Thursday, October 31, 2019

Valuation and Discounted Cash Flows Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Valuation and Discounted Cash Flows - Case Study Example The second alternative suggests that five-year zero-interest loan and the new loan was to be repaying in 5 equal annual payments. And this alternative would save them well more than $2,000 in interest. So the alternative A is better than the alternative B to pay the mortgage. 3) A) If an investor invests $2 million in stock market to purchase shares the return is based on the market. Some time he will get high return on his investment some time he will get loss his investment. The return is based on the economic condition. But the investment in bond will generate constant return to the investor, the investor would get specific percentage of interest at particular period of time also he will get principle amount at the end of specific period of time. Bid is the obtainable price at which the investor can sell his share. $1.5 million is the price that the buyer is willing to pay. Minimum bid price $1.3million has already placed, even there is $1.5 million bid I would not sell at $1.5 million I will hold the investment because the Wall Street financial analyst predicted that the successful bid is $ 2.1 million. The investment is also depending the tax imposed by the government authorities. B) In my point in July 1 1992 the capital market provides fair market value to the investment. The investor gained better yield for their investment and the approximate market fair value of the ticket will be $1.5 million because there has been minimum bid for $1.3 million so the fair value would be $1.5 million for the ticket. C) If tax rate is increased for the bond investment it will decrease the return from this bond investment. Then I would prefer the investment in other investment options like shares, mutual fund etc. If tax rate is increases, for the investment in corporate bond that I would make valuation on the bond based on face value. If tax rate is increased then I would choose

Monday, October 28, 2019

Jamie Oliver’s language Essay Example for Free

Jamie Oliver’s language Essay In this essay I am going to be talking about the different aspects of Jamie Oliver’s language and how he adapts and uses these language features in his TED speech.Jamie Oliver successfully uses many language devices in order to help him communicate with his audience. I will be looking at Oliver’s and examining how effective it is and also some features of spontaneous speech, which are shown in the speech.Firstly, I am going to look at Jamie Oliver’s planned and prepared language that he uses. Oliver has obviously taken time to adapt his lexis to suit his American audience.Phrases such as â€Å"health care bills† and â€Å"dollars† are some examples of this. Using these Americanisms would ensure that his audience understands the full message that he is trying to put across to them. If he used phrases such as â€Å"pounds† it would weaken the emphasis he is making he could not have full communication with his audience, as they would struggle to understand the extent of his message. Next, there is a strong display of socialect and idiolect in Jamie Oliver’s spontaneous speech. This shows that even though he has adapted some of his lexis and thought about what he is going to say, he often switches to spontaneous speech and his socialect and idiolect come through. An example of this is â€Å" aint†. As this is a very-English word, it shows that this would be part of Oliver’s spontaneous speech. However it may also have been planned as it shows that even though he is trying to adapt to suit his audience he may have used â€Å"ain’t† to keep his identity and also make his speech more engaging.Pauses are a common prosodic feature in Jamie Oliver’s speech. Often used subconsciously, they are slight breaks in speech that can be used in spontaneous speech for the speaker to think about what they are going to say next, but also can be planned in order to add effect. An example of are long pause is â€Å"let’s be honest guys,(0.5) you aint got that cash.† This is a clear example of using pauses to add effect. Its hows that Oliver is passionate about the subject he is talking about and adding as light humourous edge to his talk.All these are features that Jamie Oliver uses in his speech, whether it be spontaneous or planned. Each one has a specific effect and adds to his speech. Altogether I have found that these features are integral to the success of his speech and enhance the message he is bringing to his audience.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Mosquito Species Detection using Smart Phone

Mosquito Species Detection using Smart Phone Abstract-According to WHO(World Health Organization) re-ports, among all disease transmitting insects mosquito is the most hazardous insect. In 2015 alone, 214 million cases of malaria were registered worldwide. Zika virus is another deadly disease transmitted from mosquitoes. According to CDC report, in 2016 62,500 suspected case of Zika were reported to the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH) out of which 29,345 cases were found positive. There are 3500 different species of mosquitoes present in the world out of which 175 types is found in United States. But only few of them are responsible for these above mentioned fatal disease. Therefore classification between hazardous and regular mosquitoes are very important. For regular person with no expertise in this field would be almost impossible to identify the difference. Even for the mosquito-expert, identifying different species is a very tedious and time consuming job. Hence in this paper, we have tried to classify 7 different species of dead mosquitoes with total 60 samples collected from Hillsborough County Mosquito and Aquatic Weed Control Unit,Tampa Florida by capturing image from smart phone cameras. With our approach we want to enable non-expert population to early identify the risk and act pro-actively. We pre-processed the image for removing noise and applied random forest classification algorithm to distinguish different species. Achieved good precision,recall,F1 measure and aggregate 83:3% accuracy. We are also planning to develop a smart-phone application which will leverage this learning model and help in empowering population to identify mosquito species without any knowledge in this field. INTRODUCTION Of all animals, mosquitoes are amongst the most deadly in spreading diseases. Mosquito borne diseases like Malaria, Dengue, West Nile Fever, and most recently Zika Fever have extracted devastatic tolls on humanity [1]. Combating the spread of mosquitoes is an important health-care agenda across the globe, and several organizations across the globe serve this purpose. For instance, one such organization is the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) is spread over 50 countries and conducts numerous programs to educate citizens of the dangers posed by mosquitoes and how to control them. According to CDC report, there are about 3500 different species of mosquitoes in the world, out of which about 175 different species are found in the USA. Among programs designed to combat mosquitoes spread, identification of the type and number of species in any par-ticular area is very important. Across the world, numerous mosquito control organizations have dedicated personnel that lay traps to catch mosquitoes in specific areas, and dedicated personnel visually look at each captured sample (via a mag-nifying glass) to identify the type of mosquito. It takes upto a minute to identify each sample, and with more samples, the time taken to identify each sample can take hours, and naturally significant manual effort. Contributions of this Paper: In this paper, we aim to de-sign a system that combines images from smart-phone cameras with machine learning algorithms for automatic detection of the type of mosquito species from their images. Towards this extent, our specific contributions are: a). Building a database of mosquito images: We visited the Hillsborough County Mosquito and Aquatic Weed Control in Tampa in Fall 2016 to collect numerous samples of mosquitoes that were captured in traps set up the county personnel. Subsequently, the personnel helped us visually identify the type of each sample. As a result, we collected 60 samples, that belonged to seven different species.Table I presents our database. Subsequently, each sample was imaged via a Sam-sung Galaxy S5 phone via multiple angles (at the same indoor light conditions) for a total of 200 images. This served as our database for subsequent classification. b). Designing Pre-processing Techniques: Generally, images are vulnerable to the different type of noises due to different environment condition and user expertise. Therefore, images need to be pre-processed for any noise removal and also for smoothening. In the process of noise removal, we need to make sure that edges and boundary of images are preserved otherwise images will lose the key information. We used median filter as it works very effectively when edges need to be preserved. This filter is widely used in image processing technique [2]. c). Designing Random Forest Based Classifiers: Random Forest is an ensembled supervised machine learning algorithm. It is a collection of decision trees, where each trees has been grown using subset of training dataset selected randomly. In most of the cases, it has shown significant improvement in accuracy as compare to other classification algorithm. Apart from that, it works very well on outliers and noise. It handles larger dataset efficiently and quickly without over-fitting the model as only a subset of training set is selected for each split.[3] [4] We conducted an extensive performance evaluation for our proposed techniques.We evaluated our experiment on 60 image samples of seven different species. 10-fold cross validation technique has been used and achieved 83:3% accuracy using RGB features. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section II, related works are discussed. Followed by section III where experimental set up and data collection process are described. Section IV contains the detail about preprocessing of image data, extracting and selecting features, building the learning model using classification method and different metrics lever-aged for showing the results. We talked about experimental evaluation and validation in detail in section V. Finally, dis-cussion and conclusion sections are VI and VII respectively. RELATED WORK There are many studies which are dedicated to leverage the use of smart phone camera for image recognition. In this section we have emphasized few of the related and important works done. A. Related Work on Image Recognition In [5] system was developed for determining the effec-tiveness of soil treatment on plant stress using smart-phone cameras.In this paper, 34 images of plant leaves are captured using smart phone in two soils that is biosolids and unamended tailings. Then each images was preprocessed using mean, me-dian filter followed by segmentation into pixels.They extracted RGB,R,G,B,HSV and YCbCr features from the segmented pixels. Random Forest which is a supervised classification algorithm was designed to detect the stress of leaves and achieved 91.24% accuracy. A [6] survey has been done on Pixel-Based skin color detection techniques. They have applied various color spaces like RGB, Normalized RGB, HSV and YCrCb for recognizing skin. RGB is the most widely used color spaces for processing and storing digital images. Wen et.al [7] has proposed image-based automated insect iden-tification and classification method. In this paper eight insect species have been selected for experiment. These insects were frozen to retreive a non damaging kill of the insect and then they were placed on a white balance panel under the reflectance light base of a Nikon stereoscopic zoom microscope SMZ1000 (Nikon, Tokyo) with Plan Apochromat 0.5 objective. Images of these were taken by a DS-Fi1 color digital camera which was placed on the microscope. Features which had been taken in these are color, texture, invariants, contour and geometric. In color features, HSV color space features were considered. T Many classification algorithm i.e. minimum least square linear classifier (MLSLC), normal densities based linear classifier (NDLC), K nearest neighbor classifier (KNNC), nearest mean classifier (NMC), and decision tree (DT) were used for testing and training the model. Among these NDLC classification algorithm outperfor ms other classifier. 1) Comparing our Work w.r.t. Related Work: Our work is focused on capturing mosquitoes images from smart phone camera and using the captured image for training and testing the learning model. In [7], authors have identified insect species but it needs lab set up with microscope and high resolution digital camera which is not available in house generally. We have extracted RGB features for classification which is most widely used color spaces [6]. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND DATA COLLECTION In this section, we have discussed data collection process our experiment. A. Data Collection We collected dead mosquito species samples from Hillsbor-ough County Mosquito and Aquatic Weed Control Unit,Tampa Table I: Mosquito Species and Number of Samples Specie Name Number of Samples Cx Nigrip 10 An Quadrim 6 Ma Titillans 7 Ps Columpi 10 An Crucians 10 Ps Ferox 7 Cq Perturbans 10 Table II: Camera Specification Camera Specification Value Sensor Resolution 16 MP Focus Adjustment automatic Special Effect HDR Camera Light Source Daylight Florida. We carefully identified seven species, mentioned in Table I for our study. Since, dead mosquito physical properties like color, del-icateness etc changes as time passes. So, images of dead mosquitoes were taken in a single day to make sure envi-ronmental conditional are same while taking these images. A Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone was used for capturing images in regular day light. Each sample image was taken based on the knowledge aware fusion described on the mosquito and aquatic control weed control unit web site. A total of 60 images were captured for our study, having following camera configuration, mentioned in Table II. OUR APPROACH We have implemented two steps in our approach. First, pre processing of image has been done for noise removal and feature selection using filter like median,mean. Second, building a learning model using a classification algorithm based on random forest. Here our main aim is to build a learning model for identi-fying each mosquitoes species. The challenge here we faced is the image size. Images which were captured from smart phone is of 2988 X 5322 pixels. We reduced their size to 256 X 256 pixels to decrease its data dimensionality. To remove the noise from each sample we applied median filter technique.This has been elaborated in the next subsection. Since, our images were already in dark color.It is mandatory to keep background and foreground in contrast for building the model reasonably well. So, we did not use any segmentation technique as it converts the background into black. Here,we are using Random Forest, a supervised learning algorithm and used 10-fold cross validation technique for learning and testing. The process flow of our algorithm is described in Figure 2. For proceeding further, we need labeled image data for training the model. All images were tagged manually under the guidance of mosquito experts. Noise Removal Generally, digital images are susceptible to different type of noise. It can occur by several ways like capture, transmission etc. Accuracy of the result are affected badly by the same. There are many filters used to remove and reduce noise from image. Sharpening Filter: It refers as a enhancing technique which highlights edges and line details in the image. In this procedure, original image is passed through high pass filter which extracts its high frequency components and then the scaled output of high pass filter is added to original image which results in sharpened image. [8] Mean Filter: This filtering technique refers to replacing each pixel value in an image with the mean of pixel values of its neighbors which falls in the sliding window of n*n size. This technique removes noise more effectively if large window size is considered.This is also called average filter. [8] Median Filter: It is a nonlinear filtering technique. The approach behind this filtering technique is to replace each pixel value in the window of n * n size pixel by the median of all pixel values in that particular window.It is very used in digital image processing and it preserves edges while removing noise. We have used this filtering technique with 3*3 pixels window size for removing the noise from our digital images. The output with median filter and without this is shown in Figure 1. [2] Feature Selection Feature extraction and selection is very critical part of any supervised learning algorithm. Extraction is about reducing the data dimensionality as the size of data grows and its dimension increases and becomes very difficult to handle it manually . And then the need of automation comes into the picture. Feature Selection is a process of selecting those features which are most relevant for our problem and eliminating unnecessary, irrelevant and redundant features of data that do not contribute to the accuracy of learning model. In our proposed model, we are identifying different species of mosquitoes. Each species have contrastive color. As we can see in Figure 3, each mosquitoes have similar shapes but differ-ent body and wings color.So,the correct color channels or the combination of channel is important to take into consideration for the features. Few of the color channels are RGB, HSV etc. RGB has Red, Green and Blue channels. In RGB, each component supports a range of intensity levels from 0 to 255 (integer valued)[9] . Here, we extracted RGB feature from the mosquito image data. Then for feature selection, we applied Information-Gain attribute selection algorithm which is a good measure for deciding the relevance of an attribute. This feature selection technique generally helps in achieving high accuracy and using this we got 1000 features which serve as an input vector x into Random Forest Classification Algorithm for species detection. We calculated its precision, recall and F1-measure which is mentioned in Table III Table III: Combination of color channels accuracy comparison Combination Precision Recall F1-measure RGB 0.845 0.833 0.834 C. Classification Method Random Forest Algorithm: Random Forests(RF) is an ensemble supervised machine learning algorithm. It consists of a set of decision trees; h(x,i) i = 1, 2,, where x is a feature vector extracted from the smartphone image data and i consists of K integers which are independent identically distributed random vectors. Each decision tree predicts a class independently. A voting is performed on the results from each decision tree and finally the class which gets majority vote will be the final predicted class. The same has been explained in Figure 4 . Given a dataset set that contains N feature vectors, each consisting of M features, the RF algorithm builds the trained model using following steps: N samples are selected at random with replacement from the data set, for training the model of a particular tree. K features are randomly selected from the set of available features, where K M. Among the values for each of the K features drawn, choose the best split according to the Information gain IG(T; a) of the attribute. Information gain is measure of decrease in entropy which is caused by splitting the samples on an attribute. T denote a set of training sample for a single tree. ((x),y) = (x1, x2,.., xk,y) where (x) consist is a single sample and y is its class label. The information gain for an attribute a is as follow: The information gain for an attribute a is as follows: IG (T; a) = H (T ) v val(a) j(x T jTa = v) j :H (x T jxa = v) X x j j (1) [10] Here, xa vals(a) is the value of the ath attribute of example x. The randomization is present in two ways: Random selection of data for bootstrap samples as it is done in bagging Random selection of input features for creating individual base decision trees. Each tree will grow to its maximum size until the stopping criterion has not been fulfilled and there will be no tree pruning. Once the forest has been ensembled, testing data sample will be labeled mosquito species class based on a majority vote among all classes from all decision trees in the forest. Once the forest has been ensembled, testing data sample is labeled with one of the classes (species1; species2::::species7) by taking the majority vote: i.e., it is labeled with the class which has been selected by maximum number of trees. In the RF approach, given a feature sample x to be classified, the conditional probabilities for each class are computed by taking the average of the conditional probabilities given by the trees constructing 4 Figure 1: a) Original Image b) Image after applying sharpening median filterFigure 2: Process description of our experiment a). Cruciansb). Columpic). Feroxd). Nigrip e). Peturbansf). Quadrimg). Titillans Figure 3: Mosquito Color Images the ensemble. These conditional probabilities are computed as follows. Given a decision tree T, and an input feature sample x to be classified, let us denote by v(x) the leaf node where x falls when it is classified by T. The probability P (mjx; T ) that the sample x belongs to the class m, where m 2 fspecies1; species2; :::; species7g (for 7 species of interest to this paper), is estimated by the following equation: P (mjx; T ) = nm (2) n where nm is the number of training samples falling into v(x) after learning and n is the total number of training samples assigned to v(x) by the training procedure. Given a forest consisting of L trees and an unknown feature sample x to be classified, the probability estimate P (mjx) that x belongs to the species m is computed as follows: 1 L (3) P (mjx) = P (mjx; Ti) L =1 Xi P (m x; T ) by where th j i is the conditional probability provided the i tree and is computed according to Eq.(1). As a consequence, for the sample x to be classified, the RF algorithm gives as output the vector: = fP (species1jx) ; P (species2jx) : : : : : : P (species7jx)g The class(species) with the highest probability in the set(4)is chosen as classified class for the ith tree. The final class of our RF algorithm is the one which gets the majority vote among all activities from all decision trees in the forest [11]. The work flow of the RF algorithm with pre-processing, training and testing phase is formally shown in Algorithm 1.[3] [12] D. Metrics The results of Mosquito-Species detection are shown in terms of precision, recall, F1-measure and Confusion Matrix. Each metric is a function of the of the true positives (T P ), false positives (F P ) and false negatives (F N). The precision is the ratio of correctly classified classes to the total number of classes predicted as positive: P recision = T P (5) T P + F P Recall is the ratio of total number of classes predicted as positive to the total number of positive classes: Recall = T P (6) T P + F N 5 Figure 4: Work flow of the Random Forest Algorithm The F1-measure is the weighted average of precision and recall: P recisionRecall F1 = 2 P recision + Recall (7) The Confusion Matrix (CM) is a table that allows the visu-alization used to describe the performance of a classification model. Each column of the matrix represents the instances in a predicted class while each row represents the instance in an actual class (or vice-versa) [13]. Precision indicates the number of samples classified as a particular species actually belonged to that species. Recall gives us the number of species which are correctly classified. The F1-measure denotes the classification models accuracy.It is calculated as the harmonic mean of precision and recall. Confusion matrix makes the system easy to see how much predicted model is getting confused between different species. For example if a species is predicted correctly only 80% of the time, then this matrix will show how the algorithm confused its prediction with the other (wrongly classified) species the remaining 20% of the time. RESULTS Overview of Evaluation Methods: In this paper, we evaluated the performance of our system using 10-fold cross validation that are standard for our problem scope. Cross-validation is a model validation technique for assess-ing how the results of a classification model will generalize to an independent dataset 10-fold cross-validation divides the dataset into 10 subsets, and evaluates them 10 times. Each time, one of the 10 subsets is used as the test set and the other 9 subsets are put together to form a training set. Then, the average error across all 10 trials is computed for final result. It limits problems like over-fitting in the classification model. Results and Interpretations: We used RGB feature men-tioned earlier to train our classification model. To evaluate its accuracy we used 10-fold cross validation technique and calculated precision, recall and F1 measure of each species independently. The evaluation measures of RGB feature are shown in IV have also shown it graphically in Figure 5. Confusion Matrix of the same is shown in Figure 6. Algorithm 1: RF-based Algorithm for Mosquito-Species detection Training Image dataset = Id; Testing Image dataset= Ited; RGB Features extracted from Training Image dataset = F tRGB; RGB Features extracted from Testing Image dataset = F teRGB; Classified Species from Images= M S; Probability that feature F belongs to Species M S = P (M SjF ); No. of trees in Random Forest = 121; Step 1 Pre-Processing: Median filters are applied to remove accidental spikes from Id and Ited. Features F tRGB and F teRGB are extracted from processed data Id and Ited obtained from (1). Step 2 Training: Input: Training data set F tRGB Output: Random Forest model to classify different species of mosquitoes. Select a bootstrap sample of size N from the training data. Grow a decision tree T using following steps. Select K features at random from the set of M features. Choose the best feature/split-point among the K. Split the node into two daughter nodes. Grow the tree to its maximum size that is 6 and let the tree unpruned Step 3 Prediction: Input: Testing data set Ited Output: Final Mosquito Species prediction M Ss. Select the same attributes used for training the model from testing feature set F teRGB. Predict the species from the model using features selected in the above step. 6 Table IV: RGB Features accuracy of each species indepen-dently Species Precision Recall F1-measure An Crucians 0.889 0.8 0.842 An Quadrim 0.571 0.667 0.615 Cd Peturbans 0.727 0.8 0.762 Cx Nigrip 0.889 0.8 0.842 Ma Titillans

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Role of Fear Depicted in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible Essay

The play â€Å"The Crucible† is an allegory for the McCarthyism hysteria that occurred in the late 1940’s to the late 1950’s. Arthur Miller’s play â€Å"the crucible† and the McCarthyism era demonstrates how fear can begin conflict. The term McCarthyism has come to mean â€Å"the practice of making accusations of disloyalty†, which is the basis of the Salem witch trials presented in Arthur Miller’s play. The fear that the trials generate leads to the internal and external conflicts that some of the characters are faced with, in the play. The town’s people fear the consequences of admitting their displeasure of the trials and the character of John Proctor faces the same external conflict, but also his own internal conflict. The trials begin due to Abigail and her friends fearing the consequences of their defiance of Salem’s puritan society. The witch hunt in the crucible is initiated when Abigail and her friends fear the consequences of their ‘dancing’ in the forest. This connects to McCarthyism as the HUAC is represented by the judges and the ‘accuses’ (the girls) are representatives of Elia Kazan and others like him. The theocratic society of Salem is what the girls fear as the forest is seen as the devils resting place and the puritan nature of the town forbid dancing as it was seen as ‘vain enjoyment’ which as Miller himself states at the beginning of the novel to not be allowed. The character of Mary Warren begs the girls to just admit they were dancing as â€Å"†¦you’ll only be whipped for dancin’†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , but as Abigail is questioned and Parris mentions the kettle and how he believed â€Å"†¦there to be some movement- in the soup†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , the devil becomes prominent in the conversation. This is due to Abigail fearing that she will be bl amed for devil worshipp... ...h, his wife, does not want to admit her husband’s deceit, proctor is accused of lying to the court. When Proctor confesses his sin of lechery he feels better and his internal guilt is freed. This is different to the end of the play where he signed the confession to witchcraft. He later rips it up as could not live with himself if he were to allow Abigail to get away with her lies, through confessing to something he did not do. In ripping up the confession he is also able to keep his good name which he says at the end is all he has left, his name, and he does not want to give it away. In conclusion, the fear generated by Abigail and the other girls, which began initially with their own fear of punishment, caused the town’s fear and lead to John proctor’s external and internal conflict. Therefore making true the statement the prime instigator of conflict is fear.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Calveta’s Dining Services, Inc: A Recipe for Growth? Essay

Higher chances of attaining goals and will obtain desired market penetration Increases Calveta’s geographic coverage and market share GSD is presently in a good position, when the revenue generation is taken into consideration. Calveta would attain a great deal of customer potential as it was maintained by GSD. The organization hierarchy could be restructured so that it could accommodate significant growth while preserving the company’s core values. The disadvantages of choosing this option are: Very risky Plagued with labor issues and management turnover Quality of service may suffer. Higher debt load Does not have a strong balance sheet but has great income potential. Jennifer Calveta COO of firm: Could have been CEO instead of her brother Very detail oriented and concerned about preserving the company’s culture Is concerned about the acquisition of business for growth expansion Is concerned with the organizations structural modification 1. What role (if any) have Calveta’s values played in the organization’s success? Calveta has clearly defined values to guide the staff’s behavior. The immense growth of the organization confirms that Calveta’s is doing an excellent in embedding their values in their employees’ actions and management decisions. The values necessitate the inclusion of everyone and the exclusion of none. The organization’s values enabled all levels of management to usher the employees toward a continuous growth. 2. Does Calveta’s operating approach offer a sustainable competitive advantage? Calveta’s operating approach offered a unique competitive edge over many of its competitors. While their competitors focused on highly regularized systems and standards, Calveta chose to build local food service teams and menu offers to serve each facility distinctively. Additionally, Calveta’s wait staff treated the residents like family following their behavioral standards. This type of customer service garnered rave written reviews from the facility’s residents. Finally, implementing programs that increase efficiency while satisfying the needs of bed ridden or immobile residents confirm a very innovative operating approach that resulted in a sustainable competitive advantage. 3. Why haven’t other food service providers copied Calveta’s approach? Calveta’s competitors were not focused on conducting a profitable business without straying away from its core values. Passion, customer service and efficiency remained at the forefront of every decision. On the other hand, their competitors were focused on growth, meeting financial goals and increasing market share. Rarely do we find companies who keep both service and profit as a priority. 4. Given Calveta’s communication and internal organizational challenges, how important will training and development be to maintaining growth and culture? The internal challenges within Calveta confirm that the organization must continue to rely on training and development to ensure success. However, training and development should not be done in a manner that reduces quality or at the expense of the residents’ positive experiences. Upper management must create systems that focuses on the development of new managers and establishes a solid means of communication between staff and management. Growing pains is inevitable but it cannot become a deterrent to taking the company to the next level. 5. Calveta’s fifth goal is profitable growth. Goals one through four is more ethical in nature. Is goal five inconsistent with the first four? Establishing growth as a goal is consistent with Calevta’s other goals. However growth, whether by acquisition or market penetration, should not mean that â€Å"Antonio’s Way† is watered down in any way or removed from the way Calveta conducts business. Calveta’s unique approach to business cannot be lost while increasing revenues and market share. As long as Calveta’s values remain the guiding force to management decisions and employees’ actions, having growth as a priority should be expected. 6. How, if at all, should Calveta’s organizational structure be changed to resolve communication issues, preserve the company’s culture, and support future growth? Calveta’s uses the top-down management structure. This structure contains layers of managers (rank structure) which all communications must pass through. With each layer there is a risk of distorted information being sent to the next level. Each level adds to the communication becoming more confused and out of context. Therefore more layers mean a greater risk of distortion and confusion among the staff. Such distortions cause a lack of productivity, frustration, confusion, and inept management. Conversely, management is receiving feedback from the field that is invalid since the original plans, orders, and ideas were not acted on; the same risk of distortion exists with the return flow. The end result of this is that customer service suffers. The image and prestige of Calveta is damaged. Calveta should simplify its management structure, implement an information network, combine some positions and eliminate others. The implementation of a more flat management structure will reduce the chances of distorting communication. 7. Should Frank Calveta move forward with an expansion into the hospital sector? With the proposed acquisition? Calveta should focus on making serious internal improvements before piling on debt, increasing the chances of management turnovers, and getting into business with an organization known to not have the best reputation. Calveta has a great reputation and its ability to function and grow with little debt confirms that their balance sheet is in excellent condition as well. An internal restructure and a recommitment to its values and goals should be the number one priority. Calveta should not move forward with the expansion into the hospital sector at this time. On the other hand the acquisition of GSD may be an excellent move for Celveta. This acquisition will increase Celveta’s geographical presence and increase its assets without increasing its debt load. With some management restructuring done within GSD, Frank should be able to meet his father’s financial goal to double profit in 5 years.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Composition and Properties of Glass

The Composition and Properties of Glass When you hear the term glass you may think of window glass or a drinking glass. However, there are many other types of glass. Glass is the name given to any amorphous (non-crystalline) solid that displays a glass transition near its melting point. This is related to the glass transition temperature, which is the temperature where an amorphous solid becomes soft near its melting point or a liquid becomes brittle near its freezing point. Glass is a type of matter. Sometimes the term glass is restricted to inorganic compounds, but more often now a glass may be an organic polymer or plastic or even an aqueous solution. Silicon Dioxide and Glass The glass you encounter most often is silicate glass, which consists mainly of silica or silicon dioxide, SiO2. This is the type of glass you find in windows and drinking glasses. The crystalline form of this mineral is quartz. When the solid material is non-crystalline, it is a glass. You can make glass by melting silica-based sand. Natural forms of silicate glass also exist. Impurities or additional elements and compounds added to the silicate change the color and other properties of the glass. Glass Examples Several types of glass occur in nature: Obsidian (volcanic silicate glass)Fulgurites (sand that has been vitrified by a lightning strike)Moldavite (green natural glass likely resulting from meteorite impacts) Man-made glass includes: Borosilicate glass (e.g., Pyrex, Kimax)IsinglassSoda-lime glassTrinitite (radioactive glass formed by heating of the desert floor by the Trinity nuclear test)Fused quartzFluoro-aluminateTellurium dioxidePolystyreneRubber for tiresPolyvinyl acetate (PVA)PolypropylenePolycarbonateSome aqueous solutionsAmorphous metals and alloys

Monday, October 21, 2019

Free Essays on Black Music

Black Music in America: A History Through Its People Tahirah Carter by James Haskins Intro to Music I have definitely learned allot about the Evolution of American Music in this class. I found it to be very intriguing. So when I was faced with the chore of deciding which book I would do my report on, I chose Black Music in America by James Haskins. This book gave a detailed account of not only the music genres but it’s performers. We already know that American music is made up of music from many different types of ethnic backgrounds. What gives this book a plus is that it highlights some other aspects of American music, and its performers. The items and events that really caught my attention were the concert singing, Minstrelsies, Jubilee songs, and brass bands. Born as a slave, a girl by the name of Elizabeth Greenfield moved to Philadelphia. She moved there with her Mistress and her parents. Luckily while in Philadelphia they were set free. At the age of forty-two she moved to buffalo New York in order to embark onto new opportunities as a singer. When she reached New York opportunity came knocking. She began a career of concert singing. With a range of three and one quarter octaves you would think that opportunity kept knocking, but it didn’t. Therefore she moved to Europe where she would get the attention and credit that was due to her. While in Europe Elizabeth was shown great appreciation for he talent? Even Queen Victoria demanded that she performed for her at the Buckingham Palace. On the account of Elizabeth doing so well in Europe, She gained newfound popularity in the states. As you see, it wasn’t easy for blacks to make a living in the U.S. That forced blacks to either perform in Europe or the northern states of the U.S.. Some blacks even had to resort to performing in Minstrelsies. Minstrelsies started out as an avenue for whites that were trying to embark on new and exciting culture. At this time America was free fro... Free Essays on Black Music Free Essays on Black Music Black Music in America: A History Through Its People Tahirah Carter by James Haskins Intro to Music I have definitely learned allot about the Evolution of American Music in this class. I found it to be very intriguing. So when I was faced with the chore of deciding which book I would do my report on, I chose Black Music in America by James Haskins. This book gave a detailed account of not only the music genres but it’s performers. We already know that American music is made up of music from many different types of ethnic backgrounds. What gives this book a plus is that it highlights some other aspects of American music, and its performers. The items and events that really caught my attention were the concert singing, Minstrelsies, Jubilee songs, and brass bands. Born as a slave, a girl by the name of Elizabeth Greenfield moved to Philadelphia. She moved there with her Mistress and her parents. Luckily while in Philadelphia they were set free. At the age of forty-two she moved to buffalo New York in order to embark onto new opportunities as a singer. When she reached New York opportunity came knocking. She began a career of concert singing. With a range of three and one quarter octaves you would think that opportunity kept knocking, but it didn’t. Therefore she moved to Europe where she would get the attention and credit that was due to her. While in Europe Elizabeth was shown great appreciation for he talent? Even Queen Victoria demanded that she performed for her at the Buckingham Palace. On the account of Elizabeth doing so well in Europe, She gained newfound popularity in the states. As you see, it wasn’t easy for blacks to make a living in the U.S. That forced blacks to either perform in Europe or the northern states of the U.S.. Some blacks even had to resort to performing in Minstrelsies. Minstrelsies started out as an avenue for whites that were trying to embark on new and exciting culture. At this time America was free fro...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Free Essays on Hedonist VS. Epicurus

Hedonist VS. Epicurus At first glance Epicurus’ philosophical views and hedonist philosophy may appear to be one in the same. They both believe in doing what is pleasurable and don’t particularly have anything to do with behaving in a manor to make a God happy. Epicurus’ views can almost be thought of as a type of hedonism, one could even call it Epicurean hedonism. Hedonism gives pleasure a central roll, what is pleasure is right. This general belief in hedonism can leave many open possibilities. What is it causes pleasure not and pain later? What if your pleasure causes another’s pain? Epicuris did not agree with the â€Å"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die† because prudence is the key to all virtures in a happy life. Epicurus realized that pleasures can be categorized into a few different types including vain, natural, necessary and unnecessary desires or pleasures. Not all pleasures are good, or the right thing to do. Individuals must make intelligent choices that will give them a happy life and not a pleasurable moment. Epicurus made references to physical pleasure of the stomach and that is should be determined by quality not quantity. A glutton overindulges in food, although it may taste good that moment, it will cause them pain in the future. The same basic idea applies to someone who commits a crime because it is desirable at the time, but spends the rest of his or her life in jail. Individuals must make decisions for a happy life to follow the study of Epicureanism. Pleasure not always achieved by doing something pleasing; it can come from the â€Å"absence of pain from the body and disturbance from the soul†. An individuals past also determines pleasure. To a starving person, eating bread and butter is very pleasurable but most other people will not look at this the same way. Epicurus also believes that God(s) exist but do not concern themselves with our world. So this wou... Free Essays on Hedonist VS. Epicurus Free Essays on Hedonist VS. Epicurus Hedonist VS. Epicurus At first glance Epicurus’ philosophical views and hedonist philosophy may appear to be one in the same. They both believe in doing what is pleasurable and don’t particularly have anything to do with behaving in a manor to make a God happy. Epicurus’ views can almost be thought of as a type of hedonism, one could even call it Epicurean hedonism. Hedonism gives pleasure a central roll, what is pleasure is right. This general belief in hedonism can leave many open possibilities. What is it causes pleasure not and pain later? What if your pleasure causes another’s pain? Epicuris did not agree with the â€Å"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die† because prudence is the key to all virtures in a happy life. Epicurus realized that pleasures can be categorized into a few different types including vain, natural, necessary and unnecessary desires or pleasures. Not all pleasures are good, or the right thing to do. Individuals must make intelligent choices that will give them a happy life and not a pleasurable moment. Epicurus made references to physical pleasure of the stomach and that is should be determined by quality not quantity. A glutton overindulges in food, although it may taste good that moment, it will cause them pain in the future. The same basic idea applies to someone who commits a crime because it is desirable at the time, but spends the rest of his or her life in jail. Individuals must make decisions for a happy life to follow the study of Epicureanism. Pleasure not always achieved by doing something pleasing; it can come from the â€Å"absence of pain from the body and disturbance from the soul†. An individuals past also determines pleasure. To a starving person, eating bread and butter is very pleasurable but most other people will not look at this the same way. Epicurus also believes that God(s) exist but do not concern themselves with our world. So this wou...

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Fair Use Defense - Eastside Movies Inc vs Manny Goldstein Case Study

Fair Use Defense - Eastside Movies Inc vs Manny Goldstein - Case Study Example Under the four-factor test, it appears that Manny Goldstein may not successfully claim fair use.   While Goldstein may pass some parts of the four-factor test, it is very unlikely that he will pass each part.   The four-factor test provides that in determining whether or not the fair use defense can bar a claim in copyright infringement four factors will be taken into account.   Those factors include the â€Å"purpose and character of the use.†Ã‚   In this regard, it will be important to determine whether or not the use of the material was for commercial â€Å"or nonprofit educational purposes.†Ã‚   Certainly, Manny Goldstein can pass this part of the test since he was conducting research as a media researcher and not for commercial purposes.   He was looking to devise a system to run his DVD player on a computer running the Linux operating system.   The sole purpose was to copy parts of movies for his research on media effects.The remaining three factors unde r the four-factor test are the nature of the copyrighted work.   According to the facts, the copyright material is movies and this is directly related to Goldstein’s research.   Again, Goldstein can succeed under this part of the fair use test.  Ã‚   However, in ascertaining fair use, the account will also be taken of the â€Å"amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole†.   Since Goldstein has made his copying device available on the internet, he has made it possible for the world at large to gain access to Eastside’s movies and this would seriously undermine the company’s sales and income from these films.   This of course ties in with the fourth and final factor test which considers the impact on the market value. (Harper and Row v Nation Enterprise (1985).

Friday, October 18, 2019

How vaudeville theatre elements are found in entertainment today Research Paper

How vaudeville theatre elements are found in entertainment today - Research Paper Example The decline of the Vaudeville genre can be traced to the rise of the cinema. Despite the fact that Vaudeville genre no longer exists in its entirety, some of the signature elements of Vaudeville can still be found in the American entertainment industry today. These elements include family entertainment, sensationalism, slapstick, and variety. As earlier stated, Vaudeville gained popularity after the American Civil War. The genre had however been introduced before 1820. At the beginning, the Vaudeville genre only appealed to the men in the society and it mainly had male performers. It was seen as the new and cheerful entertainment that provided the society relief in the times before and after the civil war. It was not until 1865 when Tony Pastor changed this to a form of Vaudeville that included men, women, and children. This followed the opening of ‘Tony Pastor’s Opera House’ in New York. The form of theatre included performances in which objectionable words had b een removed, and was thus appealing to the entire family. This form of Vaudeville genre remained in the entertainment scene for a long time. Later, different creative artists would follow the conventions that had been set by Tony Pastor in Vaudeville theatre performances. They also began to make use of female performers to further to promote the theatre (Page, 4). The acts in the Vaudeville genre consisted of a total of up to 15 different performances that included jugglers, trained animals, acrobats, singers, magicians, and dancers. The Vaudeville genre however evolved to the point where it became a form of light musical drama. There are some Vaudeville theatres that have however retained the original format and can be found in areas such as England. There are also some few theatres in the United States that continue to showcase the different forms of Vaudeville genre. In most cases however, there are only some of the elements of the original Vaudeville genre that can be seen in th e different genres of entertainment that can be found in the American entertainment scene (Bandle 1546). The success of the Vaudeville genre was mainly because of the level of mastery that the different artists that took part in the performances showed. They (the artists) were skilled in the use of the different tools that they had. They were also skilled in utilizing the stage to maximize the effect of their performance. The stage was set in such a way that it made use of few definite possibilities of use. The stage however allowed the use of scenery and lights to be manipulated by the writer or by the creator of the specific performances. The performers of the Vaudeville genre were focused on the enjoyment and the satisfaction of the wide audiences that were present during the performances (Gottlieb 21). There were several forms that made up the variety theatre that made up the Vaudeville genre. One form was the original variety shows that were designed to please the male audience s. There was also the minstrel show that was a form of performance for public amusement. The minstrel performances usually begun with a walk around that had verbal exchanges between the different performers and the audiences. The content of the comedy was adapted to the different social circumstances, issues and

Theory and Practice of Successful Entrepreneurship Case Study

Theory and Practice of Successful Entrepreneurship - Case Study Example Henry Ford helped Americans In solving many problems that were related to industrialization. His main dream was to enhance peace in the world by creating good relation among nations.   Bringing Henry’s statement to a real-life situation, it seems to make sense because industrialization is somehow connected to civilization and civilization, in this case, means a high level of literacy.   According to the research carried out over the last ten years, it is evidently true that the main cause of war is idleness. For instance, the issue of unemployment tends to serve as a major threat to the economic status of a country.   The jobless will always clutch at anything o earn a living and this is what has led to an increase in crime rates following the statistics of various countries. Industrialization may also lead to the establishment of various businesses hence providing employment opportunities to the jobless. Looking at the various entrepreneurship activities and strategies, there is a certain barrier in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. Henry being an entrepreneur, his statement can be proved true through looking at some of the enterprenual activities in both the past and present. Over the past few years, there has been a sort of re-evaluation of the whole concept of entrepreneurship all that it takes for someone to become one. Authorities and governments in various places have recognized the necessity and the importance of nurturing entrepreneurs. Many governments, across the world, have come to discover the vital role entrepreneurs play in the political, economic and social welfare of citizens or a nation as a whole. In the U.K. for instance, business enterprises are the main drivers of the economy and that is why UK government has come up with policies that target entrepreneurs in a bid to improve the economic performance of their government. Entrepreneurial activity and minds are vital to building a stable and sustainable economy. This can be explained in so many ways, for instance, it creates job opportunities, growth and makes the currency stronger. A number of things do contribute to increasing entrepreneurial activities in a country and in the developi ng of an entrepreneurial economy. The UK Government is so determined to promote  Ã‚   enterprises particularly those activities which aim at achieving economic goals and those that also aim at increasing the productivity of the UK as an economic block.

Billy Graham and His Impact Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Billy Graham and His Impact - Research Paper Example He has dedicated and devoted his whole entire life since he felt the calling of the Lord in the middle of the 1930s, and continues to touch and inspire the hearts and the spirits of millions of people to come to the Lord. Leading an extraordinary and remarkable life, Billy Graham’s name will forever be remembered as the man who has influenced and shaped the world of Evangelism and Christianity in all of the United States of America. His life is the account of the impact he has made in the world. Born as the eldest on the seventh day in the month of November in 1918, Billy Graham was raised on their family’s dairy farmland in close proximity to the largest city in the state of North Carolina by his parents, William Franklin Graham I who was a successful cultivator and entrepreneur and Morrow Coffey. As he was growing up with his four other siblings namely Katherine, Melvin and Jean, he was already surrounded by the Christian upbringing in the Associate Reformed Presbyter ian Church. When the Noble Experiment was imposed in 1933, when he was only a young man at the age of about fifteen years old, Graham’s father had forced him as well as his sister Katherine into drinking and engaging in alcoholic beverages to the point where they would start throwing up. This event that happened early in his life, only as a young teenager, has caused him and his sister a strong feeling of hatred and abhorrence for alcohol and intoxicating drinks and beverages as well as drugs. Graham, a year after the incident, was converted when he was only sixteen years of age at that time when he was attending a series of several revival and renewal meeting in which Mordecai Fowler Ham an American Independent Baptist evangelist and temperance movement leader, a social movement that insist on the reduction of in taking and drinking alcoholic beverages, was in charge of. He enthused up quite a number of different issues and controversies when he was charged and accused for e thical negligence and lack of discipline while he was attending and studying at his local high school. While he continued to be present and attend the meetings in Charlotte, the young Billy Graham was guided and was led, while listening to one of the sermons and lectures of Mordecai Ham, which resulted in the intensification and the increase of Graham's guilt of the outcome of his sins that he has committed in his life. Because of this, he soon after, committed and decided to give over his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted to put his name down for membership in the youth but was turned down and rejected since they thought of him as â€Å"too worldly.† Through the encouragement and persuasion of one of the dairy farm’s employees, Albert McMakin, Graham went to go and talk to Ham. Billy Graham, in the summer month of May of 1936, graduated from Sharon High School and went off to college and started attending the fundamentalist Bob Jones College, which has changed its name and is now presently called Bob Jones University, which was located in the city of Cleveland in the county of Bradley, Tennessee. He did not stay for a long while and after about a couple of months, only staying for one semester, because of not being able to adapt and adjust to the school’s environment, he transferred. He thought of the school as being too strict in both the coursework and the regulations and rules stringently implemented and followed by the school. At that particular moment in time, a pastor from Eastport Bible Church, Pastor Charley Young was able to inspire and had some bearing on Graham. Although he was nearly expelled and forced

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Country project Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Country project - Term Paper Example Further, its poor political dynasty with dominant interest groups and shifting policies to cater for the politically dominant interest groups is reflected on investor’s behavior. At microeconomic level, investors portray a pervasive conduct on both exogenous and policy generated economic risks in relation to income and property. The political-economic has multiple structural vulnerabilities and weakness in their governance (Praeg 86). From time immemorial, Ethiopian economy is controlled by elite kings, usually described as slavery in modern world (Clarke 97-101). Private ownership of lands had never been heard of until 1970’s, with inequitable land holdings of the country under the slogan, ‘Land to The Tiller† where the state ended up owning lands itself instead of giving it to the people. Though the state controls land ownership, rural peasants and pastoralists are guaranteed a lifetime of â€Å"holding right†, while urban residents are guaranteed the right to get land for residence for 99 years lease based; these rights gives all rights to the people of Ethiopia except sale and mortgage right. However, from 1974 during the fall of emperor Hailesilassie, land remained public property despite earlier socialist oriented military government to make land property of the people and not the state. At the moment, Ethiopian economic growth is estimated to remain strong in year 2015 under the Growth and Transformation Plan. This plan aims at boosting agriculture as the heart of the country economic growth, promoting industrial development and aiding development of quality infrastructure. However, corruption is a key issue in Ethiopia. Historical background of economic policies reflects centuries of internal conflicts and external threats. Internally, varying customs, religions, and ethnicity served as focal points in the contest for power and control of economic resources (Adejumobi 187). Externally, regardless the fact that the country has

Information System (IT) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Information System (IT) - Essay Example It serves computer industries dealing with hardware, software and consumer electronics worldwide. Michael Porters value chain framework helps to analyze activities through which creates value and gains competitive advantage. In this case, Delta Airlines applies different secondary and primary activities in realizing its value chain. For instance, the company uses technology (secondary activity) through its company website to enhance flight scheduling for its clients. Another secondary activity used by the company is the procurement of resources such as acquisition of aircraft and their parts. Primary activities of Delta Airlines include marketing of its services to their target audience through different marketing channels such as Internet marketing. Another primary activity is great customer service that is realized through a good company motivational plans. Organizational designs make sure that the rights to make decisions are properly allocated. In hierarchical, a manager is the mediator and oversees information collection from those answerable to him and reports as in is the case in several companies around the globe. Flat structures support information flow all through the firm like in the case of matrix which involves small groups that are interconnected. Some of the technologies that support this organizational structures and designs is the Intranet. Intranet functions just like the Internet, but it’s not available to the out Internet community as it’s solely for a given

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Billy Graham and His Impact Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Billy Graham and His Impact - Research Paper Example He has dedicated and devoted his whole entire life since he felt the calling of the Lord in the middle of the 1930s, and continues to touch and inspire the hearts and the spirits of millions of people to come to the Lord. Leading an extraordinary and remarkable life, Billy Graham’s name will forever be remembered as the man who has influenced and shaped the world of Evangelism and Christianity in all of the United States of America. His life is the account of the impact he has made in the world. Born as the eldest on the seventh day in the month of November in 1918, Billy Graham was raised on their family’s dairy farmland in close proximity to the largest city in the state of North Carolina by his parents, William Franklin Graham I who was a successful cultivator and entrepreneur and Morrow Coffey. As he was growing up with his four other siblings namely Katherine, Melvin and Jean, he was already surrounded by the Christian upbringing in the Associate Reformed Presbyter ian Church. When the Noble Experiment was imposed in 1933, when he was only a young man at the age of about fifteen years old, Graham’s father had forced him as well as his sister Katherine into drinking and engaging in alcoholic beverages to the point where they would start throwing up. This event that happened early in his life, only as a young teenager, has caused him and his sister a strong feeling of hatred and abhorrence for alcohol and intoxicating drinks and beverages as well as drugs. Graham, a year after the incident, was converted when he was only sixteen years of age at that time when he was attending a series of several revival and renewal meeting in which Mordecai Fowler Ham an American Independent Baptist evangelist and temperance movement leader, a social movement that insist on the reduction of in taking and drinking alcoholic beverages, was in charge of. He enthused up quite a number of different issues and controversies when he was charged and accused for e thical negligence and lack of discipline while he was attending and studying at his local high school. While he continued to be present and attend the meetings in Charlotte, the young Billy Graham was guided and was led, while listening to one of the sermons and lectures of Mordecai Ham, which resulted in the intensification and the increase of Graham's guilt of the outcome of his sins that he has committed in his life. Because of this, he soon after, committed and decided to give over his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted to put his name down for membership in the youth but was turned down and rejected since they thought of him as â€Å"too worldly.† Through the encouragement and persuasion of one of the dairy farm’s employees, Albert McMakin, Graham went to go and talk to Ham. Billy Graham, in the summer month of May of 1936, graduated from Sharon High School and went off to college and started attending the fundamentalist Bob Jones College, which has changed its name and is now presently called Bob Jones University, which was located in the city of Cleveland in the county of Bradley, Tennessee. He did not stay for a long while and after about a couple of months, only staying for one semester, because of not being able to adapt and adjust to the school’s environment, he transferred. He thought of the school as being too strict in both the coursework and the regulations and rules stringently implemented and followed by the school. At that particular moment in time, a pastor from Eastport Bible Church, Pastor Charley Young was able to inspire and had some bearing on Graham. Although he was nearly expelled and forced

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Information System (IT) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Information System (IT) - Essay Example It serves computer industries dealing with hardware, software and consumer electronics worldwide. Michael Porters value chain framework helps to analyze activities through which creates value and gains competitive advantage. In this case, Delta Airlines applies different secondary and primary activities in realizing its value chain. For instance, the company uses technology (secondary activity) through its company website to enhance flight scheduling for its clients. Another secondary activity used by the company is the procurement of resources such as acquisition of aircraft and their parts. Primary activities of Delta Airlines include marketing of its services to their target audience through different marketing channels such as Internet marketing. Another primary activity is great customer service that is realized through a good company motivational plans. Organizational designs make sure that the rights to make decisions are properly allocated. In hierarchical, a manager is the mediator and oversees information collection from those answerable to him and reports as in is the case in several companies around the globe. Flat structures support information flow all through the firm like in the case of matrix which involves small groups that are interconnected. Some of the technologies that support this organizational structures and designs is the Intranet. Intranet functions just like the Internet, but it’s not available to the out Internet community as it’s solely for a given

Metals are different from other materials Essay Example for Free

Metals are different from other materials Essay Metals are different from other materials because they have electrons that are not joined to any specific atom, meaning that the electrons have the ability to move between the various atoms of that metal. These electrons are always in random motion due to their heat energy. If a metal wire is subjected electric force at its opposite terminals, then these free electrons, which carry a negative charge, move towards the electric force and we end up with what is called an electric current. Another way of saying this is that when charge is moving we have current, like the motion of electrons in wire leading to bulb. Ions found in water also carry a charge and current is able to flow in water. Movement of charged electrons in a vacuum is also a form of current. An example is the computer monitor or the T. V. set. Charged particles move across space, i. e vacuum, when they are released by the picture tube and strike the screen and light released which is seen as a picture. In order for current to be able to flow it needs a push and this push is supplied by voltage. 1 Charge will always flow from a potential of higher energy to low energy. Current is a measure of the quantity of charge that passes a location every second. The unit which current is measured in is Amphere [A]. The current law states that at any junction in an electric circuit, a point where the current is split into two or more parts, the total electric current output will be equal to the amount put in initially. A conductor, the object which allows charge to move through it, always puts up a certain amount of electrical resistance against the charge that is flowing through it. This friction in turn heats up the object. This transferring of electrical energy and the rate at which heat is put out is measured in Watts. The resistance put up by the conductor is measured in Ohms. 2 Another way of saying it is that Ampheres is the stuff that flows inside the wires (the charge, electrons), and the amount of charge is measured in Coulombs and finally the work Amphere is the same as one Coulomb of charge passing in one second. The more quickly a charge flows the higher the ampheres. Also the greater the amount of charge flowing, like a bigger wire, the higher the ampheres. Another words it is possible to have the ampheres if there is fast flowing charge through a thin wire as with slow moving charge through a thick wire. 2 It is easy to see why all this is very confusing. How ever 1Keiji Oenoki and Hector Judez, The flow of charge: The Current, [emailprotected] edu. pe] 2William beaty, How Are Watts, Ohms, Amps, and Volts Related? April 2, 2000, http://amasci. com/elect/vwatt1. html.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Theories of Personality | Essay

Theories of Personality | Essay Psychologists have long been interested in the study of personality because it is useful for understanding and predicting human behaviour. Even laypersons in day to day life, on an intuitive basis, make personality judgements about individuals they meet based on social characteristics, intellectual quality and appearance. Moreover, one seeks to understand oneself by identifying and developing personality. Personality determines the way in which individuals think and behave, it affects the way one would conduct oneself in day to day actions. Individuals possess unique patterns of behaviour varying from the way one walks, talks, or eats to the way one spends free time. The vast array of forms that personality takes accounts for why individuals are different from one another. The reason why it is important to understand such individual differences of personality is because job performance, academic performance, political and social attitudes, social relationships and health are all affe cted by one’s personality. Personality psychology seeks to bring scientific rigor to the process of understanding different personalities. Apparent qualities and behaviours may differ from the real inner personality of an individual. Consequently defining and understanding personality is a difficult task. A significant amount of definitions of personality have been introduced by various psychologists. Among such definitions was a comprehensive definition put forward by Burger. Burger (2011) defined personality as consistent behaviour patterns and intrapersonal processes that originate from within the individual. Due to the complexity of understanding and identifying human personality, various theories of personality have been introduced over the years by various psychologists. Sigmund Freud, devised what is today a popular theory, known as the structural theory of personality (Freud 1923 cited in McLeod 2013). The theory was devised based on the psychodynamic perspective which emphasises the influence that forces and drives within the unconscious mind have on human behaviour. Freud portrayed the human mind as an iceberg (Freud 1900, 1905 cited in McLeod 2013). The tip of the iceberg, which is the small section visible above the surface, symbolises the conscious mind. Just beneath the conscious mind is the preconscious mind which is outside one’s awareness but is easily accessible. The bottom of the iceberg which takes up the majority of its volume is the unconscious mind. The structural theory of personality assembles personality into 3 systems; the id, ego and superego. The balance of these 3 structures results in one’s personality. The id, which is in the unconscious mind, is the instinctive and primitive component of personality. Life instincts (Eros) and death instincts (Thanatos) are the basic instincts that are constituent of the id (Freud 1920, 1925 cited in McLeod 2013). The id operate on the pleasure principle in which basic instincts, specifically the desire for food and sex, require immediate gratification, regardless of any consequences (Freud 1920 cited in McLeod 2008). The id, similar to the way of an infant crying in order to get what it wants, has no regard for social norms. In order to mediate between the external world and the selfish desires of id, the ego develops. The ego, abiding in the conscious mind, is the component of personality that makes decisions and finds realistic and reasonable ways to satisfy the desires of id. The ego’s essentiality is to make compromises and exercise social etiquette in order to avoid disapproval or consequences of society. There is a third influential a nd largely unconscious set of forces which dictates one’s beliefs and morals, called the superego. One’s beliefs of what is right and wrong is acquired through childhood experiences and nurturing. When one behaves in a way that one believes is morally incorrect, the superego causes one to feel guilty. Superego’s goal unlike the id and ego is moral perfection. According to the manner in which the id, ego and superego interact, Freud suggested that there are 3 personalities; the psychotic personality, neurotic personality and healthy personality. A healthy psyche is one of which the ego’s role is dominant over superego and id. When the conflict between superego and id become overwhelming the unconscious processes of ego use defence mechanisms (repression being one of the most common defence mechanisms) in order to protect the self from anxiety. The psychotic psyche is one in which id is dominant and causes the individual to act in an impulsive and asocial m anner. The neurotic psyche is one in which superego is governing and causes the individual to be a perfectionist, unreasonably guilty and neurotic if any moral code is broken to obtain pleasure. The structural theory of personality is a highly comprehensive theory. The theoretical system explicitly explains and interprets an exceptional range of human behaviour and experiences, which is essential in understanding the different types of personalities. Contemporary psychology engages certain concepts of the psychodynamic theory and heuristic value of the theory has been appreciated (Shaver and Mikulincer 2005). Freud’s controversial ideas – that unconscious forces exist and influence behaviour, that early experiences play a large role in development of personality, that individuals resist threats by using defence mechanisms and that conflicting feelings often result in compromise – are accepted now by many psychologists and research conducted has given evidence to the validity of Freud’s views (Westen 1998; Baumeister, Dale and Sommer 1998). While other perspectives, particularly social and cognitive perspectives, emphasise typically on proximal cau ses, the psychodynamic perspective emphasise on distal causes of behavioural processes as well. The use of case studies as a research method to study personality esteems the complexity of personality and resulting behaviour by investigating in depth as opposed to a brief, snapshot laboratory study. However critics assert that there are several problems with the case study method that Freud used in constructing the structural theory of personality. Patients’ observations were not recorded immediately upon hearing them, therefore Freud’s memory of such detailed and extensive accounts of participants may have been distorted, and/or later recorded in a biased manner (Sulloway 1991). Furthermore the subjects of Freud’s case studies, on most occasions, were wealthy European individuals making the meagre sample unrepresentative and too illusive to draw universal conclusions about human behaviour. Consequently, the precision of the structural theory of personality is impaired. The testability of the structural theory is a major problem because propositions and concepts are ambiguous. The ambiguity results in difficulty in deriving a clear hypothesis that can be put to test and proven. Much of the theory is presented in metaphors – life and death instincts, and the mind depicted as an iceberg – which complicates any attempt to scientifically test and prove the theory. In addition, the structural theory of personality helps in explaining behaviour after observation but does not contribute substantially to predicting behaviour, which essentially, is a main purpose of studying personality in the first place. The theory can further be criticised because it is deterministic. It gives a degrading and pessimistic view of human nature because one is thought to be irrational and controlled by sex and aggressive tendencies. While numerous assumptions come into play, the explanation is still restricted to biological forces, and ignores other influences on personal development that may include altruism, competence, exploration and freewill. The scientific validity of Freud’s theory has been challenged by Eysenck. After a review of clinical literature, Eysenck found that out of 7,000 case histories of neurotic patients, 66% of patients treated by means of psychoanalysis improved, however 72% of patients who were not treated by means of any therapy improved within 2 years after the onset of their illness (Eysenck 1952). These findings oppose the validity of the concepts of the psychoanalytical approach and the structural theory of personality. A contemporary theory of personality proposed by Mischel and Shoda takes into account the cognitive and affective processes that have an influence on behaviour and gives more focus to situationism. Situationism is the assumption that individuals’ behaviour is directed by the situation the individual is in rather than dispositional traits. The cognitive-affective system theory of personality was proposed to resolve the contradictory findings on the consistency of personality and the inconsistency of behaviour across situations (Mischel and Shoda 1995). According to the cognitive-affective systems theory, there are 2 important concepts that must be combined. The first is that in order to understand an individual, the individual’s thoughts must be understood. Therefore the individual’s representation of the world is a significant factor to consider. The second is that thought proceeds concurrently on multiple tracks which intersect occasionally. The theory conceptua lises personality as ‘a stable system that mediates how the individual selects, construes, and processes social information and generates social behaviours’ (Mischel and Shoda 1995). Essentially, the interaction between cognition and personality affects behaviour in different situations. The reason why there are inconsistencies in behaviour is not due to the situation alone or random error; it stems from patterns of variation within the individual which are called behavioural signatures of personality (Mischel and Shoda 1995). Stable variations of behaviour take place in the form of contingencies: if X, then A but if Y then B. Behaviour occurs as a result of personal dispositions and cognitive and affective qualities (particularly thinking, planning, evaluating and feeling) interacting with the situation. Cognitive-affective units are represented by 5 stable person variables (Mischel and Shoda 1995). The first is encoding strategies, or individuals’ unique way of categorising information from stimuli. The second is competencies and self-regulatory strategies, particularly intelligence, the individual’s goals and self-produced consequences. Third is one’s expectancies and beliefs, or one’s predictions of the outcome of each of the behavioural possibilities in the situation. Fourth is one’s goals and values and finally, affective responses including feelings, emotions and affects caused by physiological reactions. The cognitive-affective personality systems theory is a comprehensive theory that accounts for both situational and dispositional attributes, bringing a balance between the two attributes. Freud’s psychoanalytical theory overlooks situations and attributes individuals’ personality and behavioural traits largely to dispositions. Thus the cognitive-affective personality systems theory can be better applied to a variety of different situations. It offers a stable personality system while maintaining that there may be patterns of variations in behaviour, without resulting in controversy. Unlike Freud’s theory, the cognitive affective personality systems theory gives highlight to conscious rather than unconscious drives. Individuals are regarded as being able to set their own goals, plan and evaluate their actions, and even to think about thinking. Therefore Mischel’s theory is less deterministic and considers freewill. The cognitive-affective systems theory has a more positive outlook on humankind, perceiving individuals as unified, affective, purposive and social beings, as opposed to the negative outlook of the structural theory of personality. Both the structural theory and the cognitive-affective systems theory of personality are idiographic and appreciate the uniqueness of individuals. The theories do not seek to establish generalizations of personality types. The cognitive-affective systems theory suggests that every individual has his/her own unique behaviour signature and unique pattern of variation (Mischel and Shoda 1995). Freud used case stud ies because each client had unique experiences and unique configurations of defence mechanisms. However when concentrating on the psychic energies, id, ego and superego, that are allegedly common to all individuals the structural theory of personality may arguably be nomothetic to a certain extent. In addition, the cognitive-affective systems theory must be commended for being idiographic because it also maintains its scientific nature. The cognitive-affective systems theory, unlike the structural theory, is scientific and pragmatic. Its propositions are unambiguous and testable hypotheses can be derived. The theory is based on the findings of experiments, including an experiment that was conducted in 1965 to investigate the effect situational and generalised expectancies for success have on on choices of immediate, less valuable non-contingent rewards as opposed to delayed, more valuable contingent rewards (Mischel and Staub 1965). In addition another study was conducted to test whether individuals are able to voluntarily delay gratification in await for a preferred reward (Mischel and Ebbesen 1970). Both studies reveal how individuals examine the situation and and make a cognitive decision about the reward they decide to settle for, thereby giving sound evidence for the cognitive-affective personality theory. Furthermore, a study revealed that 4 year old children who were able to delay gratification were significa ntly different from their peers as adolescents; they were more intelligent, exhibited more self-control, less distractible and more resistant to temptation than the adolescents who were less able to delay gratification as 4 year olds (Shoda, Mischel and Peake 1990). The finding from that study shows a similarity between psychoanalytic and cognitive-affective concepts of personality. Both perspectives suggest that personality characteristics emerge from childhood and is considerably consistent over time. However a limitation of the cognitive-affective personality system is that it emphasises mainly on the effect of nurture while overlooking the effect that nature might have on human behaviour. The theory overlooks biological and unconscious influences that may affect personality. Contrastingly, the structural theory of personality takes into account that both the effect of nurture and nature influence personality and its development. A further problem with the cognitive-affective personality theory is that defining a situation is difficult therefore the number of interactions that come into play when determining behaviour are too complex to study clearly. Moreover, it is difficult to take the complexity of the relationship between the situation, personality and behaviour into account when in extreme positions. The field of personality psychology has witnessed many theories being brought into the spotlight with each theory contributing more or less to understanding human behaviour. The contribution that Freud and Mischel have provided are indeed valuable. Freud made the first attempt to explain human personality and is considered a legacy for his work. Psychologists that followed in attempt to explain personality either improved upon Freud’s ideas or opposed it and provided alternate theories. However, due to the lack of empiricism of the psychoanalytic approach, Mischel’s cognitive-affective personality systems theory surpasses the structural theory of personality and can be better applied to predicting and explaining human behaviour. The theory does not oversimplify the complex processes behind personality; it takes a holistic view and considers that one behaves according to the situation one is in and that the course of action that one takes is not taken passively but activ ely. The cognitive-affective theory has minimal loopholes and is one of the most useful theories that has been developed to understand the multifaceted human personality. List of References Baumeister, R. F., Dale, K. and Sommer, K. L. (1998) ‘Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Empirical Findings in Modern Social Psychology: Reaction Formation, Projection, Displacement, Undoing, Isolation, Sublimation, and Denial’. Journal of Personality 66 (6), 1081-1124 Burger, J. M. (2011) Personality. 8th edn. USA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning Eysenck, H. J. (1952) ‘The Effects of Psychotherapy: An Evaluation’. Journal of Consulting Psychology 16 (5), 319-324 McLeod, S. (2008) Id, Ego and Superego [online] available from www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html> [18 June 2015] McLeod, S. (2013) Sigmund Freud [online] available from www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html> [18 June 2015] Mischel, W. and Ebbesen, E. B. (1970) ‘Attention in Delay of Gratification’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 16 (2), 329-337 Mischel, W. and Shoda, Y. (1995) ‘A Cognitive-Affective System Theory of Personality: Reconceptualizing Situations, Dispositions, Dynamics, and Invariance in Personality Structure’ Psychological Review 102 (2), 246-268 Mischel, W. and Staub, E. (1965) ‘Effects of Expectancy on Working and Waiting for Larger Reward’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2 (5), 625-633 Shaver, R. P. and Mikulincer, M. (2005) ‘Attachment Theory and Research: Resurrection of the Psychodynamic Approach to Personality’. Journal of Research in Personality 39 (1), 22-45 Shoda, Y, Mischel, W., and Peake, P. K. (1990) ‘Predicting Adolescent Cognitive and Self-Regulatory Competencies from Preschool delay of Gratification: Identifying Diagnostic Conditions’. Developmental Psychology 26 (6), 978-986 Sulloway, F. J. (1991) ‘Reassessing Freud’s Case Histories: The Social Construction of Psychoanalysis’. Isis 82 (2), 245-275 Westen, D. (1998) ‘The Scientific Legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a Psychodynamically Informed Psychological Science’. Psychological Bulletin 124 (3), 333-371

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Destiny, Fate, and Free Will in Oedipus the King - A Victim of Fate :: Oedipus Rex Essays

Oedipus the King as a Victim of Fate Among the first thing a historian discovers in his study of early civilization are records of people's belief, or faith, in powers greater than themselves, and their desire to understand what causes these powers to act. People everywhere wonder about the marvelous things in the sky and on the earth. What makes the rain? How do the plants and animals live and grow and die? Why are some people lucky and others unlucky? Some believe in free will while others believe in fate or destiny. In the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus was a true victim of fate. Gods and goddesses were believed to be responsible for the wonders of science, and the vagaries of human nature; therefore, according to the facts of this story, Oedipus was a true victim of fate for several reasons. Laius and Jocasta, the childless king and queen of Thebes, were told by the god Apollo that their son would kill his father and marry his mother (page 56). A son was born to them, and they tried to make sure that the prophecy would not come true. They drove a metal pin through the infants ankles and gave it to a shepherd, with instructions to leave it to die. The shepherd pitied the little infant so he gave the child to another shepherd. This shepherd gave the baby to a childless king and queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope. This royal couple named the boy Oedipus, which in its Greek form Oidipous means "swollen foot." Oedipus was brought up believing that Polybus and Merope were his real parents, and Lauis and Jocasta believed that their child was dead and the prophecy of Apollo was false. Many years later, he was told by a drunk man at a banquet that he was not a true heir of Polybus (page 55). He then went to the oracle of Apollo, to ask the god who his real parents were. All he was told was that he would kill his father and marry his mother (page 56). He resolved never to return to Corinth, to Polybus and Merope, and started out to make a new life for

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Ineffective N.A.A.C.P. in James Baldwins Down at the Cross Essay

The Effect of the N.A.A.C.P. There are many different opinions of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.), the premier organization for African-American rights around the world. Some believe that the organization has made great strides towards equality and fairness across the country, and that segregation could still be a prominent fixture today if not for the N.A.A.C.P. Others scrutinize the efforts of the N.A.A.C.P., and claim that it is nothing more than a figurehead organization that doesn’t actually advance the African-American people. This seems to be the sentiment shared in the essay, â€Å"Down at the Cross,† by James Baldwin. Although mentioned only briefly in the essay, Baldwin conveys a sense of discouragement towards the N.A.A.C.P., and that there work doesn’t do much good because of their lethargy in the courtroom. (Baldwin, 320) Baldwin asserts that by the time the court decision has been made, the impact of the decision is a lmost nonexistent, and fails to carry a collective punch. For these reasons, Baldwin believes that the N.A.A.C.P. will never accomplish meaningful, and that they will continue to simply go through the motions, in an almost lifeless manner. The history of the N.A.A.C.P. dates back to the early 20th century. The organization was founded in 1909 by Mary White Ovington. Ovington had read an article from the New York Post entitled â€Å"Race War in the North,† written by William English Walling. Ovington became inspired to learn more about the African-American situation, and set up a meeting with Walling in New York. On February 12th, 1909, approximately 20 or so members met and formed the National Association for the Advancement of Co... ...essay, Baldwin may have proven to have predicted the fate of the N.A.A.C.P., even if its accomplishments did surpass his own expectations. Works Cited Baldwin, James. â€Å"Down at the Cross.† 1962. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 296-347. Kellogg, Charles Flint. NAACP: A History of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967. Connerly, Ward. â€Å"The NAACP’s Decline and Fall.† The Wall Street Journal 16 July 2002: A16. â€Å"National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.† Spartacus Educational. â€Å"NAACP Timeline.† National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Lifting the Veil

Striving to Live Above the Veil W. E. B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of autobiographical and historical essays contains many themes. Themes such as souls and their attainment of consciousness and the theme of double consciousness appear in many of the compositions. However, one of the most prominent themes is that of â€Å"the veil. † The veil provides a connection between the 14 seemingly unconnected essays that make up this book. Mentioned at least once in most of the essays the veil is the stereotypes that whites bring to their interactions with blacks.African Americans are prejudged as incapable and thus not given a chance to prove themselves. This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy if one is told they can't do something, they may internalize that belief and think they can't, when in fact they can. Du Bois puts it as, â€Å"this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others† (Du Bois 2). The veil is a metaphor for the separa tion and invisibility of black life and existence in America; also a way to represent the idea of blacks living in a â€Å"white world†. The veil is symbolic of the invisibility of blacks in America.Du Bois says that Blacks in America are a forgotten people, â€Å"after the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil† (Du Bois 2). The invisibility of Black existence in America is one of the reasons why Du Bois writes The Souls of Black Folk, in order to explain the â€Å"invisible† history and strivings of Black Americans, Du Bois writes in the forethought, â€Å"I have sought here to sketch, in vague, uncertain outline, the spiritual world in which ten thousand Americans live and strive† (v).Du Bois in each of the following chapters tries to build the idea of Black existence from that of the reconstruction period to the black spirituals and the stories of rural black children th at he tried to educate. Du Bois in the book is contending with trying to establish some sense of history and memory for Black Americans, Du Bois struggles in the pages of the book to prevent Black Americans from becoming unseen to the rest of the world, hidden behind a veil of prejudice.He writes in the after-thought, â€Å"Hear my Cry, O God the reader vouch safe that this my book fall not still born into the world-wilderness. Let there spring, Gentle one, from its leaves vigor of thought and thoughtful deed to reap the harvest wonderful†Ã‚  (165). Du Bois wanted this book to inspire Blacks to fight for their rights and equality, he didn’t just want this book to be read, he wanted people to react to the writing and make a change. The veil also acts as a psychological barrier separating blacks from whites.The theme of this separation of blacks and whites is a central metaphor of the book starting with the first lines where Du Bois recalls his encounters with whites who view him not as a person but as a problem, â€Å"They half approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then instead of saying directly how does it feel to be a problem? They say, I know an excellent colored man in my town†(1). The veil in this case hides the humanity of blacks which has important implications to the types of relations that developed between blacks and whites.With their humanity hidden behind the veil black and white relations at the time of the writing of The Souls Of Black Folk were marked by violence: draft riots in New York during the Civil War, riots following the reconstruction period, the lynching of Blacks, and the formation of the Klu Klux Klan. The theme of separation caused by the veil is repeated throughout the book several times. For example slave religious practices were separate from white religious practices. Although many times slaves and their masters worshipped together.Religion during the slavery pe riod provided two very different things for master and slaves. For the master religion was a way to justify slavery and for slaves religion became a form of resistance; a way to resist social death and hope that they can overcome the barrier of white prejudices. Another difference is what the reconstruction period did for each race. For blacks reconstruction was a time of optimism and freedom; for whites reconstruction was a time in which the north repressed a defeated region, with ignorant former slaves, who unable to act constructively for themselves were pawns for the people of the North.These differences created immense misunderstanding and because of that neither race was able to overcome the obstacle of learning and excepting a different culture; both whites and blacks thought the worst about each other. Du Bois unlike other blacks is able to move around the veil, operate behind it, lift it, and even transcend it. In the forethought Du Bois tells the reader that in the followi ng chapters he has, â€Å"Stepped with in the veil, raising it that you may view faintly its deeper recesses, -the meaning of its religion, the passion of its human sorrow, and the struggle of its greater souls. Du Bois in the first Chapter steps outside the veil to reveal the origin and his awareness of the veil. He also rises above the veil in chapter six, when he explores the great arts, â€Å"I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color-line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they will come all graciously with no scorn nor condensation. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil† (67).No discrimination is to be had when he is reading great works of art because his race doesn’t affect his ability to read and interpret them. Als o it is Du Bois's awareness of the veil that allows him to step outside of it and reveal the history of the Negro. Du Bois goes on to show his white audience the history of the Black man following reconstruction, the origins of the black church. Du Bois then talks about the conditions of individuals living behind the veil from his first born son who, â€Å"With in the veil was he born, said I; and there with in shall he live, -a Negro and a Negro's son†¦.I saw the shadow of the veil as it passed over my baby, I saw the cold city towering above the blood read land† (128). In this passage Du Bois is both within and above the veil. He is a Negro living like his baby within the veil but he is also above the veil, able to see it pass over his child. After Du Bois's child dies he prays that it will, â€Å"sleep till I sleep, and waken to a baby voice and the ceaseless patter of little feet-above the veil† (131).Here Du Bois is living above the veil but in the following Chapter he once again travels behind the veil to tell the story of Alexander Crummell a black man who for, â€Å"fourscore years had he wondered in this same world of mine, within the Veil† (134). Du Bois relates to Crummell who struggled against prejudices while trying to become a priest. In the Chapter on â€Å"Sorrow Songs† Du Bois implores the reader to rise above the veil. He writes, â€Å"In his good time America shall rend the veil and the prisoner shall go free† (163). Du Bois compared the veil to a prison that traps Blacks from achieving progress and freedom.According to Du Bois the veil causes Blacks to accept the false images that whites see of Blacks. Du Bois although not directly in The Souls of Black Folk critique's Booker T. Washington for accepting the veil and accepting white's image and misconception of blacks. Booker T. Washington accepts the white idea that blacks are problem people; not a people with a problem caused by white racism. Washing ton seeks to work behind the veil by pursuing polices of accommodation. Du Bois in contrast wants blacks to transcend the veil by politically disturbing the concept of what blacks are and what they are worth and by gaining a full education.The veil is a metaphor that suggests the invisibility of black America, the separation between whites and blacks, and the obstacles that blacks face in gaining self-consciousness in a racist society. The veil is not a two dimensional cloth to Du Bois but instead it is a three dimensional prison that prevent blacks from seeing themselves as they are, but instead makes them see the negative stereotypes that whites have of them. This book was Du Bois's â€Å"letter† to the American people urging them not to live behind the veil but to live above it.