Information Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Information Systems - Essay Example Communicating with branches and offices worldwide has never been easier than now. Purchases through online transactions have increased because of the convenience it offers. The advancement in information systems has also paved the way for shifts in media and advertising. More companies are using the web to advertise their products and services. These types of promotional campaigns are less costly for companies and they get instant feedback from customers. A well-developed information system gives a strategic competitive advantage to companies. Information systems play a vital role in business processes and operations. Information systems make it less complicated to handle numerous company data through electronic data processing, transaction processing, record keeping and accounting applications. Another way information systems transform business is it simplifies the decision-making process of employees and managers. It acts as an ad hoc support to the decision-making process by providing decision makers the information they need, when they need it. Information system literacy is the â€Å"knowledge and hands-on familiarity with hardware, software, peripherals and network components common to most information systems†(WebFinance, Inc., 2013). On the other hand, computer literacy is the â€Å"level of familiarity with the basic hardware and software (and now Internet) concepts that allows one to use personal computers for data entry, word processing, spreadsheets, and electronic communications†

Impact of IT on Individuals, Communities and Society

Impact of IT on Individuals, Communities and Society Since its inception, IT has had a substantial impact on the world. The ability to access information at the touch of a button has transformed the way we learn. Education and Training have never been the same, before the dawn of the internet. However, all of this is not as amazing as it first seems. Malicious users roam the far reaches of the internet trying to steal peoples bank details, child pornography sites hidden behind proxies and VPNs deep in the dark net, even illegal drug and weapon sales. Online Shopping Online shopping is an amazing invention since its initiation in 1979 by Michael Aldrich. Michael Aldrich connected a 26 coloured consumer television by a telephone line to a real-time transaction processing computer. He called his new invention teleshopping, this is the forefather to our online shopping today. It even allows people who cant leave their homes, such as disabled people, elderly people, single parents and so much more. However, this godsend isnt as brilliant for local shop owners as it is for consumers; it can leave local economies decimated as people that used to be loyal customers move to services like Amazon and ASDA Direct. Not all is how it seems. Although online shopping can be accessible by many people, a lot of people still dont have access to it. 21.6% of UK residents dont have regular access to the internet. This has become a problem for many rural areas of the UK that seem to be neglected by ISPs (Internet Service Providers), low income areas also seem to have a smaller percent of online activity. In 2015 the UK government tried to combat this issue by passing a bill that was intended to provide everyone with at least 15 mbps (megabits per second) internet access for free. As of February 2017 the bill has disappeared. Free time The way we spend our free time has changed drastically over the last couple of decades. From the dawn of social media to the invention of complex graphically intense video games our choices of media consumption during our free time has vastly increased since the very first commercial computers were produced.   Websites like Twitter and YouTube have become the places where most will spend their free time. This has caused content creators commonly referred to as YouTubers, to make a living. Some even become millionaires. Video games have also become one of the most popular forms of peoples pass times, over 33 million out of the UKs 64 million residents play video games on a daily basis. Thats roughly 51% of the total populous, over half! So its no surprise that the British games market is worth a whopping  £4.193 billion as of 2015. Streaming websites are also among the most popular for internet users, they account for roughly 60% 70% of web traffic. They stream videos and other media like music to their users, some of the most frequently visited websites for streaming include: Netflix, Amazon Prime video and music, Spotify and Crunchyroll An anime streaming site. Communication Communication within the IT industry has shaped how we all communicate on a daily basis. From Emails to Short Message Service (SMS), daily communication has vastly changed from the days of letters and telegrams; this is thanks to the wide adoption of computers and mobile devices. This has only improved as technology has advanced to the internet vastly improved what mobile devices could do thus allowing us to communicate in better and faster ways. With the invention of 3G (short for 3rd Generation, in reference to it being the 3rd iteration of wireless mobile technology).   Users could surf the web from their devices. This newly found technology paved the way for smartphones, has the technology improved with H/HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) offering a theoretical 7.2 mbps connection speed and later H+HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) offering an insanely fast theoretical speed of 168 mbps. Legal Impacts The legal impacts of IT have always been up for debate, whether it was the ability to copy games from cassette to cassette or the sudden unlimited access to bountiful amounts of information that came from the incredible creation that is the internet. In order to protect peoples data and information, many governments around the world implemented improved copyright and plagiarism laws. In the UK this law is called the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1998. Law lays down foundations to help copyright and patent holders to take legal action again those who steal their works. Hacking, Fraud and other malicious acts also came along with the dawn of commonly available personal computers. The UK government passed the Computer Misuse Act 1990, this bill outlined the dos and donts when it comes to computer use; accessing a computer without permission is considered a crime under the Computer Misuse Act.   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Ethical Impacts The ethical impacts of IT mainly from the constant documentation of our information from services such as Google and Amazon has been a heated topic for several years. Should we allow such services to store our personal information and information about items we like or search most often? Although there are many benefits in allowing such information to be stored which can help to form algorithms to better improve our online experiences with search engines and online shops. This can allow services such as Amazon target specific advertisements to be shown to us based on our interests and to have products recommended to us based on our past purchases. However, if this information were to reach the wrong hands, such as a fraudster, it could be extremely dangerous to the users whom data has been stolen. Another ethical question that comes to play with the use of IT is for those who dont have access to high-speed internet that may of us take for granted. For instance, many people who live in rural areas of the UK dont have access to broadband due to the vast distance between them and the telephone exchange. In some cases, even trying to install cables for rural areas are just impossible due to the high cost and low reward aspect of the area. For a broadband company it is more profitable to place expensive high-speed cables in densely populated urban areas since the vast amount of customers would allow the companies to recover their investments much quicker. There are solutions to this however, many mobile communication networks have started providing 4G internet access to those who cant get access to the internet or who have rather weak connections. Most of the time these solutions are cheap and quick to set up however the 800Mhz (megahertz) frequency band, previously used for analog ue television, used by most telecommunication companies although has far reach due to its small wavelength this has the negative effect of not having the ability to transmit as much data as a fibre optic cabling. Life before computers As much as it is hard for some of us who have grown up with and around this amazing technology, we must not forget that computers have not always been around. Even earlier versions of cameras have been around longer than computers. Video games, Instant messaging, Email, DVDs, Cassettes, Laserdiscs: There was a time when all of these werent even thought of. A time of newspapers and radio, vinyl disc and Classic music and Jazz. Going outside to play with friends, working for a sixpence, 240 pence to a pound, before the days of post decimalisation. I asked my Nan about what it was like growing up, what she would have liked to do when she left school. Getting a job as a typist working for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) was one of the flashiest jobs for women to get, everyone wanted it. Sustainability The sustainability of our modern technological position has been a question for many centuries. What can we do to help preserve our environment and sustain our current lifestyle? Recycling our old hardware and reusing the precious metals inside them can help us since it uses less energy to regain these metals than it does to mine and refine them. Another advantage to this is that metals are also a finite substance and we only have a set amount of it. Moving to a more sustainable energy source to power our homes and electronics is also a vital way to be stainable. Solar, wind and nuclear energy are the current candidates for us to replace our dependent on fossil fuels. All three of these present a positives and negatives but one thing they all have in common is their amount of pollution they produce or lack there of. PAGE 1 OF YOUR BLOG: Understand the impact of IT on individuals, communities and society. Impacts Social Impacts How we spend free time. Effects on local communities PAGE 2 OF YOUR BLOG: ECONOMIC IMPACTS Employment structure and working practices. Sustainability. PAGE 3 OF YOUR BLOG: Legal impacts Ownership, copyright and plagiarism PAGE 4 OF YOUR BLOG Ethical impacts Privacy of information PAGE 5 OF YOUR BLOG Activity from page 23 Life before computers investigate and write up in your own words.

Why Are Museums Important? Essay examples -- essays research papers

The Cambridge Dictionary Online defined museums as â€Å"places of study, buildings where objects of historical, scientific or artistic interest are kept, preserved and exhibited†. To The Museums Association, a museum is â€Å"an institution which collects documents, preserves, exhibits and interprets material evidence and associated information for the public benefit†. Since 1998, this definition has changed. Museums now enable the public to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society. Mike Wallace (1996) categorised museums into four distinct types, namely National Museums that hold collection of national importance, Armed Service Museums, Independence Museums and Local Authority Museums. According to Wallace, the importance of museums lies in their role as a nation’s memory bank. Personally, what matters most about m useums is that they are the only source of â€Å"living history† and perhaps an insight to the future world that lies before us. History should be displayed for study not only because it is essential to individuals and to society, but also because it harbours beauty. Museums provide an ideal learning environment, whether it is formal or informal learning, active hands-on participation or passive observation (Hein, G. E, 1998). In The British Museum, each of the museums curatorial departments offers student research facilities, for instance Ancient Near East, Egyptian Antiquities, Japanese Antiquities, Medieval and Modern Europe and Prehistory and Early Europe. The Education Department even set aside â€Å"Study days† to allow more intensive exploration of the cultural background to an exhibition or area of the collections and they usually include slide lectures and gallery talks. In addition, The Education Department provides a range of services for teachers to help enhance students' experience of the Museum and about the cultures represented in the Museum's collections. The 2000/2001 brochure, listing events and resources for teachers and students, is promised to be available soon. Majority of the other museums also provide such education al services to the public. The National Museum of the Performing Arts has an Education Department that runs an annual programme of activities designed to support teachers in the deliv... ...ritish Columbia Museums Association: <a href="http://www.museumsassn.bc.ca/">http://www.museumsassn.bc.ca/ The British Museum: <a href="http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/">http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/ The Horniman Museum and Gardens: <a href="http://www.horniman.demon.co.uk/">http://www.horniman.demon.co.uk/ The London Dungeon: <a href="http://www.thedungeons.com/en/dungeon.asp?gotof=top&lang=en">http://www.thedungeons.com/en/dungeon.asp?gotof=top&lang=en The Museum of Culinary History and Alimentation: <a href="http://www.mocha.co.uk/">http://www.mocha.co.uk/ The National History Museum: <a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/">http://www.nhm.ac.uk/ The National Museum of the Performing Arts: <a href="http://theatremuseum.vam.ac.uk/">http://theatremuseum.vam.ac.uk/ The National Science Museum: <a href="http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/">http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/ The Science Museum: <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/">http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ Wilson, D.M. (1989). The British Museum: Purpose and Politics. London: British Museum Press.

Job Fair Paper

Angela French Job Fair 04/14/2010 Miryan Nogueira BUS/210 The three main focuses of the job fair brochure that I am concentrating on for our company are: The structure of the company, the business model and the culture. I have divided it into three main points. First, a brief history of who we are and when we began and the growth that we have experienced as company. When an employee can see the history of the company and the success that has been accomplished the fear factor diminishes. I think it is important to show the prospective employee that we care about them and their needs as a person. We recognize that we all have certain needs that need to be met. Second, and possibly the most important, what the benefits to the staff are. In Maslows needs hierarchy theory he talks about what truly motivates someone in their job. At the bottom of the pyramid is the physiological need. The basic need for things such as food and water. Once these needs are met you can start thinking about other needs. Next comes the security need. That is where the benefits come into play. I think in today’s job market, benefits play a huge role. You have to show your employees how much you care for them and their families. If you can satisfy the two bottom needs of Maslows needs hierarchy theory the other three needs that he talks about will be easier met. Once an employee starts to satisfy those needs like the next one of esteem needs the last need of self actualization is easily obtained and you have a wonderful employee. Third, company culture. In having other employees make statements in the brochure helps. In Maslow pyramid, the third need is the belongingness need. By hearing from other employees the prospective employee can get a feel of the culture and family like atmosphere of our company. I think the feeling of belonging to something bigger than you is a big motivation. If you make an employee feel like they are part of the reason for your success you will get a much better response and a better work ethic from them. Hearing this first hand from current employees help them visualize working for your company. Therefore, a good job fair brochure will highlight all the important parts of your company. The most important aspects of the business. The first being the structure of the company. Second, the business model and third, the culture of the company. If all of these aspects are highlighted in the brochure you will be able to entice many applicants for your business.

What is the main purpose of prison

What is the main purpose of prison BY assists What is the main purpose of prisons? Although the human society is marching on all the time, a variety of crimes such as cheat, steal and even more serious kidnapping, rape and murder keep happening around us unavoidably. In order to maintain the stability of our countries and punish those people who commit crimes, prisons appear. That is the simplest reason for prison establishing, and in this article I will analyze the purpose of prisons deeply.Generally speaking, despite the punishment action, known as retribution, the purpose of prisons can be divided into another 3 categories. Firstly, incapacitation, it can be expressed as isolating the criminals and depriving their freedom by locking them in a secure place. Secondly, for people who intend to commit crime but have not broken the laws, prisons are deterrence to some extent. In another word, prisons act as a warning in people's mind to prevent future crimes.Finally, rehabilitation mea ns that the prisons have the responsibility to develop prisoners' abilities and integrate them into society after releasing. Those activities may include but not limited in launching educational courses, teaching Job skills, informing current news s well as providing psychotherapy by professional staffs. However, after explaining the functions of prisons thoroughly, there comes a new problem for us, what should be the main purpose of prisons – rehabilitation (positive side) or punishment/societal protection (negative side)?In my opinion, it depends on the crime behavior and the intent behind the crime. If it is not a serious crime such as driving after drinking a bottle of beer, then absolutely yes, this person should be forgiven. And in this case, rehabilitation is the main purpose of prison to get him off of the wrong behavior. But then, if someone commit violate criminals such as murder or rape, the purpose of prison will change to the negative side and most of ordinary pe ople will agree with locking him and punishing him with no hesitation.In this case, it is not necessary to give him another opportunity and the prison's duty is only isolating the prisoner and taking away all the luxury things so that rehabilitation is not that important. In addition, if someone commits crime due to addition and has psychological problems, then rehabilitation should be put as priority, because punishment is useless for reforming addicts.

Techno Music Presentation essays

Techno Music Presentation essays What kind of music do you listen too? Jazz, Rock, Rap, Hip-Hop, Gospel, Country? All of these are quite popular here in the United States and THE WORLD. but there is another form of music that you may not know much about that kids our age are dancing too: The sources I found for this presentation come mainly from online articles found through Lexis Nexis, one book from a former Recording Industry class, a brief interview with a prestigious expert, and my experience as a techno DJ and enthusiast. As generally accepted the official music form of techno was created in Detroit, Michigan by 3 DJ/Producers. These men, Kevin Saunderson, Derick May, and Juan Atkins were influenced and continued the sounds of 70s Disco into the early 80s. With their use of sequencer and sampler machines, the Techno style they started flourished into Europe. In this presentation I use the Term Techno broadly to describe the major forms of Electronic Music. The three major forms of Electronic Music are House, Trance, and DnB. House Music was created in the early to mid-eighties by a DJ/Producer named Frankie Knuckles in Chicago, Illinois. This was new knowledge for me which I learned from a book called Repeated Takes by Michael Chanan. Frankie Knuckles found he could take common disco/dance beats, samples, and strong female vocals to create pleasing club songs. House music quickly took off in the club scene especially in the dance clubs in Chicago, New York City, and LA. House Music was named after the warehouses that Frankie Knuckles and other DJs often held huge parties at. House is usually 115 -135 BPM. BPM is Beats Per Minute. Just to give you a basis: Hip-Hop and rap are usually around 85-105 BPM. Trance Music the second major genre is a little harder to originate. Trance is definitely the continuation of the Detroit Techno sound which flourished into Europe. England and Germany qui...

gender anylsis essays

gender anylsis essays He strides toward us in navy and whit, his body muscled and heavy-set, one arm holding his casually flung jeans jacket over his shoulder. A man in his prime, with just the right combination of macho and sartorial flair. She is curled and giggling upon a chair, her hair loose and flowing around her shoulders, leaning forward innocently; the very picture of a blossoming, navy flower. They are each pictured on a magazine page of their own, situated opposite each other in a complementary two-page layout. They are stationed in front of a muted photograph which serves as a background for each one. They both merit their own captions: bold indigo letters presiding over them in the outer corners of each page. His says: Some Like Their Blues Hard. Hers says: Some Like Their Blues soft. His background depicts a thrusting struggle between a quarter back and leaping defender, a scene of arrested violence and high tension. Her background is a lounging, bikini-clad goddess, who looks at the camera with intriguing, calm passion. She raises her hand to rest behind her head in in a languid gesture as she tries to incite passion within the viewer. At the bottom of the page blazes the proud emblem of the company that came up with this ad: FILA JEANS This advertisement blatantly uses stereotypes of men and women to sell its product. It caters to our need to fit into the roles that society has deemed right for the individual sexes ever since patriarchal rule rose up and replace the primitive worship of mother goddess and reverence for woman. These stereotypes handed down to us throughout the centuries spell out to us that men are violence and power incarnate, and that the manly attitude has no room for weakness or softness in nature. We find our role model of women in the compliant and eager female who obeys her man in all things, who must not say no to a male, and who is not very bright; someone ...

Sand - Terminology, Composition, Shape, and More

Sand - Terminology, Composition, Shape, and More Sand is everywhere; in fact sand is the very symbol of ubiquity. Lets learn a little more about sand. Sand Terminology Technically, sand is merely a size category. Sand is particulate matter thats larger than silt and smaller than gravel. Different specialists set different limits for sand: Engineers call sand anything between 0.074 and 2 millimeter, or between a U.S. standard #200 sieve and a #10 sieve.Soil scientists classify grains between 0.05 and 2 mm as sand, or between sieves #270 and #10.Sedimentologists put sand between 0.062 mm (1/16 mm) and 2 mm on the Wentworth scale, or 4 to –1 units on the phi scale, or between seives #230 and #10. In some other nations a metric definition is used instead, between 0.1 and 1 mm. In the field, unless you carry a comparator with you to check against a printed grid, sand is anything big enough to feel between the fingers and smaller than a matchhead. From a geological viewpoint, sand is anything small enough to be carried by the wind but big enough that it doesnt stay in the air, roughly 0.06 to 1.5 millimeters. It indicates a vigorous environment. Sand Composition and Shape Most sand is made of quartz or its microcrystalline cousin chalcedony, because that common mineral is resistant to weathering. The farther from its source rock a sand is, the closer it is to pure quartz. But many dirty sands contain feldspar grains, tiny bits of rock (lithics), or dark minerals like ilmenite and magnetite. In a few places, black basalt lava breaks down into black sand, which is almost pure lithics. In even fewer places, green olivine is concentrated to form green sand beaches. The famous White Sands of New Mexico are made of gypsum, eroded from large deposits in the area. And the white sands of many tropical islands are a calcite sand formed from coral fragments or from tiny skeletons of planktonic sea life. The look of a sand grain under the magnifier can tell you something about it. Sharp, clear sand grains are freshly broken and have not been carried far from their rock source. Rounded, frosted grains have been scrubbed long and gently, or perhaps recycled from older sandstones. All of these attributes are the delight of sand collectors around the world. Easy to collect and display (a little glass vial is all you need) and easy to trade with others, sand makes a great hobby. Sand Landforms Another thing that matters to geologists is what the sand makes- dunes, sandbars, beaches. Dunes are found on Mars and Venus as well as Earth. Wind builds them and sweeps them across the landscape, moving a meter or two per year. They are eolian landforms, formed by air movement. Have a look at a desert dune field. Beaches and riverbeds are not always sandy, but those that are have a variety of different landforms built of sand: bars and spits and ripples. My favorite of these is the tombolo. Sand Sounds Sand also makes music. I dont mean the squeaking that beach sand sometimes does when you walk on it, but the humming, booming or roaring sounds that large desert dunes produce when sand tumbles down their sides. Sounding sand, as the geologist calls it, accounts for some eerie legends of the deep desert. The loudest singing dunes are in western China at Mingshashan, although there are American sites like the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Desert, where I have made a dune sing. You can hear sound files of singing sand at Caltechs Booming Sand Dunes research group site. Scientists from this group claim to have solved the mystery in an August 2007 paper in Geophysical Review Letters. But surely they have not explained away its wonder. The Beauty and Sport of Sand Thats enough about the geology of sand, because the more I poke around the Web the more I feel like getting out to the desert, or the river, or the beach. Geo-photographers love dunes. But there are other ways to love dunes besides looking at them. Sandboarders are a hardy bunch of people who treat dunes like big waves. I cant imagine this sport growing into a big-money thing like skiing- for one thing, the lift lines would have to be moved every year- but it does have its own journal, Sandboard Magazine. And when youve perused a few articles, you may come to give sandboarders more respect than the sand miners, offroaders and 4WD drivers who threaten their beloved dunes. And how could I ignore the simple, universal joy of just playing with sand? Kids do it by nature, and a few continue to be sand sculptors after they grow up, like the Earth artist Jim Denevan. Another group of pros on the world circuit of sand-castle contests build the palaces shown at Sand World. The village of Nima, Japan, may be the place that takes sand the most seriously. It hosts a Sand Museum. Among other things there is, not an hourglass, but a yearglass . . . The townspeople gather on New Years Eve and turn it over. PS: The next grade of sediment, in terms of fineness, is silt. Deposits of silt have their own special name: loess. See the Sediment and Soil list for more links about the subject.

Marketing Plan for Al Jazzira Poultry Case Study

Marketing Plan for Al Jazzira Poultry - Case Study Example The main reason behind this is to control the production chain and be less affected by the external factors (suppliers) and to ensure quality. The success and profitability of the poultry farm depends on the selection of good genetic stock and their sound and efficient management. Selection of right type of chicken considering the prevalent the local conditions and the demand for poultry products in the market decide the performance of any poultry farm. The performance of layers with respect to important productivity factors like egg production, feed conversion and bird mortality also influence the profitability of the poultry farming business. Any poultry farming business enterprise should consider the starting up the business in a location from different view points like biological aspect which takes into account the needs of the poultry farming of a clean, dry, quite and comfortable place and business aspect that takes into account good transportation and communication facilities. With this background this paper presents a detailed marketing plan for the poultry firm 'Al Jazzira Poultry' in the country of Jordan. The production of the poultry meat has become the largest facet of the popular industry in Jordan - reports the World Poultry Journal. The total investments in the industry were estimated at US $ 430 million in the year 2003. The number of broiler farms has increased at a remarkable rate during the period from 1981 through the 2000s. There has been tremendous improvement in the production capacity of the firms that were engaged in the farming business. The increase in the production capacity was the result of more number of new business firms entering the business. There are a number of factors which influenced the people to enter into this business. Some important factors that contributed to the development of the poultry farming business in Jordan are: "The limited area of land needed to run poultry farms compared to other agricultural enterprises. Poultry businesses often require small amounts of water, a very important aspect in Jordan, being dependent mainly on rainfall and frequently encountering water supply problems. The short production cycles in poultry allowing a more frequent cash flow compared to other agricultural activities." Apart from the inherent advantages the support from the government also has helped the industry grow to great proportions. The government adopted a floatation

Gender Criticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Gender Criticism - Essay Example The husband in this case is the object of betrayal. The author allows the reader to view the thoughts and feelings on the side of the cheating husband, as he is shown to feel guilty of the affair. For instance, when the cheating husband was waiting for his lover, Sarah, in the cafà ©, he was hoping that she did not show up, as deep inside him, he felt he was doing wrong. He expressed this feeling of guilt by saying, â€Å"How strange† (Vivante 2). Because of this, the story seems to go against the standard stereotypical gender role in adultery. Ideally, in a situation where a person feels guilty for betrayal or cheating, like in this story, it is stereotypical for a female character to play the role. At the story’s conclusion, when the husband is with his lover, he keeps thinking of his wife. This represents double irony, as he cheats on both his lover and his wife. He thinks about his wife doing the can-can dance. His reactions to this can be considered to represent the male nature. He hopes for Sarah to be absent during the date, but continues to wait for her. Additionally, he has sex with someone he is not supposed to, but in the process, he thinks of his wife, and is attracted to her. This shows this husband is confused and does not know what he wants. This can be considered to be stereotypical of males in society, as most cheat on their wives yet they are not ready to let go of them. Overall, the aspect of gender criticism has played a major role in examining how the concept of gender has influenced the way this story was written. This has also made an important contribution to the revelation of different themes in the story. Using gender criticism, it has been possible to see how the story reveals some of the stereotypes that are linked with the male and female genders in society. These also include the expectations that have been socially constructed for men and women in the marriage institution. However, the

Trends in Crude Oil Demand in United States over Time Assignment

Trends in Crude Oil Demand in United States over Time - Assignment Example In the throes of elevated oil prices, people, as well as industries, focused on reducing reliance on oil and oil products by investing in alternative energy and manufacturing more fuel-efficient products especially automobiles respectively. As a result, towards the close of the economic recession, the demand for crude had experienced a visible dent. Demand for crude, however, remained largely unaffected considering that alternative energy is yet to become a close and easily realizable alternative to crude. Crude oil pricing is highly prone to non-price factors that upset demand. Oil prices change wildly due to the geopolitical events afflicting the highly capricious Middle East, where most of the world’s crude production happens. The recent political mayhem in the Arab world resulted in an unmatched upsurge in prices of crude on the global scene, mainly due to a dip in supply. Throughout history, brief upsets in the price of oil are unmistakable in the event of unanticipated oversupply or unexpected shortages. Another key factor affecting the price of oil in the United States is the policy regulations imposed by the government, especially after the close of Second World War. Subsequently, in the post-war era, government regulations on the industry have commendably kept the prices of crude in the US well below the global average. Changes in global trading have significantly lessened control of conventional regulatory mechanisms in curtailing the prices of crude oil. Investors’ speculation in oil futures in the recent past has resulted in a distinguishable upsurge in the prices of crude. Global economic crises seem to have a strong correlation with rising in crude oil prices in the world. According to analysts’ figures, unprecedented high prices of oil herald economic downturns. What is more fascinating is that the economic recessions result in lower oil prices. For instance, in the 2008 economic meltdown, the price fell from over $120 per barrel as the crisis began to less than $40 (Chevron, 1) at the peak of the crisis.

Depend on the choosen activity and the topic Essay

Depend on the choosen activity and the topic - Essay Example The word ‘learning’ has been defined as â€Å"relatively permanent change in behavior resulting form experience† (Dworetzky, 1994). This essay, therefore, has the purpose of exploring the cognitivist approach of learning by examining its application to a particular learning task. The task chosen is the process of typing the keyboard of a computer. Firstly, an analysis of the types of knowledge required to undertake the chosen activity will be considered and the cognitive theory will be introduced with its main features followed by a discussion of the application of the theory in the process of typing the keyboard of the computer. The strength and weaknesses of the theory will be analyzed after that and the essay will be concluded. There are different steps or processes involved in the act of typing the keyboard of a computer. The person needs to have a plan of what he is going to type; he needs to have appropriate knowledge and skills such as placing the fingers at the right position, the aptitude of typing the material with appropriate speed and accuracy, being seated in a comfortable position in the chair so that he doesn’t strain his back, etc. Declarative knowledge is often described as the content of learning. In other words it caters to the what of the activity being learnt. Knowing a piece of information, that is, a concept, fact, idea or label would be considered to be in this category (Ehren & Gildroy). Knowing the history, characteristics or physical appearance, for example would be included here. Procedural knowledge explains the How of information that tells us rules to follow to accomplish a task (Ehren & Gildroy). In other words, knowing how to perform an action or sequence of actions is procedural knowledge. Conditional knowledge is knowledge about when to use a procedure, skill, or strategy and when not to use it; why a procedure works and under what

Critical thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Critical thinking - Essay Example For once, social media was abuzz with a video which showed the impact that bullies in school have on general children. More than sensation, this video instilled fear in the minds of the people who were parents, teachers, and policy makers in education institutions. Would this have taken place if bullies were not treated to zero tolerance at school? Or was the world giving way to bullies and not actually creating an education system that controls such acts or thoughts, but succeeds in only controlling individuals? There is a strong suggestion that whether out of habit or frustration, the bully’s acts are only heightened when the school adopts a zero tolerance towards them and chooses to suppress them. Through our article we will take in all the aspects of bullying in school that we see in this and many other episodes around the world, and try to indicate why schools should not enforce zero tolerance policies in schools. To address the thesis the body has been divided into four main sections - Against Hope Hopened?, Psychological impact on children, Social Degradation and Demented Student Culture. The first section highlights the expectations of parents while sending their children to schools. The second section talks of the psychological aspect of bullying faced in schools. The third subheading underlines the anti-social implications of bullying and the fourth one emphasizes the recommended policies to be undertaken by schools to promote a healthy culture among students. Every time a child heads for school, his family looks forward to seeing him well educated and placed in a respectable position in the society. However, our education systems leave parents distraught when incidences of bullying and teen violence plague their child’s growth and personality development. While many worry about the safety of their children from these students, parents of bullies are

How Does Gender Bias Negatively Impact the Role of Men in Nursing Essay

How Does Gender Bias Negatively Impact the Role of Men in Nursing - Essay Example Gender bias negatively impacts the role of men in nursing by: Not all male nurses believe gender bias has had a negative impact on their career. But, fewer than 6% of the Registered Nurses in the United States today are men (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Considering approximately 49% of the population is male, the 6% figure indicates that bias may be impacting the entry and retention of men in the nursing field. Furthermore, Wilson (2005) in a study of Australian nursing students, found that in a three-year period, the average attrition rate for males in a university-based nursing program was 55.5% but only 45% for females. This, too, raises concerns about what is keeping men from entering or staying in the nursing field. One answer is gender bias. Gender bias, most succinctly defined by the higher education company McGraw-Hill, is "Behavior that results from the underlying belief in sex role stereotypes." (McGraw-Hill Education Company). Entire dissertations have been written defining sex role stereotypes. ... eotypes ("conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conceptions, opinions, or images") ("Stereotypes") based on the roles ("characteristic and expected social behaviors of an individual") ("Roles") based on sex/gender, traditionally male or female. Vogel, Wester, Heesacker, & Madon's (2003) finding that women and men act in accordance with social roles which are often segregated along gender lines helps summarize how sex role stereotypes are perpetuated. They continue, "Popular culture has embraced the idea that women and men are different. Self-help books, talk shows, and magazine articles routinely acknowledge large gender differences" With popular culture stressing distinct differences and roles for men and women, it is understandable that a career traditionally considered female would not be considered attractive to some men. To assess biases and the status of Men in Nursing in 2005, the research firm of Bernard Hodes Group performed an on-line survey, open to male nurses and nursing students, from October until December 2004 and received almost 500 responses (N=498) (Bernard Hodes Group, 2005). Of note were the men's responses to the question regarding their perceptions about nursing before entering the field. The top four responses, with percentages responding, to what they had as perceptions of men and nursing: Traditionally female dominated field (85%) Other professions perceived "more appropriate" (62%) Nursing salaries are not competitive with other careers (33%) Nursing is not an autonomous, decision-making profession (27%) The next most popular response, "Nursing doesn't provide much upward mobility" garnered only 16% of responses. It is evident that the perception - or stereotype - of a subservient female is still in place. The media does not

Critical thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Critical thinking - Essay Example For once, social media was abuzz with a video which showed the impact that bullies in school have on general children. More than sensation, this video instilled fear in the minds of the people who were parents, teachers, and policy makers in education institutions. Would this have taken place if bullies were not treated to zero tolerance at school? Or was the world giving way to bullies and not actually creating an education system that controls such acts or thoughts, but succeeds in only controlling individuals? There is a strong suggestion that whether out of habit or frustration, the bully’s acts are only heightened when the school adopts a zero tolerance towards them and chooses to suppress them. Through our article we will take in all the aspects of bullying in school that we see in this and many other episodes around the world, and try to indicate why schools should not enforce zero tolerance policies in schools. To address the thesis the body has been divided into four main sections - Against Hope Hopened?, Psychological impact on children, Social Degradation and Demented Student Culture. The first section highlights the expectations of parents while sending their children to schools. The second section talks of the psychological aspect of bullying faced in schools. The third subheading underlines the anti-social implications of bullying and the fourth one emphasizes the recommended policies to be undertaken by schools to promote a healthy culture among students. Every time a child heads for school, his family looks forward to seeing him well educated and placed in a respectable position in the society. However, our education systems leave parents distraught when incidences of bullying and teen violence plague their child’s growth and personality development. While many worry about the safety of their children from these students, parents of bullies are

Is There Life Off Earth Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is There Life Off Earth - Term Paper Example But even it is taken for granted that on some planets in this universe, there prevails an environment like the one on the earth, one cannot be sure of the existence of life on those planet. This paper will devise an experiment to test whether any form of life as defined on Earth could prosper on Mars. This experiment will be conveyed mainly by the theoretical assessment of the possibility of life on Mars. Traditional search for life on Mars as well as in the universe is centered on the quest whether Mars can provide essential conditions of life. These conditions are to be the same as they are required for the survival of life on Earth. In order to life to exist on Mars, scientists suggest that the planet must have water. But the temperature of the planet must not be high enough to evaporate the water. Therefore, liquidity of water must be preserved in order to initiate the existence of life (Stewart 39). This opinion of the scientists is greatly influenced by the hydro-evolutionary theory that asserts that life on Earth has been initiated from the movement of water in the ocean. Also in order to sustain life, Mars must have the availability of elements like carbon and nitrogen, so that the unary organic system like cells can grow easily. At the same time, the planet should have an apparently congenial environment that can sustain life as well as preserve each its evolutionary steps. The question whether Mars can provide the conditions of life is totally based on empirical science. With a highest -600 C temperature that is slightly higher that the lowest -800 C temperature of the Antarctic region, the environment of Mars is supposed to be hostile for most of the microorganism organisms as well as other forms of earthly life. Also having a gravitational force, 38 percent of that of Earth, it has a thin layer atmosphere, .7% of Earth’s atmosphere. Even though there are other dissimilarities,

P300-based Brain-Computer Interface Performance Enhancement

P300-based Brain-Computer Interface Performance Enhancement Enhancing Performance and Bitrates in a P300-based Brain-Computer Interface for Disabled Subjects by Phase-to-Amplitude Cross-Frequency Coupling Stavros I.Dimitriadis1,2*, Avraam D. Marimpis3 1Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK 2Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK 3Brain Innovation B.V., Netherlands Abstract A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a communication system that transforms brain-activity into specific commands for managing a computer or other home or electrical devices. In other words, a BCI is an alternative way of interacting with the environment by using brain-activity instead of muscles and nerves. For that reason, BCI systems are of high clinical value for targeted populations suffering from neurological disorders. In this paper, we present a new processing approach of a well-known P300-BCI system for disabled subjects. Estimating cross-frequency coupling (CFC) and namely ÃŽÂ ´-ÃŽÂ ¸ phase-to-amplitude coupling (PAC) within sensor, we succeeded high classification accuracy and high bitrates for both disabled and able-bodied subjects. The system is tested with four severely disabled and four able-bodied subjects. The bitrates obtained for both the disabled and able-bodied subjects reached the fastest reported level of 10 bits/sec. The new preprocessing approach based o n recordings from the single-sensor Pz while the classification accuracy is tested also for others electrodes. Keywords: Brain-computer interface; P300; Disabled subjects; cross-frequency coupling; accuracy *Corresponding author: Dr.Dimitriadis Stavros Research Fellow School of Medicine, Cardiff University, UK CUBRIC Neuroimaging Center, Cardiff,UK Introduction From the very first work of Farwell and Donchin [1] the majority of P300-based Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems focused on developing new application scenarios [2,3], and on developing and testing new algorithms for the reliable detection of the P300 waveform from noisy datasets [4-8]. For a review of P300, an interested can read the [9-10]. Ten years ago, two pioneer studies have been first published presenting a P300 BCI system on disabled subjects. Piccione et al. (2006) [11] design a 2D cursor BCI control system where subjects had to concentrate on four arrows flashing every 2.5 sec in random order occupied the peripheral area of a computer screen. Five disabled and seven able-bodied subjects were participated on this experiment. For controlling this cursor, this four-choice P300 flashing arrow cursor was used. EEG signals were recorded using four EEG sensors and electro-oculogram. Using independent component analysis and neural networks, Piccione et al. [11] demonstrated that P300 can be a valuable control signal for disabled subjects. However, the communication system was too low compared to state of the art systems [5,8]. Sellers and Donchin (2006) [12] designed a four choice BCI experiment with four stimuli (YES, NO, PASS, END) that were presented every 1.4 s in random order, in two different modalities either visual or auditory or in a combined mode. Three subjects suffering with ALS and three able-bodied subjects performed the experiment. EEG recordings from three sensors were classified using a stepwise linear discriminant algorithm (LDA). They demonstrated that communication via a P300 system is possible for subjects suffering from ALS. Additionally, they demonstrated that communication is possible in different modalities like the visual, auditory, and also in a combined auditory-visual mode. However, both the classification accuracy and the communication rate were low compared to the state of the art results. One of possible explanations of low accuracy and communication rate could be the low number of EEG sensors, the long inter-stimulus intervals and the low number of trials. McCane et al., demonstrated a BCI system where both accuracy and communication rate did not differ significantly between ALS users and HVs. Although ERP morphology was similar for the two groups, the target ERPs differed significantly in the location and amplitude of the late positivity (P300), the amplitude of the early negativity (N200), and the latency of the late negativity (LN) [13]. Hoffmann et al.,, demonstrated a six-choice P300 paradigm which was tested in a population of five disabled and four able-bodied subjects. Six different images were flashed in random order with an ISI of 400 ms [7]. They tested how the electrode configuration can influence the accuracy in order to detect the best channel selection. For four out of five disabled subjects and for all the able-bodied subjects both the communication rates and the classification accuracies were higher compared to the aforementioned studies [11,12]. The datasets in Hoffmann et al., study can be freely downloaded from the website of the EPFL BCI group (http://bci.epfl.ch/p300). In the present study, we used the dataset from Hoffmann et al., study to demonstrate an alternative algorithmic approach with main scope to improve the bitrates up to the limits. For that occasion, we adopted a cross-frequency coupling (CFC) estimator namely phase-to-amplitude coupling (PAC) to quantify how the phase of the lower frequency brain rhythms modulates the amplitude of the higher oscillations. The whole approach was followed in a trial basis and within sensors located over parieto-occipital brain areas. PAC proved to be a valuable estimator in many applications like the design of a biomarker: for amnestic mild cognitive impairment subjects during an auditory oddball paradigm [14], for dyslexia [15], for mild traumatic brain injury [16]. The layout of the paper is as follows. In Section 2, we described the subject population, the experiments that were performed, and the methods used for data pre-processing steps of the proposed pipeline and the classification procedure. Results are presented in Section 3. Discussion is devoted in Section 4. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Experimental setup Users were facing a laptop screen on which six images were displayed (see Fig. 1). The images showed a television, a telephone, a lamp, a door, a window and a radio. The images were selected according to an application scenario in which users can control electrical appliances via a BCI system. The application scenario served however only as an example and was not pursued in further detail. The images were flashed in random sequences, one image at a time. Each flash of an image lasted for 100 ms and during the following 300 ms none of the images was flashed, i.e. the inter-stimulus-interval was 400 ms. The EEG was recorded at 2048 Hz sampling rate from 32 electrodes placed at the standard positions of the 10-20 international system. A Biosemi Active Two amplifier was used for amplification and analog to digital conversion of the EEG signals. [Figure 1 around here] 2.2. Subjects The proposed methodology was applied to P300 BCI-oriented recordings derived from five disabled and four healthy subjects. The demographics of the four disabled are presented in (Table 1). Disabled subject 5 as excluded from further analysis. Subjects 6-9 were Ph.D. students that were recruited from EPFL BCI groups laboratory (all males, age 30 ±2.3). None of subjects 6-9 had known neurological deficits. For more information regarding the subjects, an interested reader should refer to the original paper [7]. Table 1. Subjects from which data was recorded in the study of the environment control system S1 S2 S3 S4 Diagnosis Cerebral palsy Multiple sclerosis Late-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Traumatic brain and spinal-cord injury, C4 level Age 56 51 47 33 Age at illness onset 0 (perinatal) 37 39 27 sSex M M M F Speech production Mild dysarthria Mild dysarthria Severe dysarthria Mild dysarthria Limb muscle control Weak Weak Very Weak Weak Respiration control Normal Normal Weak Normal Voluntary eye movement Normal Mild nystagmus Normal Normal 2.3. Experimental schedule Each subject completed four recording sessions. The first two sessions were performed on one day and the last two sessions on another day. All subjects were recruited within maximum two weeks between the first and the last session. Each of the sessions consisted of six runs, one run for each of the six images. For further details about the protocol followed on this experiment see the original paper related to this dataset [7]. The following protocol was used in each of the runs. (i) Subjects were asked to count silently how often a prescribed image was flashed (for example: Now please count how often the image with the television is flashed). (ii) The six images were displayed on the screen and a warning tone was issued. (iii) Four seconds after the warning tone, a random sequence of flashes was started and the EEG was recorded. The sequence of flashes was block-randomized, this means that after six flashes each image was flashed once, after twelve flashes each image was flashed twice, etc. The number of blocks was chosen randomly between 20 and 25. On average 22.5 blocks of six flashes were displayed in one run, i.e. one run consisted on average of 22.5 target (P300) trials and 22.5ÃÆ'-5 = 112.5 non-target (non-P300) trials. (iv) In the second, third, and fourth session the target image was inferred from the EEG with a simple classifier. At the end of each run the image inferred by the classification algorithm was flashed five times to give feedback to the user. (v) After each run subjects were asked what their counting result was. This was done in order to monitor performance of the subjects. The duration of one run was approximately one minute and the duration of one session including setup of electrodes and short breaks between runs was approximately 30 min. One session comprised on average 810 trials, and the whole data for one subject consisted on average of 3240 trials. 2.4 Offline Analysis The impact of different single-sensor recordings on classification accuracy was tested in an offline procedure. For each subject four-fold cross-validation was used to estimate average classification accuracy. More specifically, the data from three recording sessions were used to train a classifier and the data from the left-out session was used for validation. This procedure was repeated four times so each session served once for validation. 2.4.1. Preprocessing Before learning a classification function and before validation, several preprocessing operations were applied to the data. The preprocessing operations were applied in the order stated below. Referencing. The average signal from the two mastoid electrodes was used for referencing. Filtering. A third order forward-backward Butterworth bandpass filter was used to filter the data.. The MATLAB function butter was used to compute the filter coefficients and the function filtfilt was used for filtering. The predefined frequencies were : ÃŽÂ ´ {0.5-4 Hz},ÃŽÂ ¸ {4-8 Hz},ÃŽÂ ±1 {8-10 Hz}, ÃŽÂ ±2 {10-13 Hz},ÃŽÂ ²1 {13-20 Hz},ÃŽÂ ²2 {20-30 Hz} and ÃŽÂ ³1 {30 45 Hz}. (iii) Downsampling. The EEG was down-sampled from 2048 Hz to 512 Hz by selecting each 4th sample from the bandpass-filtered data. (iv) Single trial extraction. Single trials of duration 1000 ms were extracted from the data. Single trials started at stimulus onset, i.e. at the beginning of the intensification of an image, and ended 1000 ms after stimulus onset. Due to the ISI of 400 ms, the last 600 ms of each trial were overlapping with the first 600 ms of the following trial. (v) Electrode selection. We applied our analysis to recordings from single-sensor activity and mainly, PZ,OZ,P3,P4,P7 and P8. (vi) Feature vector construction. As appropriate feature for each trial, we used the phase-to-amplitude coupling (PAC) which already has been shown its potentiality in building reliable biomarkers (Dimitriadis et al., 2015,2016). PAC was estimated for each frequency pair (see ii)). The description of PAC is given in the next section. As a complementary feature that can separate the counted stimuli from the non counted stimuli, alpha relative signal powers have been estimated. Alpha power level can give us a valuable and objective criterion when a subject attends or not attends to the stimulus. Our idea is to create an initial binary classifier that will cut-off the attended from the non-attended stimuli for each subject prior entering the main multi-class classifier. CFC metric computation CFC estimates the strength of pairwise interactions and identifies the prominent interacting pair of frequencies, both between and within sensors [17-19]. Among available CFC descriptors, phase-amplitude coupling (PAC), which relies on phase coherence, is the one most commonly encountered in research [20]. The PAC algorithm as adapted to continuous MEG multichannel recordings is described below. ÃŽÂ ¤he within-sensor CFC version is described. Let x(isensor, t), be the EEG activity recorder at the isensor-th site, and t=1, 2,. T the successive time points. Given a frequency-limited signals x(isensor,t) , cross-frequency coupling is estimated by allowing the phase of the lower frequency (LF) oscillations to modulate the amplitude of the higher frequency (HF) oscillations. The complex analytic representations of each signal zLF(t) and zHF(t) are derived via the Hilbert transform (HT[.]). Next, the envelope of the higher-frequency oscillations AHF(t) is bandpass-filtered within the range of LF oscillations and the resulting signal is submitted to an additional Hilbert transform to derive its phase dynamics component à Ã¢â‚¬  '(t) which expresses the modulation of the amplitude of HF-oscillations by the phase of the LF-oscillations. Phase consistency between the two time-series was measured by means of both the original definition [21] and the imaginary portion of PLV, as synchronization indexes to quantify the strength of PAC. The original PLV is defined as follows: and the imaginary part of PLV as follows: The imaginary portion of PLV is considered to be less susceptible to volume conduction effects in assessing CFC interactions. While the imaginary part of PLV is not affected by volume conduction effects, it could be sensitive to changes in the angle between two signals, which not necessarily imply a PLV change. In general, the imaginary portion of PLV is only sensitive to non-zero-phase lags and is thus resistant to instantaneous self-interactions associated with volume conductance [22]. For further details and applications, an interested reader can read our previous work [14,15]. In the present study, as was already mentioned we used 8 frequency bands which means that PAC is estimated for 7*6/2=21 cross-frequency pairs e.g. ÃŽÂ ´Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬   ÃŽÂ ¸A ,ÃŽÂ ´Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬   ÃŽÂ ±1Awhere à Ã¢â‚¬   and A denote the phase and amplitude of each frequency band. Figure 2 demonstrates the pre-processing steps of the PAC estimator for a trial of subject 6 at target image 6. [Figure 2 around here] Signal Power We estimated the relative power of each band-pass frequency signal segment with the following equations: The first equation quantifies the signal power (SP) of each frequency as the sum of the filtered signal squared per sample (3) while equation (4) divides the SP by the sum of the SP from all the frequencies which gives the relative signal power (RSP). The whole approach was repeated for every trial, sessions and subject. 2.4.4. Machine learning and classification Training data sets contained 405 target trials and 2025 non-target trials and validation data sets consisted of 135 target and 675 non-target trials (these are average values cf. Section 2.3). Adopting sequential feature selection algorithm, we detected the characteristic cross-frequency pair via PAC value that gives the highest discrimination of each target images compared to the rest based on the training data set. Additionally, we used the same feature extraction algorithm to detect the relative signal power that separate the counted flashing images from the non-counted images. We trained a multi-class SVM classifier based on the selected PAC estimate from specific cross-frequency pairs and then we tested the classifier to the validation data to get the response tailored to each target image [23]. The training test consisted of the first session while the rest three sessions were used for validating the whole analytic scheme. A k-nearest neighbour (k-NN) classifier was applied to differentiate the attended from the non-attended flashing images prior to multi-class SVM classifier. 2.4.5 Performance Evaluation Classification accuracy and ITR were calculated for the offline experiments separately. The method for calculating ITR (in bits per second) was as follows (5): Where N is the number of classes (i.e., 6 in this study), P is the accuracy of target identification, and T (seconds per selection) is the average time for a selection. Results ÃŽÂ ´-ÃŽÂ ¸ Phase-to-Amplitude Coupling as a Valuable Feature for the BCI-P300 System We estimated both PAC and relative signal power (RSP) for the first 32 samples (60 ms) increasing the window up to 500 ms (256 samples) with a step of 12 samples (5 ms) . The sequential feature selection algorithm detected only one PAC feature from the 21 possible cross-frequency pairs as the unique candidate feature to separate the six classes of images-stimuli. ÃŽÂ ´Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬   ÃŽÂ ¸A was the selected feature for both disabled and able-bodied subjects. The group-averaged classification performance was for each sensor location using the first 100 ms for both able-bodied and disabled subjects. The errors were detected on the trials where the subject missed the flashing image. The classification performance with the use of a kNN-classifier prior to the multi-class SVM was 100 % for every subject and for all the pre-selected sensors namely PZ,OZ,P3,P4,P7,P8 EEG sensors. Figure 3 and Figure 4 illustrates the trial-related (grand-averaged) PAC-connectivity patterns (comodulograms) for subject 6 (able-bodied) and subject 1 (disabled) correspondingly from target and non-target trials for each flashing image. Comodulograms differed by contrasting target vs non-target within each subject and target image but also between the two images. ÃŽÂ ´Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬   ÃŽÂ ¸A was the unique feature for both disabled and able-bodied subjects that can clearly predict the target image for both groups. [Figures 3 and 4 around here] Attention and Alpha Power Prior to multi-class SVM, we applied a kNN-classifier based on ÃŽÂ ±1 signal power which was selected as the feature that can discriminate counted from non-counted flashing images. The kNN-classifier performed 100 % clear filtration of attended from non-attended trials for each subject and further improved the performance of multi-class SVM to 100 %. We achieved this performance using ÃŽÂ ±1 signal relative power estimated from the first 100 ms for both able-bodied and disabled subjects. The classification performance with the kNN-classifier was 100 % for every subject and for all the pre-selected sensors namely PZ,OZ,P3,P4,P7,P8 EEG sensors. Table 2 summarizes the group-averaged relative signal power (RSP) of ÃŽÂ ±1 frequency band for attended versus non-attended images. Table 2. Group-averaged ÃŽÂ ±1 signal relative power for attended and non-attended images. Attended Non-Attended Able Bodied Disabled Performance Evaluation In the present study, we succeeded bitrates of 10 bits/sec for both disabled and able-bodied subjects correspondingly for all the sensor locations used on the whole analysis. The time for estimation of PAC and testing the trial was 0.00001 sec on a Windows 7 -Intel 7 8-core machine. Discussion A novel approach of how to analyse single-trials in a BCI system was introduced based on the estimation of cross-frequency coupling (CFC) and namely phase-to-amplitude coupling (PAC). PAC was estimated within EEG sensors from single-trials recorded during a visual evoked experimental paradigm. The proposed analytic scheme based on the extraction of unique features from the CFC patterns on a single-trial basis and namely the ÃŽÂ ´Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬   ÃŽÂ ¸A coupling, as a unique feature for both able-bodied and disabled subjects. Our experimentations showed a high classification rate (99.7%) based on the proposed PAC feature. Additionally, the superiority of our approach compared to alternative popular methodologies like the use of the original recordings was evident from the succeeded bitrates (10 bits/sec) and also of the response time of the classification system (0.00001 sec). Complementary, using a binary classifier trained with ÃŽÂ ±1 relative signal power prior to the multi-cl ass SVM, we differentiated the attended from the non-attended stimuli which further improved the classification performance up to 100% in both groups. Compared to many other P300-based BCI systems designed for disabled users, we succeeded the highest classification accuracy and bitrates higher than the original presented dataset [7]. In previous studies like the one of Sellers and Donchin (2006) [12], the best classification accuracy for the able-bodied and ALS subjects was on average 85% and 72% correspondingly [12]. Hoffmann et al., succeeded absolute classification accuracy for both disabled and able bodied subjects for the first demonstration of the current dataset. However, he used longer time series of over 15-20 secs by concatenating trials in order to train better the classifier. Additionally, he used one classifier per image per each of the twenty block and the final outcome derived as the majority voting of the twenty classifiers. Here, using phase-to-amplitude coupling as the appropriate descriptor of the evoked response in the parietal brain areas and a multi-class SVM classifier, we performed almost absolute accuracy ( 99.97) on a trial basis. Using an additional binary k-NN classifier and ÃŽÂ ±1 relative signal power prior to multi-class SVM, we separated the attended (counted) from the non-attended (not counted) trials leading to zeroing the misclassified trials from the multi-class SVM classifier for every subject. This procedure further improved the classification performance from 99.97 to 100% for each subject. We succeeded bitrates faster (10 bits/sec) than any other BCI system including the fastest spelling system presented recently (5.32 bits/sec ; [24]). In a previous study of Piccione et al. (2006) [11] average bitrates of about 8 bits/min were reported for both disabled and able-bodied subjects. Hoffman et al., 2008 [7] reported average bitrates obtained with electrode configuration (II) (8 electrodes) 12.5 bits/min for the disabled subjects and 10 bits/min for the able-bodied subjects. According to Klimeschs ÃŽÂ ± theory, on the early stages of perception, ÃŽÂ ± directs the information flow towards to neural substrates that represent information relevant for the encoding system (e.g. visual stimulus to visual system, voice/sound to auditory system). The physiological main function of ÃŽÂ ± is linked to inhibition. Klimeschs ÃŽÂ ± theory hypothesizes that ÃŽÂ ± enables to have access to stored information by inhibiting task-irrelevant neuronal substrates and by timing/synchronizing the cortical activity in task-relevant neuronal systems. A lot of research findings showed that both evoked ÃŽÂ ± and phase locking are evidence of a successful encoding of global stimulus features in an early post-stimulus interval of about 0-150à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ °ms [25]. Besides the cross low-frequency/high-frequency coupling (e.g.,ÃŽÂ ¸-ÃŽÂ ³; 26,27), there are many evidences [28-31] that CFC exists also between the low-frequency bands (e.g., delta-theta, delta-alpha, and theta-alpha). Lakatos et al. (2005) [29] introduced a hypothesis about the hierarchical organization of EEG oscillations suggesting that the amplitude of the brain oscillations at a characteristic frequency band can be modulated by the oscillatory phase at lower frequency. In particular, they found that ÃŽÂ ´ (1-4 Hz) phase modulates ÃŽÂ ¸ (4-10 Hz) amplitude, and ÃŽÂ ¸ modulates ÃŽÂ ³ (30-50 Hz) amplitude in primary auditory cortex of awake macaque monkeys [29]. This multiplex coupling or nesting of brain rhythms might reflect a general brain organizational principle, as evidence of coupling (mainly ÃŽÂ ¸-ÃŽÂ ³) has also been observed in animals (e.g. rats,cats) and humans [32]. For instance, in auditory cortex, ÃŽÂ ´-band modulates the amplitude of ÃŽÂ ¸-band ICMs, whose phase in turn modulates the amplitude of ÃŽÂ ³-band ICMs [33]. This indirect enhancement effect uses the ongoing activity of local neural activity in the primary auditory cortex. Their hypothesis supports the notion that neural oscillations reflect rhythmic shifting of excitability states of neural substrates between high and low levels. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that oscillations can be predicted by visual input such as the auditory input arrives during a high excitability phase and is amplified. In the present study, we demonstrated that ÃŽÂ ´ (0.5-4 Hz) phase modulates ÃŽÂ ¸ (4-8 Hz) amplitude over visual brain areas due to flashing images, their content and mainly was observed on parietal EEG recording sites. We should also mention that the reason why ÃŽÂ ´Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬   ÃŽÂ ¸A coupling discriminates the six flashing images can be directly linked to the content of the images. Visual attention samples image stimuli rhythmically demonstrating a peak of phase at 2 Hz [34] while flashing images induced rhythmic fluctuation at higher frequencies (6-10 Hz) [35] here within ÃŽÂ ¸ frequency range [4-8 Hz].Finally, the work of Karakas et al., ([36]) showed that the ERP represents interplay between the oscillations that are mainly in the ÃŽÂ ´ and ÃŽÂ ¸ frequencies and directly linked to P300 [37]. Conclussion In this work, an efficient algorithmic approach was presented to a P300-based BCI system for disabled subjects. We have shown that absolute classification accuracies and the highest reported bitrates can be obtained for severely disabled subjects under the notion of cross-frequency coupling and namely phase-to-amplitude coupling. Specifically, ÃŽÂ ´ (0.5-4 Hz) phase modulates ÃŽÂ ¸ (4-8 Hz) amplitude proved to be the candidate feature from PAC estimates that supported the highest classification accuracy, the fast bitrates and the fast response time of the multi-class system. Due to the use of the P300, only a small amount of training (trials from 1st session as a training set and 100ms per trial) was required to achieve good classification accuracy. Future improvements to the work presented could be the design of useful BCI applications adapted to the needs of disabled users. Also it might be useful to perform exploratory analysis on larger populations and on real-time to further validate the results found in the present work. Acknowledgements SID was supported by MRC grant MR/K004360/1 (Behavioural and Neurophysiological Effects of Schizophrenia Risk Genes: A Multi-locus, Pathway Based Approach) References Farwell LA, Donchin E. Talking off the top of your head: toward a mental prosthesis utilizing event-related brain potentials. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 1988;70:510-23. Polikoff J, Bunnell H, Borkowski W. Toward a P300-based computer interface. In: Proceedings of the RESNA95 Annual Conference; 1995. Bayliss JD. Use of the evoked P3 component for control in a virtual apartment. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehab Eng 2003;11(2):113-6. Xu N, Gao X, Hong B, Miao X, Gao S, Yang F. BCI competition 2003 Data Set IIb: Enhancing P300 wave detection using ICA-based subspace projections for BCI applications. IEEE Trans B

Essay --

The Connection Between Malaria and Deforestation Deforestation is the clearing of forests where the land is then converted for other uses. Deforestation happens globally on a massive scale as humans expand and cultivate the land. Examples of deforestation include the clearing of forests for cattle farming, mining and of course logging operations as well as a multitude of other uses. In the Amazon deforestation has been a problem for hundreds of years, ever since the Europeans ventured to the new world the Amazon has suffered from human settlement and the development of land. Because of these changes to the rainforest the ecosystem has been changed indefinitely. Malaria is an infectious disease born from mosquitoes that is caused by parasitic protozoa that reside inside the mosquito. In most cases the disease is transmitted through getting bitten by an infected female anopheles mosquito. the protozoa is transferred to the victim from the mosquitoes saliva into their circulatory system. Malaria symptoms usually include headaches as well as fever. In dire cases this can progress into a coma or can be fatal (CDC 2014). Malaria is typically found in warmer regions of the world mostly tropical and sub tropical countries. The reason for this is the Anopheles mosquito thrives in higher temperatures. Malaria parasites grow and develop inside the mosquito and needs warmth to complete its growth before they are mature enough to be transmitted to humans.. Some examples of areas that malaria is present include South America, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (CDC 2014). I believe that deforestations leads to an increase in the occurrence of malaria because of the increased survivability of the Anopheles darlingi mosquito in disturbed areas... ... improved due to land cultivation, all leading to an increase in malaria cases because of the upsurge of the Anopheles darlingi population. References †¢ Vittor, Amy Yomiko, et al. "The effect of deforestation on the human-biting rate of Anopheles darlingi, the primary vector of falciparum malaria in the Peruvian Amazon." The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 74.1 (2006): 3-11. †¢ Yasuoka, Junko, and Richard Levins. "Impact of deforestation and agricultural development on anopheline ecology and malaria epidemiology." American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 76.3 (2007): 450. †¢ Olson, Sarah H., et al. "Deforestation and malaria in Mancio Lima county, Brazil." Emerging infectious diseases 16.7 (2010): 1108. †¢ "Malaria." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 05 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

The Eating Behaviour of Young People Essay -- Adolescence

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adolescence is a stage in life that has many biological, cognitive and sociocultural changes. This stage in life is when individuals are most vulnerable and health behaviors play an important role in their future. An adolescent today is bombarded with many behaviors that can affect their future such as; smoking, drug use, and sex. These behaviors can carry immediate and severe consequences but there are other health behaviors such as eating choices and physical activity that can carry risks as well (Lytle, 2002).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lytle explains that there is data that suggests that adolescent’s current eating behaviors are putting them at risk for many different diseases later in life. Some of those diseases include: cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Adolescents today have decreased physical activity and poor diet habits which makes nutritional issues for adolescents a very important topic that needs to be addressed (Lytle, 2002).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cardiovascular disease begins in childhood. A study completed by Kelley, Krummel, Gonzales, Neal and Fitch examined 279 children. There hypothesis was that children who were at high risk for cardiovascular disease based on their family history would have diets that were different than the low risk children. The children’s height, weight, and total cholesterol were measured and each child filled out a food frequency questionnaire. 23% of the children were at risk for cardiovascular disease and their cholesterol was significantly higher. However intakes of energy, fat, cholesterol and fiber were similar in both the high risk and low risk groups. The researchers concluded that all children whether high risk or low risk need to change their dietary patterns in order to prevent cardiovascular disease. Those at high risk need specific guidelines in order to lower their risk for the disease. Healthcare professionals must promote the healthy benefits of healthy eat ing habits to both children and their families and finally it is critical that public health research address behavior modification in children (2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Diets high in saturated fat, total fat, sodium and low in fiber are associated not only with cardiovascular disease but also some types of cancer. Also diets low in fruits and vegetables are associated with increased risk of some types of cancer. National nutrition surveillance data ... ...zine and have their stories told to millions of readers. Keri Kulik, an exercise physiologist, who helped the Schall’s with monthly strategies to meet their goals, followed them for the next 6 months. Each month Keri gave the Schall family key strategies for success. Strategies started small like walking two nights a week together, watching less television and decreasing soda intake. By month 3 the family was including more sports like cycling, tennis and baseball in their routine also they have started circuit weight training together and have been drinking more water. By month six the Schall’s have consistently included exercise in their daily life and love it. They had one goal as a family and that was to increase physical activity, now the Schall’s are interested in working on their diet. They had made a consistent effort to eat a healthy breakfast every morning and include more healthy meals and snacks in their day. As Keri stated, â€Å"they now see th e big picture and are motivated to continue their healthy lifestyle.† Fit Family Fit Kids has shown how making small behavior changes in one families life can make big changes in both parent’s and children’s health (Fitness, 2005).

Storm Born Chapter Three

I'd been people-watching for almost an hour, so I saw him as soon as he walked in. It was hard not to. The eyes of a few other women in the bar showed that I wasn't the only one who'd noticed. He was tall and broad-shouldered, nicely muscled but not over the top in some crazy Arnold Schwarzenegger way. He wore khakis with a navy blue T-shirt tucked into them. His black hair was not quite to his chin, and he had it tucked behind his ears. His eyes were large and dark, set in a smoothly chiseled face with perfect, golden-tanned skin. There was some mix of ethnicities going on there, I suspected, but none I could discern. Whatever the combo, it worked. Extremely well. â€Å"Hey, is anyone sitting here?† He nodded at the chair beside me. It was the only empty one at the bar. I shook my head, and he sat down. He didn't say anything else, and the only other time I heard him speak was to order a margarita. After that, he seemed content just to people-watch, like me. And honestly, it was a great place to do it. Alejandro's was right next to a midlevel hotel and drew in patrons and tourists from all sides of the socioeconomic scale. TVs showed sporting events or news or whatever the bartender felt like putting on. A few trivia machines sat at the other end of the bar. Music – sometimes live, but not tonight – forced the TVs to have closed-captioning, and dancing people crowded the small space among the tables. It was humanity at its best. Teeming with life, alcohol, mindless entertainment, and bad pick-up lines. I liked to come here when I wanted to be alone without being alone. I liked it better when drunk, stupid guys left me alone. I wasn't sure about articulate, good-looking ones. One nice thing I soon discovered was that with Tall, Dark, and Handsome sitting next to me, no losers dared approach. But he wasn't talking to me either, and after a while, I realized I'd kind of like him to – not that I'd have any clue what to say back. With the glances he kept giving me, I think he felt the same way. I didn't know. A sort of tension built up between us as I nursed my Corona, each of us waiting for something. When it finally came, he started it. â€Å"You're edible.† Not the opening I'd been expecting. â€Å"I beg your pardon?† â€Å"Your perfume. It's like†¦like violets and sugar. And vanilla. I suppose it's weird to think violets are edible, huh?† â€Å"Not so weird as a guy actually knowing what violets smell like.† It was also weird that he could even smell it. I'd put it on about twelve hours ago. With all the smoke and sweat around here, it was a surprise anyone's olfactory senses could function. He shot me a crooked grin, favoring me with a look that could only be described as smoky. I felt my pulse quicken a little. â€Å"It's good to know what flowers are what. Makes it easier to send them. And impress women.† I eyed him and then swirled the beer in my bottle. â€Å"Are you trying to impress me?† He shrugged. â€Å"Mostly I'm just trying to make conversation.† I pondered that, deciding if I wanted to play this game or not. Wondering if I could. I smiled a little. â€Å"What?† he asked. â€Å"I don't know. Just thinking about flowers. And impressing people. I mean, how strange is that we bring plant sex organs to people we're attracted to? What's up with that? It's a weird sign of affection.† His dark eyes lit up, like he'd just discovered something surprising and delightful. â€Å"Is it any weirder than giving chocolate, which is supposed to be an aphrodisiac? Or what about wine? A ‘romantic' drink that really just succeeds in lowering the other person's inhibitions.† â€Å"Hmm. It's like people are trying to be both subtle and blatant at the same time. Like, they won't actually go up and say, ‘Hey, I like you, let's get together.' Instead, they're like, ‘Here, have some plant genitalia and aphrodisiacs.'† I took a drink of the beer and propped my chin in my hand, surprised to hear myself going on. â€Å"I mean, I don't have a problem with men or relationships or sex, but sometimes I just get so frustrated with games of human attraction.† â€Å"How so?† â€Å"It's all masked in posturing and ploys. There's no honesty. People can't just come up and express their attraction. It's got to be cleverly obscured with some stupid pick-up line or not-so-subtle gift, and I don't really know how to play those games so well. We're taught that it's wrong to be honest, like there's some kind of social stigma with it.† â€Å"Well,† he considered, â€Å"it can come out pretty crass sometimes. And let's not forget about rejection too. I think that adds to it. There's a fear there.† â€Å"Yeah, I guess. But being turned down isn't the worst thing in the world. And wouldn't that be easier than wasting an evening or – God forbid – months of dating? We should state our feelings and intentions openly. If the other person says ‘fuck off,' well, then, deal. Move on.† I suddenly eyed my beer bottle suspiciously. â€Å"What's wrong?† â€Å"Just wondering if I'm drunk. This is my first beer, but I think I'm sounding a little unhinged. I don't usually talk this much.† He laughed. â€Å"I don't think you're unhinged. I actually agree with you.† â€Å"Yeah?† He nodded and looked remarkably wise as he contemplated his answer. It made him even sexier. â€Å"I agree, but I don't think most people take honesty well. They prefer the games. They want to believe the pretty lies.† I finished off the last of the Corona. â€Å"Not me. Give me honesty anytime.† â€Å"You mean that?† â€Å"Yes.† I set the bottle down and looked at him. He was watching me intently now, and his look was smoky again, all darkness and sex and heat. I fell into that gaze, feeling the response of nerves in my lower body that I'd thought were dormant. He leaned slightly forward. â€Å"Well, then, here's honesty. I was really happy when I saw the empty seat by you. I think you're beautiful. I think seeing the bra underneath your shirt is dead sexy. I like the shape of your neck and the way those strands of hair lay against it. I think you're funny, and I think you're smart too. After just five minutes, I already know you don't let people screw around with you – which I also like. You're pretty fun to talk to, and I think you'd be just as much fun to have sex with.† He sat back in his chair again. â€Å"Wow,† I said, now noticing I'd put on a white shirt over a black bra in my haste. Oops. â€Å"That's a lot of honesty.† â€Å"Should I fuck off now?† I played with the rim of the bottle. I took a deep breath. â€Å"No. Not yet.† He smiled and ordered us another round. Introductions seemed like the next logical step, and when his turn came, he told me his name was Kiyo. â€Å"Kiyo,† I repeated. â€Å"Neat.† He watched me, and after a moment, a smile danced over his mouth. A really nice mouth too. â€Å"You're trying to figure me out.† â€Å"Figure you out how?† â€Å"What I am. Race. Ethnic group. Whatever.† â€Å"Of course not,† I protested, even though I'd been trying to do exactly that. â€Å"My mother is Japanese, and my father is Latino. Kiyo is short for Kiyotaka.† I scrutinized him, now understanding the large dark eyes and the tanned skin. Human genes were exquisite. I loved the way they blended. How cool, I thought, to have such a solid grip on your ancestry. I knew my mother had a lot of Greek and Welsh, but there was a mix of all sorts of other things there too. And as for my deadbeat father†¦well, I knew no more about his heritage than I knew anything else about him. For all intents and purposes, I was very much the mongrel the keres had called me earlier. I realized then I'd been staring at Kiyo too long. â€Å"I like the results,† I finally said, which made him laugh again. He asked about my job, and I told him I worked in Web design. It wasn't entirely a lie. I'd majored in it and in French. Both areas had turned out to be completely irrelevant to my job, though Lara swore having a Web site would drive up our business. We mostly relied on word of mouth now. When he told me he was a veterinarian, I said, â€Å"No, you aren't.† Those smoldering eyes widened in surprise. â€Å"Why do you say that?† â€Å"Because†¦because you can't be. I just can't see it.† Nor could I imagine telling Lara tomorrow: So I was in a bar last night and met this sexy veterinarian†¦ No, those concepts somehow didn't go together. Veterinarians looked like Wil Delaney. â€Å"It's God's truth,† Kiyo swore, stirring his margarita. â€Å"I even take my work home with me. I have five cats and two dogs.† â€Å"Oh, dear Lord.† â€Å"Hey, I like animals. It goes back to the honesty thing. Animals don't lie about how they feel. They want to eat, fight, and reproduce. If they like you, they show it. If they don't, they don't. They don't play games. Well, except maybe the cats. They're tricky sometimes.† â€Å"Yeah? What'd you name all those cats?† â€Å"Death, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Mr. Whiskers.† â€Å"You named your cats after the riders of the apocal – wait. Mr. Whiskers?† â€Å"Well, there are only four horsemen.† We talked for a while after that about whatever else came to mind. Some was serious, some humorous. He told me he was in town from Phoenix, which kind of disappointed me. Not local. We also talked about the people around us, our jobs, life, the universe, etc., etc. All the while I kept wondering how this had happened. Hadn't I just been noting how I lived outside of society? Yet, here I was, talking to a guy I'd just met like I'd known him for years. I barely recognized the words coming out of my own mouth. I didn't even recognize my body language: leaning into him as we talked, legs touching. He wore no cologne but smelled like he looked: darkness and sex and heat. And promises. Promises that said, Oh, baby, I can give you everything you've ever wanted if you'll just give me the chance†¦. At one point, I leaned toward the bar to slide an empty bottle across it. As I did, I suddenly felt Kiyo's fingers brush my lower back where my shirt had ridden up. I flinched as electricity crackled through me at that slight, casual touch. â€Å"Here's more honesty,† he said in a low voice. â€Å"I like this tattoo. A lot. Violets again?† I nodded and sat back in my chair, but he didn't remove his hand. That tattoo was a chain of violets and leaves that spread across my lower back. A larger cluster of the flowers sat on my tailbone, and then smaller tendrils extended outward on both sides, almost to my hips. â€Å"Violets have sort have become my patron flower,† I explained, â€Å"because of my eyes.† He leaned forward, and I almost stopped breathing at how close his mouth was to mine. â€Å"Wow. You're right. I've never seen eyes that color.† â€Å"I've got three more.† â€Å"Eyes?† â€Å"Tattoos.† This got his interest. â€Å"Where?† â€Å"They're covered by the shirt.† I hesitated. â€Å"You know anything about Greek mythology?† He nodded. A cultured man. Cue swooning. I touched my upper right arm. My sleeve covered the skin. â€Å"This one's a snake wrapped all the way around my arm. It's for Hecate, the goddess of magic and the crescent moon.† What I didn't add was that Hecate guarded the crossroads between worlds. It was she who governed transitions to the Otherworld and beyond. This tattoo was my link to her, to facilitate my own journeys and call on her for help when needed. I moved to my upper left arm. â€Å"This one's a butterfly whose wings wrap around and touch behind my arm. It's half black and half white.† â€Å"Psyche?† he asked. â€Å"Good guess.† He really was cultured. The goddess Psyche was synonymous with the soul, which the butterfly represented in myth. â€Å"Persephone.† He nodded. â€Å"Half black, half white. She lives half her life in this world and half in the Underworld.† Not unlike my own life. Persephone guided transitions to the world of death. I didn't travel there myself, but I invoked her to send others across. â€Å"She governs the dark moon. And back here† – I tapped the spot behind me where my neck connected to my back – â€Å"is a moon with an abstract woman's face in it. Selene, the full moon.† Kiyo's dark eyes held intense interest. â€Å"Why not one of the more common moon goddesses, then? Like Diana?† I hesitated with my answer. In many ways, Diana would have served the same purpose. She, like Selene, was bound to the human world and could keep me grounded here when I needed it. â€Å"The others are†¦solitary goddesses. Even Persephone, who's technically married. Diana's a virgin – she's alone too. But Selene†¦well, she doesn't get a lot of press anymore, but she was a more social goddess. A sexual goddess. She opens herself up to other people. And experiences. So I went with her. I just didn't think it'd be healthy to be marked with three goddesses who were all alone.† â€Å"What about you? Are you alone, Eugenie?† His voice was velvet against me, and I could have drowned in those eyes. They were like chocolate. Chocolate is an aphrodisiac. â€Å"Aren't we all alone?† I asked with a rueful smile. â€Å"Yes. I think in the end, we all are, no matter what the songs and happy stories say. I guess it's just a matter of who we choose to be alone with.† â€Å"That's why I come here, you know. To be alone with other people. There's isolation in a crowd. You're hidden. Safe.† He looked around at the buzzing, moving sea of people in the bar. They were like a wall surrounding us. There but not there. â€Å"Yes. Yes, I suppose that's true.† â€Å"Isn't that why you're here too?† He glanced back down at me, his expression a little less sexual and a bit more pensive. â€Å"I don't know. I'm not sure. I guess maybe I'm here because of you.† I didn't have any quick retorts for that, so I started playing with the bottle again. The bartender asked if I wanted another, and I shook my head. Kiyo touched my shoulder. â€Å"You want to dance?† I was pretty sure I hadn't danced since high school, but some force compelled me to agree. We stepped out into a crowd of very bad dancers. Most were just sort of floundering around to a fast song with a heavy beat that I'd never heard before. Kiyo and I weren't much better. But when a slower song came on, he wrapped me to him, pressing us together as close as two people could be. Well, almost as close. I couldn't ever remember anything like this happening with a guy I'd just met, a desire for someone I actually wanted and not just someone who was available. His body felt hard and perfect against mine, and my flesh kept concocting ways to touch his. I was already picturing him naked, imagining what it would be like to have his body move against and inside of mine. What was going on with me here? The images were so vivid and real, it was a wonder my feelings weren't written across my face. So I didn't really mind when he slid his hand up the back of my neck and brought his mouth down to kiss me. It wasn't a tentative kiss either. No first-date kisses here. It was the kind of kiss that meant business, the kind of kiss that said, I want to consume every inch of you and hear you scream my name. I'd never really made out in a public place, but it seemed kind of a trivial concern as that kiss burned between us, our tongues and lips exploring the contours of each other's mouths. But when his other hand slid up and cupped my breast, even I was surprised. â€Å"Hey,† I said, breaking off slightly. â€Å"There are people around.† Amusing, I thought a moment later, that I was less concerned about him doing it than being seen doing it. He kissed the side of my neck, just below my ear, and when he spoke, his words heated my skin. â€Å"People only notice if you make a big deal about it.† I let him kiss me again and didn't say anything else about the hand that continued to stroke the curve of my breast and tease my nipple into hardness beneath the shirt. His other hand slid down to my ass and ground me closer to him, letting me feel exactly what was underneath his jeans. The fact that we were doing this in public suddenly made it a lot sexier. I let out a small, trembling sigh and then broke away from the kiss again. Only this time, it wasn't because of any prudish feelings. It was from need. My body's suddenly urgent and excruciating need. â€Å"Are you staying next door?† I asked, indicating the hotel adjacent to the bar. â€Å"No. Out at the Monteblanca.† I let surprise show on my face. That was in the region near where I lived, in the Santa Catalina foothills. â€Å"That's not a hotel. That's a resort. A really nice one. Veterinarians must make a lot.† He smiled and brushed his lips against my cheek. â€Å"You want to see it?† â€Å"Yes,† I told him. â€Å"I certainly do.†

Samsung Wave-Ii Marketing Plan

[pic] Samsung Wave-II Smart Phone Marketing Plan and strategy Principles of Marketing EIB-507 Prepared By: MD. Ashif Hossain Roll-80104045 International Business, EMBA University Of Dhaka Prepared For: MD. Kamal Uddin,Ph. D Associate Professor Executive summary Mobile phone, which is defined as a high technology electronic product, is popular all over the world. Bangladesh must be one of the biggest markets for those mobile phone manufacturers. As a leader in mobile telecommunications market, Samsung has its scientific business strategy that leads to success, and pays a great attention to the market of Bangladesh. Based on the Bangladesh mobile phone market, this paper analyzes Samsung’s business strategy to show reason of Samsung’s success. The business strategy includes the strategic intent, the competitive strategy and marketing mix. The strategic concept of Samsung is to take the demand-side strategy. Samsung subdivides the whole market into several objective markets according to the researches about the partialities of different individuals. And then different types of mobile phones are put into the market aimed at attracting different consumer groups. The competitive strategy of Samsung is to improve the innovative ability to win the competitive advantage. Strong technological innovation ability makes Samsung stand in the forward position of mobile industry all the time, and characterized this brand by a special vitality. And the marketing mix of Samsung is to use the integrated marketing strategy including product, price, promotion and place. It values the construction of a brand, the orientation of its products and pays a lot of attention to technology improvement. It increases the sales through sensitive advertisement, presentation to the celebrities and large-scale entertainment. Current Market Situation Increasingly, we are observing that handsets are following the pattern of typical consumer electronics; the trend is toward phones with improved features at lower prices. Simultaneously, there are more manufacturers who will deliver cheaper handsets to capture the mass market. Multifunction cell phones, e-mail devices are increasingly popular today. Touch screen phone is very much attractive because it is Very much easy to use and people can browse the website like they browse in a laptop computer. Competition is therefore more intense. So it is easily visible that there will be massive demand for such phones in the future. To gain market share in the dynamic environment, Samsung must carefully target Specific segments with features that deliver benefits valued by each customer group. Market Description Samsung Wave II touch pad phone’s primary target consumers are young people. It is very much attractive for student because of it’s wide touch screen which could be used as a hand Held palmtop. It supports Wi-Fi technology so people can transfer their documents and other important file through this phone like a workstation. In the prospect of Bangladesh people can easily monitor the Stock market movement through its high-speed Internet technology. Other users are entrepreneurs and professionals. It is very much cheap in compare with an apple I-phone. Product Review The Samsung Wave II S8530 (or â€Å"Samsung Wave II†) is the Successor f Samsung Wave S8500 smartphone running the bada 1. 2 operating system designed by Samsung, which was commercially released on October, 2010. [1][2][3] The Wave is a slim touchscreen phone powered by Samsung's â€Å"Hummingbird† CPU (S5PC110), which includes 1  GHz ARM Cortex-8 CPU and a powerful built-in PowerVR SGX 540 graphics engine, â€Å"Super LCD† screen and 720p high-definition video capture capabilities. Our Product Samsung Wave II smart phone offers the following standard features With a bada 1. 2 operating system Hardware features Calling – The speakerphone is great. It was very loud and clear. Conference calling was also easy. Once you've placed your second call, an icon appears to conference the two calls. It can connected 20 calls at once and had no trouble swapping and dropping individuals from the conference. Design The phone is made of mostly metal alloy and is measured at 10. 9  mm thick. In terms of form factor, it is a slate style featuring only 3 physical buttons on the front: call, reject/ shutdown, and main menu button. The ergonomically designed body also makes it more comfortable to hold. Screen The screen is a 3. -inch (94  mm) capacitive touchscreen Super LCD with an anti-smudge oleophobic coating on top of the scratch-resistant tempered-glass (Gorilla Glass Display) touch panel which has been shown to be capable of resisting extreme friction (scratch-resistant). The screen resolution is 800Ãâ€"480 WVGA. [4] Processor The phone features a 1  GHz SoC,[5] which internally contains an ARM Cortex A8 CPU core that is identical t o the ARM Cortex CPU core used in Apple's A4 package on package SoC. [6][7] The Phone graphics engine is SGX 540 which is said to be capable of generating 90 million triangles per second (same as the SoC used on the Samsung Galaxy S). And 512MB RAM (same hardware as Samsung Wave S8500). Camera The phone features a 5 megapixel which supports 2592 x 1944 pixels, along with autofocus, LED flash, Geo-tagging, face, blink detection, image stabilization, touch focus,etc. Other than these features it has various shooting modes such as beauty shot, smile shot, continuous, panorama and vintage shot. As a camcorder it is able to shoot 720p HD recording (1280Ãâ€"720) at 30  FPS with flash. As well as this, it is also able to record slow motion video (320Ãâ€"240) at 120  FPS with flash. Other features Other feature includes A-GPS, 2  GB/8  GB of internal storage with a microSDHC slot for an additional 32  GB. It also has a magnetometer, a proximity sensor, an accelerometer, 5. 1-channel surround sound Mobile Theater, music recognition, a fake call service, smart search, Social Hub and it is the first phone to support Bluetooth version 3. 0. In addition to Bluetooth 3. 0, the phone also features Wi-Fi 802. 11 b/g/n, HSDPA 3. 2  Mbit/s and HSUPA 2  Mbit/s. This phone is available with both European/Asia 3G bandings and the North American 3G bandings. Software Features User Interface The phone is one of the few smartphone to feature the Samsung bada operating system platform. The UI is Samsung's own Touchwiz 3. 0. Touchwiz 3. 0, like the 2 predecessors (Touchwiz 2. 0 and Touchwiz), utilises widgets. The 3 most notable widgets pre-installed in Touchwiz 3. 0 are Daily Briefing (which includes all essential information such as weather, finance, AP mobile news and schedule), Feeds and Updates and Buddies now (which allows users to call, send texts to and read Facebook/Twitter feeds off their favourite contacts). Users are allowed to have up to 10 homescreens to add widgets. Applications In terms of Internet Browser, Samsung Wave is pre-installed with Dolphin Browser v2. 0 (based on WebKit). While this browser supports Flash it is disabled by default to improve page load time. By default, the phone comes with Picsel Viewer which is capable of reading . pdf and Microsoft Office file formats. Users from selected countries can buy and download Picsel Office Editor from Samsung Apps. As for Samsung apps, users can also download applications, games and widgets from the application store. Other software includes the GPS software that comes with this phone (LBS Route 66), Palringo IM, Facebook, Twitter, social hub, mini diary, daily briefing, memo, video player, FM radio, media browser, voice recorder, e-mail and pre-installed asphalt5. Media Support MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA, AMR, WAV, MP4, FLAC, MPEG4, H. 263, H. 264, WMV, AVI, DivX, XviD, MK Competitive OVERVIEW Players There are currently four tiers of players in the handset market:  · Tier 1: Nokia, Samsung and Apple  · Tier 2: Motorol and Ericsson  · Tier 3: Alcatel, Siemens etc  · Tier 4: the rest Nokia swept into the market, overtaking both Motorola and Ericsson to achieve the largest handset sales during 1998. Samsung after a brief struggle against Nokia and apple finally got a large share of customer. The failure of Motorola to move from analog to digital and of Ericsson to pursue fashionable designs enabled Nokia’s market position to improve. Since then, both Motorola and Ericsson have been aggressively playing catch- up, attempting to leverage their strengths in technology and semiconductors to attack Nokia’s share in the overall world market. Tier 3 companies cater to a lower-end, lower-margin market. Relative lack of economies of scale, product range, and brand equity make market dominance or even parity a very difficult challenge for these smaller players. However, Samsung – with its new stylish design and technology – is well positioned in the emerging smart phone market, and is capable of threatening the larger two companies (nokia and apple). Compare between Samsung Wave-II and I-phone Because the large chunk of market segment who prefers Smartphone is captured by the apple’s I-phone. We should have a complete knowledge what the i-phone offers as well as Samsung wave-II [pic] |[pic] | |Features |Apple I-phone |Samsung Wave-II | |Overview |Touchscreen, Scratch Resistant Oleophobic Surface, |LCD Capacitive Touchscreen,Scratch Resistant Oleophobic| | |Multi Touch Input Method, Three Axis Gyro Sensor, |Surface,Accelerometer Sensor for Auto-rotate, | | |MicroSIM card support only, 5 MP Camera, TV-out, |Handwriting recognition,Multi-touch Input Method,5 MP | | |Audio/Video player, Data Transfer 3G, EDGE, GPS, |Camera,MP4 Player,Stereo FM | | |Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HTML Browser, Google Maps |radio,TV-Out,3G,EDGE,GPS,Bluetooth,Wi-Fi ,HTML | | | |Browser,Bada OS | |Operating System |iOS 4 (based on Mac OS) |Bada OS 1. | |Processor Speed |1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, PowerVR SGX535GPU, |ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor | | |Apple A4 chipset | | |2G network |GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 | |3G network |HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 |HSDPA 900 / 2100 | |Dimensions |115. x 58. 6 x 9. 3 mm |123. 9 x 59. 8 x 11. 8 mm | |Weight |137 g |135 g | |Display Size |3. 5 inches, LED-backlit IPS TFT, capacitive |3. 7 inches,Super Clear LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M | | |touchscreen, 16M colors |colors | |Resolution |640 x 960 pixels |480 x 800 pixels |Music Player |MP3 ,WAV,AAC, AIFF, AAC Protected, MP3 VBR,Audible |MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player | | |(formats 2-4),Apple Lossless, Music play-Up to 40 | | | |hours | | |Radio |No |Stereo FM r adio with RDS, FM recording | |Camera |5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, |5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash | | |Secondary: video calling camera over Wi-Fi only | | |Video |[email  protected], LED video light, geo-tagging,Video |[email  protected],Video | | |Player-MPEG4, H. 264, MOV |Player-MP4,MKV,H. 263,H. 64,WMV,Xvid,DivX | |Internal |16 GB storage |2 GB storage | |Slot micro sd |No |microSD up to 32GB, 2GB card included | |Battery |Standard battery, Li-Po 1420mAh |Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh | |Talk Time |Up to 14 h (2G) / Up to 7 h (3G) |Up to 13 hours | |Blue Tooth |v2. 1 with A2DP |v3. 0 with A2DP | |USB |v2. 0 |microUSB v2. 0 | |GPRS |Class 10 |Class 10 | |EDGE |Class 10 |Class 10 | |Wlan & Wifi |Wi-Fi 802. 1 b/g/n |Wi-Fi 802. 11 b/g/n | |3G |HSDPA, 7. 2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5. 76 Mbps |HSDPA 3. 6 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps | |GPS |Yes, A-GPS support |A-GPS support, Samsung Mobile Navigator | |Document viewer |Yes(don’t support Microsoft packa ge) |Yes(pdf,word,XL) | |Price per unit |BDT 55000/- |BDT 20000/- | Samsung Wave-II SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths Having the advanced technology over the competitors in the mobile phone industry – Decentralized company structure, innovative and creative employees and Charismatic strong leader – One of the best market leadership in the mobile industry – Strong brand name and company image in the global market – Has its own manufacture and network – Product innovation – Economy of scale Weaknesses – Complacency and arrogance – Few customized operator-specific handsets – Few alliances, company sticks to its standing in the market, do not want to cooperate with the operators Opportunities – The emerging market in developing countries, such as China, India, Bangladesh – The emerging market for high-end mobile phone such as business user phone Threats – Facing more new competitors, especially from Asia – Stronger buyer power from the network operators – Lost market share – Strong competition in mobile industry Objectives We have set aggressive but achievable objectives for the first and second years of market entry. †¢ First-year objectives: During the Samsung wave-II initial year on the market, we are aiming for a 40 percent share of the Bangladesh smart phone market through unit sales volume of 1,00,000 units. †¢ Second-year objectives: Our second-year objectives are to achieve a 60 percent share based on sales of two models and to achieve break-even early in this period. Market Segmentation Our target market is mainly focused on young and professional people with a attraction for technology which is available in a relatively cheap price. There is a customer profile as follows: Age: 14 – 25, 25 – 35, 35 + Gender : Male & Female Family Life Cycle: Young, single, married, married with children, older, under18. Occupation: Professional and technical, managers, officials and proprietors, clerical, sales, craftspeople, supervisor, Operatives, farmers, retired, students, homemakers, unemployed. Social Class: Lower Lowers, upper lowers, working class, middle class, upper middles, upper uppers Monthly income: Below Over10,000 Taka Size of potential market : Total population of Bangladesh. Geographical Location: Rural, Semi-Urban, and Urban User status: Potential user, first time users & regular users Usage rate: Light user, medium user & heavy user. Readiness stage: Aware, informed, interested, desirous and intending to buy Marketing Strategy Positioning In 2007 Samsung Telecommunication Business reported over 40% growth and became the second largest mobile device manufacturer in the world. [1] Its market share was 14% in Q4 2007, growing up form 11. 3% in Q4 2006. [2] In Q1 2008 Samsung strengthened its second position on the market and achieved 15. 6% world handset market share. So as per the concern regarding Bangladesh Samsung is already achieved a good market share after Nokia. Product Strategy †¢ The development of a product with global appeal †¢ Nimble movement to sell it internationally Most importantly, a commitment to learning what consumers want, without consideration of the limits of existing technology †¢ Best mobile devices for everyone regardless the price and geography †¢ Internet services on mobile devices †¢ Business mobility markets †¢ Once the superior business devices are introd uced, Corporate users will take advantage of the stability and innovation †¢ Low cost innovative devices in the emerging markets will generate revenue due to the brand loyalty †¢ Introducing the device for business solutions, superior from its competitors †¢ Giving SDK(software development kit) to the developers to develop more applications on its new OS platform †¢ Introducing low cost ,innovative, devices in the emerging markets †¢ Leading Brand Pricing strategy Samsung Wave-II smart phone will be introduced at BDT 20000/- per unit in compare with Apple-iphone, which costs BDT 55000/- per unit. Though it is not superior than I-phone but it could Outrun some function of I-phone like as we have mentioned in our previous discussion. Distribution Strategy In Bangladesh by selective distributor Samsung could promote the market and also by media Advertisement. Samsung could also promote the consumers with joint co-operation with major Carriers like Grameenphone and Banglalink. Marketing Communication Strategy †¢ At TV Advertisement †¢ At Radio Advertisement: †¢ At Outdoor Advertisement: †¢ At Press Conference: Action Program The Samsung Wave-II will introduce in February 2012. Through a series of scheduled program Samsung will carry out its marketing strategy and achieve its objectives. A monthly basis detail about these programs are given below February 2012 †¢ We will initiate a huge amount trade sales promotion ad. Campaign to educate dealers and generate excitement for the product launch. †¢ Send catalogs & brochures to 50000 likely customers †¢ Set-up showrooms †¢ Provide samples product reviewers, opinion leaders and celebrities as the part of our public relation strategy. †¢ Create own website. March 2012 †¢ Collecting marketing information. Start an integrated print/radio/TV/ Internet campaign targeting consumers. †¢ Launching Samsung Wave-II April 2012 †¢ Study consumer satisfaction and identify opportunities. Budget [pic] Total first-year revenue : Tk. 200 Core sales volume: 100,000 average wholesale price : Tk. 20000/- per unit. Variable c ost per unit : TK 2500 for units Samsung Wave-II projects sales of Tk 60 Lac on 1st quarter and consequently Tk. 60 Lac, Tk. 40 Lac and Tk. 40 Lac Estimated first-year fixed costs: TK. 170 Core Break Even calculation = TK. 1700000000 /TK. (20000-2500) = 97143 Units(approximated) Controls There should be a tight monitoring system in every level of execution from top to bottom. We will carefully monitor customer satisfaction through our product and customer service Center. Any sign of deviation will be corrected through our highly skilled manpower. Further plan has been developed in the context of severe price downgrading. CONCLUSIONS Samsung must rethink its strategies if it is to remain successful. The recent economic slowdown coupled with impending market saturation and the demand for increased functionality, is beginning to dramatically change the handset market. Samsung should take aggressive measures to resist commoditization if it is to grow and continue being profitable. We have outlined some ways that it can accomplish this. Its brand has proven to be one of its most valuable assets, and Samsung should continue building it. Samsung must also thoroughly research evolving customer needs and provide a positive impetus for brand differentiation. Finally, by forming strategic alliances with industry and service providers, Samsung can ensure and maximize its visibility to the end- user. Samsung also needs to bring new products to market, and, as the market is showing signs of saturation, shift its focus onto the replacement market. This means developing data-driven services and appropriate partnerships with content providers. There simply needs to be an incentive for existing handset owners to purchase a new Samusng handset.