Psychologist Dr. Alex Forsythe from the University Essays

Psychologist Dr. Alex Forsythe from the University of liverpool School of Psychology and her team examined paintings from the careers of seven famous artists. These artists experienced both normal aging and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases and some with no recorded neurodegenerative disorders. Throughout the study they inspected and reviewed 2,000 painting searching for patterns and clues to point out obvious signs of deteration in skills over time. The study showed clear patterns of changes in the paintings different artists who suffered neurological deterioration from those aging normally. Some were obvious others not so much. According to Dr. Forsythe, "art has long been embraced by psychologists as an effective method of improving the quality of life for those persons living with cognitive disorders. We have built on this tradition by unpicking artists 'handwriting' through the analysis of their individual connection with the brush and paint. This process offers the potential for the detection of emerging neurological problems. We hope that our innovation may open up new research directions that will help to diagnose neurological disease in the early stages." I believe this is a possible way to help with diagnosing of neurodegenitive disorders but would be hesitant to follow this due to the inability to be certain that the patterns follow to trend. The only paintings they studied were famous well-known paintings. What about the other less known paintings the only way to be sure is to use the full portfolio of each painters paintings.

Free Essays on My First Guitar

One of the greatest days of my life was the day I received my first guitar. Ever since the first time I watched MTV and saw an electric guitar I’ve wanted to play the guitar. In middle school I met a few guys that played guitar. They taught me an easy song that I knew and I was hooked for life. When it was time for Christmas to roll round I began to beg my parents for an electric guitar. This was the first time that I couldn’t figure out what I was getting for Christmas. It made Christmas so much more exciting. On Christmas Eve I could barley tame my exciment. I remember staying up late with my brother, who was home from college, on Christmas Eve. After we went to sleep I woke up at about four in the morning for some reason. As my eyes opened to the cold air I was filled with the excitement of Christmas as if I was still a five-year-old boy staying up to catch a glimpse of Santa Clause. I got out of my warm cozy bed and stepped onto the icy cold floor. I made my way for the steps and began slowly placing one foot before another going down the steps while trying not to wake anyone with the creeks that sounded like a loud drum being beat in the dead silence. Once I got down the stairs I slowly tip toed into the living room. As I entered the room the smell of a smoldering fire and a Christmas tree grew stronger and stronger with each step I took toward the decorated tree. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness I could see an outline of a guitar case and a black box beside it. My heart pounded with excitement and relief of finally achieving my life long dream. I cautiously took the shiny midnight black guitar from it’s case and placed it on my knee. I wanted to sit down and play on it for hours, but lack of sleep and the fear of my parents walking in and seeing me with my presents before they were awake prevented this. I put my fingers in the only chord position I knew and strummed the cold shiny strings with my thumb. It sounded lik... Free Essays on My First Guitar Free Essays on My First Guitar One of the greatest days of my life was the day I received my first guitar. Ever since the first time I watched MTV and saw an electric guitar I’ve wanted to play the guitar. In middle school I met a few guys that played guitar. They taught me an easy song that I knew and I was hooked for life. When it was time for Christmas to roll round I began to beg my parents for an electric guitar. This was the first time that I couldn’t figure out what I was getting for Christmas. It made Christmas so much more exciting. On Christmas Eve I could barley tame my exciment. I remember staying up late with my brother, who was home from college, on Christmas Eve. After we went to sleep I woke up at about four in the morning for some reason. As my eyes opened to the cold air I was filled with the excitement of Christmas as if I was still a five-year-old boy staying up to catch a glimpse of Santa Clause. I got out of my warm cozy bed and stepped onto the icy cold floor. I made my way for the steps and began slowly placing one foot before another going down the steps while trying not to wake anyone with the creeks that sounded like a loud drum being beat in the dead silence. Once I got down the stairs I slowly tip toed into the living room. As I entered the room the smell of a smoldering fire and a Christmas tree grew stronger and stronger with each step I took toward the decorated tree. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness I could see an outline of a guitar case and a black box beside it. My heart pounded with excitement and relief of finally achieving my life long dream. I cautiously took the shiny midnight black guitar from it’s case and placed it on my knee. I wanted to sit down and play on it for hours, but lack of sleep and the fear of my parents walking in and seeing me with my presents before they were awake prevented this. I put my fingers in the only chord position I knew and strummed the cold shiny strings with my thumb. It sounded lik...

Religion and the Elderly Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Religion and the Elderly - Case Study Example She showed her affirmation but told me to come after some days, as she won’t be able to give enough time. I made three intermittent visits to her residence to seek her reflections on various aspects of her life pertaining particularly to her outlook on religion and spirituality. When I asked Mrs. Miller to recall from childhood till now her experiences with life, she took a two minutes pause before starting but once she began, she continued without break. She was brought up by her grand-parents most of the time. She lost her father when she was three years old but she remembered the face of her mother, full of affection. Her mother’s untimely death permanently deprived her from motherly affection when Mrs. Miller was hardly eight years. ... Mrs. Miller’s Religious and Spiritual Practices According to Mrs. Miller, she started finding a religious and spiritual touch in her day-to-day functions. Earlier, she never attempted to know how both the terms differed in meaning but when circumstances provided the time and need to analyze these terms, she preferred to spend time to serve the poor. She found a new meaning of religion by tutoring poor school-going children in free. She started finding solace in serving the poor students by taking extra free classes in the evening. It was her way of supporting the cause of humanity, as education and knowledge had been her intangible properties, which according to her, would not decrease if she served the needy students. Mrs. Miller did not get rid of her religious affiliations. She had been in the habit of visiting the Church on week-ends. After the death of her husband, her visits to the Church increased, as she had more free time to sit there and engross herself silently in m editation. Although she had not been a worshipper of oriental spiritual practices in her past life but later, she developed a liking for the Indian tradition of yoga for health and spiritual attainment. Mrs. Miller started attending the yoga and art of living classes for her spiritual growth. She started having a firm belief that to march ahead on the path of spirituality, first thing one needs to do is to cleanse the heart from the impurities of hatred, enmity, greed, and avoiding any such act that promotes negative energy. It realized to her that in stead of spending and wasting too much time in daily busy chores, it was important to learn to do good deeds to cleanse the soul of the impurities of one’s actions. Her

Exemplars in legal and ethical issues in rehabilitation or physical Essay

Exemplars in legal and ethical issues in rehabilitation or physical therapy practice - Essay Example In this process, the doctor warns that although the patient will be able to work normally or even run, he advises that the exercise should not be vigorous. The physician plans of an 8-week therapy session where the patient is up to different tests. The exercises are made on a regular to help the patient cope with the pain at the stump area. After the therapy sessions, the patient feels normal and comfortable with his bionic right leg. The physician keeps a true record of each days exercise. On the point of discharge from the therapy, patient A returns to his normal practice at the tracks. After a few sessions on the tracks, he complains of pain at the stump area. This leads him back to the physician with insistence of getting a raw deal. He threatens to sue the physician since he cannot return to his professional racing even after the therapy. Is this claim compelling? This case is without a doubt related to contributory negligence. This alleged lawsuit stands no ground since the therapist has clear records of all the therapy sessions and the advice given to patient A. The records are clearly documented and therefore the patient lacks sufficient cause for the lawsuit. To solve this crisis, the patient can opt for a different solution. This is whereby he returns to the doctor so that more therapy sessions can be prescribed if indeed he was not to return full in the race trucks. On terms of legality, the doctor gave the patient a chance to choose. This is based on the principle of respect to autonomy. Patient B is an old man suffering stroke and has been through therapy. The patient is showing positive signs in terms of response to therapy. After the patient care unit for post stroke patients agrees that no more therapy can be availed to the patients, the family members agree to take the patient back home. However, after a brief look up at the family’s history, the doctor notices that the family

Screen Writing for Television Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Screen Writing for Television - Essay Example The positive aspect is that things would change for the better as soon as the boom period arrives for the screenwriters. The hiring companies will have to pay the price of cost-cutting later. The change in current trends in the TV industry for screenwriters can be seen in primarily three fields. First, the reward for writer’s job has got curtailed. Reputed writers can still command the desired price. They can still get their quote, but there’s a resistance to paying it, as companies are not as willing and eager to pay as they used to be before the slump. Negotiation has become tougher these days irrespective of the rank and esteem of the writer. Some of the writers’ quotes have become doubtful; it has become harder to negotiate (Mazin, 2009). A view of the bargaining with the writers’ team shows that the team members need to show bravery and selflessness to clinch a favorable deal to write the IPA. The meeting between the guild members and the writers’ team supported by WCG in Canada speaks of writers’ passion for their craft, enforced with the facts and numbers made available by WCG people that work in the interests of the screenwriters. The environment at the bargaining table is no less harsh, similar to as it can happen with some face-to-face meeting with the workers’ union. Things do not move for the better with each day passing in the bargaining process with some members of the writers’ team disappointing the team. Failure to reach a contract by all interest groups should not be random practice considering that the business volume touched the mark of $2.39 billion in production in 2010/2011 in the Canadian TV and films market (CDN Screenwriter, 2012). Secondly, the trend of one step deal with the writers is on the high. Some production studios do not provide any other choice for writers. Thirdly, the load of work has increased greatly to get a job as a screenwriter.  

The History Of The Digital Watermarking Techniques

The History Of The Digital Watermarking Techniques Abstract Digital watermarking techniques have been developed to protect the copyright of media signals. This study aims to provide a universal review and background about the watermarking definition, concept and the main contributions in this field. The study will start with a general view of digital data, the Internet and the products of these two, namely, the multimedia and the e-commerce. The study will presents an extensive and deep literature review of the field of digital watermarking and watermarking algorithms. Introduction Digital watermarking techniques have been developed to protect the copyright of media signals. Different watermarking schemes have been suggested for multimedia content (images, video and audio signal). This study aims to provide an extensive literature review of the multimedia copyright protection. It presents a universal review and background about the watermarking definition, concept and the main contributions in this field. Digital Intellectual Property Information is becoming widely available via global networks. These connected networks allow cross-references between databases. The advent of multimedia is allowing different applications to mix sound, images, and video and to interact with large amounts of information (e.g., in e-business, distance education, and human-machine interface). The industry is investing to deliver audio, image and video data in electronic form to customers, and broadcast television companies, major corporations and photo archives are converting their content from analogue to digital form. This movement from traditional content, such as paper documents, analogue recordings, to digital media is due to several advantages of digital media over the traditional media. Some of these advantages are: The quality of digital signals is higher than that of their corresponding analogue signals. Traditional assets degrade in quality as time passes. Analogue data require expensive systems to obtain high quality copies, whereas digital data can be easily copied without loss of fidelity. Digital data (audio, image and video signals) can be easily transmitted over networks, for example the Internet. A large amount of multimedia data is now available to users all over the world. This expansion will continue at an even greater rate with the widening availability of advanced multimedia services like electronic commerce, advertising, interactive TV, digital libraries, and a lot more. Exact copies of digital data can be easily made. This is very useful but it also creates problems for the owner of valuable digital data like precious digital images. Replicas of a given piece of digital data cannot be distinguished and their origin cannot be confirmed. It is impossible to determine which piece is the original and which is the copy. It is possible to hide some information within digital data in such a way that data modifications are undetectable for the human senses. Copyright Protection of Intellectual Property An important factor that slows down the growth of multimedia-networked services is that authors, publishers and providers of multimedia data are reluctant to allow the distribution of their documents in a networked environment. This is because the ease of reproducing digital data in their exact original form is likely to encourage copyright violation, data misappropriation and abuse. These are the problems of theft and distribution of intellectual property. Therefore, creators and distributors of digital data are actively seeking reliable solutions to the problems associated with copyright protection of multimedia data. Moreover, the future development of networked multimedia systems, in particular on open networks like the Internet, is conditioned by the development of efficient methods to protect data owners against unauthorized copying and redistribution of the material put on the network. This will guarantee that their rights are protected and their assets properly managed. Copyright protection of multimedia data has been accomplished by means of cryptography algorithms to provide control over data access and to make data unreadable to non-authorized users. However, encryption systems do not completely solve the problem, because once encryption is removed there is no more control on the dissemination of data. The concept of digital watermarking arose while trying to solve problems related to the copyright of intellectual property in digital media. It is used as a means to identify the owner or distributor of digital data. Watermarking is the process of encoding hidden copyright information since it is possible today to hide information messages within digital audio, video, images and texts, by taking into account the limitations of the human audio and visual systems. Digital Watermarking: What, Why, When and How? It seems that digital watermarking is a good way to protect intellectual property from illegal copying. It provides a means of embedding a message in a piece of digital data without destroying its value. Digital watermarking embeds a known message in a piece of digital data as a means of identifying the rightful owner of the data. These techniques can be used on many types of digital data including still imagery, movies, and music. What is Digital Watermarking? A digital watermark is a signal permanently embedded into digital data (audio, images, video, and text) that can be detected or extracted later by means of computing operations in order to make assertions about the data. The watermark is hidden in the host data in such a way that it is inseparable from the data and so that it is resistant to many operations not degrading the host document. Thus by means of watermarking, the work is still accessible but permanently marked. Digital watermarking techniques derive from steganography, which means covered writing (from the Greek words stegano or covered and graphos or to write). Steganography is the science of communicating information while hiding the existence of the communication. The goal of steganography is to hide an information message inside harmless messages in such a way that it is not possible even to detect that there is a secret message present. Both steganography and watermarking belong to a category of information hiding, but the objectives and conditions for the two techniques are just the opposite. In watermarking, for example, the important information is the external data (e.g., images, voices, etc.). The internal data (e.g., watermark) are additional data for protecting the external data and to prove ownership. In steganography, however, the external data (referred to as a vessel, container, or dummy data) are not very important. They are just a carrier of the important information. The internal data are the most important. On the other hand, watermarking is not like encryption. Watermarking does not restrict access to the data while encryption has the aim of making messages unintelligible to any unauthorized persons who might intercept them. Once encrypted data is decrypted, the media is no longer protected. A watermark is designed to permanently reside in the host data. If the ownership of a digital work is in question, the information can be extracted to completely characterize the owner. Digital watermarking is an enabling technology for e-commerce strategies: conditional and user-specific access to services and resources. Digital watermarking offers several advantages. The details of a good digital watermarking algorithm can be made public knowledge. Digital watermarking provides the owner of a piece of digital data the means to mark the data invisibly. The mark could be used to serialize a piece of data as it is sold or used as a method to mark a valuable image. For example, this marking allows an owner to safely post an image for viewing but legally provides an embedded copyright to prohibit others from posting the same image. Watermarks and attacks on watermarks are two sides of the same coin. The goal of both is to preserve the value of the digital data. However, the goal of a watermark is to be robust enough to resist attack but not at the expense of altering the value of the data being protected. On the other hand, the goal of the attack is to remove the water mark without destroying the value of the protected data. The contents of the image can be marked without visible loss of value or dependence on specific formats. For example a bitmap (BMP) image can be compressed to a JPEG image. The result is an image that requires less storage space but cannot be distinguished from the original. Generally, a JPEG compression level of 70% can be applied without humanly visible degradation. This property of digital images allows insertion of additional data in the image without altering the value of the image. The message is hidden in unused visual space in the image and stays below the human visible threshold for the image. When Did the Technique Originate? The idea of hiding data in another media is very old, as described in the case of steganography. Nevertheless, the term digital watermarking first appeared in 1993, when Tirkel et al. (1993) presented two techniques to hide data in images. These methods were based on modifications to the least significant bit (LSB) of the pixel values. How Can We Build an Effective Watermarking Algorithm? It is desired that watermarks survive image-processing manipulations such as rotation, scaling, image compression and image enhancement, for example. Taking advantage of the discrete wavelet transform properties and robust features extraction techniques are the new trends that are used in the recent digital image watermarking methods. Robustness against geometrical transformation is essential since image-publishing applications often apply some kind of geometrical transformations to the image, and thus, an intellectual property ownership protection system should not be affected by these changes. Visible vs. Invisible Watermarks Digital watermarking is divided into two main categories: visible and invisible. The idea behind the visible watermark is very simple. It is equivalent to stamping a watermark on paper, and for this reason its sometimes said to be digitally stamped. An example of visible watermarking is provided by television channels, like BBC, whose logo is visibly superimposed on the corner of the TV picture. Invisible watermarking, on the other hand, is a far more complex concept. It is most often used to identify copyright data, like author, distributor, and so forth. Though a lot of research has been done in the area of invisible watermarks, much less has been done for visible watermarks. Visible and invisible watermarks both serve to deter theft but they do so in very different ways. Visible watermarks are especially useful for conveying an immediate claim of ownership (Mintzer, Braudaway Yeung, 1997). Their main advantage, in principle at least, is the virtual elimination of the commercial value of a document to a would-be thief, without lessening the documents utility for legitimate, authorized purposes. Invisible watermarks, on the other hand, are more of an aid in catching a thief than for discouraging theft in the first place (Mintzer et al., 1997; Swanson et al., 1998). Watermarking Classification There are different classifications of invisible watermarking algorithms. The reason behind this is the enormous diversity of watermarking schemes. Watermarking approaches can be distinguished in terms of watermarking host signal (still images, video signal, audio signal, integrated circuit design), and the availability of original signal during extraction (non-blind, semi-blind, blind). Also, they can be categorized based on the domain used for watermarking embedding process, as shown in Figure 1. The watermarking application is considered one of the criteria for watermarking classification. Figure 2 shows the subcategories based on watermarking applications. Figure 1: Classification of watermarking algorithms based on domain used for the watermarking embedding process Figure 2: Classification of watermarking technology based on applications Digital Watermarking Algorithms Current watermarking techniques described in the literature can be grouped into three main classes. The first includes the transform domain methods, which embed the data by modulating the transform domain signal coefficients. The second class includes the spatial domain techniques. These embed the watermark by directly modifying the pixel values of the original image. The transform domain techniques have been found to have the greater robustness, when the watermarked signals are tested after having been subjected to common signal distortions. The third class is the feature domain technique. This technique takes into account region, boundary and object characteristics. Such watermarking methods may present additional advantages in terms of detection and recovery from geometric attacks, compared to previous approaches. The algorithms in this study are organized according to their embedding domain, as indicated in Figure 1. These are grouped into: Spatial domain techniques Transform domain techniques Feature domain techniques However, due to the amount of published work in the field of watermarking technology, the main focus will be on wavelet-based watermarking technique papers. The wavelet domain is the most efficient domain for watermarking embedding so far. However, the review considers some other techniques, which serve the purpose of giving a broader picture of the existing watermarking algorithms. Some examples of spatial domain and fractal-based techniques will be reviewed. Spatial Domain Techniques This section gives a brief introduction to the spatial domain technique to gives some background information about watermarking in this domain. Many spatial techniques are based on adding fixed amplitude pseudo noise (PN) sequences to an image. PN sequences are used as the spreading key when considering the host media as the noise in a spread spectrum system, where the watermark is the transmitted message. In this case, the PN sequence is used to spread the data bits over the spectrum to hide the data. Transform Domain Techniques Many transform-based watermarking techniques have been proposed. To embed a watermark, a transformation is first applied to the host data, and then modifications are made to the transform coefficients. In this section, the state of the art of the current watermarking algorithms using the transform domain is presented. The section has three main parts, including discussions of waveletbased watermarking, DCT-based watermarking and fractal domain watermarking. Digital Watermarking Using Wavelet Decomposition This algorithm can easily be built into video watermarking applications based on a 3-D wavelet transform due to its simple structure. The hierarchical nature of the wavelet representation allows multi-resolutional detection of the digital watermark, which is a Gaussian distributed random vector added to all the high pass bands in the wavelet domain. Discrete Cosine Transform-Based Digital Watermarking Several watermarking algorithms have been proposed to utilize the DCT. However, the Cox et al. (1995, 1997) and the Koch and Zhao (1995) algorithms are the most well-known DCT-based algorithms. Cox et al. (1995) proposed the most well-known spread spectrum watermarking schemes. Figure 3 shows the block diagram of the Cox algorithm. The image is first subjected to a global DCT. Then, the 1,000 largest coefficients in the DCT domain are selected for watermarking. They used a Gaussian sequence of pseudo-random real numbers of length 1,000 as a watermark. This approach achieves good robustness against compression and other common signal processing attacks. This is a result of the selection of perceptually significant transform domain coefficients. However, the algorithm is in a weak position against the invariability attack proposed by Craver (1997). Also, the global DCT employed on the image is computationally expensive. Fractal Transform-Based Digital Watermarking Though a lot of work has been done in the area of invisible watermarks using the DCT and the wavelet-based methods, relatively few references exist for invisible watermarks based on the fractal transform. The reason for this might be the computational expense of the fractal transform. In fractal analysis, similar patterns are identified in an image and only a limited amount of binary code can be embedded using this method. Since fractal analysis is computationally expensive and some images do not have many large self-similar patterns, the techniques may not be suitable for general use. Feature Domain Techniques (Second Generation Watermarking) First generation watermarking (1GW) methods have been mainly focused on applying the watermarking on the entire image/video domain. However, this approach is not compatible with novel approaches for still image and video compression. JPEG2000 and MPEG4/7 standards are the new techniques for image and video compression. They are region or object-based, as can be seen in the compression process. Also, the 1GW algorithms proposed so far do not satisfy the watermarking requirements. Second generation watermarking (2GW) was developed in order to increase the robustness and invisibility and to overcome the weaknesses of 1GW. The 2GW methods take into account region, boundary and object characteristics and give additional advantages in terms of detection and recovery from geometric attacks compared to first generation methods. Exploiting salient region or object features and characteristics of the image achieve this. Also, 2GW methods may be designed so that selective robustness to different classes of attacks is obtained. As a result, watermark flexibility will be improved considerably. Digital Watermarking and Image Processing Attacks Digital watermarking was claimed to be the ultimate solution for copyright protection over the Internet when the concept of digital watermarking was first presented. However, some problems related to robustness and security of watermarking algorithms to intentional or unintentional attacks still remain unsolved. These problems must be solved before digital watermarking can be claimed to be the ultimate solution for copyright ownership protection in digital media. One of these problems is the effect of geometrical transformations such as rotation, translation and scaling on the recovery of the watermark. Another is the security of the watermarking algorithm when intentional attackers make use of knowledge of the watermarking algorithm to destroy or remove the watermark. Watermarking Standardization Issue The most important question about watermarking technology is whether watermarking will be standardized and used in the near future. There are several movements to standardize watermarking technology, but no one standard has prevailed at this moment in time. Some researchers have been working to develop a standardized framework for protecting digital images and other multimedia content through technology built into media files and corresponding application software. However, they have lacked a clear vision of what the framework should be or how it would be used. In addition, there was a discussion about how and whether watermarking should form part of the standard during the standardization process of JPEG2000. The requirements regarding security have been identified in the framework of JPEG2000. However, there has been neither in-depth clarification nor a harmonized effort to address watermarking issues. It is important to deduce what really needs to be standardized for including the watermarking concept in JPEG2000 and to what extent. The initial drafts of the JPEG2000 standard did not mention the issue of watermarking. However, there is a plan to examine how watermarking might be best applied within JPEG2000. The features of a given watermarking scheme are likely to offer designers an opportunity to integrate watermarking technology into JPEG2000 for different application such as distributing images on the Internet. Also, standardization of digital watermarking will influence the progress in imaging standards of JPEG2000 where the data se curity will be part of this standard. Therefore, the likelihood is that watermarking technology will be used in conjunction with JPEG2000 (Clark, 2000). Future Highlights Nevertheless, the future seems bright for digital watermarking. Many companies have already been active in digital watermarking research. For example, Microsoft has developed a prototype system that limits unauthorized playback of music by embedding a watermark that remains permanently attached to audio files. Such technology could be included as a default playback mechanism in future versions of the Windows operating system. If the music industry begins to include watermarks in its song files, Windows would refuse to play copyrighted music released after a certain date that was obtained illegally. Also, Microsoft Research has also invented a separate watermarking system that relies on graph theory to hide watermarks in software. Normally the security technology is hack able. However, if the technology is combined with proper legal enforcement, industry standards and respects of the privacy of individuals seeking to legitimately use intellectual property, digital watermarking will en courage content creators to trust the Internet more. There is a tremendous amount of money at stake for many firms. The value of illegal copies of multimedia content distributed over the Internet could reach billions of dollars a year. It will be interesting to see how the development and adoption of digital watermarking plays out. With such high stakes involved for entertainment and other multimedia companies, they are likely to keep pushing for (and be willing to pay for) a secure technology that they can use to track and reduce copyright violation and capture some of their foregone revenues. Finally, it is expected that a great deal of effort must still be put into research before digital image watermarking can be widely accepted as legal evidence of ownership. Conclusion This study was started with a general view of digital data, the Internet and the products of these two, namely, multimedia and e-commerce. It provided some initial background and history of digital watermarking. This study gave an extensive and deep literature review of the field of digital watermarking. The concept of digital watermarking and the requirements of digital watermarking were discussed and digital watermarking algorithms were reviewed. They were grouped into three main collections based on the embedding domain, that is, spatial domain techniques, transform domain techniques or feature domain techniques. The algorithm of the frequency domain were further subdivided into wavelet, DCT and fractal transform techniques. Finally, the future perspective of digital watermarking was highlighted.

The English Patient :: essays research papers

The English Patient Auteur Michael Ondaatje (12 september 1943, Colombo ~ Sri Lanka) is een Canadese schrijver, hoewel er ook Engels, Nederlands, Tamil en Sinhalees bloed door zijn aderen stroomt. Toen hij negen was, verhuisde hij met zijn moeder, zuster en broer naar Londen. In 1962 emigreerde hij naar Canada, waar hij Engels en geschiedenis ging studeren. In zijn studietijd begon hij gedichten te schrijven en in 1967 verscheen zijn eerste dichtbundel ‘The Dainty Monsters’. De eerste tien jaar van zijn schrijverscarrià ¨re schreef Ondaatje alleen gedichten. Deze waren veelal surrealistisch, waarvan zijn debuut ‘The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left Handed Poems’ (1970) voor toneel werd bewerkt en tevens ontving hij hiervoor een prestigieuze Canadese literatuurprijs. Het is in feite een collage, waarin Ondaatje door middel van foto’s, gedichten, prozastukken, liederen en tekeningen een beeld schetst van Billy the Kid, de legendarische held van het Wilde Westen. Ondaatje b ewonderde de Canadese zanger en schrijver Leonard Cohen, zodoende schreef hij een monografie over hem in 1970. Zijn eerste roman ‘Coming to slaughter’ presenteerde hij in 1979, dat cinematografisch evenals poà «tisch mag worden genoemd. In deze levensschets van Buddy Holden, de trompettist waarmee de jazz begon, hanteerde Ondaatje dezelfde werkwijze als bij ‘The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left Handed Poems’. Zijn jeugd op Sri Lanka (destijds heette het nog Ceylon) in een geprivilegieerd milieu schilderde hij in een kleurrijke mengeling van autobiografische feiten en fictie in zijn boek ‘Running in the family’ (1982). Zijn rokkenjagende en dranklustige vader speelt hierin een belangrijke rol. De pijn van zijn scheiding en het ontdekken van nieuwe liefde worden uitvoerig beschreven in ‘Secular love’ (1984), dat bestaat uit een verzameling van liedachtige teksten. Het werk van Ondaatje is vrij lastig in te delen, aangezien hij voor een postmodernistische combinatie van stijlen heeft gekozen. Zijn immigrantenroman ‘In the skin of a lion’ (1987) gaat over klassenverschillen in de jaren twintig en dertig. Zoals in zijn eerdere werk, hanteerde hij hier opnieuw de collagetechniek, waarbij stukje bij beetje alle onderdelen toch op hun plaats in het grote geheel vallen. Gedurende een nachtelijke autorit wordt aan het dochtertje van zijn pas overleden vriendin het levensverhaal verteld van de Canadees Patrick Lewis. ‘In the skin of a lion’ was zijn meest populaire boek tot de verfilming van ‘The English Patient’ in 1997 voor een groot publiek. Zo ontstond er grote belangstelling voor deze roman uit 1992, over vier personen in een halfverwoeste Italiaanse villa aan het eind van de Tweede Wereldoorlog.

Technology Forecast

Technology forecasting is considered to be vital in today’s business environment. There have been many success stories as well as failures. Forecasting technology impacts many aspects from acquiring a new technology to developing a new technology. The course will start with reviewing several methodologies and then will analyze those impacts and how to make them beneficial for the organizations through many case studies, professional and research articles. Case Studies are selected from Harvard Business School Case Studies. Articles are selected from journals such as Technology Forecasting and Social Change. GRADING AND DELIVERABLES Specific Deliverable Cases (team – in class)30%Presentations Project (team)40%Paper + Presentation Readings (individual)30%2 article discussions ———————————————————————————– TOTAL100% GUIDELINES FOR DELIVERABLES CASES – Cases will be analyzed and presented in class by teams. You should read and get yourself familiar with the case before the class, READINGS – You will be assigned 2 articles to discuss in class. PROJECT – Identify an emerging technology as a team and develop a forecast using Technology Forecasting Tools. Examples of such projects will be provided. Your team is required to present the progress and results of your project during the scheduled times in class. Progress presentations should not exceed 20 minutes and the final presentation will be limited to 45 minutes. You also will need to submit a report which should follow TFSC journal guidelines for a journal paper. Your report should include a literature search justifying the topic and methods used. CASES 1. Strategic Planning at United Parcel Service, David A. Garvin, Lynne C. Levesque, Product#: 306002 2. Forecasting the Adoption of a New Product, Elie Ofek, Product#: 505062 – AND – Forecasting the Adoption of E-Books, Elie Ofek, Peter Wickersham, Product Number: 9-505-063 3. Illinois Superconductor Corp. : Forecasting Demand for Superconducting Filters, Mohanbir Sawhney, Lisa Damkroger, Greg McGuirk, Julie Milbratz, John Rountree, Product#: KEL096 READINGS Introduction to Technology Forecasting 1. Linstone, H. A. , TFSC: 1969-1999. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 62, Issues 1-2, August-September 1999, Pages 1-8. 2. Ayres, R. U. What have we learned? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 62, Issues 1-2, August-September 1999, Pages 9-12. 3. Martino, J. P. , Thirty years of change and stability. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 62, Issues 1-2, August-September 1999, Pages 13-18. 4. Porter, A. L. , Tech forecasting an empirical perspective. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 62, Issues 1-2, August-Septem ber 1999, Pages 19-28. 5. Linstone, H. A. , The 21st century: Everyman as Faust – technology, terrorism, and the multiple perspectives approach. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 70, Issue 3, March 2003, Pages 283-296. Technology Forecasting Techniques 6. Mishra, Somnath, S. G Deshmukh and Prem Vrat, Matching of technological forecasting technique to a technology , Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 69, Issue 1, January 2002, Pages 1-27. 7. Technology Futures Analysis Methods Working Group, Technology futures analysis: Toward integration of the field and new methods, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 71, Issue 3, March 2004, Pages 287-303. 8. Silberglitt, R. , Hove, A. , and Shulman, P. Analysis of US energy scenarios: Meta-scenarios, pathways, and policy implications. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 70, Issue 4, May 2003, Pages 297-315. 9. Rowe, G. and G. Wright, The Delphi technique as a forecasting tool: Issues and analysis, International Journal of Forecasting, Volume 15, Issue 4, October 1999, Pages 353-375. 10. Lena Borjeson, Mattias Hojer, Karl-He nrik Dreborg, Tomas Ekvall and Goran Finnveden, Scenario types and techniques: Towards a user's guide, Futures, Volume 38, Issue 7, September 2006, Pages 723-739. 11. Winebrake, J. J. , and Creswick, B. P. The future of hydrogen fueling systems for transportation: An application of perspective-based scenario analysis using the analytic hierarchy process, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 70, Issue 4, May 2003, Pages 359-384. 12. Sager, B. , Scenarios on the Future of Biotechnology. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 68, Issue 2, October 2001, Pages 109-129. 13. Modis, T. , Technological forecasting at the stock market. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 62, Issue 3, November 1999, Pages 173-202. 14. Devezas, Tessaleno C. , Harold A. Linstone and Humberto J. S. Santos, The growth dynamics of the Internet and the long wave theory, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 72, Issue 8, October 2005, Pages 913-935. 15. Ilonen, Jarmo, Joni-Kristian Kamarainen, Kaisu Puumalainen, Sanna Sundqvist and Heikki Kalviainen, Toward automatic forecasts for diffusion of innovations, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 73, Issue 2, February 2006, Pages 182-198. 16. Martino, Joseph P. , A comparison of two composite measures of technology , Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 44, Issue 2, September 1993, Pages 147-159. Emerging Technology Forecasting Techniques 17. Inman, Oliver Lane, Timothy R. Anderson and Robert R. Harmon, Predicting U. S. jet fighter aircraft introductions from 1944 to 1982: A dogfight between regression and TFDEA, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 73, Issue 9, November 2006, Pages 1178-1187. 18. Anderson, Timothy, Rolf Fare, Shawna Grosskopf, Lane Inman and Xiaoyu Song, Further examination of Moore's law with data envelopment analysis, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 69, Issue 5, June 2002, Pages 465-477. 19. Barley, S. R. , What Can We Learn from the History of Technology. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Volume 15, Issue 4, September 1998, Pages 237-255. 20. Bowonder, B. , T. Miyake, and B. Muralidharan, Predicting the future: Lessons from evolutionary theory, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 62, Issues 1-2, August-September 1999, Pages 51-62. 21. Guice, J. , Designing the Future: The Culture of New Trends in Science and Technology. Research Policy, Volume 28, Issue 1, January 1999, Pages 81-98. 22. Phaal, R. , Farrukh, C. J. P. , and Probert, D. R. , Technology Roadmapping – A Planning Framework for Evolution and Revolution. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 71, Issues 1-2, January-February 2004, Pages 5-26. 23. Kayal, A. , Measuring the Pace of Technological Process: Implication for Technological Forecasting. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 60, Issue 3, March 1999, Pages 237-245. 24. T. U. Daim, G. Rueda, H. Martin, and P. Gerdsri, Forecasting Emerging Technologies: Use of Bibliometrics and Patent Analysis, Technology Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 73, Issue 8, October 2006, Pages 981-1012. 25. Watts, R. J. and A. L. Porter, Innovation Forecasting. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 56, Issue 1, September 1997, Pages 25-47. SCHEDULE Subjects to be CoveredAssignment/Readings 1/4 †¢Teams Formed 1/11 †¢Introduction to Technology Forecasting †¢Technology Planning †¢Case Study 1: Strategic Planning at United Parcel Service †¢Case Preparation and Presentations †¢Article Discussion Articles 1-5 1/18UNIVERSITY CLOSED 1/25 †¢Extrapolation by Regression – Guest Speaker: Jisun Kim †¢Project Proposal Presentations 2/1 †¢Delphi, Analogy, Scenarios, Environment Monitoring, Growth Curves †¢In Class Exercise: Cable TV Diffusion Article Discussion ?Articles 6-16 2/8 †¢Case Study 2: Forecasting the Adoption of a New Product †¢Case Preparation and Presentations †¢Project Progress Presentations 2/15 †¢Emerging Technology Forecasting Methods: TFDEA – Guest Speaker – Tim Anderson 2/22 ?Emerging Technology Forecasting Methods: Bibliometrics, Pa tent Searches, †¢Article Discussion? ?Articles 17-25 3/1 †¢Project Results Presentations 3/8 †¢Case Study 3: Illinois Superconductor Corp. : Forecasting Demand for Superconducting Filters †¢Case Preparation and Presentations 3/15 †¢Final Reports

Free Essays on Roofs

Table of Contents I. Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦1 A. Roofing Terms B. Rise + Run = Pitch II. Body†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦3 A. Seven Different Roof Structures B. Laying out a ridge beam and common rafter III. Illustrations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.6 A. Diagram of Roof Framing Terms B. Roofing Parts C. Uses of a framing and speed square D. Illustration of all seven-roof types IV. Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦10 V. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..11 VI. Glossary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦12 1 Introduction The indication of an experienced carpenter is the ability to lay out rafters and frame all types of roofs. On most job sites, the boss lays out the different rafters and the workers make duplicates of them. Those carpenters that want to be in supervisory positions must know how to frame various kinds of roofs. Along with the various roof types a carpenter must know there are also basic roofing terms that are needed to know in order to build the roof. They are: span, rafter, total run, unit run, ridge, line length, pitch, seat cut, plumb line, and level line. The span of a roof is the horizontal distance covered by the roof. This it the width of the building measure from the outer faces of the frame. A rafter is on the sloping members if a roof frame; it also supports the roof coverings. The total run of a rafter is the horizontal distance over which the rafter rises. This is one half of the span. Unit run is the diagonal of the square whose sides are equal to the unit run of the rafters. The unit run is ... Free Essays on Roofs Free Essays on Roofs Table of Contents I. Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦1 A. Roofing Terms B. Rise + Run = Pitch II. Body†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦3 A. Seven Different Roof Structures B. Laying out a ridge beam and common rafter III. Illustrations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.6 A. Diagram of Roof Framing Terms B. Roofing Parts C. Uses of a framing and speed square D. Illustration of all seven-roof types IV. Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦10 V. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..11 VI. Glossary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦12 1 Introduction The indication of an experienced carpenter is the ability to lay out rafters and frame all types of roofs. On most job sites, the boss lays out the different rafters and the workers make duplicates of them. Those carpenters that want to be in supervisory positions must know how to frame various kinds of roofs. Along with the various roof types a carpenter must know there are also basic roofing terms that are needed to know in order to build the roof. They are: span, rafter, total run, unit run, ridge, line length, pitch, seat cut, plumb line, and level line. The span of a roof is the horizontal distance covered by the roof. This it the width of the building measure from the outer faces of the frame. A rafter is on the sloping members if a roof frame; it also supports the roof coverings. The total run of a rafter is the horizontal distance over which the rafter rises. This is one half of the span. Unit run is the diagonal of the square whose sides are equal to the unit run of the rafters. The unit run is ...

Nature †Nurture in human developmental psychology Essay Example

Nature – Nurture in human developmental psychology Essay Example Nature – Nurture in human developmental psychology Essay Nature – Nurture in human developmental psychology Essay Nature – Nurture in Human Developmental Psychology Name: Instructor: Nature – Nurture in Human Developmental Psychology The nature versus nurture controversy is concerned with the comparative significance of an individual’s instinctive features (innatism) against individual experiences (nurture) in establishing or triggering individual dissimilarities in behavioral and physical attributes. The argument as to whether human beings obtain their behavioral characteristics from an inborn source or they are developed from the effects of the environment in which humans live, is not a simple matter. Both of these factors interactively contribute towards shaping the behavior of an individual. A key element in understanding this issue is first understanding the definitions of the terms nature and nurture. The nature aspect of this argument stresses on the extent to which an individual portrays biological predispositions. Conversely, nurture stresses on how much of an individual shows signs of being affected by environmental factors. In reality, a combination of the environment and the genes affects a person’s development. A good illustration is a person inherits genes for being tall but because of poor nurturing, end up short or average height. Several considerations are present when considering the impasse that exists between nature and nurture such as moral considerations, personality misinterpretations and other complications. The analysis of these considerations will form the next section. There are consequences when taking either side in the debate on nature versus nurture. In arguing when inclined toward nature, most of the arguments are inclined towards scientific explanations. Scientists have placed a great amount of emphasis on racism as a major factor in the analysis of nature. They argue that the race of an individual, which is inherited, plays a crucial role in determining the nature of an individual (Stiles, 2008). Using this argument, scientists propose that the heredity of an individual is the only influencing factor in their nature. Arguing from this point of view is flawed because while heredity is a natural phenomenon, it cannot be said to be the only factor influencing an individual’s behavior. This is because while an individual will inherit certain behaviors from their biological parents, the environment in which they live or grow up will either accentuate or repress their inherent behavior. Scientists acknowledge this contribution by environmen tal factors but downplay it as being insignificant in a person’s life. In other words, despite the environment and experiences that an individual may encounter, their innate nature ultimately determines their behavior. This line of argument that is inclined towards nature is also flawed in that it crosses the gap between what is fact and what is ideal. By doing so, proponents of nature over nurture wrongly employ values to facts. The continuous subscription to this line of thinking ultimately convinces people that biological stereotypes and behaviors are part of human nature making for flawed reasoning. One of the methods of proving this phenomenon is through the IATs tests that illustrated that, despite the broad significance of stereotypes, they influence the decisions and conduct of al people equally (Stiles, 2008). Most scientists reach their conclusions on the nature and nurture issue by assessing the behavior of identical twins. These studies sets have provided a wealth of information on nature versus nurture. Scientists can assess how these subjects behave in different settings, behavior that was strikingly similar and any other elements that can assist in providing knowledge. The Springer a nd Lewis twins are the best examples of twins that have contributed tremendously in showing the influences of nurture and nature. The argument between nurture and nature could affect the human race in several ways. One of the contributions includes its influence on the health sector. Using conclusions from such studies on nature versus nurture, scientists can discover new methods of treating critical diseases such as cancer. Solutions to such issues can be discovered using explanations on nature and nurture. From the information currently known by scientists, it can be said that these critical diseases are because of imbalanced nature and nurture and that by closely controlling the nurturing aspect while, at the infant stages, the occurrences of these diseases can be significantly reduced. Such studies could hold an extremely valuable potential for health and man’s lifespan (Lerner, 2002). Nurture over Nature Nurture is equally important in influencing human behavior by influencing the hormones, actions and condition of human beings. Numerous positive and negative environmental inputs influence how an individual will eventually turn out in the future. These factors include nutrition, health, education and other elements that are central in most people’s lives. Several studies on the effect of nurturing on intelligence and health have revealed that it is highly significant in determining how the amounts of these two in different individuals (Clarsk Grunstein, 2010). While not discrediting that natural tendencies are highly significant factors, proponents of the nurture theory assume that these natural factors are non-influential. Conversely, they argue that the behavioral aspects among human beings come from the environmental factors during life experiences. Psychologists such as John Watson have conducted numerous investigations on children that yielded conclusions supporting the supremacy of nurture over nature. He is credited with the famous statement that proposed to bring up children in whatever way he wanted by influencing their environment and upbringing. Nurture theorists propose that an individual’s society is influenced largely by the manner in which they were reared and the environment they were exposed (Lerner, 2002). Nurture as understood by John B. Watson’s in his theory of behaviorism argued that human behavior was learned as opposed to being inborn. Humans teach themselves new things by observing and copying other people in their environment. Through these social relations, people construct their diverse characters and behavioral trends. Without social relations, characters usually fail to develop, and distinctive behavior is negligible. Social experiences and interactions build up over several periods and shape the behavior of people to act in certain ways. For instance, studies demonstrate that children who have guardians that take drugs also end up taking the same drugs themselves. Such children picked up and replicated the act of taking drugs from their guardians and through their peers and other means, learnt to accept that it was socially acceptable to take drugs (Witkowski, Inglis Davenport, 2008). A study done by North Carolina State University revealed that environmental factors, for example, lifestyle and locations play a large function when specific genes are assumed non-influential. The study analyzed a fixed population of Moroccans who provided results that proved that their environment influenced their behavior. Urban dwellers were found to have increasingly developed respiratory genes because of the congested, polluted air in the cities when compared to rural dwellers. Urban dwellers were also more conscious of polluting the air and engaged in several activities to reduce pollution. This was a classical example of how life in the city changed the behavior of city dwellers even though naturally they were born in a different way. The nurture theory asserts that hereditary influence over conceptual features may be present; however, the ecological factors are the real genesis of individual’s conduct. This includes using conditioning tactics in order to encourage diff erent behaviors in human beings, or change an improbable behavior being displayed by the individual (Witkowski et al, 2008). Conclusion In my opinion, neither nature nor nurture holds supremacy in determining the behavior of an individual. Nature is significant in an individual’s life because all human beings are born with certain traits within their genes. These traits are inborn and cannot be altered through any man made techniques. Conversely, nurturing introduces artificial behaviors and choices to people by exposing them to different environments. This exposure under different parentage, locations and conditions, teach people behave differently than they would otherwise have behaved. Nurturing in human beings affects many factors such as the intelligence levels and can sometimes override the inborn (natural) traits in an individual. However, despite compelling arguments from both parties, it is evident that neither nature nor nurture alone can satisfactorily influence an individuals’ behavior. Both nature and nurture combine to influence how an individual behaves (Lippa, 2005). The motive for taking such a stand is derived from the evidence provided by several behavioral scientists, and other scholars who have done research on the role of nurture and nature on an individual. Scholars such as John Watson who came up with behavioral theories have proved that even though nature or nurture may offer compelling evidence of its superiority, both of them play equally significant roles in shaping the lives of an individual. References Clark, W. R., Grunstein, M. (2010). Are we hardwired? The role of genes in human behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum. Lippa, R. A. (2005). Gender, nature, and nurture. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Stiles, J. (2008). The fundamentals of brain development: Integrating nature and nurture. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Witkowski, J. A., Inglis, J. R., Davenport, C. B. (2008). Davenport‘s dream: 21st century reflections on heredity and eugenics. Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

Cell phones and the dangers of them Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cell phones and the dangers of them - Essay Example Cell phones should not be banned, but its' usage should be limited. Can you remember the last time you walked down the street, or sat in a caf, or engaged in any public activity and did not see a cellular phone In just about every public place a cell phone would be visible as would be ring tones of the latest sound track and in different languages. Cell phones have become so common that it is likely to see a group of friends hanging out together but each engaged in a conversation with someone else on their cell phone. The use of cell phones cannot be avoided, whether it's a business man calling to check on his appointments, or a mom calling to check on her kids, or just teenagers calling to talk with friends; whatever the reason might be, cell phones are being used by just about everyone. Who is using and why they are using cell phones are the obvious questions with simple answers. The main question to address then arises, is using a cell phone really dangerous and what can we do about it It is important to note that cellular phones are still considered a new invention and it is too soon to tell if serious health problems are really caused by using such devices. However, a lot of research has been conducted in the past few years and many of the researchers are having a controversial debate to the severity of the problems caused by cell phones. According to www.cancer.org, "some recent studies have suggested that long-term use of cell phones may increase the risk of acoustic neuroma, a rare tumor that develops in the nerves near the inner ears."1 Even though this study has not been hundred percent certified as of yet, it is still something serious to look into. Would you really like to continue using cell phones thinking there is a possible you might develop a "rare tumor" All of a sudden, the prospect of having long conversations about nothing in particular does not seem very appealing. There are many ways to deal with this problem though. Just because a suspicion tells us that there is a possibility of a health-risk does not necessarily mean we should all panic and throw out our phones. As indicated by the Food and Drug Administration Center for Devices and Radiological Health and the Federal Communications Commission, "If there is a risk from these products -- and at this point we do not know that there is -- it is probably very small." 1 For those users who are still not convinced and suspect that cell phone poses a great threat to their health, they are advised to limit their cell phone conversations. Another helpful way to prevent health issues is to wear a headset instead of putting the cellular to your ear, that way the cell phone itself has less direct contact to your head and cell tissues. 1 Yet, there are other sources that state the risk of health-related problems from cell phones is neither a suspicion nor a myth, but rather a fact. According to British physicist Dr. Gerald Hyland, "If mobile phones were a type of food, they simply would not be licensed."2 That is a very strong statement to make about an obvious safety question and concern. In another cancer related website, Dr. Gerald Hyland is quoted again and this website does not talk about mere suspicions but rather addresses the matter in a very serious manner. To focus on why cell phones are possibly considered unsafe, the website explains that the cell

There is a body of litterature that proposes that customer ...... to Essay

There is a body of litterature that proposes that customer ...... to what extent do you believe this to be true - Essay Example (Skogland & Siguaw, 2004, p. 221) Research has shown that in the United States, customer defection is high; this means that customers will not return for a second purchase of the product from businesses or firms. U.S. corporations lose half of their customers over a span of five years resulting in 25 to 50 percent reduction of corporate performance. Companies invest millions of dollars in customer retention programs. Skogland & Siguaw’s (2004, p. 221) study cite Marriott who spent $54 million in 1996 on its Honored Guest program, while Hyatt invested $25 million in its loyalty program that same year. Research on customer loyalty has primarily focused on customer satisfaction and involvement. However, findings on the linkage between repeat-purchase behavior and satisfaction have provided mixed results. Some report significant links, while others are doubtful. In the past century, RM was a major trend and a controversial talking point in business management. Strategic competitive advantage could no longer be delivered with just product characteristics but with emphasis on satisfying customers. (Barnes, 1994, cited in Egan, 2003, p. 145) Relationship marketing (RM) and customer relationship marketing (CRM) are two interrelated subjects. â€Å"Relationship marketing is marketing based on interaction within networks of relationship†¦ CRM [includes] values and strategies of relationship marketing – with particular emphasis on customer relationships – turned into practical application† (Gummesson, 2002, p. 3). Relationship marketing was first contributed by Berry (1983) as a new rubric for services marketing, with insights in the 1980s pointing to service risk points in the customer relationship life cycle. In the 1990s, relationship marketing became a key marketing issue (Ballantyne et al., 2003, p.159-160). Due to constant changes in marketing, there have been departures from mainstream marketing