Growing Staff Presentation as Human Resource Management Consultan PowerPoint

Growing Staff as Human Resource Management Consultan - PowerPoint Presentation Example has undertaken for the purpose of making sure that its top management have the right requisite skills that will translate in the production of the required results. This in essence will lead to the achievement of the goals and objectives that have been put in place by the firm. The first among this is the building of skills in the leaders. The dynamic nature of business operations calls for individuals who are in a position to adapt to the various situations that present themselves in the business world. This is not forgetting the Human Resource Issue. For this reason, the individuals should be more adaptive for the purpose of boosting their performance and overall score in the work environment. It is of the essence to note that the organization has various individuals working therein. For this reason, the propositions may not be taken in well by all the parties involved. To some, this may be taken as a way of locking out some individuals, especially those who are not well qualified for certain positions. However, it is of the essence to note that the training, which is undertaken, is for the benefit of all the individuals in the organization when it comes to their general performance. Fashion design is purely artistic and as such, it is the designer and the assistants who determine how far a brand goes. Nonetheless, technology has changed all fronts of our daily lives dramatically; adding innovativeness to what we have always done hence easing our daily loads. The current workforce of Michael Kors Fashion House is large. With 372 workers for a company of its size, it is a record. The large workforce’s output is limited in comparison with what they should be producing. The gap between the workers and the target output is in their inconsistency due to poor work ethics and lack of adaptation of technology. If the company can invest in its workers, it sure will invest in its future. The possibility of the company producing double the much it does today in the

Integrate a quote with a signal phrase that precedes the quote. Essay Example for Free

Integrate a quote with a signal phrase that precedes the quote. Essay In his article â€Å"A Matter of Degrees,† Clive Crook illustrates the importance of literacy today: â€Å"Illiteracy has always cut people off from the possibility of a prosperous life, and from full civil engagement†¦ Three out of ten seniors in public high school still fail to reach the basic-literacy standard† (30). 2. Integrate a quote with a signal phrase that interrupts the quote. â€Å"So much about today’s adult industry seems like an undeft parody of Hollywood and the nation writ large,† says David Foster Wallace in the essay â€Å"Big Red Son,† describing the evolution of adult film stars. â€Å"†¦The gynecologically explicit sexuality of Jenna [Jameson], Jasmin [St. Claire], et al. seems more than anything like a Mad magazine spoof of the â€Å"smoldering† sexuality of Sharon Stone and Madonna and so many other mainstream iconettes† (29-30). 3. Integrate a quote with a signal phrase that follows the quote. â€Å"I love the Cup because it stripped away all the things about professional sports that Ive come to despise†¦ The World Cup just bangs it out: Two cool national anthems, two 45-minute halves, a few minutes of extra time and usually were done. Everything flies by. Everything means something. Its the single best sporting event we have by these four measures: efficiency, significance, historical context and truly meaningful/memorable/exciting moments,† says Bill Simmons of ESPN. com in â€Å"Bill Simmons: World Cup 20 Questions,† explaining some of the virtues of the international soccer tournament. Works Cited Crook, Clive. A Matter of Degrees. The Atlantic Monthly Nov. 2006: 28-30. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 July 2010. Simmons, Bill. Bill Simmons: World Cups 20 Questions ESPN. ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports. ESPN Internet Ventures, 1 July 2010. Web. 05 July 2010. Wallace, David Foster. Big Red Son. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays. New York: Little, Brown, 2006. 3-50. Print.

Intelligent Software Agent

Intelligent Software Agent Chapter 1 Intelligent Software Agent 1.1 Intelligent Agent An Agent can be defined as follows: â€Å"An Agent is a software thing that knows how to do things that you could probably do yourself if you had the time† (Ted Seller of IBM Almaden Research Centre). Another definition is: â€Å"A piece of software which performs a given task using information gleaned from its environment to act in a suitable manner so as to complete the task successfully. The software should be able to adapt itself based on changes occurring in its environment, so that a change in circumstances will still yield the intended results† (G.W.Lecky Thompson). [1] [2] [3] [4] An Intelligent Agent can be divided into weak and strong notations. Table 1.1 shows the properties for both the notations. Weak notation Strong notation Autonomy Mobility Social ability Benevolence Reactivity Proactivity Rationality Temporal continuity Adaptivity Goal oriented Collaboration Table 1.1 1.1.1 Intelligency Intelligence refers to the ability of the agent to capture and apply domain specific knowledge and processing to solve problems. An Intelligent Agent uses knowledge, information and reasoning to take reasonable actions in pursuit of a goal. It must be able to recognise events, determine the meaning of those events and then take actions on behalf of a user. One central element of intelligent behaviour is the ability to adopt or learn from experience. Any Agent that can learn has an advantage over one that cannot. Adding learning or adaptive behaviour to an intelligent agent elevates it to a higher level of ability. In order to construct an Intelligent Agent, we have to use the following topics of Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation Reasoning Learning [5] 1.1.2 Operation The functionality of a mobile agent is illustrated in 1.1. Computer A and Computer B are connected via a network. In step 1 a mobile Agent is going to be dispatched from Computer A towards Computer B. In the mean time Computer A will suspend its execution. Step 2 shows this mobile Agent is now on network with its state and code. In step 3 this mobile Agent will reach to its destination, computer B, which will resume its execution. [7] 1.1.3 Strengths and Weaknesses Many researchers are now developing methods for improving the technology, with more standardisation and better programming environments that may allow mobile agents to be used in products. It is obvious that the more an application gets intelligent, the more it also gets unpredictable and uncontrollable. The main drawback of mobile agents is the security risk involved in using them. [8] [9] The following table shows the major strengths and weaknesses of Agent technology: Strengths Weakness Overcoming Network Latency Security Reducing Network traffic Performance Asynchronous Execution and Autonomy Lack of Applications Operating in Heterogeneous Environments Limited Exposure Robust and Fault-tolerant Behavior Standardization Table 1.2 1.2 Applications The followings are the major and most widely applicable areas of Mobile Agent: Distributed Computing: Mobile Agents can be applied in a network using free resources for their own computations. Collecting data: A mobile Agent travels around the net. On each computer it processes the data and sends the results back to the central server. Software Distribution and Maintenance: Mobile agents could be used to distribute software in a network environment or to do maintenance tasks. Mobile agents and Bluetooth: Bluetooth is a technology for short range radio communication. Originally, the companies Nokia and Ericsson came up with the idea. Bluetooth has a nominal range of 10 m and 100 m with increased power. [38] Mobile agents as Pets: Mobile agents are the ideal pets. Imagine something like creatures. What if you could have some pets wandering around the internet, choosing where they want to go, leaving you if you dont care about them or coming to you if you handle them nicely? People would buy such things wont they? [38] Mobile agents and offline tasks: 1. Mobile agents could be used for offline tasks in the following way: a- An Agent is sent out over the internet to do some task. b- The Agent performs its task while the home computer is offline. c- The Agent returns with its results. 2. Mobile agents could be used to simulate a factory: a- Machines in factory are agent driven. b- Agents provide realistic data for a simulation, e.g. uptimes and efficiencies. c- Simulation results are used to improve real performance or to plan better production lines. [10[ [11] [12] 1.3 Life Cycle An intelligent and autonomous Agent has properties like Perception, Reasoning  and Action which form the life cycle of an Agent as shown in 1.2. [6] The agent perceives the state of its environment, integrates the perception in its knowledge base that is used to derive the next action which is then executed. This generic cycle is a useful abstraction as it provides a black-box view on the Agent and encapsulates specific aspects. The first step is the Agent initialisation. The Agent will then start to operate and may stop and start again depending upon the environment and the tasks that it tried to accomplish. After the Agent finished all the tasks that are required, it will end at the completing state. [13] Table 1.3 shows these states. Name of Step Description Initialize Performs one-time setup activities. Start Start its job or task. Stop Stops jobs, save intermediate results, joins all threads and stops. Complete Performs one-time termination activities. Table 1.3 1.4 Agent Oriented Programming (AOP) It is a programming technique which deals with objects, which have independent thread of control and can be initiated. We will elaborate on the three main components of the AOP. a- Object: Grouping data and computation together in a single structural unit called an ‘Object. Every Agent looks like an object. b- Independent Thread of control: This means when this developed Agent which is an object, when will be implemented in Boga server, looks like an independent thread. This makes an Agent different from ordinary object. c- Initiation: This deals with the execution plan of an Agent, when implemented, that Agent can be initiated from the server for execution. [14] [15] [16] [17] 1.5 Network paradigms This section illustrates the traditional distributed computing paradigms like Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Remote Procedure Call (RPC). 1.5.1 SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol is a standard for gathering statistical data about network traffic and the behavior of network components. It is an application layer protocol that sits above TCP/IP stack. It is a set of protocols for managing complex networks. It enables network administrators to manage network performance, find and solve network problems and plan for network growth. It is basically a request or response type of protocol, communicating management information between two types of SNMP entities: Manager (Applications) and Agents. [18] Agents: They are compliant devices; they store data about themselves in Management Information Base (MIB) (Each agent in SNMP maintain a local database of information relevant to network management is known as the Management Information Base) and return this data to the SNMP requesters. An agent has properties like: Implements full SNMP protocol, Stores and retrieves managed data as defined by the Management Information Base and can asynchronously signal an event to the manager. Manager (Application): It issues queries to get information about the status, configuration and performance of external network devices. A manager has the following properties: Implemented as a Network Management Station (the NMS), implements full SNMP Protocol, able to Query Agents, get responses from Agents, set variables in agents and acknowledge asynchronous events from Agents. [18] 1.3 illustrates an interaction between a manager and an Agent. The agent is software that enables a device to respond to manager requests to view or update MIB data and send traps reporting problems or significant events. It receives messages and sends a response back. An Agent does not have to wait for order to act, if a serious problem arises or a significant event occurs, it sends a TRAP (a message that reports a problem or a significant event) to the manager (software in a network management station that enables the station to send requests to view or update MIB variables, and to receive traps from an agent). The Manager software which is in the management station sends message to the Agent and receives a trap and responses. It uses User Data Protocol (UDP, a simple protocol enabling an application to send individual message to other applications. Delivery is not guaranteed, and messages need not be delivered in the same order as they were sent) to carry its messages. Finally, there is one application that enables end user to control the man ager software and view network information. [19] Table 1.4 comprises the Strengths and Weaknesses of SNMP. Strengths Weaknesses Its design and implementation are simple. It may not be suitable for the management of truly large networks because of the performance limitations of polling. Due to its simple design it can be expanded and also the protocol can be updated to meet future needs. It is not well suited for retrieving large volumes of data, such as an entire routing table. All major vendors of internetwork hardware, such as bridges and routers, design their products to support SNMP, making it very easy to implement. Its traps are unacknowledged and most probably not delivered. Not applicable It provides only trivial authentication. Not applicable It does not support explicit actions. Not applicable Its MIB model is limited (does not support management queries based on object types or values). Not applicable It does not support manager-to-manager communications. Not applicable The information it deals with neither detailed nor well-organized enough to deal with the expanding modern networking requirements. Not applicable It uses UDP as a transport protocol. The complex policy updates require a sequence of updates and a reliable transport protocol, such as TCP, allows the policy update to be conducted over a shared state between the managed device and the management station. Table 1.4 1.5.2 RPC A remote procedure call (RPC) is a protocol that allows a computer program running on one host to cause code to be executed on another host without the programmer needing to explicitly code for this. When the code in question is written using object-oriented principles, RPC is sometimes referred to as remote invocation or remote method invocation. It is a popular and powerful technique for constructing distributed, client-server based applications. An RPC is initiated by the caller (client) sending a request message to a remote system (the server) to execute a certain procedure using arguments supplied. A result message is returned to the caller. It is based on extending the notion of conventional or local procedure calling, so that the called procedure need not exist in the same address space as the calling procedure. The two processes may be on the same system, or they may be on different systems with a network connecting them. By using RPC, programmers of distributed applications avoid the details of the interface with the network. The transport independence of RPC isolates the application from the physical and logical elements of the data communications mechanism and allows the application to use a variety of transports. A distributed computing using RPC is illustrated in 1.4. Local procedures are executed on Machine A; the remote procedure is actually executed on Machine B. The program executing on Machine A will wait until Machine B has completed the operation of the remote procedure and then continue with its program logic. The remote procedure may have a return value that continuing program may use immediately. It intercepts calls to a procedure and the following happens: Packages the name of the procedure and arguments to the call and transmits them over network to the remote machine where the RPC server id running. It is called â€Å"Marshalling†. [20] RPC decodes the name of the procedure and the parameters. It makes actual procedure call on server (remote) machine. It packages returned value and output parameters and then transmits it over network back to the machine that made the call. It is called â€Å"Unmarshalling†. [20] 1.6 Comparison between Agent technology and network paradigms Conventional Network Management is based on SNMP and often run in a centralised manner. Although the centralised management approach gives network administrators a flexibility of managing the whole network from a single place, it is prone to information bottleneck and excessive processing load on the manager and heavy usage of network bandwidth. Intelligent Agents for network management tends to monitor and control networked devices on site and consequently save the manager capacity and network bandwidth. The use of Intelligent Agents is due to its major advantages e.g. asynchronous, autonomous and heterogeneous etc. while the other two contemporary technologies i.e. SNMP and RPC are lacking these advantages. The table below shows the comparison between the intelligent agent and its contemporary technologies: Property RPC SNMP Intelligent Agent Communication Synchronous Asynchronous Asynchronous Processing Power Less Autonomy More Autonomous but less than Agent More Autonomous Network support Distributed Centralised Heterogeneous Network Load Management Heavy usage of Network Bandwidth Load on Network traffic and heavy usage of bandwidth Reduce Network traffic and latency Transport Protocol TCP UDP TCP Packet size Network Only address can be sent for request and data on reply Only address can be sent for request and data on reply Code and execution state can be moved around network. (only code in case of weak mobility) Network Monitoring This is not for this purpose Network delays and information bottle neck at centralised management station It gives flexibility to analyse the managed nodes locally Table 1.5 Indeed, Agents, mobile or intelligent, by providing a new paradigm of computer interactions, give new options for developers to design application based on computer connectivity. 20 Chapter 2 Learning Paradigms 2.1 Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) and Information Retrieval (IR) KDD is defined as â€Å"the nontrivial process of identifying valid, novel, potentially useful and ultimately understandable patterns in data† (Fayyad, Piatetsky-Shapiro and Smith (1996)). A closely related process of IR is defined as â€Å"the methods and processes for searching relevant information out of information systems that contain extremely large numbers of documents† (Rocha (2001)). KDD and IR are, in fact, highly complex processes that are strongly affected by a wide range of factors. These factors include the needs and information seeking characteristics of system users as well as the tools and methods used to search and retrieve the structure and size of the data set or database and the nature of the data itself. The result, of course, was increasing numbers of organizations that possessed very large and continually growing databases but only elementary tools for KD and IR. [21] Two major research areas have been developed in response to this problem: * Data warehousing: It is defined as: â€Å"Collecting and ‘cleaning transactional data to make it available for online analysis and decision support†. (Fayyad 2001, p.30)  · Data Mining: It is defined as: â€Å"The application of specific algorithms to a data set for purpose of extracting data patterns†. (Fayyad p. 28) 2.2 Data Mining Data mining is a statistical term. In Information Technology it is defined as a discovery of useful summaries of data. 2.2.1 Applications of Data Mining The following are examples of the use of data mining technology: Pattern of traveller behavior mined: Manage the sale of discounted seats in planes, rooms in hotels. Diapers and beer: Observation those customers who buy diapers are more likely to buy beer than average allowed supermarkets to place beer and diapers nearby, knowing many customers would walk between them. Placing potato chips between increased sales of all three items. Skycat and Sloan Sky Survey: Clustering sky objects by their radiation levels in different bands allowed astronomers to distinguish between galaxies, nearby stars, and many other kinds of celestial objects. Comparison of genotype of people: With/without a condition allowed the discovery of a set of genes that together account for many case of diabetes. This sort of mining will become much more important as the human genome is constructed. [22] [23] [24] 2.2.2 Communities of Data Mining As data mining has become recognised as a powerful tool, several different communities have laid claim to the subject: Statistics Artificial Intelligence (AI) where it is called â€Å"Machine Learning† Researchers in clustering algorithms Visualisation researchers Databases: When data is large and the computations is very complex, in this context, data mining can be thought of as algorithms for executing very complex queries on non-main-memory data. 2.2.3 Stages of data mining process The following are the different stages of data mining process, sometimes called as a life cycle of data mining as shown in 2.1: Data gathering: Data warehousing, web crawling. Data cleansing: Eliminate errors and/or bogus data e.g. Patients fever = 125oC. 3- Feature extraction: Obtaining only the interesting attributes of the data e.g. â€Å"data acquired† is probably not useful for clustering celestial objects as in skycat. 4- Pattern extraction and discovery: This is the stage that is often thought of as â€Å"data mining† and is where we shall concentrate our efforts. 5- Visualisation of the data: 6- Evaluation of results: Not every discovered fact is useful, or even true! Judgment is necessary before following the softwares conclusions. [22] [23] [24] 2.3 Machine Learning There are five major techniques of machine learning in Artificial Intelligence (AI), which are discussed in the following sections. 2.3.1 Supervised Learning It relies on a teacher that provides the input data as well as the desired solution. The learning agent is trained by showing it examples of the problem state or attributes along with the desired output or action. The learning agent makes a prediction based on the inputs and if the output differs from the desired output, then the agent is adjusted or adapted to produce the correct output. This process is repeated over and over until the agent learns to make accurate classifications or predictions e.g. Historical data from databases, sensor logs or trace logs is often used as training or example data. The example of supervised learning algorithm is the ‘Decision Tree, where there is a pre-specified target variable. [25] [5] 2.3.2 Unsupervised Learning It depends on input data only and makes no demands on knowing the solution. It is used when learning agent needs to recognize similarities between inputs or to identify features in the input data. The data is presented to the Agent, and it adapts so that it partitions the data into groups. This process continues until the Agents place the same group on successive passes over the data. An unsupervised learning algorithm performs a type of feature detection where important common attributes in the data are extracted. The example of unsupervised learning algorithm is â€Å"the K-Means Clustering algorithm†. [25] [5] 2.3.3 Reinforcement Learning It is a kind of supervised learning, where the feedback is more general. On the other hand, there are two more techniques in the machine learning, and these are: on-line learning and off-line learning. [25] [5] 2.3.4 On-line and Off-line Learning On-line learning means that the agent is adapting while it is working. Off-line involves saving data while the agent is working and using the data later to train the agent. [25] [5] In an intelligent agent context, this means that the data will be gathered from situations that the agents have experienced. Then augment this data with information about the desired agent response to build a training data set. Once this database is ready it can be used to modify the behaviour of agents. These approaches can be combined with any two or more into one system. In order to develop Learning Intelligent Agent(LIAgent) we will combine unsupervised learning with supervised learning. We will test LIAgents on Iris dataset, Vote dataset about the polls in USA and two medical datasets namely Breast and Diabetes. [26] See Appendix A for all these four datasets. 2.4 Supervised Learning (Decision Tree ID3) Decision trees and decision rules are data mining methodologies applied in many real world applications as a powerful solution to classify the problems. The goal of supervised learning is to create a classification model, known as a classifier, which will predict, with the values of its available input attributes, the class for some entity (a given sample). In other words, classification is the process of assigning a discrete label value (class) to an unlabeled record, and a classifier is a model (a result of classification) that predicts one attribute-class of a sample-when the other attributes are given. [40] In doing so, samples are divided into pre-defined groups. For example, a simple classification might group customer billing records into two specific classes: those who pay their bills within thirty days and those who takes longer than thirty days to pay. Different classification methodologies are applied today in almost every discipline, where the task of classification, because of the large amount of data, requires automation of the process. Examples of classification methods used as a part of data-mining applications include classifying trends in financial market and identifying objects in large image databases. [40] A particularly efficient method for producing classifiers from data is to generate a decision tree. The decision-tree representation is the most widely used logic method. There is a large number of decision-tree induction algorithms described primarily in the machine-learning and applied-statistics literature. They are supervised learning methods that construct decision trees from a set of input-output samples. A typical decision-tree learning system adopts a top-down strategy that searches for a solution in a part of the search space. It guarantees that a simple, but not necessarily the simplest tree will be found. A decision tree consists of nodes, where attributes are tested. The outgoing branches of a node correspond to all the possible outcomes of the test at the node. [40] Decision trees are used in information theory to determine where to split data sets in order to build classifiers and regression trees. Decision trees perform induction on data sets, generating classifiers and prediction models. A decision tree examines the data set and uses information theory to determine which attribute contains the information on which to base a decision. This attribute is then used in a decision node to split the data set into two groups, based on the value of that attribute. At each subsequent decision node, the data set is split again. The result is a decision tree, a collection of nodes. The leaf nodes represent a final classification of the record. ID3 is an example of decision tree. It is kind of supervised learning. We used ID3 in order to print the decision rules as its output. [40] 2.4.1 Decision Tree Decision trees are powerful and popular tools for classification and prediction. The attractiveness of decision trees is due to the fact that, in contrast to neural networks, decision trees represent rules. Rules can readily be expressed so that humans can understand them or even directly used in a database access language like SQL so that records falling into a particular category may be retrieved. Decision tree is a classifier in the form of a tree structure, where each node is either: Leaf node indicates the value of the target attribute (class) of examples, or Decision node specifies some test to be carried out on a single attribute value, with one branch and sub-tree for each possible outcome of the test. Decision tree induction is a typical inductive approach to learn knowledge on classification. The key requirements to do mining with decision trees are:  · Attribute value description: Object or case must be expressible in terms of a fixed collection of properties or attributes. This means that we need to discretise continuous attributes, or this must have been provided in the algorithm.  · Predefined classes (target attribute values): The categories to which examples are to be assigned must have been established beforehand (supervised data).  · Discrete classes: A case does or does not belong to a particular class, and there must be more cases than classes. * Sufficient data: Usually hundreds or even thousands of training cases. A decision tree is constructed by looking for regularities in data. [27] [5] 2.4.2 ID3 Algorithm J. Ross Quinlan originally developed ID3 at the University of Sydney. He first presented ID3 in 1975 in a book, Machine Learning, vol. 1, no. 1. ID3 is based on the Concept Learning System (CLS) algorithm. [28] function ID3 Input: (R: a set of non-target attributes, C: the target attribute, 2.4.3 Functionality of ID3 ID3 searches through the attributes of the training instances and extracts the attribute that best separates the given examples. If the attribute perfectly classifies the training sets then ID3 stops; otherwise it recursively operates on the m (where m = number of possible values of an attribute) partitioned subsets to get their best attribute. The algorithm uses a greedy search, that is, it picks the best attribute and never looks back to reconsider earlier choices. If the dataset has no such attribute which will be used for the decision then the result will be the misclassification of data. Entropy a measure of homogeneity of the set of examples. [5] Entropy(S) = pplog2 pp pnlog2 pn (1) (2) 2.4.4 Decision Tree Representation A decision tree is an arrangement of tests that prescribes an appropriate test at every step in an analysis. It classifies instances by sorting them down the tree from the root node to some leaf node, which provides the classification of the instance. Each node in the tree specifies a test of some attribute of the instance, and each branch descending from that node corresponds to one of the possible values for this attribute. This is illustrated in 2.3. The decision rules can also be obtained from ID3 in the form of if-then-else, which can be use for the decision support systems and classification. Given m attributes, a decision tree may have a maximum height of m. [29][5] 2.4.5 Challenges in decision tree Following are the issues in learning decision trees: Determining how deeply to grow the decision tree. Handling continuous attributes. Choosing an appropriate attribute selection measure. Handling training data with missing attribute values. Handling attributes with differing costs and Improving computational efficiency. 2.4.6 Strengths and Weaknesses Following are the strengths and weaknesses in decision tree: Strengths Weaknesses It generates understandable rules. It is less appropriate for estimation tasks where the goal is to predict the value of a continuous attribute. It performs classification without requiring much computation. It is prone to errors in classification problems with many class and relatively small number of training examples. It is suitable to handle both continuous and categorical variables. It can be computationally expensive to train. The process of growing a decision tree is computationally expensive. At each node, each candidate splitting field must be sorted before its best split can be found. Pruning algorithms can also be expensive since many candidate sub-trees must be formed and compared. It provides a clear indication of which fields are most important for prediction or classification. It does not treat well non-rectangular regions. It only examines a single field at a time. This leads to rectangular classification boxes that may not correspond well with the actual distribution of records in the decision space. Table 2.1 2.4.7 Applications Decision tree is generally suited to problems with the following characteristics: a. Instances are described by a fixed set of attributes (e.g., temperature) and their values (e.g., hot). b. The easiest situation for decision tree learning occurs when each attribute takes on a small number of disjoint possible values (e.g., hot, mild, cold). c. Extensions to the basic algorithm allow handling real-valued attributes as well (e.g., a floating point temperature). d. A decision tree assigns a classification to each example. i- Simplest case exists when there are only two possible classes (Boolean classification). ii- Decision tree methods can also be easily extended to learning functions with more than two possible output values. e. A more substantial extension allows learning target functions with real-valued outputs, although the application of decision trees in this setting is less common. f. Decision tree methods can be used even when some training examples have unknown values (e.g., humidity is known for only a fraction of the examples). [30] Learned functions are either represented by a decision tree or re-represented as sets of if-then rules to improve readability. 2.5 Unsupervised Learning (K-Means Clustering) Cluster analysis is a set of methodologies for automatic classification of samples into a number of groups using a measure of association, so that the samples in one group are similar and samples belonging to different groups are not similar. The inpu

B.f. Skinner Essay examples -- essays research papers

B.F. Skinner Psychologist, born in Susquhanna, Pa. He studied at Harvard, teaching there (1931-6, 1947-74). A leading behaviorist, he is a proponent of operant conditioning, and the inventor of the Skinner box for facilitating experimental observations. B. F. Skinner’s entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of â€Å"operating† on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around the world, doing what it does. During this â€Å"operating,† the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant - which is the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. This is operant conditioning: â€Å"the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future.† Say you have a dog and he’s just playing around with his toys and such and then when you throw a toy at him and he catches it then you give him a treat. Then all of the sudden the dog is starting to catch toys and such as you throw it in the air or at his mouth. The operant is the behavior just prior to the reinforcer, which is the treat. Then what if you decide to stop giving the dog treats, well he’ll stop his little trick which your, the owner were enjoying. This is called extinction of the operant behavior. Now, if you were to start showing the dog treats, then most likely he/she’ll want to start doing the tricks again and a little more quickly than the dog learned at first. This is because the return of the reinforcer takes place in the context of a reinforcement history that goes all the way back to the very first time the dog was reinforced for performing the tricks. Continuous reinforcement is the original scenario: Every time that the dog does the behavior (such as performing a trick), he gets a treat. The fixed ratio schedule was the first one Skinner discovered: If the dog did the trick three times, say, he gets a goodie. Or five times. Or twenty times. Or â€Å"x† times. There is a fixed ratio between behaviors and reinforcers: 3 to 1, 5 to 1, 20 to 1, etc. This is a little like â€Å"piece rate† in the clothing manufacturing industry: You get paid so much for so many shirts. Skinner also looked at variable schedules. Variable ratio means you change the â€Å"x† each ... ...e aversive stimulus of hunger? Skinner (contrary to some stereotypes that have arisen about behaviorists) doesn’t â€Å"approve† of the use of aversive stimuli -- not because of ethics, but because they don’t work well! Notice that I said earlier that Johnny will maybe stop throwing his toys, and that I perhaps will take out the garbage? That’s because whatever was reinforcing the bad behaviors hasn’t been removed, as it would’ve been in the case of extinction. This hidden reinforcer has just been â€Å"covered up† with a conflicting aversive stimulus. So, sure, sometimes the child (or me) will behave -- but it still feels good to throw those toys. All Johnny needs to do is wait till you’re out of the room, or find a way to blame it on his brother, or in some way escape the consequences, and he’s back to his old ways.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  B. F. Skinner made numerous contributions to the science of behavior. He strongly influenced the area of learning that he named operant conditioning. His Skinner box is now a standard apparatus for the experimental study of animal behavior. Much of his work involved the study of how reinforcement schedules influence learning and behavior.

Igniting Young Minds Essay

Swami Vivekananda’s success Mantras for youth! â€Å"My Faith is in the Younger Generation, the Modern Generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like Lions.† Swami Vivekananda expressed this confidence in the youth of this country exactly 50 years before the end of Colonial Rule while speaking to a mammoth gathering of youngsters in Madras. Swami ji himself was the embodiment of youth, dynamism and vibrancy. The life and ideals of Swami ji are the greatest inspiration for the youth of our nation. In a short life of 39 years, 5 months and 22 days, this great man conquered the entire world with his message. Many great personalities both in India and across the world became deeply inspired by Swami ji. The writings of Swami ji can ignite the minds of the reader.. Anybody who has come into either direct or indirect contact has witnessed an ocean of change in his or her life. Today, the youth of this country faces various challenges and I am certain that the message of Swami Vivekananda has the power to wonderfully guide them into the future. PURPOSE OF LIFE Swami ji always held that the real birth of the individual takes place when the purpose of his life germinates. He believed that he who does not have a purpose is nothing but a walking-talking corpse.It is extremely important not to decide the purpose of life with the narrow objective to be something or the other. Think of doing not becoming and in this process you will certainly become something. Once the purpose of life is clear, all actions of life become driven by that purpose. SELF-CONFIDENCE A precursor to do anything in life is to have confidence in the self. Swami Vivekananda attached more importance to self-confidence than even faith in God! â€Å"He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself,† he famously stated. Unfortunately, we have limited ourselves without knowing our capabilities. Many times we feel that we can do ‘only this much’ despite being blessed with tremendous capabilities. If our youth is determined, there can be nothing impossible for them to achieve in the world! But, for this we must regain our self-confidence. Swami ji always believed that everything that is happening around us be it small, big, positive or negative gives us the opportunity to manifest the potential within. DEDICATION For any endeavor to attain the pinnacle of success, dedication to the cause is absolutely essential. Swami Vivekananda once said, â€Å"To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. ‘I will drink the ocean’, says the persevering soul; ‘at my will mountains will crumble up’. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.† Another quality that Swami Vivekananda spoke of was patience. He said, â€Å"Be like the pearl oyster. There is a pretty Indian fable to the effect that if it rains when the star Svà ¢ti is in the ascendant, and a drop of rain falls into an oyster, that drop becomes a pearl. The oysters know this, so they come to the surface when that star shines, and wait to catch the precious raindrop. When a drop falls into them, quickly the oysters close their shells and dive down to the bottom of the sea, there to patiently develop the drop into the pearl. We should be like that.† Very often, it so happens that we take on a task with immense enthusiasm but as time passes by, the same enthusiasm fizzles out. Pursuing a challenge with utmost dedication is indeed a road to success for our youth. TEAMWORK This era belongs to organization and teamwork. Be it any sector from science, technology to business, teamwork constitutes a major cornerstone to attaining the desired results. When he was in USA, Swami Vivekananda was greatly impressed by the spirit of teamwork there and he thought of the need to re-vitalize this spirit of teamwork in India. Leading by example, he founded the Ramakrishna Mission and organized Sanyasis to work towards nation building. Friends, if the present youth walks on the hallow path of Swami ji’s ideals and beliefs it will merely be a matter of time before India adorns the mantle as the leader of the World. In any case, we are the most youthful nation in the world but simply that is not enough. It is necessary to arm our youth with the relevant knowledge and skill that will convert this mammoth potential to desired results. India is celebrating Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birth Anniversary and Gujarat is commemorating the entire year as ‘Yuva Shakti Varsh’. It is indeed high time that we resolve to follow these ideals of Swami Vivekananda and take this youthful nation to greater heights as the leader of the world.

Jill Came Tumbling After

Jill Came Tumbling After Jill Came Tumbling After Jill Came Tumbling After By Maeve Maddox The word fall in English, both as a verb and a noun, has numerous meanings. People can fall, but so can stocks, water levels, and empires. As a noun fall can refer to the season Fall, the fall of a city, and the Fall of Man. Leaving aside the many ways in which inanimate objects can fall, people can be said to fall, slip, topple, tumble, keel over, and take a spill. Each choice carries a different connotation. topple suggests a fall from a high place, possibly induced or caused by a displacement of weight: He lost his balance at the summit and toppled to the canyon floor. keel over suggests that the person fell over suddenly: We were walking along talking when she simply keeled over. take a spill would be appropriate to describe a fall from a horse or from skis. For me tumble is a playful word for a fall with minor consequences. Perhaps it’s because I associate it with a nursery rhyme. When Jack fell down and broke his crown, Jill came tumbling after. And while the words â€Å"broke his crown† may suggest a split skull, all it means is that Jack cut his forehead: Up Jack got and home did trot, As fast as he could caper, To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob With vinegar and brown paper. In my mind people who â€Å"tumble† may get hurt, but they aren’t killed, so I’d use tumble to describe a minor fall. Because I don’t associate serious consequences with the word tumble, I was startled by its use in a grim news story: David John Pimental, 19, of Fort Smith tumbled off a bridge around 10:15 p.m. This â€Å"tumble† was not minor. In an attempt to avoid oncoming traffic during an ice storm, the unfortunate Pimental slid from a dark ice-covered bridge and plummeted 180 feet to his death. From The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, 2nd ed.( 2008), here are some more words for the way people can fall: go head over heels go headlong collapse pitch forward trip stumble slip Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:English Grammar 101: All You Need to Know"Wracking" or "Racking" Your Brain?Starting a Business Letter with Dear Mr.

Explore how Shakespeare examines the theme of revenge in Hamlet Essay Example

Explore how Shakespeare examines the theme of revenge in Hamlet Essay Example Explore how Shakespeare examines the theme of revenge in Hamlet Paper Explore how Shakespeare examines the theme of revenge in Hamlet Paper A revenge tragedy is a drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for a real or imagined injury; it was a favourite form of English tragedy in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras and found its highest expression in William Shakespeares: Hamlet. It was written and performed during the first part of the seventeenth century to satisfy the middle and upper classes desire for violence and horror, as many of their lives lacked spontaneity and excitement. Like many other playwrights during his time, Shakespeare borrowed ideas and plots from previous literary works for many of his own plays. The content of Hamlet is most likely to be derived from Senecas favourite materials of murder, revenge, ghosts, mutilation and carnage. Hamlet is based on the deplorable plot about a Prince of Denmark, whose uncle selfishly murders his father the King, marries the Princes mother and claims the throne as King of Denmark. The content within this play would completely shock an audience of the Elizabethan era as it was deemed wholly inexcusable to murder a King and for a person to marry their sister-in-law as they believed this was dishonourable and incestuous. In the context of when this was performed, it would have been socially unacceptable as though they are not blood related, it is the Royal family and there was therefore a huge importance placed on tradition and family honour. Shakespeare went far beyond making hesitation a personal characteristic of Hamlets, but introduced a range of significant ambiguities into the play that even the audience cannot determine with certainty. For instance, whether Hamlets mother, Gertrude, shares in Claudiuss guilt; whether Hamlet continues to love Ophelia even as he rejects her, in Act III; whether Ophelias death is suicide or accident; whether the ghost offers consistent knowledge, or seeks to deceive and tempt Hamlet; and, perhaps most importantly, whether Hamlet would be morally justified in taking revenge on his uncle. During the Elizabethan era, it was inadmissible for a person to take revenge and kill someone especially if they were a King, and was believed that this would almost certainly result in God punishing them by sending them to Hell the biggest fear to an audience living in seventeenth century England, which was extremely religious. One of the scenes that Shakespeares theme of revenge becomes truly evident is; Act 1 scene 5, in which the Ghost of Old King Hamlet reveals that he was killed by his brother Claudius, and demands revenge. Shakespeare uses very effective language during the Ghosts speech and highlights the main incentive for Hamlet to seek revenge; The serpent that did sting thy fathers life Now wears his crown. [Line 39-40] The metaphor of Claudius as a snake reflects his sly character and deceit as it can be linked to Satan in the Garden of Eden, when he deceived Adam and Eve in the Bible [Genesis]. The Ghost uses imperative sentences and so is portrayed as commanding. He also infers that he wants this to be done quickly; Haste me to knowt, that I with wings as swift The last word is associated with speed stressing that he wants a quick revenge. Old King Hamlets ghost deems Claudius behaviour as foul, strange and unnatural, referring to his murderous and incestuous nature. This would have a significant dramatic impact as a typical Jacobean audience were mostly devout Christians. In the Old Testament in the Bible, the Jews were instructed to seek revenge; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life [Exodus, chapt.21], but in the New Testament Jesus taught Christians to love their enemies and turn the other cheek [Luke chapt. 6]. The audience would have been compelled by this situation as an inner conflict appears in Hamlet, he is torn in two because; on one side he is angry that Gertrude, his mum, is married to Claudius so promptly and wants to avenge his fathers death. The audiences reaction would have been especially contrasting to our 21st century reaction as they would have been shocked and disgusted by what they would have probably labelled the love affair between Gertrude and Claudius. In our contemporary society, the media constantly surrounds us with such stories of love within families that our culture has become almost desensitised to such things, and so would not be shocked at all. Our reaction would have also been different because as a country we have become secular, and so I dont think we as an audience would have taken the Ghost seriously as we dont in every respect believe in spirits. Elizabethans believed that not only did Ghosts and spirits make appearances, but that they were vital as they played the role of the messenger. They therefore would have been gripped and it would be more credible for them. On the other side however; Hamlet is scared and indecisive about his dilemma to seek revenge. The Divine Right of Kings meant that the King was ordained by God and if you murdered a King, you would surely go to Hell. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? [Line 92] His emotion is displayed by punctuation and repetition, and his worries of seeking revenge and being punished cause the delay. Throughout this scene, we also take part in Hamlets internal confusion of how to exact his revenge. This may provide an explanation for some critics, such as Samuel Johnson, who question why Hamlet is, throughout the whole play, rather an instrument than an agent. I agree because after he has convicted the King, he makes no attempt to punish him, and Claudius death is at last affected by an incident which Hamlet has no part in producing, but seizes the moment. On the other hand we see that Hamlet does try to kill Claudius; for example when he creeps up behind him when he is praying, ready to strike. He then concludes not to as he decides that if he kills him while the King is praying or repenting, that he will undeniably burn in Hell. Shakespeare provides two different types of revenge heroes so that the audience is aware of the striking contrast between Prince Hamlet and Laertes; Hamlet continuously delays while Laertes seeks immediate revenge. They are an antithesis as theyre two entirely different personalities from two completely different backgrounds and upbringings, and Laertes is used to emphasize Hamlets flaws. Hamlet is from a very privileged family; with Christian morals at the core whereas Laertes lacks not only the Princes education and morals but also the mental equipment which Hamlet argued in his soliloquy is needed to distinguish between man and beast. He is able to behave as an uncomplicated revenge hero, because unlike Hamlet, he disregards the moral objections. Because of this, he becomes the classical stereotypical hero as he is ruled by passion and anger, whereas Hamlet is bound by his thoughts. The contrast of how Laertes deals with anger and distress very differently to Hamlet is shown in Act 5 scene 1 (Ophelias funeral). Shakespeare undermines Laertes kind of character, as he presents him as pretentious and pompous, as at both his father and sisters funerals, he seems more affected by the appearances than the fact that his loved ones are dead. When he jumps into Ophelias grave, it is over the top and unnecessary and contrasts Hamlets simple statement; I loved Ophelia. We as the audience may find his actions and language comical as does Hamlet. He mocks him and asks him; What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis, whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandring stars and makes the, stand Like wonder-wounded hearers?

Essay Sample on Relationship Dissolution and Its Effects

Essay Sample on Relationship Dissolution and Its Effects An Irish dramatist, who attempted to examine an origin for distress, stated the above quote. Our lives may consist of numerous situations that can cause us stress. One of those situations may include disintegration of a romantic relationship. Various studies have shown that the dissolution of a romantic relationship can be a highly stressful and a traumatic process, although emotional responses to it can vary depending on the degree of seriousness of the relationship and various other factors (1). Nonetheless, it is an experience that can trigger many emotional feelings, which can elicit negative psychological effects. In this essay on relationship, I will discuss a personal relationship dissolution experience and bring about its various psychological effects. I will then advert towards the main purpose of this paper, providing several coping strategies that I used to overcome my stressors and the one strategy that I wish I had used. Throughout the paper, I will integrate my own epis ode with several peer-reviewed studies that have explained the connection between relationship dissolution and stress. Effects of Relationship Dissolution There may be many emotional feelings involved when one experiences relationship dissolution. Most common ones include feelings of frustration, anxiety, hurt, depression, loneliness, guilt, insecurity, anger, self-pity and reduction in self-confidence (2). The nature of psychological distress might vary depending on the type of the relationship. Although studies have repeatedly shown that a majority of people, who encounter detachment from their partner, experience few, if not all, of those feelings to some extent (2). Considering my own experience, I encountered a blend of stressful feelings including anxiety, frustration, hurt and helplessness. I experienced fluctuations of these stressors for a few months, which seemed to deteriorate with time via different coping strategies. Different studies have shown correlations between stress and relationship dissolution. One study analyzed a sample of university students. The students had been in a romantic relationship for a period ranging from 2 to 262 months and 75 percent of the student rated the relationships in the serious and very serious categories. These students were administered an Impact of Event Scale (IES), which is a 15 item questionnaire. The IES questionnaire measured intrusive thoughts and avoidance behavior related to the distressing event, which in this case, was the dissolution of a relationship (2). The results displayed that 72 percent of the students encountered intrusive thoughts. According to these students, these troubling thoughts were triggered mostly by imaginations that would remind them of their previous partners. A majority of these students also admitted that they thought about the dissolution when they did not mean to and they often had strong feelings about it (2). Personally, I had similar feelings regarding my own previous relationship. I would imagine the times spend together with my partner and several other pleasant moments, which would cause feelings of hurt and anxiety. Often, I would imagine these past events involuntarily. As a result of these negative feelings, I found that I was unable to sustain proper concentration, experienced sleeplessness and a lost of interest in future relationships. To prevent myself from further suffering, I unconsciously implemented various coping strategies. Following is a discussion of some of the many coping strategies, which can be used to eliminate distress. Coping Strategies Different personalities may require different coping methods in order to reduce and eliminate stressful emotions. Some of the generic and well-known strategies include social support, keeping oneself busy, thinking about options and choices, finding others who have experienced break-ups, finding new relationships and convincing oneself that the negative aspects of the relationship are good reason for the break-up (1). These coping strategies can be referred to as adaptive strategies as oppose to maladaptive strategies, which can involve aggression and the use of illicit drugs. There can be an increase in stress levels if the route of maladaptive strategies is taken to overcome negative emotions (3). In a stressful situation it would be appropriate to face and recognize stressors for what they are, and reconcile adaptive coping strategies (book). In my situation, the best adaptive coping strategy that I used was gaining social support. It felt as if I was able to release my negative emotions via talking to other people regarding my experience. By receiving social support, one can gain confidence that there are other people available to listen and respond positively. A lack of social support is often associated with an increase in psychological distress following negative life events (1). Some people use avoidance as a coping strategy. Such people decide to withdraw themselves from the distressful situation altogether. Although, extensive studies have shown this coping strategy to be associated with depression in the long run (1). Referring back to the study of university students, as part of the study, the students were also given a Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOC). This questionnaire investigated the role of coping in the relationship and coping outcomes. The findings revealed that seeking social support was associated with relationship dissolution. In other words, the higher the severity of the break-up, the more students turned towards social support from others. Also, the study confirmed the association between avoidance and depression. Students who felt more depression tended to apply avoidance as a coping strategy (1). Some people develop explanations, which help them to develop a sense of control to facilitate coping from negative emotions. For example, after my break-up, I started to detect flaws in the relationship and I used those imperfections to relieve myself from anxiety and other negative emotions that I often felt. This is a coping process, which enables people to progress and better adjust to the dissolution. In some situations however, people may not be able to understand the dissolution or find the explanations to persuade themselves out of negative emotions. In such cases, other coping strategies such as meditation, counseling and additional socializing can prove to be beneficial (book). One thing that I did not consider then as a coping strategy was meditation. Although I wish I had since my recent embracement of mediation has proven to be a very useful in reducing anxiety levels. Through meditation, one can seem to suspend thinking altogether and allow the world to fade away. It is a method that reduces arousal, initiating relaxation. According to the university student study, which was mentioned earlier, the link between initiation of coping strategies and negative emotions is unclear. It is unknown whether the coping strategies effected stress symptoms or whether the distressful situation itself triggered the coping strategies (1). Relating this to my experience, many of the coping strategies that I used were not particularly planned. Most of them seemed to be triggered by the experience itself. For instance, I would constantly talk to my friends regarding my break-up without planning on doing so. The relationship between coping strategies and stress symptoms is unclear, however, it is necessary for such strategies to exist after dissolution to reduce levels of distress. Conclusion The levels of distress that follow dissolution of a romantic relationship can have immense negative emotional effects on an individual. It is arguable that the intensity level of distress may depend on the degree of commitment, seriousness and the nature of the romantic relationship. However, as the student study discussed, and various other studies have shown that these negative emotions are felt by the majority of people who experience dissolution of a relationship to some measure. Overall, my own experience of relationship dissolution was a learning one. It helped me better understand my negative emotions and allowed me to comprehend the different strategies I can apply to overcome my negative emotions. You can also order a custom term paper, research paper, thesis, dissertation or essay on relationship from our professional essay writing service which provides students with high-quality non-plagiarized custom papers at an affordable cost.

The Chicago World's Fair and the the impact on urban life and cities Research Paper

The Chicago World's Fair and the the impact on urban life and cities in America - Research Paper Example Atwood terminating the vista out to Lake Michigan† (Burnham 1989, pg. 17) In addition to these architectural structures a number of other exhibits exited that features cutting edge technology and designs that have since made an indelible impact on the American city. These influences coupled with influences in music, art, literature, and even the very leaders of the organization have all been argued by researchers to have had a considerable influence on American cities and urban life. This essay considers the impact these objects of culture and commerce that were featured at the Chicago’s World Fair have had on American cities and urban life by tracing the impact through the considerable effects of the Beaux Arts architectural style, to the various cultural influences, and finally the influences in the very fabric of consumer culture and society that were developed and have remain prominent in contemporary American culture. In an effort to create a unifying effect among the newly designed structures that surrounded the Court of Honor, building designs followed the style of the Italian Renaissance. The exposition was regarded as an enormous success by the architects and visitors of the day and the white stucco used in the buildings stood out against the Chicago tenements, leading to the structures being referred to as the White City. These buildings also featured, â€Å"a common material, stucco (plaster), painted white; and would maintain a uniform sixty-foot-high cornice line† (Moffett and Wodehouse, 2008, pg. 232) As a result of the exposition’s critical and popular success, the ornate Beaux-Arts style was adopted by many American buildings and civic projects including trains stations, art museums, city halls, post offices, and churches. In great part the success of the exposition overshadowed the fact that the buildings it featured weren’t notably technically advanced and

Corporate Social Responsibility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example As far as its corporate social responsibility (CSR) domains are concerned, Wal-Mart has been a very helpful neighbor and an active citizen in thousands of communities around the United States and the world as well. Wal-Mart has a strong organizational philosophy towards being a member of the community that it has opened up its chain within. It feels that its role towards uplifting the human and societal domains is nothing short of a privilege. The organization believes on fostering as well as deepening the community partnerships since these remain very critical towards its future undertakings. It must be remembered here that Wal-Mart is one company that is renowned for its values-based, ethically-led promise towards the publics and the community at large. Wal-Mart believes in the age-old premise that an organization would serve the community in the best manner possible if it wants to build long term relationships with the people who are within the community itself. They would be best served if their interests are being upheld and when they are given the right to be themselves, and to manifest the basis of success through commitment and facilitation in the form of different environmental, social and charitable initiatives that have essentially been employed by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart believes in the fact that community partnerships as well as good working realms ensure that the company grows by leaps and bounds, and that it has a positive word of mouth across a number of channels and within publics that it directly or indirectly caters to, in the long run (Hoffman 1990). Wal-Mart knows that it can only move ahead if it grows responsibly and intelligently along with strong community domains. The CSR strategy of Wal-Mart depends a great deal on the focus, implementation and the budget which has been earmarked for such settings. The CSR focus has remained on the areas including education, public health, sports, environment, disaster relief, child safety and charitable s upport over the years. On the same lines, the CSR implementation has been emphasized upon a great deal through its own projects, a foundation in the name of Wal-Mart, and the efforts that are done through volunteerism. The CSR implementation phase has therefore been divided into three separate initiatives that have been undertaken by Wal-Mart in essence. Moving ahead with the CSR integration phase, one can see that the CSR strategy is divided into two sub-units which include the company product and the company strategy. Both these sub-units depend greatly on how Wal-Mart brings about significant value for the sake of Wal-Mart and how it has shaped up beliefs and attitudes with the changing times. Since the strategy basically defines how products are going to be sent across the channels, it is of significance to comprehend what kind of strategy would reap the best results from the long term scheme of things (Schneider 1998). It is also pertinent to note here that the company product and the company strategy are inherently linked with each other, and thus there is a clear cut definition of both of these sub-units. What is mandatory on the part of the CSR integration is how these two would bring in the much needed value for the sake of the organization and specifically in terms of the CSR initiatives that have been taken in a head-on manner by Wal-Mart. The CSR representative within Wal-Mart reports to the

Assignment #4 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

#4 - Assignment Example This depends on the manner of the devices orientation. Another reason is because it enables its users to customize the home screens they use with shortcuts for applications and widgets that allow the users display live content like weather contents and emails, on the home screen directly. 5. The changes made to /etc/network/interfaces fail to take effect because some of the components could be missing like the ID, the scheme such as HTTP, and an incomplete host name. Only the path is provided, and is not complete either. 6. A grep c, or grep command file name does allow someone to search multiple files or a single file for lines which contain a pattern. In a case where matches were fund, 0 is the exit status and 2 in a case where errors occurred. 9. (9a) DMZ global is a managed network service which enables secure connectivity between its client’s networks and their clients and business partners. A single pipe infrastructure is implemented between it and its client’s network .this terminates all client’s 3rd parties connections on the secure business exchange of DMZ Global and network infrastructure, doing away with the client’s necessity to maintain a complex onsite security environment. 15. The cron job, 30 22 5 * * prod /home/prod/transfermonfunds, means that, the URL, prod /home/prod/transfermonfunds will be requested by the server in every 30th minute of every 22nd day of the 5th day each

Modernism and Postmodernism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Modernism and Postmodernism - Essay Example The purpose of the essay "Modernism and Postmodernism" is to discuss postmodernism and modernism. Overcoming modernist tendencies, postmodern cult of the city replaces cosmism, values of industrial society - environmentalism, denying mindless nature and asserting the need for harmonious relations between society and nature. Thus, the ideological concept of postmodernism includes the principles of cosmism, environmentalism and post humanism in a culture of active includes sexual minorities, and the ideas of feminism. Art of modernism and postmodernism is the realization of a universal picture of the world, reflecting the human consciousness of the twentieth century, the main feature of which is the new principle of the relation of being and consciousness. Modernism is the style of art and thought in the first half of the twentieth century. Its critics understood in two ways - in the broad and narrow sense. In the first sense, it represents the totality of artistic movements, schools a nd trends of early twentieth century, expressed a departure from the cultural values of eighteenth - nineteenth centuries, and proclaimed the new attitudes and values. Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Abstractionism, Dadaism, Surrealism - this is an incomplete list of areas of artistic research in the early twentieth century. In a narrow sense, modern designates only one direction in art. â€Å"Modern† is a stylistic direction in European and American art of the late nineteenth - early twentieth century.

Reflection and Evaluation of three Technologies Essay

Reflection and Evaluation of three Technologies - Essay Example Additionally, retrieval of content from the internet relies on flash player programs such as adobe. The technology was initially applicable through Smart sketch application because the designers focused on addressing the needs of varied platforms. The flash content files were stored in shock wave format. This allowed the programmers to use Action script language in encoding the graphics in different formats. Additionally, the programmers use flash editor to enrich web content when designing the application. The content can be encoded using java script format, and the extension .swf is used in storage format. Short wave extension makes images appear smaller in the flash player. The format increases flash images capacity to store huge volumes of data (Enticknap, 2005, p.1). The storage codes allow flash images to support different applications making it the preferred technology when disseminating and storing website contents. Evaluation The use of flash technology has led to advances i n computer graphics. It has enabled website developers to design interactive websites that stream data at faster speed. The component manipulates graphics and presents them in different version. The use of XML file is dominant in image edition. According to Enticknap (2005, p.34), the template stores the contents of the website before the transformation of the image. The technology manipulates the contents when designing images that are user friendly to the audience. Flash is a suitable technology that can access images online. Software developers use the technology when designing slideshows that enhance interactions with clients online. Computer programmers use flash image technology to encode information in auto script version. This saves storage capacity and time taken to retrieve flash images. Additionally, the technology uses small bandwidth when streaming information. This makes it compatible with various technological components such as Macromedia Flash MX that carries this a pplication. The compatibility of flash image technology allows web views to obtain information from different places. However, it is necessary to obtain a plug in feature when planning to view the web contents. Flash images application demand less from the users in terms of operational skills. Moreover, the applications are affordable and exude high performances. This has lead to the preference of technology in computer applications. Flash images are instrumental when enriching internet application. The technology enhances interactivity by combining graphics technology when coming up with interactive computer programs. Lastly, the feature supports multidirectional display of website content. HTML5 Technology Overview HTML5 is an assortment of web-based applications that are still evolving. The concept of HTML5 began after developers noticed various deficiencies in HTML4 and associated XHTML. These deficiencies ranged from minor syntactic incoherence to insufficient support of media presentations (Meyer, 2010, p.83). Consequently, recent developments within the HTML5 technology have targeted such defects to develop quickest advances that would improve the performance of internet technology. Developers are standardizing the HTML5 technology into simpler and less controversial pieces. The HTML5 is a technology that organizes and presents information of the World Wide Web.

Principles of Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Principles of Human Resource Management - Essay Example Starting from identifying the capacity and nature of workforce required, employers need to lay down the specifications of the diversity mix they aim to introduce in their organization. This involves clarifying the demographics, qualification, skill set, education, competencies and other abilities. The point of contention which arises here is the possibility of overt or systematic discrimination creeping in, based on caste, color, creed, race, religion, gender, marital status, minority and such other factors (Markey et al. 2002). From organizational point of view, competencies are defined in advance just for the purpose of matching the core jobs with that of candidate’s profile, leaving scope of adjustment for peripheral duties and responsibilities of the job. However, discriminating candidates on the basis of such criteria denies them equality of opportunity in the first place, and later on from appropriate training and development session organized and managed by the organiza tion. Pandey (2006, p.21) gives some exceptional cases where sex or religion is not considered as unlawful in segregating the candidature of employees, like playing role for a movie or a drama. But in general, such practices are considered anti to the equal opportunity laws. Evidence of discriminatory practices constitutes the type of questions asked during selection interviews. Though basic information has to be provided by the candidate, yet federal laws have now prohibited asking questions on marital status, weight and height, education, child care, demographics, ownership and such other details. Purpose behind such prohibition is to safeguard the interests of women and under-represented communities who are denied of equal opportunities on the basis of their height, care giving duties, availability to work on weekends, etc (Strahan & Burgess 1998). This discrimination extends to even compensation and promotion techniques adopted by the management of the organization. Lately, init ial screening and assessments stages in recruitment and selection process have turned advanced with the advent of technologies like Interactive Voice Responses system (IVR) and social networking tools. Though these technologies have simplified the entire process, but in reality have posed many legal challenges ahead HR practitioners and policy makers. Primary amongst them is the inability of such hiring practices in giving due attention to applicants suffering from disabilities like hearing and visual impairment. Further, it limits the accommodation by providing access to people having internet connection. This gives direct birth to ‘disparate impact’ whereby web-based hiring creates membership and access based on sub-groups, age etc. Employers are also making extensive use of social networking tools and websites like Facebook, Twitter and other to conduct background checks and gather information and confirming the credentials of candidates. This directly gives rise to invasion of privacy and unlawful spying on profiles of candidates which are otherwise not considered as authentic means of background

Modernism and Postmodernism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Modernism and Postmodernism - Essay Example The purpose of the essay "Modernism and Postmodernism" is to discuss postmodernism and modernism. Overcoming modernist tendencies, postmodern cult of the city replaces cosmism, values of industrial society - environmentalism, denying mindless nature and asserting the need for harmonious relations between society and nature. Thus, the ideological concept of postmodernism includes the principles of cosmism, environmentalism and post humanism in a culture of active includes sexual minorities, and the ideas of feminism. Art of modernism and postmodernism is the realization of a universal picture of the world, reflecting the human consciousness of the twentieth century, the main feature of which is the new principle of the relation of being and consciousness. Modernism is the style of art and thought in the first half of the twentieth century. Its critics understood in two ways - in the broad and narrow sense. In the first sense, it represents the totality of artistic movements, schools a nd trends of early twentieth century, expressed a departure from the cultural values of eighteenth - nineteenth centuries, and proclaimed the new attitudes and values. Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Abstractionism, Dadaism, Surrealism - this is an incomplete list of areas of artistic research in the early twentieth century. In a narrow sense, modern designates only one direction in art. â€Å"Modern† is a stylistic direction in European and American art of the late nineteenth - early twentieth century.

Principles of Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Principles of Human Resource Management - Essay Example Starting from identifying the capacity and nature of workforce required, employers need to lay down the specifications of the diversity mix they aim to introduce in their organization. This involves clarifying the demographics, qualification, skill set, education, competencies and other abilities. The point of contention which arises here is the possibility of overt or systematic discrimination creeping in, based on caste, color, creed, race, religion, gender, marital status, minority and such other factors (Markey et al. 2002). From organizational point of view, competencies are defined in advance just for the purpose of matching the core jobs with that of candidate’s profile, leaving scope of adjustment for peripheral duties and responsibilities of the job. However, discriminating candidates on the basis of such criteria denies them equality of opportunity in the first place, and later on from appropriate training and development session organized and managed by the organiza tion. Pandey (2006, p.21) gives some exceptional cases where sex or religion is not considered as unlawful in segregating the candidature of employees, like playing role for a movie or a drama. But in general, such practices are considered anti to the equal opportunity laws. Evidence of discriminatory practices constitutes the type of questions asked during selection interviews. Though basic information has to be provided by the candidate, yet federal laws have now prohibited asking questions on marital status, weight and height, education, child care, demographics, ownership and such other details. Purpose behind such prohibition is to safeguard the interests of women and under-represented communities who are denied of equal opportunities on the basis of their height, care giving duties, availability to work on weekends, etc (Strahan & Burgess 1998). This discrimination extends to even compensation and promotion techniques adopted by the management of the organization. Lately, init ial screening and assessments stages in recruitment and selection process have turned advanced with the advent of technologies like Interactive Voice Responses system (IVR) and social networking tools. Though these technologies have simplified the entire process, but in reality have posed many legal challenges ahead HR practitioners and policy makers. Primary amongst them is the inability of such hiring practices in giving due attention to applicants suffering from disabilities like hearing and visual impairment. Further, it limits the accommodation by providing access to people having internet connection. This gives direct birth to ‘disparate impact’ whereby web-based hiring creates membership and access based on sub-groups, age etc. Employers are also making extensive use of social networking tools and websites like Facebook, Twitter and other to conduct background checks and gather information and confirming the credentials of candidates. This directly gives rise to invasion of privacy and unlawful spying on profiles of candidates which are otherwise not considered as authentic means of background

Time Management Essay Example for Free

Time Management Essay Surveying †¢ pre-reading †¢ previewing assignment †¢ Big pictures overview of main ideas and themes †¢ Skim table of contents, preface, chapter elements Question †¢Step 1: Ask yourself what you know about the topic Summarize what you already know about topic †¢Step 2 : Write questions linked to chapter headings Examine chapter headings and write down any questions about headings on piece of paper or in margins for book. Read †¢After surveying and questioning, retain what you read. Focus on the key points of your survey – boldface type, raised headings, chapter objectives and summary. oFocus on your Q-stage questions – Read with purpose of answering the â€Å"questions† written in the margin of book or separate piece of paper. Write down or highlight ideas related to your questions. oMark up your text, and take text notes – Write notes in margin or separate paper, circle ideas, highlight key points that you want to study for exams. oCreate text tabs – Place plastic index tabs or adhesive notes at the start of different chapters to flip back and forth with ease. Find Main Idea Search for topic of paragraph – Topic of paragraph is not the same as main idea, it is broad subject being discussed – President Barack Obama, hate crimes on campus, or the Internet. oIdentify the aspect of the topic that is the paragraph’s focus – If general topic is President Barack Obama, the author may focus on different aspects of that topic, such as health-care policies, first African American president, or public speaking talent. Find what the author wants you to know about that aspect; this is the main idea – The main idea of a paragraph on President Obama as a public speaker may be: President Obama is a charismatic speaker who uses his oratorical skills to encourage the American people in times of crisis. Prioritize Reading Assignments Ask what is important to remember Is the information stressed in headings, charts, tables, captions, key terms, and definitions? Is the information a definition, a crucial concept, an example, an explanation of a variety or type, or a critical relationship or comparison? Did your instructor stress the information in class? Is it in syllabus, does your assignment ask you to focus on something specific? Recite †¢Once you finish reading a topic, stop and answer the questions raised in the Q-stage of SQ3R even if you already did it during the reading phase, do it again with the purpose of learning and committing the material to memory. †¢Recite each answer aloud, silently speak the answers to yourself, â€Å"teach† the answers to another person, or write it down. Review †¢Review immediately and periodically in the days and weeks after you read the chapter to help you learn and memorize material and prepare for exams. †¢Some helpful reviewing techniques: Reread notes and summarize from memory Review and summarize in writing the text sections you highlighted or bracketed. Try to condense the material so that you can focus on key ideas Answer the end-of-chapter review, discussion, and application questions Recite concepts to self, or record/playback on digital recorder Flash cards with word/concept on one side with definition on other side Quiz self with questions raised in Q-stage Discuss concepts with classmate/study group Ask instructor about difficult material. Terms to remember Scanning – rapid reading in search of specific information. Concentration – focusing on one topic at a time and avoiding distractions so you can learn material

Parkinsons Disease | Case Study Essay

Parkinsons Disease | Case Study Essay This case is about a headmaster, Mr Boddy, who was experiencing a variety of problems that increased in severity and had an ever-increasing impact on his life. The symptoms were becoming increasingly obvious to both Mr Boddy and his children which lead to him going to see his GP who referred him to a specialist. The specialist started him on a course of drug but decided to change it within less than a year. From the symptoms described in the case, it is obvious that Mr Boddy has Parkinsons Disease. The issues presented in this case were discussed and learning objectives were produced which will be explored in this essay. Anatomy and function of the basal ganglia The basal ganglia are a group of deep nuclei that are located at the base of the forebrain and are linked to the thalamus. The deep nuclei that make up the basal ganglia are the caudate nucleus, the putamen, the globus pallidus, the substantia nigra and the subthalamic nucleus. (Michael-Titus, et al., 2010)The main function of the basal ganglia is to start and maintain motor actions and they play a vital role in the decision-making processes in the brain by processing cognitive and emotional information from the environment. They also communicate with the supplementary motor cortex to organise the correct excitation of the primary motor cortex as well as scaling the strength of the response. Another function is that they adjust movement on a minute by minute basis by communicating with the cerebellum. (Buot Yelnik, 2012) The nuclei of the basal ganglia can be classified as either input nuclei or output nuclei. The input nuclei are made up of the caudate and the putamen and as they are functionally similar they are known together as the striatum. They can be seen in Figure 1 where they are coloured purple. Most of its input comes from the cerebral cortex, however it also receives some input from the other basal ganglia nuclei. (Rolls, 1994) The output nuclei are the globus pallidus, substantia nigra and subthalamic nuclei. They can also be seen in Figure 1 and are in very close proximity to the striatum. The substantia nigra is split into two parts, the pars compacta(SNpc) and the pars reticulata (SNpr). The SNpc are the cells that produce dopamine and are damaged in parkinsons which is what happened to Mr Boddy. The SNpr receives input from the striatum and sends it to the ventral anterior, ventral lateral, and mediodorsal thalamic nuclei to control head and eye movements as well as carry out other f unctions. The globus pallidus is split into the internal (GPi) and external (GPe). The function of internal part of the nucleus is to send outputs to the thalamus. However, the function of the external portion of the nucleus is not fully understood but it appears to regulate and focus activity in the rest of the basal ganglia. (Hanna, et al., 2011) Damage to the basal ganglia is what caused Mr Boddys Parkinsons disease. Neurological pathway of dopamine and neurotransmitters involved in basal ganglia pathway One of the main effects of Parkinsons is on movement and this is true with Mr Boddy as he developed a lot of movement problems. Thus, there must be a problem with the basal ganglias modulation of movement. The normal modulation of movement can be explained in terms of a brake theory. In essence, to start one movement the brakes must be applied to other movements. So damage to the basal ganglia will result in an inability to stop current movements as well as difficulty initiating movement. (Rhoades Bell, 2009) The initiation of a motor programme and the maintenance of a motor programme are respectively controlled by the dopaminergic direct and indirect pathways. Whether a motor programme is going to start or be maintained is determined by the interaction of the two pathways. So damage to the substantia nigra pars reticulata which produces dopamine has adverse effects on these two pathways and alters their function thus altering their combined effect which manifests as the symptoms of Parkinsons. The direct pathway is excitatory and the indirect pathway is inhibitory. (Lenglet, et al., 2012) The direct pathway is activated via excitatory glutamatergic neurones from the cortex. This combined with the dopamine being released from the substantia nigra pars compacta causes inhibition, via GABAergic neurones, of the internal globus pallidus which then causes the net reduction of the inhibition, via GABAergic neurones, of the thalamus. This ultimately results in the increased excitation of the cortex via glutamatergic neurones which then causes increased excitatory output from the cortex to the muscle fibres via the lateral corticospinal tract. The excitatory direct pathway can be seen in Figure 2. The indirect pathway is very similar to the direct pathway. Once stimulated by the cortex, the neurones from the striatum project onto the external globus pallidus nuclei which causes inhibition. This inhibition results in the net reduction in the inhibition of the subthalamic nucleus. This results in the subthalamic nucleus projection of excitatory, glutamatergic, inputs into the i nternal globus pallidus which causes inhibition of the thalamus and this decreases stimulation of the motor cortex. Which then results in reduced muscle activity. As with the direct pathway, the indirect pathway is illustrated in Figure 2. The reason why dopamine released from the substantia nigra can have both excitatory and inhibitory affects is because of the dopamine receptors. The dopamine receptors D1 and D5 are found in the internal globus pallidus and are excitatory. The dopamine receptors D2-D4 are found in the external globus pallidus and are inhibitory. (Lenglet, et al., 2012) In Parkinsons disease substantia nigra pars compacta have degenerated and thus are producing less dopamine. This affects the D1-D5 receptors which results in less stimulation of the direct pathway and release of the inhibition of the indirect pathway. This means that the indirect pathway becomes the dominant one which inhibits the thalamus and thus will reduce motor activity in the motor cortex. This results in the characteristic symptoms of parkinsons. A diagram of the changes can be seen in Figure 3.These changes are what caused the problems that Mr Boddy was experiencing and the increasing severity of his symptoms was most likely caused by the continuing degeneration of his substantia nigra pars compacta cells. (Wu, et al., 2012) Symptoms of Parkinsons The symptoms that Mr Boddy experienced are mainly caused by the lack of dopamine resulting in the dominance of the indirect pathway. The first symptom that he developed was sleeping problems and this was most probably caused because the body has trouble initiating a sleep cycle. So once he wakes up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet for example, then he will not be able to go back to sleep because of the under activity of the direct pathway. The loss of the sense of humour and the tremors are also caused by Mr Boddy becoming stuck in a motor programme. The pill-rolling tremor is characteristic of Parkinsons. The clumsiness and falling over occur because the basal ganglia damage means that it cannot communicate normally with the cerebellum. There are also a number of other symptoms that present in patients with parkinsons disease. Even though everyone presents with Parkinsons differently, there are a number of symptoms that are present in everyone. They are listed in Table 1. Diagnosis of Parkinsons Diagnosis of Parkinsons is made from a medical history and neurological examinations alone. This is because the only test for Parkinsons at the present time can only be performed during a post mortem. After the neurological tests and the history have been taken the NICE guidelines (Table 2) have to be applied to the finding. In Mr Boddys case, he had two of the three criteria in Step 1 as well as four of the criteria that had to be met in Step 3 to make a definite diagnosis. Lewy bodies can be found during a post-mortem of a patient with Parkinsons. They appear as spherical masses which contain abnormal alpha synuclein protein deposits and are found on the brainstem. An example of a Lewy body can be seen in Figure 4. Treatment of Parkinsons There are a number of treatments for Parkinsons disease, each with their own side effects which means that their use must be strictly controlled and monitored. The most effective class of drug at elevating the symptoms of Parkinsons is L- dopa. L-dopa is the precursor for dopamine and it can cross the blood brain barrier where it is converted to dopamine by dopa decarboxylase to restore the dopamine levels in the brain to a normal level. Dopamine itself cannot be given as it cannot cross the blood brain barrier. However, if L-dopa is given on its own it will breakdown in the body and activate the vomiting centre in the brain and cause vomiting. So to counteract this problem, it is given with a dopa decarboxylase inhibitor which stops the conversion to dopamine in the body. As it cannot cross the blood brain barrier dopamine can still be produced in the brain. The main side effect is that after a long period of use side effects known as on-off phenomenon develop. Which is where there are periods of activity (on) followed by a state of being immobile (off). The patient can suddenly switch between these two states. Another side effect is dyski nesia. (Goetz, 2007) To avoid the end of dose side effects of L-dopa other drugs that are less effective are given first to prolong the time before L-dopa has to be given and the on-off effect starts happening. One type is a dopamine agonist. They work by binding to the post-synaptic receptors in the brain and have similar effects to L-dopa. However possible side effects include nausea, vomiting and fatigue. An example is bromocriptine or rotigotine. Another class of drug that is used is Monoamine oxidase inhibitors. They work by preventing the breakdown of dopamine. Their side effects include; headache, joint pain and depression. Catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) inhibitor works by preventing the breakdown of L-Dopa and the adverse effects are nausea, vomiting, diahorrea and abdominal pain. An example of a COMT inhibitor is entacapone. Mr Boddy was given Rasagiline to start with which is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. And then he was switched to L-Dopa which had a marked effect. (Longmore, 2007) Deep brain stimulation is another option for the treatment of Parkinsons. It cannot cure Parkinsons but by firing high frequency impulses into the brain it can reduce the symptoms of Parkinsons as well as reducing the adverse effects of the drugs which improves the patients quality of life. It could be suggested to Mr Boddy that he tries this option when the on-off effects start happening. (Rodriguez-Oroz, et al., 2005) Prognosis of Parkinsons If Parkinsons isnt treated then patients will be bedridden after 10 years of onset of the disease. The symptoms will advance rapidly. In people taking drugs the time taken for the disease to reach a stage where they are bed ridden is well over 15 years. (Poewe, 2006) However, the course of the disease is different in every individual with the disease progression being faster in people who are older. (Obeso, et al., 2010) Disability is linked to motor symptoms at the start of the disease but as it advances they are linked to motor symptoms that dont respond to medicine. Life expectancy for people with PD is also reduced. (Poewe, 2006) The advice that can be given to Mr Boddy is that there is no way of knowing for certain how Parkinsons will affect his future. However, the best case scenario is that he can carry on as normal for another 7 to 10 years before his symptoms greatly affect his job and family life. Conclusion In conclusion, this was a very interesting subject to look into and it made me realise how complex the disease is and how much of an impact it has on a persons life. If I had more time I would like to look further into the genetic links behind Parkinsons as well as looking into new methods of diagnosis that are being developed as I didnt have the time to do so.

Satire :: essays research papers

Country vs. Court There are many different ways to reveal one's perception of society. In art for instance, the reflection may be revealed in the form of a sculpture, a song or a picture. Satire is one the ways that the reaction or perception of life is expressed. People look at life from different stand points, as matter of fact, they naturally perceive it in numerous ways. As a result of the variety in perception, the way of revealing the effects or reflections of these perceptions also shows variety. In the satiric work of Jonathan Swift’s â€Å"Gulliver’s Travels† and George Orwell’s â€Å"Animal Farm† both authors make a distinction between country vs. court or in Orwell’s case, country (people) vs. government. Gulliver's first adventure takes place in Lilliput. Gulliver gets shipwrecked and finds himself tied down by a considerable number of little people called Lilliputians. The Lilliputians stood only six inches high. During this time Swift recognized that England was also small in stature but was dominant force and had a great influence in Europe. England, despite its small size, had the potential to defeat any nation that might try to conquer them. Swift relates this situation with the Lilliputians. They only stood six inches tall but had the power to take on the, "Man-Mountain", Gulliver. The ability of the Lilliputians to capture someone ten times their size can be seen as reinforcing their strength as a small nation, such as England. Thus becoming and remaining a great and powerful country. Swift further illustrates satire of the country vs. court distinction by comparing English government to Lilliput. In the early eighteenth century, the English government was under the Whig's political party. Swift represented himself as Gulliver as being a Tory, and the Lilliputians as being power-hungry Whigs. Their heels of their shoes identified these parties. In Lilliput the High-Heels represented the Tories and the Low-Heels represented the Whigs. George I favored the Whigs, so the Lilliputian emperor favored the Low-Heals. But the Prince of Whales favored both parties, and thus the Lilliputian heir to the throne wore one High-Heel and one Low. When Gulliver started learning about the Lilliputians government he noticed that their government officials were chosen by rope dancing. To Gulliver and the reader these practices seem ridiculous and idiotic, but to the Lilliputians they see these practices as normal. Swift uses this scene to satire the British government at this time.