Achilles And The Honor Code Essays - Trojans, Achilles,

Achilles and the Honor Code Achilles is a tragic figure who believes strongly in social order, but questions the idea of fighting for glory. When Aias and Odysseus are sent by Agamemnon to plead with Achilles' to fight for the Greeks, Achilles denies them, saying "There was no gratitude given for fighting incessantly forever against your enemies. Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard" (9:316). This statement shows that Achilles is an individual, and does not conform to the ideas of the others. Achilles is portrayed as a fatalist, believing that there is no point in fighting, because the end is the same for everyone. In book nine, when Agamemnon admits he is wrong and offers gifts, Achilles still refuses to join his army in battle. He does not see Agamemnon's gifts as a reconciliation attempt, but rather as an insult. Achilles believes that Agamemnon's offerings are selfish and boastful, and he denies them to in order to show Agamemnon that his loyalty cannot be bought. Later in the poem, Achilles revenges Patroklos' death by killing Hector. It is customary and proper to return a dead body to its home so it can be given a proper burial, and it is against the code of honor to perform acts of excessive cruelty. Achilles is so distraught by his friends' death that he contradicts both of these conditions. First, he refuses to return Hector's body to the Trojans, and then proceeds to drag it behind his carriage by the ankles. Achilles' deliberate mutilation of Hector's body shows the reader that he does not hold the code of honor in high regard.

Dogfight over Europe, Ryanair B and C Essays

Dogfight over Europe, Ryanair B and C Essays Dogfight over Europe, Ryanair B and C Essay Dogfight over Europe, Ryanair B and C Essay Dogfight over Europe RyanAir B / C (individual graded) 1. What went wrong? Why did Ryanair move from a successful launch to near bankruptcy? One of the biggest reasons for Ryanair’s downfall was that it tried to position itself as a low fare airline along with having first-rate services. It kept an unrestricted fare while still focusing on the best customer service and relationship. Although the low price was able to get Ryanair the customer base it needed, the increase in sales was not enough to make up for the cost of the amenities that Ryanair promised to its customers. This business model did not do sell well and proved to be very inefficient. Another significant reason was because of Ryanair’s expansion. It expanded its rounds to where some of its competitors were, specifically Aer Lingus. This overlap in routes led to a price war among the two companies. Ryanair tried to price its fares at 10% lower than its competitors which dug them deeper in a hole. The case also mentions that despite the route separation by the government, Ryanair continued to lose money – up until the January 1991. Ryanair failed to anticipate and defend against retaliation from its competitors. Ryanair went head-to-head against its competitors in a very tough price-war which undermined the industry structure. The CEO commented that â€Å"Aer LIngus will, of course, compete to the very limit of our ability as we have always done†. 2. How did Ryanair move from bankruptcy to become one of the most profitable airlines? One of the most important reasons why Ryanair turned around was because of their low cost strategy and became a low-cost, low-fare airline.. It dropped loss-making routes and planes redeployed on a handful of remaining routes. Ryanair turned its focus away from customer service and, as a result, was able to generate and preserve cash. For example, the case mentions that all in-flight amenities, such as free coffee and snacks, were eliminated. Additionally, labor contracts were renegotiated so that pay reflected productivity. As Ryanair started to eliminate its amenities and stray away from superior customer service, they dropped their fares substantially which caused passenger volumes to pick up. U. S. financial analyst would proclaim Ryanair â€Å"the Southwest Airlines of Europe†. In addition, Ryanair exclusively served secondary airports. These airports were not congested and made it easy to obtain landing slights and timely landing and departure times. Prior to opening a new route, Ryanair negotiated vigorously with airport authorities for low landing fees, low turnaround costs, and other incentives. Ryanair negotiated scheduled press conferences to announce new routes while negotiated with numerous airports at once. These contracts gave Ryanair an edge over the competition because it lowered their fees and the contracts lasted 5-10 years. -Ryanair started using online booking through its website and used several computerized reservation systems which the travel agents were used to. The online booking reduced the number of its employees while the reservation systems increased customer satisfaction. Ryanair also shifted its fleet to the Boeing 737 aircraft by buying at the end of the worldwide recession in the airline industry and getting very low prices which gave them a competitive edge. Ryanair’s changed its workplace environment also which helped it become more profitable. They made the environment informal and flexible so that it’s the employees could be more efficient and productive. Almost all employees were paid based on their productivity. These incentives were made so that the employees could put more effort. From a marketing standpoint, Ryanair established itself as a lo w-cost, low-fare airline. Ryanair advertised in newspapers, radio and television. They relied heavily of word-of-mouth advertising by satisfied customers. The case also mentions that â€Å"many customers found their way to Ryanair not because of advertising, but because they asked their travel agent for the absolute lowest fare. † Ryanair had many ancillary services that served as additional sources of revenue. On the flights, the spaces behind seat-back trays and on headsets were sold to advertisers. The case also mentions that â€Å"advertisers could emblazon the exterior of a Ryanair plane with a corporate logo for a fee of 150,000 – 200,000 per year†. In-flight magazines were also consisted purely of advertisements. Ryanair made a profit on its publication, which was not common in the industry. Lastly, charter flights and car rental referral fees also brought in additional revenue. 3. What is the most serious threat Ryanair faces today? Why? How should they address it? Imitation is one of the most serious threats that Ryanair faces today. Even though Ryanair’s entire business model is to have a low-cost strategy, which it has done successfully, it is easily imitated by many entrepreneurial airlines as the case mentions, some of which have been successful and some of which not been so successful. The ability for Ryanairs business model to be imitated is a big threat which is further extended because of the deregulation by the government which allows many airlines to enter the market and use the same strategy as Ryanair. The most serious threat that Ryanair faces is competition and rivalry from British Airway’s Go. Go has been able to use the strong brand image of British Airways to give their brand a competitive edge. Go is a low-cost airline that is still offering some of the service that British Airways is known for. Passengers are still given a seat assignment, have available an on-board food franchise from a relatively upscale caterer, and has award winning coffee. All these amenities along with low-cost are going to differentiate Go from Ryanair. Customers will be willing to pay more for Go and they will be able to create and claim more value as a result. Additionally, According to Exhibit 5, Go has a lower average arrival day for all U. K. arrivals at 12. 0 minutes compared to Ryanair’s 15. 6 minutes. Portion of flights that arrive early or less than 15 minutes late are also higher for GO than for Ryanair. Go is also doing much better than expected. In September, 1999, the company announced its first profitable quarter while Go’s original business plan called for 2001 to be the first profitable year. Because of all this competition, the only differentiating factor to compete on is price. Since prices are already so low, having price-wars have a huge impact on Ryanair’s profit margins. Ryanair needs to address this growing imitation, competition, and rivalry(specifically from a company like Go) before it is too late. They need to control the low-cost segment of the market and ease Go out of the market. There are many potential ways in which Ryanair can address this issue. One recommendation that Ryanair should consider is the expanding outside Europe to a wider market, such as the transatlantic routes which account for more flights and more customers. By moving into this new market with its low fare strategy and added options, Ryanair can utilize its existing core competencies and further expand and control the low-cost segment of the market becoming a true leader in the market.

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

Hunting - Essay Example Nature lovers and wild life activists continuously try to spread awareness that hunting an animal is not only unethical but may also interfere with the food chain. When the existence of a particular species is threatened the world faces a misbalance too. Though laws in all most all countries exist, which forbids killing of endangered species, yet a group of people ignore the severity of the problem and continue hunting. In Nagaland, a tribal place in India, villagers hunt the Great Hornbill just to pluck their feathers to make dresses or headgears. The hunting has become so severe that only a few hundred Great Hornbills exist today. Some people illegally hunt endangered species like one-horned rhinoceros or African elephants to use their horns and teeth for trade purposes. It is evident that not everyone is aware of the fact that animals have precious lives too and need to be protected. We cannot eliminate an entire species for our own selfish purposes. More National parks and Reserv es should be set up to protect wildlife and animals from external threat and forest officers should be employed to look after the animals in these areas and protect them from poachers. Laws covering animal protection must include severe punishments for the law-breakers and such people should not be pardoned at all. Since it is us who have destroyed the natural habitats of most wildlife animals, we should be responsible for their rehabilitation and protection. The national parks and bioreserves should also employ veterinarians to ensure immediate medical attention for animals in times of need. But, more importantly mass education should be conducted in every country to educate the people about the need of animal protection and unethical hunting. In some countries killing certain animals for sport is supported and there are seasons called hunting seasons which allows hunters to hunt animals like antlered bucks, antlerless bucks, minks, foxes, turkeys and small game animals like rabbit s, raccoons or squirrels. In fact, sometimes hunting is termed as â€Å"ethical hunting† which is a mockery of the word â€Å"ethics† itself; because I do not think anyone with the right ethics would ever indulge in hunting. Wildlife biologists agree that overpopulation of deer poses a problem, but they reject the idea that foxes, turkey and game animals must be included in the hunting list too. Hunting parks issue licenses and allow one license holder only a certain number of kills per year. Parks do their own duty by printing manuals that train hunters in recognizing animals and issue rules about using hunting weapons. However, even after such precautions some hunters fail to recognize animals from a distance and may kill a species that should not hunted. In other cases, hunters do not kill their game entirely and leave it badly injured or crippled. In such cases the injured animals suffers a long and utterly painful death. According to a PETA report â€Å"A member of the Maine Bow Hunters Alliance estimates that fifty percent of animals who are shot with crossbows are wounded but not killed. A study of 80- radio collared white-tailed deer, found that, out of 22 deer that had been shot with traditional archery equipment, 11 were wounded but not recovered.† Thus, a high percentage of animals are only wounded. â€Å"

Mckee v. Laurion Case Study Analysis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mckee v. Laurion Analysis - Case Study Example The first statement he allegedly made was that he said when he did not find the patient in ICU, he took time to find out whether he had been transferred on died. Secondly, he allegedly affirmed that 44% of patients with haemorrhagic stroke die within 30 days. Thirdly, he allegedly dismissed patient saying he does not matter if the gown was on the back.                  Cases of defamation are often determined by courts based on plaintiff ability to prove that the said or written words amounted to significant falsity and quoted out of malice. The case as ruled by Minnesota State court had dismissed the suit saying the claims by Laurion showed substantial degree of truth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The law application was most controversial in the case. The appellate court found that the lower court erred by ruling in favor of Laurion. According to the law, there was no genuine issue of material on falsity of the statements and as such the website post was found to have had ill motives because they lack material evidence.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The appellate court on reversing lower court decision identified that the post made by Laurion carried defamation sentiment because he did not prove that the statement by the doctor carried malice or falsehood. The determination of the case is based on ability to show that the post act of malice or had unethical connotation.

Implicit cognition Essay Example for Free

Implicit cognition Essay Implicit cognition refers to internal influences that affect an individual’s behaviours. The identifying feature of implicit cognition is that an individual’s past experiences can influence their judgements in   fashion that the individual is not introspectively aware of – i.e. the person is not conscious of the fact that the experiences have affected his/her perceptions in such a way. (Greenwald Banaji, pg 4; 1995) Evidence supports the view that social behaviour and attitudes in particular are often based largely on unconscious attitudes, for example an individual’s attitudes towards a specific ethnic group are prone to be implicitly influenced. Implicit attitudes are commonly thought to mainly effect cognitive bias in a negative way (e.g. racism), however Edward Thorndike (1920) named the ‘halo effect’, upon observing that personality ratings showed a tendency for positive attributes to be associated with other positive attributes more than they should be (Greenwald Banaji, pg 9; 1995). A great amount of ‘halo effect’ research has been based on using physical attractiveness as the objectively irrelevant attribute that influences perception of other characteristics. Studies have shown that attractive people are judged to possess greater social skills as well as being more successful in employment (Dion, Berscheid Walster; 1972). As previously mentioned implicit cognition is caused by past experiences influencing judgement in ways that the individual is not introspectively aware, thus it is imperative to use indirect measures to gauge an individual’s implicit attitudes. The distinction between direct and indirect measures depends on the relationship between what the subject is informed about the purpose of a measure and what the researcher chooses to interpret from the subjects response to the measure (Greenwald Banaji, pg 8; 1995) – the researcher will inform the subject that one attribute is being measured when in fact the researcher will interpret information about another attribute based on the subjects response to the measure. It is necessary to use indirect measures because implicit attitudes are by definition attitudes that an individual is unable to report as they are unaware of their existence i.e. implicit attitudes are beyond an individual’s introspective limits. For the purpose of this essay I have chosen to examine the reaction time based ‘Implicit Association Test’ (IAT) and Facial Electromyography (fEMG) which is based on physiological measurement. Implicit attitudes result in projections of behaviour or judgments that are under the control of automatically activated evaluation, without the actor’s awareness of that causation. The IAT procedure seeks to measure implicit attitudes by measuring their underlying automatic evaluation. A beneficial property of the IAT is that it may resist individuals masking their attitudes using self presentation strategies (e.g. providing false responses in order to gain social acceptance or avoid criticism). In short, the IAT may reveal attitudes and other automatic associations even or those who prefer not to express those attitudes (Greenwald et al, pg 1464-5; 1998). The IAT is performed over a series of five stages; the first stage is called ‘Target Concept Discrimination’ in this stage the target concept is introduced and the subject is instructed to simply pair the stimuli with its corresponding concept, for example a study on implicit attitudes towards sexual preference (Project Implicit – an online database of IATs offering the test to the public, spearheaded by Dr Anthony Greenwald, Dr Brian Nosek and Dr Maharin Banaji) presents the subject with the task concepts ‘gay’ and ‘straight’, the subject is then presented with images displaying gay or straight couples or words such as homosexual and heterosexual. When the stimulus appears on screen the subject pairs it with the corresponding category – picture of a man and wife pairs with straight concept. The next stage in the IAT is ‘Associated Attribute Discrimination’ as previously this stage is presented as a two- category discrimination task. The subject is asked to pair words such as happiness, love, agony, strife with the corresponding attributes good and bad according to which attribute best suits their meaning. Following the introduction to the ‘Target Concept Discrimination’ and to the ‘Associates Attribute Dimension’, the two are amalgamated in the third stage –i.e. gay and good on one side of the screen and straight and bad on the other or vice versa. During this stage stimuli for target and attribute discriminations appear on alternate trials. For example’ a picture of a homosexual couple would be shown followed by the word ‘famine’.   As previously the subject pairs the stimuli with their matching category. The fourth stage consists of reversing the target concepts position in the experiment and the final stage of the experiment combines the ‘Reversed Target Concept Discrimination’ with attribute discrimination. For example the gay concept is now on the same side of the screen as bad. The subject is then presented with alternating stimuli and pairs them with the appropriate concept or attribute. If the target concepts are differentially associated with the attribute dimension, the subject should find one of the combined task (either the third stage or the fifth stage) to be more difficult than the other- this is shown in the subjects reaction time; longer reaction times suggest the subject has higher difficulty pairing an attribute with a concept. The measure of the difference in difficulty is used to provide the measure of implicit attitudinal difference between the target categories (Greenwald et al, pg 1465-6; 1998). In the example of implicit attitudes towards sexual preference, it should be easier to complete the task when straight is combined with good if there is a stronger association between heterosexuals and good meanings than between homosexuals and good meaning, thus showing an implicit attitude of bias towards heterosexuals. Also it is common to use training stages before each of the combined discrimination stages to reduce the effects the order of the combined discrimination tasks has on the IAT results. Since the IAT was first described by Dr. Anthony Greenwald et al in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1998 it has grown exponentially in popularity, having been used in over 300 published studies and cited in over 800 articles (Azar, 2008). Among the reasons for the success of the IAT are its relative ease of use, the large effect sizes it creates, its high level of adaptability and its resistance to subject’s faking their responses. To show the validity of the IAT Greenway et al (1998) used the classical known-groups validity measure. This measure consists of using groups whom are known previous to the experiment to differ regarding the construct of interest. Greenwald et al used Americans of Korean and Japanese descent to test the validity of the IAT. The participants had to classify positive and negative words along with typical Korean and Japanese names in the combined discrimination stage, as expected the IAT results showed that individuals of Korean or Japanese descent were prone to hold mutually negative implicit attitudes towards the other ethnicity (Banse et al pg 146; 2001). It has been disputed that the reason for these IAT results is at least partially based on ethnic groups being more familiar with names associated with in their own group, i.e. positive IAT scores may reflect familiarity more so than sympathy with their own ethnic group. Another commonly expressed concern with the internal validity of the IAT is the order in which the combined discrimination tasks appear. Greenwald et al (1998) expressed that all other thing being equal, strengths of associations used in the first of the IATs two combined tasks had a tendency to be stronger than those used in the second combined task. However, in a subsequent study Nosek et al (2005) showed that an increase in the length of the training stages before each of the combined discrimination stages can result the order having less of an effect on the IAT scores. If the pairing order effect is due to the interference caused by learning and becoming accustomed to an initial response set and subsequently needing to replace it with a new response set, then extra practice with the new response set may act to reduce this effect. (Nosek et al, pg 177; 2005). Furthermore the IAT is designed that the order of the combined discrimination task be random.

Speech Recognition using Epochwise Back Propagation

Speech Recognition using Epochwise Back Propagation International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume *– No.*, ___________ 2013 Speech Recognition using the Epochwise Back Propagation through time Algorithm Neelima Rajput S.K.Verma Department of C.S.E. Department of C.S.E. GBPEC, Pauri Gharwal, GBPEC, Pauri Gharwal, Uttrakhand, India. Uttrakhand, India ABSTRACT In this paper, artificial neural networks are used to accomplish the English alphabet speech recognition. The challenging issue in the area of speech recognition is to design an accurate and effective speech recognition system. We implemented a new data classification method, where we use neural networks, which are trained using the calculated epoch values of audio signal. This method gave comparable result to the already implemented neural networks. In this paper, Back propagation neural network architecture used to recognize the time varying input data, and provides better accurate results for the English Alphabet speech recognition. The Epochwise Back Propagation through time (BPTT) algorithm uses the epoch values of input signal to train the network structures and yields the satisfactory results. Keywords Artificial Neural Network, Back Propagation Neural Network, Epoch, Speech Recognition. I INTRODUCTION Speech recognition system enables the machine to understand the human speech and react accordingly. It allows the machine to automatically understand the human spoken utterances with the speech signal processing and pattern recognition. In this approach is the machine converts the voice signal into the suitable text or command through the process of identification and understanding. Speech recognition is emerges as a vast technology in current time. It also plays an important role in information theory, acoustics, phonetics, linguistics, and pattern recognition theory and neurobiology disciplines. speech recognition technology become a key technology in the computer information processing technology as there is rapid advancement in the software, hardware and information technology. The features of input audio signal are compared with the voice template stored in the computer database in speech recognition system by using the computer systems. Recognition results are mainly depends up on the matching techniques used for matching the audio signal characteristics. To improve the recognition rate and better recognition results neural networks are used. A neural network is a powerful tool which used to adapt and represent the complicated input outputs. Neural nets are basically interconnected networks of relatively simple processing units, or nodes that work simultaneously. They are designed to mimic the function of human neuron biological networks. The processing units of neural networks are termed as neurons. A neural network provides better results over the existing approaches in speech recognition systems [1]. 2 BASICS OF NEURAL NETWORKS The basics of neural networks are discussed as follows. There are many different types of neural networks, but they all have four basic and common attributes: †¢ Processing units †¢ Connections †¢ Computing procedure †¢ Training procedure . Processing Units A neural network contains several processing units, which are roughly analogous to neurons in the human brain. All these units activate in parallel and perform the task simultaneously. Processing units are responsible for the overall computation; there is no any other unit for the corporation of their activity. Each processing unit computes a scalar function of all its local inputs at every moment of time and then further broadcast the result to their neighboring units [2]. The units in a neural network are basically classified into input units, which used to receive data from the outside; hidden units, used to internally transform the data; and output units, which serve decisions or target signals. 2.2 Connections All processing units in a neural network are organized in to a defined topology by a set of connections, or weights, shown as lines in a diagram. Each weight consist a real value, which ranging from ∞ to + ∞. The value of a weight represents how much impact a unit has on its neighbor units a positive weight causes one unit to excite another, while a negative weight causes one unit to inhibit another. Weights of the processing units are usually one-directional (from input units towards output units), but it may be two-directional sometimes, especially when there is no distinction between input and output units. Figure 1.Neural network topologies: (a) unstructured, (b) layered, (c) recurrent, (d) modular [3]. The above figure shows the topology of different neural networks. Unstructured Neural Network is mainly used in processor which is operated in parallel to provide the computational power for the speech recognition system. Layered neural net algorithms are self-organizing and their internal speech model maximizes the performance and produces better results comparable to existing systems. Recurrent Neural network are mainly used in pattern sequencing as it follows the sequences changes time to time. Modular neural network are used in designing of complex systems by using simple components. Neural nets offer an approach to computation that mimics biological nervous systems. Algorithms based on neural nets have been proposed to address speech recognition tasks which humans perform with little apparent effort. 2.3 Computation Procedure Computation of neural networks begins after applying an input data to the input units of the network. Then the activation function of all the units is calculated either simultaneously or independently depends upon the structure of the neural network. The computation process in the unstructured network is termed as spreading activation and in layered network is known as forward propagation as it proceed from the input units to the output units. First we compute the net input of the processing unit and then we compute the output activation function of the net input to update a given processing unit. 2.4 Training Procedure Training a network means enable the connections adaptive so that the network shows the actual computational behavior for all the input patterns. In training process usually weights are updated but sometimes the modification of network topology also takes place, i.e., addition and deletion of connections from the network topology [4]. Modification of weight is easy and beneficial than topology modification as a network with bulk connections able to set any of its weight zero, which is equivalent as deleting such weights. 3. RELATED WORK The past research concluded that the use of the neural networks in the speech recognition system provides the better recognition result compared to the other existing approaches. The latest study of neural networks actually started in the 19th century, when neurobiologists first introduce the extensive studies of the human nervous system [5]. Cajal (1892) determined that the nervous system is comprised of some basic units i.e. discrete neurons, which communicate with the other neurons by sending electrical signals down their long axons, which ultimately activated and touch the dendrites(receptive areas) of thousands of other neurons, transmitting the electrical signals through synapses (points of contact, with variable resistance). Firstly, the different kinds of neurons were identified, and then analyze their electrical responses, and finally their patterns of connectivity and the brain’sgross functional areas were mapped out. According to the neurobiologists study the functi onality of individual neurons are quite simple and easy. Whereas to determine how neurons worked together to achieve high level functionality, such as perception and cognition are very difficult.[6] In 1943 McCulloch and Pitts proposed the first enumeration model of a neuron, named as binary threshold unit, whose output was either 0 or 1 depending on whether its net input exceeded a given threshold. There are various approaches proposed by the researchers to design an accurate speech recognition system for various purposes. In [7] Al-Alaoui algorithm is used to train the neural network. This method gives the comparable better results to the already implemented hidden markov model (HMM) for the recognition of the words. This algorithm also overcomes the disadvantages of the HMM in the recognition of sentences. An algorithm based on neural network classifier [8] for speech recognition used a new Viterbi net architecture which is recognized the input patterns and provided an accuracy of recognition rate more than 99% on a large speech database. This system is used for isolated word recognizer. In [9] author accomplishes the isolated word speech recognition using the neural network. The methodology of this approach is to extract the feature of speech signals using the Digital Signal Processing techniques and then classification using the Artificial Neural Network. This algorithm concluded that the better accurate recognition results are obtained from the probalistic Neural Network PNN. In [10] author implemented a pre- trained deep neural network using the hidden markov model (DNN-HMM) hybrid architecture which is used to train the DNN to produce the better recognition results of large vocabulary speech database. 4. PROPOSED WORK Speech recognition using the Epochwise Back propagation through time algorithm is proposed in this paper.In the proposed system neural network training is based on the calculation of epoch of the audio signal and then used these epoch value for the training of the neural network. The input data sets used to train the neural network can be partitioned in to the independent epochs. Each epoch representing a temporal value of the input data. Back propagationneural network used in the system in following steps. First choose and fix the architecture for the network, which will contain input, hidden and output units, all of which will contain sigmoid functions. Assign the weights between all the nodes. The assignments of weights usually between -0.5 and 0.5. Each training example is used, one after another, to re-train the weights in the network. After calculating each epoch for input audio data, a termination condition is checked. In neural network architecture the weights of input and hidden layers are adjusted according to the target output values [11] The input data is considered as E which is propagated through the network so that we can record all the observed values Oi(E) for the output nodes Oi. At the same time, we record all the observed values hi(E) for the hidden nodes. Then, for each output unit Ok, we calculate its epoch as follows: (1) The epoch terms from the output units are used to calculate epoch terms for the hidden units. In fact, this method gets its name because we propagate this information backwards through the network [12]. For each hidden unit Hk, we calculate the epoch as follows: (2) Here, we take the epoch term for every output unit and multiply it by the weight from hidden unit Hk to the output unit. We then add all these together and multiply the sum by hk(E)*(1 hk(E)). Having calculated all the epoch values associated with each unit (hidden and output), we can now transfer this information into the weight changes Δij between units i and j. The calculation is as follows: for weights wij between input unit Ii and hidden unit Hj, and summation of all units are as: (3) Back Propagation Neural Network architecture is shown in below figure Fig.2 Back propagation Neural Network The main steps of this system are defined as follows. Read the input audio Signal. Extract the epoch values Train the neural network on the basis of epoch values. Applied the back propagation neural network for the classification. Matching the input data with the trained data. Recognized the input. The data flow diagram of the proposed system represented in given figure C Figure 2 Proposed approaches for Speech Recognition 5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The experiment conducted on the audio database of English alphabets. Matlab R2010a (Math works) in Windows 7 was used to implement the proposed algorithm. The input signal is used to calculate the epoch values and then by using calculated epoch values the neural network is trained.The epoch rate of multi-layered networks over a training set could be calculated as the number of miss-classified data values. There are many output nodes, all of which could potentially misfire (e.g., giving a value close to 1 when it should have output 0 and vice-versa), we can be more sophisticated in our epoch evaluation. In practice the overall network epoch is calculated as: This is not as complicated as it first appears. The calculation simply involves working out the difference between the observed output for each output unit and the target output and squaring this to make sure it is positive, then adding up all these squared differences for each output unit and for each input signal. The calculated epoch values for audio signal A is listed in tabular form. Table: 1 Calculated Epoch values for input data Then epoch values are basically instant of significant excitation of the vocal-tract system during production of speech. Table 1 represented the Epoch values for the input English alphabet A in terms of time in mili seconds. These epoch values are stored in the computer for the further matching by using the neural networks to the recognition purpose. Similarly, epoch values are calculated for each input English alphabet and then train the network through these input patterns and stored in the system for recognition Figure 3 Performance graphs of epoch values. The figure 3 shows the performance of the system based on epoch values. The best validation performance epoch value is selected from the different epoch on the basis of Mean Square error. The graph is plotted on epoch and means squared error values. Table: 2 Performance of the proposed system In Table: 2 the recognition rate is calculated for five input English alphabet which is 98.8%. The new proposed Epochwise Back propagation through time algorithm yields the satisfactory results. 6. CONCLUSION In this paper, we implemented the Epochwise Back propagation through the time varying epoch calculation. The experiment is conducted on the small set of English Language alphabet to calculate the recognition rate of the system. Some different sound samples (i.e., with different sampling frequency) of each alphabet are taken and used for testing the system. The above results show the performance of our proposed algorithm in speech recognition. 7. REFERENCES Jianliang Meng, Junwei Zhang,Haoquan Zhao, â€Å"Overview of the speech Recognition Technology†, 2012 Fourth International Conference on Computational and Information Sciences. L. Fausset, Fundamentals of Neural Networks. PrenticeHall Inc., 1994, ch 4. Jiang Ming Hu, in the Yuan Baozong, Lin Biqin. Neural networks for speech recognition research and progress. Telecommunications Science, 1997, 13(7):1-6. H. Boulard and N. Morgan, â€Å"Continuous speech recognition by connectionist statistical methods,† IEEE Trans. Neural Netw., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 893–909, Nov. 1993. Mohamad Adnan Al-Alaoui, Lina Al-Kanj, Jimmy Azar, and Elias Yaacoub, â€Å"Speech recognition using Artificial Neural Network and Hidden Markov Model†, IEEE Multidisciplinary Engineering Education Magazine Vol. 3, No.3, September 2008. RICHARD P. LIPPMANN, â€Å"Neural Network Classifiers for Speech Recognition† The Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Volume 1, Number 1 (1988) Gulin Dede, Murat Husnu SazlÄ ±, â€Å"Speech recognition using artificial neural network.† Digital signal processing  © 2009 Elsevier Inc. George E. Dahl, Dong Yu, Li Deng, Alex Acero,† Context-Dependent Pre-Trained Deep Neural Networks for Large-Vocabulary Speech Recognition† , IEEE Transaction on Audio, and Language Processing, Vol. 20, No.1, January 2012. H. Paugam-Moisy, ‘Parallel neural computing based on network duplicating’,in Parallel Algorithms for Digital Image Processing, Computer Vision and Neural Networks, ed., I. Pitas, 305–340, JohnWiley, (1993). Stefano Scanzio, Sandro Cumani, Roberto Gemello, Franco Mana, P. Laface, â€Å"Parallel implementation of Artificial Neural Network Training for Speech Recognition.† Pattern recogonition letters,  © 2010 Elsevier B.V. N. Morgan and H. Bourlard, â€Å"Continuous speech recognition using multilayer perceptrons with hidden Markov models,† in Proc. ICASSP,1990, pp. 413–416. Y. Hifny and S. Renals, â€Å"Speech recognition using augmented conditional random fields,† IEEE Trans. Audio, Speech, Lang. Process., vol.17, no. 2, pp. 354–365, Feb. 2009.

Tourism Has Increased Quickly Since 1950

There are a variety of reasons for the increase in tourism levels. First and foremost, things have changed over time, socially and economically. In the 1950’s, very few families had a car, now almost every family have at least one car, if not multiple vehicles. This means that people can drive to airports, to ferry ports, etc. Another reason is due to employment laws; there has been a huge increase in leisure time. This is down to more people receiving paid annual leave (4 weeks on average), people are working less hours for more money so have a higher disposable income and also lots of families have two ‘wage-earners’.Lots of people are now taking early retirement and have generous pensions so can spend their savings on holidays. Another massive factor responsible for the increase in tourism is change in technology. There have been huge advances in aircraft development and additionally, motorways. The Euro tunnel also provides a link between England and France, g iving tourists the option of driving to their destination instead of flying or by boat. All this is furthered by the alternative of book holidays and tours online, instead of going into a travel agent.This also gives people the opportunity to research locations before booking their holiday. Finally, and maybe most importantly, there is the actual growth and expansion of the holidays and tours offered. Because of the demand for different holidays, travel companies have created many ‘tailor-made’ and budget friendly holidays, such as package tours and adventure breaks that cater for a wide variety of tourists such as families, couples and students.Package holidays particularly attract families on a tight budget who are looking for a holiday that is both enjoyable and affordable. With lots of travel businesses now offering eco-tourism, tourists are being attracted to the idea of embracing local culture and lifestyle without damaging the environment. Overall, the increase i n tourism since the 1950’s is due to multiple factors that, when combined, have made national and international travel much more accessible to a wider range of people.

How far is Hamlet dominated by a Christian worldview? Essay

England during the 17th century was a Christian society and country. All Children would most certainly have been baptised shortly after birth and once at a suitable age capable of understanding religion would be taught the essentials of Christian faith. Attendance at church was compulsory; failure to do so without a good medical reason or otherwise would lead to a hefty fine. During the 16th century in England those of Christian faith subsequently despised other races against that of Protestantism, and any other religion or paranormal existence that they did not understand. The persecution of Jews within Elizabethan England meant the state forbade them the rights to ownership of land or to engage in trade. Shakespeare showed an incredible understanding and knowledge of issues and crises of his time, introducing burning issues of today into his deeply Christian country that showed an inability of understanding and respecting other faiths and religions. Within the pre-Elizabethan period and onwards society was influenced heavily by the head of state, religion and new theoretician’s ideas. A Theocentric world view stated that everything was circled around God, hence the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ , which derived itself from this idea, proclaiming the head of state was put into power due to the approval and justification of God. This idea generally became associated with the Christian faith during the Renaissance period of the late 16th and early 17th centuries which was spreading rapidly through Europe settling much cultural diversity. The Renaissance was a time of rebirth and massive cultural turmoil. Artists and performers of all kinds within Western Europe became more aware of the classical past and the world beyond the narrow boundaries of medieval mysticism and religion. Poetry and writing was nonetheless influenced heavily by the general acceptance to new ideas. Shakespeare shows that he was conscious of the feudal world within which he was raised, continuously questioning every aspect of society. Shakespeare would most definitely be considered to be a ‘Renaissance’ or ‘Modern Man’. Aristotelian Tragedy would have had some impressionable effect upon Shakespeare’s ideas. He would adopt the idea that every tragedy must contain a ‘Tragic Hero’, and that this person has a fatal flaw that will lead to his eventual downfall (and death). Also Seneca’s tragedies which were finally published in England in 1581 would have had some effect upon the way in which Shakespeare would have composed his plays. He adopted many ideas including, a supernatural being proposing revenge, characters driven to madness, embedded narratives within the play . etc. Christianity was not just a religion within 16th century England but a political pivot point for argument and debate. In 1559 Parliament enacted the ‘Act of Uniformity’ and the ‘Oath of Supremacy’. By the introduction of these two laws by Henry VII and his heir Elizabeth I ensured the loyalty of their strongest political supporters and in turn condemning Roman Catholics. The following is an excerpt taken from the ‘Oath of Supremacy’ published in 1559: †I [†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ] do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Queen’s Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other her Highness’s dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal, and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm.. † This quote fundamentally states the allegiance and sincerity of one towards the Head of State, swearing ones loyalty to them alone and not to another figure head or person of command. Despite political interventions within humanity and society, Shakespeare highlights issues which would then have been disregarded as being evil, such as apparitions and supernatural occurrences. Many examples could be identified however ones of relevance are plenty within ‘Hamlet’. Within Act I, Scene I an apparition of King Hamlet appears, which later on within the play urges Hamlet to avenge his death. This would heighten the audience’s suspense due to the drama involved. Shakespeare surprises both the audience and the characters within the play by introducing a ghost, creating a hugely effective atmosphere of anxiety and fear throughout the scene. Elizabethan people misunderstood paranormal existences and this phantom would have heightened their (the audiences) suspicions and fears towards them (the ghosts) furthermore. Many people of Shakespeare’s time regarded ghosts as the devil himself. The play is very much written in a pro-Christian era and many aspects of Christianity show through. Hamlet’s voice comes through however, sceptical of this. Hamlet contemplates the idea of committing suicide within his soliloquy in Act I, Scene II as he cries, ‘O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter. O God, O God! ‘ Here Shakespeare shows us that suicide is not favourably looked upon and even seen as an act that would leave you in purgatory (as is King Hamlet’s), waiting for one’s sins to be forgiven and for redemption to commence itself. Quote King Hamlet, ‘I was sent to my account with all the horrible imperfections on my head. O horrible, O horrible, most horrible! ‘ However it must not be forgotten that ‘Hamlet’ is first and foremost a play about revenge. Prince Hamlet was asked by his ‘father’ to pursue vengeance for this wrongdoing. An Elizabethan audience would understand the complication involved with the ideas of revenge. Shakespeare uses an allegory within the play, where Denmark represents England regarding views on Christian beliefs, such as suicide, death, redemption and paranormal beings . etc. Within the period of ‘Hamlet’s’ composition there were many factors which Shakespeare commented upon by incorporating them within his plays. By understanding the structure of society and the role that Christianity and religion played within Shakespearean England we empathize why within a few scenarios Hamlet was deterred from undertaking certain actions immediately, the murder of Claudius at prayer for example. The audience that viewed this play would also have related to Hamlet’s actions, his steadiness and composure with which he performed everything and acted. However to a modern day audience if Hamlet was a person living at present and was to act the way as Shakespeare intended him to then his actions would be heavily frowned upon by many as no longer do we (a majority [not applicable to religious followers] ) regard religion as a major factor within our lives. Due to our secular society, despite somewhat of a Christian favouritism in schools for example, we fail to identify (before education) with the way in which Prince Hamlet thinks. We ask the following question, why does Hamlet abide by the conceptual ideas laid down by society? Hamlet had no other choice than to undertake his actions the way he did as Shakespeare, his creator, wrote from influences surrounding him. England like Denmark was a troubled country as it still feared the spread of Roman Catholicism by another incident such as the failed Spanish Armada of 1588. In modern times, spanning over the last two centuries, many wars have been studied by people and they have come to the realisation that our world too is a world of politics with underlying motives such as a battle of religion. Issues such as feminism regarding ‘Hamlet’ have allowed various playwrights such as Heiner Muller, author of ‘Hamletmachine’ to show the subordination of women within society. He gives a voice to two main characters, Prince Hamlet and Ophelia, so that they are able to speak their minds within this bizarre production. The oppression and victimization of Ophelia is shown to the audience. Ophelia is allowed to make moral thoughts and decisions where in turn she can find herself as a person not just a sexual object. She shows this hatred towards the patriarchal society within which Shakespeare wrote the original ‘Hamlet’. Ideas of feminist movements are highlighted within ‘Hamletmachine’ in contrast to ‘Hamlet’, which shows women as objects controlled by men. (Ophelia controlled by her father Polonius. )(Gertrude controlled by her King, Claudius. ) And in turn it seems as though if women disobey their ‘masters’ they face the consequence that destiny presents to them, death. ‘There are more things dreamt of in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. ‘ What is philosophy? Philosophy is when there are no limits of exploration as to questioning underlying factors which makes this creation of life what it is. This is exactly what Hamlet says to Horatio in Act I, Scene VI, ‘There are more things dreamt of in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. ‘ What Hamlet is basically saying is never disbelieve. Anything is possible, never oppose, wrongfully criticize or demean an object never before witnessed or seen. A modern day audience would understand specific actions after having grasped what the 17th century religious influence within society was like. However the way in which the government intervenes itself regarding religion has greatly changed in that it is now no longer seen as a way to indoctrinate people and influence them.

Plant Biotechnology essays

Plant Biotechnology essays The earth can be seen as an ecological system which includes the birth/death rates, water/air management, minerals/energy, and plant/animal life. When there is an imbalance in one of these systems, problems can arise. The plant/animal subsystem has four components: Food and population, minerals and energy, excretory, and biotechnology. The food and population system is the ratio between the calories of the living and human behavior. Currently, 1 trillion calories of food are needed per day. The energy and mineral system is comprised of the use of fuels, metal and resources that humans need to survive. The excretory system is the waste and pollution produced from the other subsystems. For example, the agriculture industry impacts the soil and climate of the environments. Pesticides seep into the ground water and linger in foods causing precious resources to be lost. In order to sustain the ecological system, water, soil and sunlight are needed to produce food. The ways to increase the production of food are to increase the acres under cultivation or to increase the yield of current crops. To do this, the fourth system of biotechnology is necessary to ease the strain on the other three systems because it conserves resources and produces higher crop yields. Although there may be draw back and potential dangers of biotechnology, countries that have problems with population and food such as China, need to use this and other technology to increase their food supply. The problem of overpopulation with not having enough food has always existed worldwide, but primarily in China. In 46 years, the worlds population has increased from two billion to six billion people. China has tried family planning in order to combat its population problems. Each family is allowed to have only one child and special permission is needed to have that one child. Failure to follow the one child rule results in economic hardships for the family. These reper...

A Yes-and-No Answer About Hyphenating Phrases

A Yes-and-No Answer About Hyphenating Phrases A Yes-and-No Answer About Hyphenating Phrases A Yes-and-No Answer About Hyphenating Phrases By Mark Nichol When it comes to following grammatical rules by example, the field is a minefield, because many publishers and publications can’t even seem to get it right, and writers must resort to hunting down the correct usage in a style guide or a writing handbook. Take, for instance, phrases of several words in which hyphenation seems to be called for. Is it â€Å"word of mouth,† or â€Å"word-of-mouth†? Do you write â€Å"on the spot,† or â€Å"on-the-spot†? The quick-and-easy answer is, for these and most other apparent word chains, break those chains: No hyphens are necessary unless the phrase precedes a noun: â€Å"I rely on word-of-mouth communication†; â€Å"She made an on-the-spot assessment.† But the game changes for a special class of phrase that, for lack of standard nomenclature, we can call anatomical association: When your dorsal side is opposite someone else’s, you’re standing back-to-back, and when you confront someone, you go head-to-head. This type of phrase is sometimes hyphenated in adverbial form (used in conjunction with a verb) as well as in adjectival form (preceding or following a noun): â€Å"He produced back-to-back hits throughout the decade.† â€Å"She hoped to a avoid a head-to-head confrontation.† Unfortunately, though, even that classification is inconsistent: When you line up among a row of people to your left and right, you’re positioned side by side, not side-by-side. (Though you still hyphenate the adjectival form you stand in a side-by-side formation.) You can live a hand-to-mouth existence, but you’re living hand to mouth, not hand-to-mouth. Some similar phrases, such as â€Å"head to toe† or â€Å"hand in hand,† aren’t even in the dictionary, so the same rule applies; leave open in adverbial form, and hyphenate as an adjective. (Phrasal adjectives usually remain open after a noun, but these aren’t conducive to that syntax anyway.) This maddening inconsistency leaves us where we started: When in doubt, look it up. And what about even longer word strings? You can write that someone has a devil-may-care attitude, and that someone has a not-in-my-backyard mentality, but where do you draw the line and stop drawing that little line we call a hyphen? What if someone has a do-unto-others-before-someone-does-unto-you approach to life? Many such phrases are enclosed in quotation marks rather than hyphenated, which is reasonable for something that would conceivably be uttered and doesn’t play havoc with narrow columns of type (as it may very well have done here). But phrases of manageable length like â€Å"not in my backyard,† even though they’re hypothetical statements, should remain in phrasal-adjective mode. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Format a US Business LetterHow to Punctuate Descriptions of ColorsDouble Possessive

Individual property rights on Canadian Indian reserves Essay

Individual property rights on Canadian Indian reserves - Essay Example The aim of this review is to allow for all of this by critically reviewing the article in question, including facts and arguments that are presented by the author, counter arguments from others, as well as any and all other key and related issues in this regards. This is what will be dissertated in the following. The first thing to make note of is the actual title of this article, which is Individual Property Rights on Canadian Indian Reserves; from the title alone, we are able to get a rather detailed idea of what the article itself is going to be about. The title overtly specifies the topic as well as the main idea that is going to be represented within the article, and not only does the title itself rouse interest and create a wanting to read further on, but as well it does more than merely imply the subject, as we are told directly from the title of the article alone that we are going to be learning about the individual property rights in regards to the Canadian Indian reserves. ... Once we begin into the article, we can see that the main idea is basically stated within the first paragraph, as the first sentence of the entire article reads "Many Indian reserves in Canada, particularly but not only in the three prairie provinces, have no formalized individual property rights" (Alcantara & Flanagan, 2002: 5). Clearly, from this alone we can get at least a remote grasp on the matter of the article, as we can see that the authors are stating that most of the Indian reserves in Canada do not have any formalized individual property rights, and obviously this is - and in the future will be even more - incredibly problematic. The authors use various factual experiences and instances of different people in order to express the main point of their article, and the placement of their main idea creates much interest, because it compels you to wonder more about the individual property rights in regards to the Canadian Indian reserves, as well as the solutions - if any - whic h exist in this regards. One of the most poignant facts that the authors state within the first couple pages of the article is that of how "According to Joe v. Findlay (1981, 122 DLR 3d 377), interest in reserve land is held in common by the band as a whole and not by individual members (Nicola Band et al v Trans-Can Displays et al 2000 BCSC 1209, para 127). An individual can gain an interest in the land only under the procedures described in sections 20-29 of the Indian Act". (Alcantara & Flanagan, 2002: 5). Another one of the most major points that the authors make in this article is about how although the people living on the Canadian Indian reserves

Analysis of Vitamin C content of Soft Fruit Drinks Coursework

Analysis of Vitamin C content of Soft Fruit Drinks - Coursework Example Titration is a commonly performed experiment which is used to determine the exact concentration of a particular substance in solution. This is achieved by adding increasing amounts of a standard solution of known concentration (the titrant) to a measured quantity of the solution whose concentration one intends to ascertain (the analyte), and determining the end point of the reaction by means of a substance termed as an indicator. Titration can be used to determine the concentration of various substances including several acids and bases. Vitamin C has been found to turn a blue dye clear. Thus, the amount of Vitamin C in a solution can be worked out by titrating the different soft drinks against a fixed amount of the blue dye, which serves as both the titrant and the indicator in this experiment.   Materials Available: Blue dye A solution containing a known amount of Vitamin C (Solution A) A selection of old products: a lemon, orange and blackcurrant drink A selection of new product s: a lemon, orange and blackcurrant drink Equipment needed: Burette Pipette, graduated Pipette filler Ehrlenmeyer flask or Beaker Distilled water Burette clamp Stirring rod Procedure: To begin the experiment, the amount of solution which has a known quantity of Vitamin C (labeled as Solution A) needed to turn 1 cm3 of the blue dye colorless has to be determined. To achieve this, a measured quantity, i.e. 1 cm3 of the dye is added to an Ehrlenmeyer flask or beaker with the help of a pipette. Before using the pipette, it is important to  ensure that it is thoroughly cleaned and conditioned before being used  in order to remove any water droplets or impurities.  Conditioning  is achieved by rinsing the pipette with  a small volume of  the solution being transferred  (the stock solution) and disposing of the rinsing solution. The pipette is then filled up to the calibration mark with the help of a pipette filler. It is important to remember that most solutions would form a concave meniscus. Thus, while reading a meniscus, the bottom of the meniscus should be read and the meniscus should be kept at eye level in order to avoid parallax errors. Moreover, the meniscus should be read against a uniform background, which can be achieved by placing a white sheet of paper behind the level of the liquid. The dye is now transferred to the conical flask. Once all the solution has drained, the experimenter should touch the tip of the pipette to the side of the flask. This helps in removing the last drop of solution from the pipette and helps in avoiding errors. It is important to keep in mind that one does not need to blow the last drop of solution out of the pipette. As pointed out previously, in this experiment the blue dye serves as both the titrant and the indicator. An indicator is a substance which indicates the pH of a substance and is commonly used to determine the end point of a reaction, which is denoted by a color change of the indicator. The next step is to add the solution A into the beaker drop by drop by means of a burette. The burette is an apparatus which helps in slowly and precisely deliver small measured volumes of a solution to another. It is most commonly used in titration experiments and measures solutions up to an accuracy of