giant star stage, the Sun will have lost about 30% of its mass due to a stellar wind. The orbits of the planets will move outward then. Eventually our Earth will be swallowed by the Sun. The Sun living in the main sequence is gradually becoming more luminous and its temperature is slowly rising. After the red giant stage, the Sun’s outer layers will be thrown off. It will cool and fade into the white dwarf stage. As of right now, the Sun’s life cycle is the main sequence stage. It is considered middle aged at 4. 5 billion years old. The Sun is currently fusing hydrogen in its core and has been for the last 5,000 million years, and it is expected to continue fusing hydrogen for at least another 4,000 million years. The main sequence stage is the longest and most stable phase of its existence and this stage lasts about 10 billion years for a star. The main sequence is also the first stage of a star after becoming a star, right after the protostar stage. The following stage after the main sequence stage would be the red giant stage. I have now discussed in this paper how astronomers determine composition, temperature, speed, and rotation rate of distant objects. I explained the properties of the stars in the H-R Science of Stars5 diagram, summarized the life cycle of the Sun, and also stated where the Sun is currently in its life cycle.

Adaptation and Accountability in the Workplace Essay

Adaptation and Accountability in the Workplace - Essay Example A measure that has been taken in my workplace that aid in the accountability process is that of the adaptation of healthcare marketing materials. In order to better understand the issue of adaptation and the involved accountability process with this, the matter itself must be discussed to the full extent. By thoroughly addressing these subjects of interest, we can gain a more intellectual and knowledgeable viewpoint on the subject at hand. The aim of this paper is to do this, as well as envelop any and all other key related factors. This is what will be dissertated in the following. The issue of the adaptation of healthcare marketing materials is far more than just translating the words; rather it is a complex and diverse situation, and is the translating of ideas and doing so in a manner that the target culture will embrace. The most effective adaptations and translations require extensive testing with the basic target audience during all phases of the development process. Cultural adaptation of preventive materials and messages are used to increase access to, and facilitate the benefits of, the preventive benefits are necessary.

The Effect of Culture in the International Collaboration Essay

The Effect of Culture in the International Collaboration - Essay Example According to the research findings, there are different types of collaborations used by organizations around the world. The choice of the type of collaboration that organizations choose, as put by Shaughnessy, depends on the various factors such as the nature of the project they want to undertake, the objectives of the parties, the risks involved and the scale of operations. There are five main types of collaborations used by organizations in the modern world, informal agreements, strategic alliances, strategic partnerships, joint ventures as well as revenue and risk sharing partnerships. These are informal agreements characterized by the employment of little legal structures. They mostly involve verbal agreements between the boards of management of the two parties and usually, involve short-term agreements in projects that will last for a short period. Here, the number of risks faced by the members is reasonably low and thus, the establishment of the agreements base on mutual trust between the parties involved. However, in some conditions, very long lasting collaborations and joint business operations can operate in this manner. This type of collaboration involves organizations that lack any substantial degree of ownership and work jointly to gain mutual benefit in a strategically important relationship. Being mere relationships rather than specific inter-organizational structures, strategic alliances lack a well-defined legal form. The alliances align suitably, to the goals and objectives of the organizations involved. In strategic alliances, the partners preserve their autonomy but there is an existence of mutual dependency that aims at pooling their resources together and assist each other in dealing with the challenges posed by the market.

Marketing Study of Pirilla PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Marketing Study of Pirilla PLC - Essay Example Typically those engage with international marketing devotes their time on making strategies on how will they penetrate markets or countries provided that they must understand the environment, culture, society, politics, and economics of the country they wish to penetrate. This is important for every aspect of the country they wish to penetrate because somewhat or somehow people are influenced by these factors. These factors may have little, great, or no effect when it comes to purchasing behavior of the people, theory participation when it comes to new products, the society's economy and also consumers in a certain country is greatly influenced by its religion. For example, in India, cow is a sacred animal, if you plan to penetrate the market of India and tried to sell hamburgers in it, people might get mad or somehow your business will soon collapse because no one will buy your hamburgers. In the case of Pirilla PLC, we are pertaining on how we can penetrate other markets if we are to sell snow scooters. In understanding the environment, you cannot sell snow scooters in tropical or warm countries, of course it is useless. Snow scooters are made for countries which experiences winter and countries which all throughout the year is covered with ice. In checking qualifications of the countries which needs snow scooters, European countries qualify for this. Going international is... The main advantage of going international when it comes to marketing is that, there is a possibility for the company to have a bigger profit and sales. Some company often start with this, their neighboring countries are also looking for the same product found only in one country. This gives rise to more demands by other countries, the company of course will provide the demand, and then this becomes the starting point of all the business that will provide demands for other countries. Sooner or later, those firms who provided the product realized that they are making much more profit than just selling their product to just one country only. Another advantage is that you will be able to compete with other producers, and compare your products to the others. This is true when it comes to selling snow scooters to a common market, you will be able to look at competitors and be able to compare other snow scooters from the company's product. A possible disadvantage on going international mayb e is that the company is interfering with local competitors of that country. Another possible disadvantage is that the company destroys culture of the country especially by interfering with the market of the local competitors, this case happens to when McDonald's was introduced to other countries. The regular diet of the people was distracted when McDonald's was introduced. When it comes to the selection of countries for the target market of Pirilla PLC, Luxembourg is a good choice to introduce the snow scooters, especially the deluxe model. Luxembourg as being one of the richest countries in terms of GDP can afford and surely will need the services of a snow scooter. Also climate in Luxembourg is not too cold,

Supreme Court Appeals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Supreme Court Appeals - Essay Example This refers to a court order that requests lower courts to send documents as well as materials pertaining to the case to the Supreme Court. The justices are required to vote to make a decision on whether or not the case has merit before granting a writ of certiorari (Denis et al, 2014). It takes a combination of different criteria for the Court to judge if a case is â€Å"certworthy.† A Circuit Conflict is the first criterion employed by the Supreme Court in granting certiorari. This criterion is used when there is a conflict amongst the lower federal courts concerning an issue. The conflict must be unbearable and current. The reputation of the lower courts involved in the conflict is a variable when employing this criterion (â€Å"Granting Certiorari† par.7). The Importance of a case is also another criterion for judging if a case is ‘certworthy.’ There are a number of different ways that a case can be important enough to attract the Supreme Court’s attention. Similarly, cases that are important to the polity due to the societal and political impact of their resolution, for example Brown v. Board of Education as well as Roe v. Wade, can attract the attention of the Court. As a rule, two other factors influence the Court’s assessment of the importance of a case: breadth, that is, the potential impact on many people as well as the effect on the federal government (â€Å"Granting Certiorari† par.9). Another criterion is the areas of Interest to the Justices of the Supreme Court. Some justices may have a particular hobbyhorse and that can influence on whether the Court awards certiorari or not. Repeatedly, a Justice’s area of interest is determined by personal history as well as geographic origin. For instance, justices from the West might be favor of granting certiorari in water rights cases. Flagrant abuses of justice or flagrant disregard for accepted legal doctrine can sometimes