DB4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

DB4 - Essay Example The Crown had to look for new avenues for trade in order to expand the kingdom. He planned on reaching East Indies by sailing west, he under estimate the size of earth. Columbus travelled from Palos towards SouthWest in order to take advantage of the trade winds from the Canary Islands (Paine 1995). The bohemian globe showed that the Indies was on the same latitude as he was, travelling towards Cipangu (Modern day Japan). He assumed that the distance west to China was relatively short and neither he nor his crew would have imagined there was a continent in the way to stop him. For many across the globe, this is still considered as the biggest discovery in the world history, as a result of the discoveries of Christopher Columbus, Western Hemisphere of the world was changed forever and thus gave birth to the Western Civilization. America today is the world leader in international affairs, it would have been not possible if this discovery was not made, and this was one of the greatest turning points in the history. According to historians the natives who occupied the lands that were discovered by Columbus, did not have a rich culture like the Europeans. They were mostly hunters and had no rights over the land. They used to live naked and in an uncivilized manner, which was quite the opposite of the European civilized culture. They used to travel in search of food across the different areas of land. It should not be considered wrong if Columbus took their land to establish European colonies (Roysl 1999). In the opinion of native people, the discovery made by the Italian voyeur Christopher Columbus, wasn’t really a discovery in real. The native Indians have been living there for thousand of years. It was pure ignorance on the part of scholars of that era, who did not know a whole continent existed between Europe and Asia on the west. The discovery should not have been significant enough to become such a historic event in the history,

Overcoming Cultural Barriers to Change Essay Example for Free

Overcoming Cultural Barriers to Change Essay There is a popular saying â€Å"the only thing that is constant is change† by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. What it simply means is that the only guarantee in life is that things do not always stay the same. Change is needed to grow and advance in life. In the corporate and healthcare industries, change is happening all the time. This article addresses how the Corporate Culture within an entity can aid or hurt the change process at hand. Corporate Culture is defined as a set of characteristics that define a particular company. It involves employee attitudes, values, customs, standards, policies and procedures, and rites and rituals. It defines how a company performs and how it gets things accomplished toward either a positive or negative outcome. The article describes the characteristics of a high performance corporate culture and a low performance corporate culture. In a high performance corporate culture the individuals are more willing to embrace the changes compared to a company were low performance corporate culture is the norm. When organizations are able to adopt change and readily execute systems to carry it out, they tend to be more prosperous. A company with a low performance corporate culture can place a burden on the attempts to change, making it more difficult for everybody involved from management all the way to customers. The article also gives advice on how to overcome cultural barriers to move the culture from low performing to high performing. Some of these principles include giving rewards, showing by example, encouraging involvement, repetition, stating over and over the change and how it will benefit the organization and the expectations from the team and be passionate. By considering the organization’s culture, and acknowledging any key barriers to change, one can help make the change initiative more successful. Perseverance, communication, and passion is needed to build and support new ways of working. Building a higher-performance culture is fundamental to the organizations ability to adapt and change, and to its lasting prosperity. References Last Name, F. M. (Year). Article Title. Journal Title, Pages From To. Last Name, F. M. (Year). Book Title. City Name: Publisher Name.

Realism And Grotesque In Gullivers Travels English Literature Essay

Realism And Grotesque In Gullivers Travels English Literature Essay Gullivers Travels is a pivotal work in the history of the novel as it exhibits the ways the novel inherits and develops Menippean satire and grotesque aesthetics. Gullivers Travels has rarely been regarded as a proper early novel like Robinson Crusoe or Pamela largely due to two conventional understandings of genre and aesthetics. The first common understanding is that the novel and Menippean satire are mutually exclusive genres. Critics have turned to Menippean satire as if to argue that the genre of Gullivers Travels is kind of a prose fiction that is not the novel. Northrop Frye, for instance, begins his discussion of Gullivers Travels by mentioning that most people would call Gullivers Travels fiction but not a novel. It must then be another form of fiction, i.e. Menippean satire (308). In turn, critics who claim Gullivers Travels as a novel tend to ignore the Menippean tradition of the work; Maximillian Novak asserts that once we consider Gullivers Travels as a work of fiction, we cannot shunt it off into a meaningless category such as anatomy or Menippean satire, in his reading of the work as a picaresque novel(35). The second conventional idea is that the grotesque and realism are also two disparate aesthetic realms, and that grotesque aesthetics in Gullivers Travels- from its use of the fantastic, metamorphosis, or the mad man theme to its excremental vision-does not fit into the realistic aesthetic of the novel. The seeming generic instability of Gullivers Travels mostly derives from our preconceived notion of the novel as a genre of probable realism with verisimilar characters and plausible plots. In fact, even the most acute critics of Swift are not entirely free from this prevalent given notion of what the novel should be. Brean Hammond, who appropriates Bakhtins conception of novelization to explain the cultural shifts of the long eighteenth century toward a hybridization that breaks down traditionally observed generic boundaries, surprisingly turn s to a conventional notion of the novel when he argues that Gullivers Travels is not a novel like Robinson Crusoe partly because Gulliver is not a character like Crusoe, a character who is a credible approximation of a human being,-i.e. a verisimilar character-but a device that can be exploited for satiric purposes(250, 270). Hammond is right that [Gullivers Travels] is ideologically opposed to the set of attitudes and beliefs that was fuelling the development of the novel as a genre; part of the intention of the work lies in the parody of Robinson Crusoe or the stuff of 1720s romanceby Haywood, as he remarks(270). That does not mean, however, that Gullivers Travels is not a novel. Swift might have intended his Menippean work partly as a Scriblerian satire that attacks modern hack writings. Paradoxically, or according to the process of novelization, however, Gullivers Travels turned out to be a significant addition to the novelistic tradition; the novelistic energies that Swift desp ised and denigrated boomeranged and informed his satire, and transformed it into a novel. Gullivers Travels is not exhaustively explained by our conventional notion of the novel, but it does not mean that it is not a novel. Rather, Swifts work characteristically challenges our common notion of the novel, and reveals the rich tradition of Menippean satire that is absorbed in the novel. In a similar vein, the grotesque aesthetics of Gullivers Travels belies our confined notion of realism, or realistic aesthetics. It manifests that (novelistic) realism is not limited to probable realism, a mixture of empirical episteme and the modern transformation of classical mimetic aesthetics, but also involves low realism-crudely put, an antonym of idealism or classicism. At a superficial level, the grotesque and realism could look like two separate or almost opposite notions. Geoffrey Harpham and Mikhail Bakhtin, however, illustrate that the grotesque and realism are compatible notions at a fundamental level, and that the history of the grotesque is also the history of the recognition of that compatibility. Harpham provides a useful account of the shift of the notion of the relation between the grotesque and realism. According to him, while the Renaissance regarded grottesche as pure fantasy, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we find [the grotesque] associated with car icature in.. .Rowlandson, Hogarth, Goya, most of whom we would not associate with fantastic art, and by the beginning of the twentieth century.. .Thomas Mann commented.. .that the grotesque was properly something more than the truth, something real in the extreme.' According to this narrative, the history of the grotesque is a gradual recognition of the fundamentally realistic characteristic of the Grotesque, which is distinct from the mimetic realism of the Classical (xviii-xix). Bakhtin offers another powerful narrative on the history of the grotesque, or the intricate relation of the grotesque and realism. The grotesque and realism are almost synonymous for Bakhtin, as is epitomized in his core term of grotesque realism. Grotesque realism, which lower[s] all that is high, spiritual, ideal, abstract and is opposed to severance from the material and bodily roots of the world, is culminated in the literature of the Renaissance after the medieval culture of folk humor(19-20, 32). As starkly opposed to classical aesthetics, grotesque realism is closely linked to some other central concepts of Bakhtin, like the carnival spirit, the material bodily principle, folk humor, or the ambivalent and regenerating laughter of the people. Bakhtin also historicizes the concept of the grotesque, confining grotesque realism to the Renaissance grotesque, although he underscores the living tradition of Renaissance grotesque realism in world literature. He explains that the Renaissance grotesque is reduced and transformed in later periods, and thus the Romantic grotesque (and the modernist grotesque) is more like an individual carnival, marked by a vivid sense of isolation, losing laughters regenerating power.(37). One notable element in Bakhtins historicization of the grotesque is, however, that the eighteenth-century grotesque is almost invisible between the Renaissance grotesque and the Romantic grotesque. One reason would be, as Bakhtin implies, that the eighteenth century directly inherited the Renaissance grotesque but also embedded the elements of classicism or cold rationalism: a time that the positive bodily hyperbole of Rabelais and the bourgeois disciplined body were uncomfortably commingled and intensely struggled with each other. Thus the eighteenth-century grotesque was the space in which the Renaissance struggle between the Grotesque and the Classical was continued in a displaced form of the struggle between the lingering force of the Renaissance grotesque and now ascending bourgeois rationalism, classical bourgeois reason. The Augustan formal verse satire of Dryden, Pope, or Swift played out the unprecedentedly intense contention between the classical-rational and the grotesque through an odd mixture of refined, sophisticated forms and disorderly, brimming-over contents. Swift also embodies the bitter conflict of the classical-rational and the grotesque through (the relation of) the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos in Gullivers Travels, a Menippean satire and a novel, which remarkably displays the peculiar characteristic of the eighteenth-century grotesque. Although critics have increasingly acknowledged that Gullivers Travels is a Menippean satire, there are few detailed readings of the work in the Menippean tradition, particularly in relation to Bakhtins concept of the genre as an authentic precursor of the novel. While scrutinizing the relation of the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos as a privileged locus of the Swiftian grotesque, the political dimension of the grotesque will be revealed, which is embedded in the Yahoos as an allegory of the Irish, or colonial subjects, and then briefly examine the political dimension of (low) realism. The Menippean fantastic usually generates three effects, which are fully used in Gullivers Travels. First, the fantastic adventure provides a new, non-human perspective that defamiliarizes our accustomed world, or debunks our habitual, human-centered way of thinking. As Bakhtin describes, it provoke[es] and test[s] a truth by using the observation from some unusual point of view, from on high, for example, which results in a radical change in the scale of the observed phenomena of life(116). Secondly, the Menippean fantastic engages popular imagination or a comic, carnivalesque spirit; the popularity of Gullivers Travels, particularly as a classic childrens book, is considerably indebted to this folkloric imagination embedded in the fantastic. Thirdly, the fantastic offers an occasion to critique the authors (and the assumed readers) contemporary reality, usually by imagining an upside-down world or a Utopian society. In the imagined spaces of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, or Houyhn hnmland (or Yahooland), Swift cuttingly criticizes the domestic policies of England as well as the overall imperialism of Europe. Gullivers first meal at the Brobdingnagian farmers house illustrates how the three levels of the fantastic-ultimate questions, popular laughter, and a critique of contemporary reality-are simultaneously generated in Gullivers Travels. When the farmers wife gave him something to eat and drink, Gulliver says he: made her a low bow, took out my knife and fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding delight .1 took up the vessel with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most respectful manner drank to her ladyships health, expressing the words as loud as I could in English, which made the company laugh so heartily, that I was almost deafened with the noise. (85). To imagine Gulliver taking out his fork and knife from his magic pockets, in which he seems to have everything necessary wherever he is stranded, is certainly hilarious. Apart from that, why is this scene full of humor, and why does the reader participate in the Brobdingnagians delight and laughter at Gullivers actions? To use knife and fork in eating is a common custom in eighteenth-century Europe, and to drink to her ladyships health in a most respectful manner is also a well-mannered behavior. Yet from the perspective of the Brobdingnagians, to whom Gulliver is like a small dangerous animal or a strange animal at first (83, 90), his socially tailored and overly polite behaviors could look affected or ridiculous mostly because of the incongruity between a strange animal and his pretense to be a perfectly civilized man. Their giant perspective makes us see Gullivers pride in his being a gentleman who acts according to the social code, and by extension, the pride of all humankind in his or her exclusive claim to high civilization. Moreover, a non-human view renders the European manner of using knife and fork or making a gallant compliment on the hostess not so much absolute social etiquette but one cultural custom among many cultural possibilities. To Brobdingnagians, it makes little difference whether a small animal like Gulliver uses knife and fork (as in Europe) or his fingers (as in some other cultures), although using fingers for food is an unequivocal sign of barbarism from a European perspective. Likewise, a humble showing of gratitude for food would be as good as a showy display of a toast for the hostess in a Brobdingnagians view. The Olympian perspective of the Brobdingnagians, which almost innocently exposes the limited view of human beings, also serves as a device of a severe attack on human folly or pride. When Gulliver finished his talking of[his] own beloved country, the Brobdingnagin king could not forbear taking [Gulliver] up in his right hand, and stroking [him] gently with the other, after an hearty fit of laughing, asked [him] whether [he was] a Whig or a Tory. Then turning to his first ministerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ he observed how contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as I (100). What makes the kings rhetorical question incisive does not derive from any political considerations but from the sheer size difference between the king and Gulliver; the kings gesture of stroking [Gulliver] gently with his left hand nullifies a pressing problem in eighteenth-century England into a trivial or meaningless one. The exorbitant pride and atrociousness of humans, w hich the king points out repeatedly, looks more preposterous in the frame where giants are human and Gulliver is a diminutive insect. We humans become the most pernicious race of little odious vermin or an impotent and groveling an insect (123, 125) from a Brobdingnagianss view. Laughter is reduced to the level of bitterness here. The fantastic convention of Menippean satire is entangled with another main convention of the genre: metamorphosis. Gullivers travels into fantastic lands are coextensive with his experiences of metamorphosis into a strange, monstrous, unnatural or grotesque being. Metamorphosis, like the fantastic, holds a formal generic significance as opposed to the classical aesthetics of high genres. It destroy[s] the epic and tragic wholeness of a person and his fate: the possibility of another person and another life are revealed in himà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ he ceases to coincide with himself, as Bakhtin notes. To compare Gullivers fantastic travels and Odysseuss epic journey around their encounter with a monster and its effect on their identities is illuminating. When Odysseus confronts a savage monster, Polyphemus, it is his fate and his character to defeat the Cyclops by using his wiles, as is evidenced in Polyphemus later recall of the prophecy. Throughout his long journey, Odysseuss identity nev er changes, despite his varied disguises, with any encounters with monsters, like Charibdis, Scylla, or Circe. The boundary between a hero and a monster, or the self and the other, cannot be blurred in Odysseus. In contrast, Gullivers encounters with giant Brobdingnagians, which he understandably regarded as monsters at first (seven monsters like himself came toward him 82), shakes his identity to the core. While the Brobdignagians regard themselves as humans, it is Gulliver who becomes a monster, or an unnatural anomaly among those humans. The scholars of Brobdingnag unanimously conclude that Gulliver is Lusus Naturae, or a freak of nature (98). Metamophorsis assumes a permeating line between a hero and a monster, and Gullivers experience of being transformed into a monster among the pigmy Lilliputians or the giant Brobdingnagians (as far as to see himself as a freak) manifests a different concept of self and the other in Menippean satire from that in high genres like The Odyssey. While Odysseus unfailingly defeats various monsters in his way home to reestablish his (social) identity, Gulliver suffers being transformed into grotesque figures in his fantastic adventures only to be mad when he is back home. Gullivers experience as a grotesque being is not only significant in the frame of the fantastic but also holds a strong social resonance-to people in the margin or periphery, a metaphoric transformation into a grotesque being is neither rare nor bizarre, anyway. Gullivers odd trials in Brobdingnag or Lilliput not only involve becoming a symbolic monster, like a diminutive insect or Man-Mountain, but also signify being thrown into a socially abject, precarious position, like a slave or a highly vulnerable courtier. In Brobdingnag, Gulliver has to go through the ignominy of being carried about for a monster, till [he is] half dead with weariness and vexation since now he is [his] masters slave (92, 93, 95). Likewise, despite the high title of Nardac in Lilliput, Gulliver is notified of his friends generous proposal to get him blind and eventually starved to death as an alternative to capital punishment, on which Gulliver says having never been designed for a courtier either by my birth or educationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ 1 could not discover the lenity and favor of this sentence (69). Gullivers denial of his own identity, or the denial of his monstrosity among the normal inhabitants of Brobdignag, certainly anticipates his total conversion in Houyhnhnmland, his ardent wish to be like the Houyhnhnms and the insistent denial of his Yahooness. And as much as the fantastic lands are overlapped with the real world, Gullivers denial of his abject, grotesque identity so as to be like his dominant masters comes to signify the split identity of a colonial subject. In fact, Gullivers shifting and conflicting subject positions (as a colonized and a colonizer) throughout the whole narrative prepares him for his ultimate madness, a total split identity between his Yahooness and his desire to be a Houyhnhnm. The eventual madness of Gulliver, who always keep[s his] nose well stopped with rue, lavender, or tobacco leaves to avoid the [offensive] smell of a Yahoo (271), or converse[s] with [his horses] at least four hours every day to improve his virtue (266), reflects not so much Swifts stark misanthropy but a common Menippean experiment with a split self. As is typical of Menippean satire, Gullivers madness contains a comic element. Even the most serious reader would smile at the moments like as soon as I entered the house, my wife took me in her arms, and kissed me, at which having not been used to the touch of that odious animal for so many years, I fell in a swoon for almost an hour (265), or I feel my spirits revived by the smell [the groom] contracts in the stable (266). Scattered throughout Bakhtins works, we can find references to Swift as a central author in the eighteenth century, who inherited and developed the Renaissance grotesque and Menippean imagination: the contents of the carnival-grotesque elementà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ were preservedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ in the work of Swift; this line of experimental fantasicality continuesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ in Rabelais, Swift, Voltaire and others. Yet there seem to be some notable differences between the Renaissance or Rabelaisian grotesque (that Bakhtin stresses) and the Swiftian grotesque. A conspicuous example of this difference is the peculiar image of the body in Swift, his excremental vision, or the hallmark of his scatological imagery. Bakhtin explains that in Rabelaiss grotesque realism, the bodily element is deeply positive it is opposed to severance from the material and bodily roots of the world (19). As any reader would remark, however, the body image in Gullivers Travels is hard to be described as deeply positive. Swifts body is rather full of filthy, despicable, ugly, burdensome, obscene, or scatological images. Gullivers description of the monstrous breast of a nurse in Brobdingnag ( the hue both of [the nipple] and the dug so varified with spots, pimples and freckles, that nothing could appear more nauseous 87), or of a woman beggar in the country with a cancer in her breast, swelled to a monstrous size, full of holes (105), is only a couple of memorable examples that display negative images of the body in Gullivers Travels. Swifts body also does not involve the image of brimming-over, ambivalence, or regeneration, which Bakhtin asserts are the core principles of the material bodily lower stratum in the Renaissance grotesque. In Gullivers Travels the exaggerated bodily image becomes deplorable repletion, from which all diseases arise (233), or the ultimate culprit of bodily diseases. Human beings are sick because we eat when we were not hungry, and drank without the provocation o f thirst (233), as Gulliver mentions to his master Houhynhnm. Gullivers Travels embodies the intimate relation of the grotesque-allegorical and realism in its own peculiar manner. Gullivers Travels is a crucial work in the discussion of realism in the novel partly because it illustrates how grotesque aesthetics, a crucial part of low realism, positively invokes the authors bad contemporary reality. If realism still matters, one reason lies in that it evokes the embroiled relation between text and world, the real world in which all kinds of oppression, constraints, or injustice-i. e. the objects of Swifts satire-are still happening. It is not surprising that the definition of realism is so various as to seem nearly meaningless, for the definition of reality is so much different as that of realism, depending on each individual or each period; terms like psychological realism, fantastic realism, or historical realism, already imply what the user of the term thinks is the fundamental reality-psychology, fantasy, or history. The political dimension of realism constitutes an integral part of it since realism involves an inevitable question of whose reality is at sta ke. Houyhnhnmland is also Yahooland, according to whose reality is dominant. The Houyhnhnms have had debates for ages about the extermination of the Yahoos, but the Yahoos in turn seem to be ready to have rebellion or mutiny, given a provocation, like the inhabitants of Lindalino. Swift gives a most horrible form to the Yahoos, and even does not give a voice to them: they only howl. However, he makes the reader see that Houyhnhnmland is also Yahooland, not explicitly nevertheless, but still powerfully and disturbingly.

Essay --

1. There is a very homoerotic/masculine feel from the opening scene of Rambo III. We are introduced to a ripped and glistening character that looks like he has been bathing in baby oil/tanning oil for the past 48 hours. There is nothing that seems to hurt Rambo as he takes every blow delivered to him in the opening scene. He is also willing to kill countless amounts of Russians in order to save the American general. The game that Rambo learns to play? It is only a physical game played with goat carcass. Rambo is made out to be un-stoppable and even God-like. When Trautman reveals that Rambo is coming to resue him, Zaysen asks Trautman who he thinks Rambo is†¦God? Trautman replies, â€Å"No, God would have mercy†¦he won’t.† Rambo would rather die than not fight for what he believes in. Even at the end, when all seems lost, he refuses to go down without a fight. His determination to fight is the greatest testament to his masculine identity. The Afghanis respec t this and in this sense, Rambo almost becomes a martyr to them. By the end, it almost seems like they aren’t fighting for themselves, but for Rambo! In relation to Jeffords, the â€Å"hard-body† physique is clearly present with Stallone’s character as are the narratives of heroism, toughness, strength, etc†¦ in the film which helps to clearly demonstrate the mastery over foreign enemies. 2. Orientalism is the way that the Middle East is depicted by its’ friendly acquaintances over in the West. In other terms, it is a â€Å"racist discourse which constructs the orient for Western aggrandizement.† The way that the Afghans are depicted in the film alongside Rambo makes the audience sympathize with them. The little boy also looks up to Rambo. He looks up to him a masculine father-figure. Using th... ...ew what we know now. If only they knew about how 9/11 and the actions the Bush administration took because of it. Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised if the same question asked of Rambo â€Å"Where’s the honor here?† is asked today by Afghans/Pakistanis wondering where the â€Å"honor† is in unmanned drones? It was hard to figure out who to root for in the film†¦especially with historical bias†¦because the Taliban and entire nation of Afghanistan are made out to be heroes in the film. Back then, it may have been acceptable to insinuate that anyone fighting Russia was practically Christ. They are even referred to as â€Å"freedom fighters† in the film (President Reagan would use this term as well). Today though, we have to watch this film while knowing about the death and destruction caused by terrorists on September 11. Back then, our present â€Å"enemies† were our former â€Å"comrades.†

Performance Appraisal Essay

â€Å"Performance appraisal is the process through which employee performance is assessed, feedback is provided to the employee, and corrective action plans are designed† (Youssef, 2012). So basically, a performance appraisal is the process of evaluation workers’ performance in correlation with previously determined standards of the organization. Performance appraisals are one way of giving employees feedback about their performance at work; they record the employee’s performance to date, their potential and what they could work on to further benefit them. These appraisals do not only help them employee but they could benefit the organization as well in that it reflects on if the employee is right for the position (currently or in the future) and if the training the organization gives is sufficient for the employee. There are many advantages to performing appraisals. The records of these performance appraisals are kept for a period of time, they can be referenced and used to evaluate how an employee has improved over time, or if they have yet to improve or began to slack off. This gives an opportunity for a manager to pull an employee aside and praise them for their accomplishments or inform them what it is they need to improve on, managers can also determine whether or not an employee could benefit from further training. Employees can be given feedback while learning if their goals within the company have been fulfilled while setting up new goals for them to accomplish in the next year. Sometimes, expectations and policies can be difficult to understand; during feedback, one can take that opportunity to have clarity on policies and expectations and discuss matters that they want to discuss in private, such as ideas for improvement or issues they’ve had within the company or with fellow employees. Knowing that your performance will be appraised can serve as motivation to gain a reward for their hard work. There is potential for biases that need to be worked through to make sure everyone is given a fair opportunity. While it’s easy to compare one another, it’s imperative and difficult to resist comparing skills of one employee to another; if employees were compared to one another, it creates an unfair assessment of the employees. It’s crucial to set a standard to evaluate performance. Personality conflicts can influence judgment when assessing performance; this would cause an inaccurate assessment which would be unfair to the employee. Just because an employee is good at one thing, does not make them good at everything, and vice versa. One ruined project or miscommunication in direction does not mean the same thing will occur every time, or again even. There needs to be a minimum time-frame in which an employee’s performance should be assessed; it’s not fair for a manager that’s worked with an employee a time or two to fairly appraise them, a first impression can distort one’s image in either a positive or negative manner. It’s also necessary to appraise one on their entire performance, not just the most recent occurrences. Lifestyle choices should be left out of the appraisal process and should not be used for or against an employee. The primary objectives of an appraisal are – to assess past performance, to identify training needs, to set and agree on future objectives and standards, and to facilitate the achievement of these goals† (Youssef, 2012). Management by objectives includes an agreement between managers and their employees on the employee’s performance objectives for periodic review for the employee accomplishes said objectives. The effectiveness of a performance appraisal can be judged by its objectives. Understanding the strategic objectives can help one adjust to meet the needs of an organization. A timeline allows a manager and employee to make a plan for goals to be met, there must be deadlines and time periods assigned to each goal to ensure that they are met. An employee needs to show improvement, one that is not very productive and having issues with the company’s values and policies will not be around for a long period of time. Employees that are productive and possess talent that are imperative for the position will help with the company’s success and ensure they are able to withstand growth. Strategic planning is needed to determine the budget for current employees as well as future employees. Appraisal results reflect one’s character, development, how well one performs to the organization’s standards, as well as other strengths or weaknesses. In some organizations, these results may be used to determine if/which employees deserve recognition as well as awards such as a merit pay raise, a bonus and/or a promotion. These results can also determine which employees do not mesh with the organization and need to be let go, require counseling or further training or a demotion/decrease in pay. Performance appraisals can be a motivation to excel.

Arthur Miller creates the tension Essay

I have chosen to write my essay on a section in Act VI, starting on page 105 from where Elizabeth Proctor enters, ending just before John Proctor enters at the bottom of page 106. This scene in ‘ The Crucible ‘, is a heated dialogue between Deputy-Governor Danforth, Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, Judge Hathorne and Goodwife Elizabeth Proctor whom the four men are desperately trying to persuade to save her husband, John Proctor’s life. I chose this scene because it makes clear how Arthur Miller uses all the means available to a dramatist to make a section tense. He creates the extreme tension between the characters and makes the mood obvious to the reader using; language devices, the interrogation of characters, pauses, disagreement between characters, stage directions to create images for us to visualise the action, and our previous knowledge of events and relationships between these characters in particular. The scene is set inside a cell in Salem jail. Earlier in Act IV, Miller used stage directions to show us how uncomfortable he wished for the room to look. Also as the season is Autumn, Miller described the weather as bitterly cold and told us that â€Å"the place is in darkness but for the moonlight seeping through the bars.†These conditions add to the tension in the scene as characters are much more likely to be irritable and short-tempered if they are cold, especially as it is night time and a prison in darkness would seem very sinister. People often expect bad happenings at night, such as the dancing in the woods at the beginning of the play, which was a forbidden event in the Puritan society and had terrible after-effects. Also Abigail when threatening the other girls said,†I have seen some reddish work done at night.† We are therefore already expecting the unexpected due to this imagery and theme of darkness, used by Miller to create tension with the setting. The tension has already been built up to this section by the background knowledge that we have from other scenes in the play. Danforth, Hale, Parris and Hathorne are proposing to gain Goody Proctor’s help in saving her husband from hanging the next morning. We have seen John and Elizabeth alone together and the limited information that we have about their relationship leaves the reader with a questioning mind on how she will react to: John being condemned, and to them wanting her to persuade him into a false confession. Miller has given us contrasting pieces of evidence as to whether she cares enough about him to be willing to talk to him: in Act II we see tension between the couple during their dinner when they were falsely polite and formal to each other, and seemed to have unloving relationship with a lack of trust. However, in Act III Elizabeth lies in an attempt to protect John. Elizabeth’s hatred for lying is another reason that could lead the reader to doubt if she will agree to speaking with John, especially as she is a religious person and one of the Ten Commandments is ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness’ – In doing what they wish, Elizabeth would have to persuade another person to lie. Miller has put this scene at this point in the play so it can follow on from the sections that give the reader the knowledge of Elizabeth’s inner tensions are and how they could affect her descisions; we know that Elizabeth is aware of her husband’s principles, but also that her conflicting emotions will tell her to attempt at saving his life. This doubt of what Elizabeth will do will make the audience increasingly tense, as they know her descision over whether to help is crucial: If she agrees to speak with him, John could be saved. However, if she will not speak with him, John will hang the next morning, as there is no-body else who could possibly make him listen and reconsider. The section that I chose starts with Parris saying,†Hush,† on hearing footsteps. This leaves the room in a tense silence, during which the audience will be focused on anticipating what Elizabeth will look like and how she will react to their news of John. Miller uses stage directions to help us visualise Elizabeth’s appearance- â€Å"Her clothes are dirty; her face is pale and gaunt.† Miller also uses this to imply how they may feel uncomfortable in each others company, by showing us the very different positions they are in. We can see the tension due to this when Danforth begins to speak,†(very politely)†, as this is obviously false. She is silent when he adresses her and the tension increases again when Danforth says,†I hope you are hearty?†. This could be seen as ironic and sarcastic from how Miller previously presented her to be visibly unwell. However, from what we already know of Danforth’s character, the reader is more likely to assume that he merely said the wrong thing due to not knowing how to handle the delicate situation- this makes the scene even more tense as the most authotitive person doesn’t seem to know what to say. His words could also be interpreted as a deliberate use of informal/coloquial language which can be effective for means of persuasion- Miller could have been making it look as though Danforth was speaking in a controversial way, and trying to make Elizabeth regard him as a friend. However, pleasantness from Danforth could just result in making Elizabeth more tense, and suspicious of what they want from her. The silence from Elizabeth could result in making Danforth even more tense, especially if he was already uneasy, due to the fact that he may feel that him being involved is unfair because, as he said himself, â€Å"twelve are already hanged for the same crime.† Miller uses silence many other times within this small section to build up tension as we wait for a reaction from a character. Pauses are also used by Miller when a character doesn’t know what to say or is being extremely careful in their response.

Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations essays

Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations essays The Nature And Sources Of The Wealth Of Nations Adam Smith has been regarded to be the father of modern economics, and many of his ideas have been integrated the nations in the present day western world. His major work was "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," where he discusses many of his economic views. Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, and raised by his mother, Margaret Douglas. His father, Comptroller of Customs in Kirkcaldy, died before Smith was born. Smith began his education at the University of Glasgow at the age of 14. He demonstrated a talent for math and physics, but his interest was in philosophy, to which he applied his analytical skills and tireless inquiry for the rest of his life. He later studied at Oxford, although he wasnt satisfied with the education provided at the famous university, and later returned to Scotland to lecture in Edinburgh. Smith gained fame as an intellectual in 1759, when he published of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which was based on his lectures from Edinburgh and Glasgow, where he was Professor of Logic and then Professor of Moral Philosophy for thirteen years. Following his position at the University of Glasgow, Smith became tutor for the third Duke of Buccleuch in France and Geneva, where he met Voltaire and other philosophers. Perspectives gained during this time inspired Smith's work on Wealth of Nations Smith showed surprising conclusions during his time, when he applied scientific principles to economic behavior. One of his conclusions was that people mainly acted out of their own self-interests, and if permitted to follow their instincts, it created natural harmony and economic productivity. This would occur and was led without any conscious control or direction, as if by an invisible hand. According to Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," he stated the idea that a greater division of labor lead to increased p...

100 Persuasive Essay Topics and Expert Essay Writing Tips

100 Persuasive Essay Topics and Expert Essay Writing Tips Persuasive Essay Topics Most people don't have the power of persuasion. James Altucher Each student should try to do his / her best to write powerful, original, creative and meaningful persuasive essays on different burning persuasive essay topics. Choosing the most creative and fascinating persuasive essay topic is a key to success in writing. Before starting selecting a good topic for your essay, complete the list of the topics that you are interested in. Devote a few minutes of your precious time to carefully read the following article. We have prepared the list of the good persuasive essay topics that you can use to meet the expectations of your university or college teachers. If you have any questions or problems concerning the process of writing essays, please contact our company right now. Original Persuasive Essay Topics To become an A-student and to demonstrate all your skills and abilities, such as reading, comprehension, writing, critical thinking, research, analysis, and others you need to have a list of unique essay topics. The first step to your academic success is the choice of the most fascinating topic in the field you are majoring in. If you consider that it is a bit complicated for you to choose a topic, you can search for the lists of different persuasive essay topics in a wide diversity of subjects, as well as essay samples on our website free of charge. Essential and Practical Persuasive Essay Writing Tips: Clearly define your attitude to the chosen topic. For instance, physical activities in educational institutions are very useful in bring up healthier young people. Check whether there are enough pieces of corroborative evidence to support your point of view. If there is a necessity, conduct detailed and thorough research using different sources, both primary or secondary. If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect. Benjamin Franklin Think of your future readers. Choose only those topics for your persuasive essays that you are good at and familiar with. This enables you to create an excellent piece of writing. Stick to the set structure of the academic papers: the introduction with the thesis statement, 3-4 main body paragraphs, the conclusion, and a reference / bibliography page. Define the aim of your persuasive essay. Do you try to introduce a new topic or are you planning to prove that your point of view is the right one? Do not forget to provide definite facts, detailed statistics, supportive evidence or proven data while writing your persuasive essay. This makes your essay look reliable and very persuasive. Good Persuasive Essay Topics We have completed the list of the good persuasive essay topics in different fields of science and on various topics. In case you cannot choose an interesting persuasive essay topic yourself, you can always decide upon the one provided below. Persuasive Essay Topics for Elementary Students Negative Outcomes of the Vietnamese War Written Assignments Should Be Given to High School Students The Most Original Hobbies in the World Why Should the Application of Different Devices in Class Be Banned? Advantages of Going to College or University Money Can Have a Negative Impact on People Should Students Study at Night? Why is Recycling of Great Importance in the Todays World? How to Cope with the Problem of Eating Disorders among the Young People? Novel Extra Curriculum Activities Sports Persuasive Essay Topics The drug tests should be passed by all professional sportsmen Girls can go in for any sports like boys The role of sport activities in the development of a healthy young generation Are professional athletes better actors / actresses than music starts? What benefits should college or university athletes be provided with? Why extreme sports should be banned in the USA? The Olympic Games and Drug Scandals Why is Cristiano Ronaldo recognized the best football player in the world? Running is the healthiest and safest kind of sport Physical Education in high school Persuasive Essay Topics about Birds and Animals Why is it of great importance to protect endangered species? A zoo vs. a prison for humans Is it reasonable to any bird or animal as a home pet? What is the most unique animal on the earth? The impact of human beings on wild life of Africa Photo-hunting vs. hunting The smartest animal on the planet Leather and fur clothing should be banned What laws should be introduced to save the world water resources? Why is plastic dangerous for animals and birds? Persuasive Essay Topics on Education Curricula in schools should be more original than before Is it sound to decrease the number of written assignments given to students The role of parents in the educational process What subjects should be excluded from the high school programs Students should be given more free time at schools Should students be given any rewards for their academic achievements? Advantages of classes in the open air Longer holidays: Pros and cons How to deal with bulling in schools Race prejudices in the school environment Persuasive Essay Topics for High School How to reduce the crime rate in schools School uniform: Cons and Pros Modern society: Is it male or female oriented? Do social media and the internet impact the intellect of the young generation? The possible consequences of global warming Human cloning: Moral and religious aspects Abortions should be regarded as crimes Death punishment: Cons and pros Why should paternity leave be paid to fathers? Communication devices and their influence on the organs of hearing? Persuasive Essay Topics on Music Should music literacy become an essential component of school curriculum Benefits of becoming a professional musician What are high schools students better at music or dancing studying? Why are British and American artists paid much more than musicians from other parts of the world? Is it reasonable to invest in modern novel music groups? Is it possible to learn singing if you do not have an inborn gift Music and its role in treating different diseases and disorders Can certain musical genres lead to committing suicide Should such genres as gothic music be banned What compositions would you recommend a representative from other worlds to listen to? Heavy metal vs. classical music Persuasive Research Paper Topics Are i-phones and the ways they irradiate safe? DNA profiling should be legalized Advantages and disadvantages of doing various researches on animals How to prevent rare species of birds/ animals / plants from total extinction Global warming and human activities Pollution: Types and possible measures Genetically modified plants and animals: Pros and Cons Should human genes be modified: Unpredictable consequences What should be done to protect the human beings from extinction in the future Ideas for Persuasive Essay How your clothes can contribute to your success The role of time management in the workplace Why is it of great significance to be honest with your spouse? Do the awkward situations have a positive influence on our self-esteem? How can laugh help in coping with difficulties at work? Why should people live a descent life? Why is the present more important than the future or the past? Self-confidence is the most significant trait of ones character Hobbies and their role in personal development and growth What can help in coping with constant stress Humorous and Funny Essay Topics Do men cry more than women? Are not blondes necessarily dumb? Humorous workplace that changed your life Why should students be permitted to sell alcoholic drinks at educational institutions? Why should not you allow your moms or dads become your Facebook followers? Can dads be funnier and crazier than moms? An essay on a debatable topic can be pointless Boys should be allowed to wear skirts in schools Who are better gossipers: Men or women Why should Nothing Day become the world recognized holiday? Essay Ideas on Politics and Government Why should the US government support different non-profit organizations worldwide? Which US president should be printed on the novel banknotes? Should religious groups take part in funding schools? How should the problem of homeless people be solved in the USA? Should any new changes implemented in the US system of justice Pros and cons of Donald Trumps Politics What part of the world could become a new US state? The military budget of the USA should be reduced by all means Is it possible to state that the war on drugs has failed in the USA? How to keep world peace? We hope that our practical pieces of advice concerning the persuasive essay topics choice and the process of writing unique persuasive essays will help you a lot in the future. Our academic and essay writing company and sophisticated staff wish you only excellent marks, high scores, and good luck in all your endeavors!

Analysis of Citizen Kane Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analysis of Citizen Kane - Essay Example and Orson Welles, was full of remarkable scenes and performances. It was able to deliver good narrative techniques and showed fantastic innovations in photography, editing, and sound. However, the film was linked to controversies and negative gossips. In fact, the persons behind the making of this film had received threats through intimidation, blackmail, newspaper smears, discrediting and even was subjected to FBI investigations before the day of its premiere in 1941 in New York City (â€Å"Citizen Kane†). Some watchers found the film as wonderful and extraordinary; others said it was just a mere fiction. Despite the good compliments of some, the film was accused of drawing remarkable, unflattering, and uncomplimentary parallels, not to mention the scene where Susan Alexander Kane character--how it was portrayed to real life. In addition, many did not give ‘nod’ to the film because it was accused of negative fictionalizing and caricaturing of certain events and i ndividuals, especially individuals like in the life of William Randolph Hearst, a prominent and powerful newspaper magnate and publisher.

Outsourcing Information Technology Department Term Paper

Outsourcing Information Technology Department - Term Paper Example One concern that companies face today when deciding to outsource their entire IT departments is the amount of security needed to protect their product, their financial records, and their customers. Ken Wheatley, vice president of corporate security, Sony Electronics states, â€Å"People are so focused on saving money and shifting operations that they don't think about the safeguards that need to be put in place† (May 2005). Not all companies’ need the same type of security levels, which is a decision made based on the nature of the business. Wheatley also goes on to say, â€Å"U.S. based companies routinely underestimate the extra elements of risk introduced into the offshoring equation by issues such as poor infrastructure, political instability and legal systems that don't line up with Western practices.† Wheatley continues to say that American companies are so set on saving money that they do not realize other countries do not have the same mindset and safegua rds as we do†. While reviewing the aspects of outsourcing portions of the information technology (IT) department, task force managers measured the cost risk benefits of keeping its better run IT operations in-house. The IT department was divided into five sections, application development and maintenance, operations, database and systems administration, voice and data networking infrastructure, and technical training. A study was performed against each of these organizations regarding how they measured against industry leading outsource consulting companies. A baseline of criteria was established for measurement purposes that included the number of full-time salaried employees and annual salaries, number of years experience, employee educational achievements and certifications, and efficiency of the departmental workflow process. In addition, the business management teams consulted with several IT consulting companies to gather as much information as possible for the considere d outsource IT organizations.

Data Communication assignment - 4G Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Data Communication assignment - 4G - Essay Example It all started with 1st generation mobile communications that were focused on analogue means of communication, this was followed by 2nd generation which resulted in a total shift of medium from analogue to digital(Palanivelu & Nakkeeran 2009). Ever since the introduction of digital sources of communication there has been no looking back, and the current standings are at 3rd, 4th generation and beyond. Furtherance and change being natural phenomena, mobile communications have seen a revolution in the manner in which they are operate today. State of the art technology exists in the field of mobile communication that has made the once impossible, possible. 4G is a generic term that represents a family of number of standards that are around in use. The family encompasses all those elements that are beyond 3G, namely Wimax, L.T.E, Wimax 2.0, HSDPA, Advanced L.T.E and all other standards that fulfill the demands and specifications being presented by International Telecommunication Union (W ang, Kondi & Luthra 2009). 4G standards provide data rates nearly ten times higher 3G (Aktas & Ismail 2004) with focus on resolving the last mile issues once for all by reaching to even the most remote of areas across the globe. The most prevalent of 4G family is Wimax. It has been around for 6 to 7 years now and has made inroads into the market on commercial scale. More promise is being shown by L.T.E which is termed as the true representation of 4th generation technologies that will set the platform for coming generations in telecommunication world. The journey towards 4th generation technologies started with Wimax in early 21st century. Wimax is an acronym for World Wide Interoperability Microwave Access. It is another name for ubiquitous internet connection, be it on the go or under the roof. Work was in place for last few years and it was first introduced on commercial scale for public use in South Korea. Many more countries have joined the caravan and have implemented 4G on co mmercial scale. The recently published requirements for a true 4G system specified by I.T.U, demand more than Wimax and L.T.E initial versions offered, Wimax 2.0 and L.T.E Advanced fulfill the requirements being stated by I.T.U as the just members of 4th generation(Cox 2012). Wimax has made rapid progress in last few years and has a cluster scattered in various parts of the world already. Few of the companies that have implemented Wimax include Sprint, Etisalat, and Nexter to name a few. T-Mobile is aiming at L.T.E implementation on fully commercial scale in coming days. 802.16d vs. 802.16e: Improvements have been made in the Wimax technology periodically, the initially launched version was 802.16d which provided limited or no mobility. In order to capture large scale market and attract customers to itself, a new version 802.16e was introduced later in 2005 which provided ease of movement and had focus on mobility Features of Wimax: Wimax provides large number of features compared t o its predecessors and few of them are: OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access): An interface aimed to overcome the short comings of OFDM, provides the feature of entertaining multiple users at the same time and brings about more stability and reliability in the network. The use of Fast Fourier Transform (F.F.T) by the incumbent allows increased number of bits being transformed from one source to another (spectral efficiency) .802.16d made use of OFDM while the later version (802.16e)

Understanding IEP Meetings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Understanding IEP Meetings - Essay Example The special education teacher is very instrumental in addressing the special and individualized needs of the learner. The special education teacher provides recommendations on how the special learner can succeed in the learning process; for example, giving front row seat to the learner with short vision. The local school district representative ensures that the school administrating and teachers effectively implement the conditions set in the IDEA 2004. Example includes, providing appropriate individualized education to the student requiring special learning attention (Friend, 2012). The school psychologist is also another IEP team member. His/her role entails addressing the psychosocial needs of the student; for example, ensuring that the student is in a fit mental state so as to enhance learning. The student is the most important member in the team. The student is required to explain the challenges that he/she experiences in the learning process. The private therapist caters for th e emotional, social and psychological interests of the student. Example entails, guiding the students on the most appropriate approach of relating and communicating with fellow students and teachers, so as to improve learning process (Kamens, 2014). The care provider has the key responsibility of positively guiding the student in all learning activities. The family friend is also critical in socially guiding the student towards adopting positive learning activities. The final member of the IEP team is the reading or behavior expert. The expert is expected to provide professional opinion, in regards to approaches of improving education and related activities of the special student (Patterson, 2013). The chapter 5 video illustrates the IEP team members who took part in the meeting. The required members were present in the meeting. The student, Dominic, was adequately accompanied by his parent. The dad is

Marketing Plan for Jcrew Clothing company Research Paper

Marketing Plan for Jcrew Clothing company - Research Paper Example The youth, men as well as women form the majority of the customers when it comes to the clothing industry. The success of any business opportunity always depends on the positioning of such a business. Business ventures that are well positioned always ensure resounding success. Customers are always the major targets when it comes to positioning of businesses (Kotler and Keller, 27). This business is going to target the potential customers. This will be critical in enhancing the proximity and access by the customers, suppliers and ease the provision of labor. In this reason, it is critical to note that the JCrews online stores is going to have a friendly website that will ensure that majority of people can access some of the products and execute transactions online. It is prudent enough to note that pricing affects the rate at which any product is purchased. Products of high prices always experience low rates of purchase compared to those of cheap prices (Kotler and Keller, 31). This follows that high prices always tend to repel several customers. However, the clothing products of the JCrews online store are going to be of favorable prices. The prices are going to set prices that are affordable to all the customers. This is going to lure several customers to purchase the products. This is therefore crucial in expanding the customer base, thus impacting positively towards the purchase potential. The clothing products of the JCrews online stores are going to be of very high quality and their prices are going to be more affordable compared to that offered by our competitors. In order for any business to thrive well in the competitive world markets, there is need for effective promotion of the products on offer. This is crucial in informing customers of the new products, the improvements as well as the reasons necessary for one to purchase the products. Effective promotional tools are suitable

Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Summary - Assignment Example It always last for a short period. On the other hand, chronic gastritis occurs in the form of stomach inflammations that last for a long time. If it not treated, chronic gastritis may last for a lifetime (National Institute of Health (NIH), 2010). The major cause of gastritis is Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection (Dai, Tang, & Zhang, 2011). H. pylori are forms of bacteria that infect the stomach walls. Their transmission mainly takes place from person to person. Contaminated water or food especially in places with poor sanitation also forms another mode of transmission (NIH, 2010). Gastritis can also be caused by the prolonged use of drugs that include ibuprofen and aspirin. When such anti-inflammatory drugs are used for some time, they trigger a gradual inflammation on the stomach lining. Some harmful chemical agents such as alcohol, radiation, and cocaine can also cause gastritis. If the gastric mucosa is exposed to harmful chemical agents, it accelerates the production of the gastric epithelium, potentially causing foveolar hyperplasia. Although most chemical-triggered gastropathies do not show any symptoms, multiple erosions and ulcers may develop, causing bleeding (NIH, 2010). Apart from H. pylori and anti-inflammatory drugs, gastritis can also be caused by autoimmune disorders, which attack healthy cells in the stomach lining. Such gastritis is usually restricted to the corpus. The autoimmune aggression targets parietal cells associated with anti-intrinsic factor antibodies and anti-parietal cell. Digestive disorders or diseases, viruses, fungi, parasites, and some bacteria other than H. pylori can also cause gastritis. For instance, duodenal reflux into the stomach may cause mucosal abrasions, which in turn trigger the inflammation of the gastric mucosa (Ruggea et al, 2011). The most prevalent symptom of gastritis is dyspepsia, which includes nausea, vomiting, and upper abdominal

Understanding IEP Meetings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Understanding IEP Meetings - Essay Example The special education teacher is very instrumental in addressing the special and individualized needs of the learner. The special education teacher provides recommendations on how the special learner can succeed in the learning process; for example, giving front row seat to the learner with short vision. The local school district representative ensures that the school administrating and teachers effectively implement the conditions set in the IDEA 2004. Example includes, providing appropriate individualized education to the student requiring special learning attention (Friend, 2012). The school psychologist is also another IEP team member. His/her role entails addressing the psychosocial needs of the student; for example, ensuring that the student is in a fit mental state so as to enhance learning. The student is the most important member in the team. The student is required to explain the challenges that he/she experiences in the learning process. The private therapist caters for th e emotional, social and psychological interests of the student. Example entails, guiding the students on the most appropriate approach of relating and communicating with fellow students and teachers, so as to improve learning process (Kamens, 2014). The care provider has the key responsibility of positively guiding the student in all learning activities. The family friend is also critical in socially guiding the student towards adopting positive learning activities. The final member of the IEP team is the reading or behavior expert. The expert is expected to provide professional opinion, in regards to approaches of improving education and related activities of the special student (Patterson, 2013). The chapter 5 video illustrates the IEP team members who took part in the meeting. The required members were present in the meeting. The student, Dominic, was adequately accompanied by his parent. The dad is

Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Summary - Assignment Example It always last for a short period. On the other hand, chronic gastritis occurs in the form of stomach inflammations that last for a long time. If it not treated, chronic gastritis may last for a lifetime (National Institute of Health (NIH), 2010). The major cause of gastritis is Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection (Dai, Tang, & Zhang, 2011). H. pylori are forms of bacteria that infect the stomach walls. Their transmission mainly takes place from person to person. Contaminated water or food especially in places with poor sanitation also forms another mode of transmission (NIH, 2010). Gastritis can also be caused by the prolonged use of drugs that include ibuprofen and aspirin. When such anti-inflammatory drugs are used for some time, they trigger a gradual inflammation on the stomach lining. Some harmful chemical agents such as alcohol, radiation, and cocaine can also cause gastritis. If the gastric mucosa is exposed to harmful chemical agents, it accelerates the production of the gastric epithelium, potentially causing foveolar hyperplasia. Although most chemical-triggered gastropathies do not show any symptoms, multiple erosions and ulcers may develop, causing bleeding (NIH, 2010). Apart from H. pylori and anti-inflammatory drugs, gastritis can also be caused by autoimmune disorders, which attack healthy cells in the stomach lining. Such gastritis is usually restricted to the corpus. The autoimmune aggression targets parietal cells associated with anti-intrinsic factor antibodies and anti-parietal cell. Digestive disorders or diseases, viruses, fungi, parasites, and some bacteria other than H. pylori can also cause gastritis. For instance, duodenal reflux into the stomach may cause mucosal abrasions, which in turn trigger the inflammation of the gastric mucosa (Ruggea et al, 2011). The most prevalent symptom of gastritis is dyspepsia, which includes nausea, vomiting, and upper abdominal

Treating traumatic stress in children and adolescents Essay Example for Free

Treating traumatic stress in children and adolescents Essay Introduction                      Trauma, according to the National Trauma Society, is the among the leading causes of death in the last forty years and accounts for close to 80 percent of the general population in the US. The study shows that children and adults are the common victims; approximately half of the adult population in their late teens is victims to a case of maltreatment or trauma while about 25 percent report more cases. Chemtob and Abramovtiz (2008) undertook studies in preschool and noted 53% of the children experiencing 1 of the 13 cases. This figure however secludes other causes of trauma, as it does not entail sexual and physical abuse. Trauma starting at such an early stage in life sets the ground for psychopathology in later stages of life. This paper shall focus on the nature of traumatic injury, what causes it, the varied forms of trauma present and how to cope as well as vital treatments available. Traumatic Experience                      Trauma is any case that experiences a prolonged or irregular harm of the body. The experience is life threatening and may overwhelm the mechanisms in the body vital in protecting the body. Several people go through many instances of trauma. Severe trauma like combat exposure and serious accidents are common instances. However, even the most successful people face traumatic experiences. Issues in childbirth, sickness or injury, parental drunkenness or insanity as well a parental divorce are common instances of traumatic instances for children (Boer, and Verken, 2009). In future, motor vehicle cases, surgical processes, lack of employment or passing away of loved family members are all cases that are life threatening. The issue regarding trauma or other bad experiences is the level at which it affects with the happiness of an individual. Other people can succumb to depression and dysfunction even from less what appears as less serious cases. This form s of reactions relates to an individual’s health and how much trauma the have experienced in the earlier part of their life. When one is able to go through hard times in life, like being happy, then the traumatic event forms part of their past allowing them to live their present life. In cases where the traumatic cases are not well managed or connected to the body, then an individual’s experiences is lived as though the past and present are still connected. A good instance a Vietnam person who is aware of his mental condition that is at present while his body still lives as though it is still in the early 70s. The person is bound to suffer from panic attacks and paranoia on a daily basis and this noted from the varied symptoms of misery (Blaustein, Kinniburgh, 2007). The body processes and not the actual event that took place are the main causes of the post-traumatic dysfunction. The war that took place in Vietnam took place long in the past. The events that take place in him are memories to people who have not recovered. The trends in the person’s body and nervous system operation, that started much earlier, form the basis of emotions, and thoughts that make a person agonize over unresolved trauma. There are several forms of trauma, like natural di sasters which experts states is common in 13-30 percent of people who have gone through such experiences of natural disasters. The natural disasters may range from earthquakes, fires, floods, and volcanic eruptions. Other forms of traumatic event comprise of mass interpersonal violence, fires, vehicle accidents, sexual assaults and violence among others. Early Development of Trauma                      Getting to know of the ways interpersonal relationships at the start of life affects the progress of neural pathways used in self-regulation. This is vital as it helps us know the formation of an individual’s personality, behavior, and persistent trend in the family dynamics. A psych neurobiological aspect that is keen on the first years of a person’s life when the human brain is growing rapidly those other parts of their life. Traumatic events have an impact on a person’s mind and body and have long-term impact on their life. Secure attachment bonds are the most effective process to help in coping against trauma-induced psychopathology in children and adults (Blaustein, Kinniburgh, 2007). The increasing number of children who have the signs of psychiatric disorder in the modern day and create challenges to community and mental state to assess the vital elements of attachment formation and the time many people believe is the ba sis where all psychiatric disorders arise. Nature and Causes of Trauma                      A person’s life goes through several issues among them; a review one’s life in terms of the success, failures and things set to achieve; looking for a meaning in life like their place in the society, things valued against expectations; conversant of ageing, the goals to meet and; the physical attributes like grey hair, and hormones. These changes in a person’s life affect a person’s life resulting to depression and trauma. Trauma events can be objective or subjective lacking the ability to control something. Traumatic cases may not arise due to disasters; they can also be due to accidents, and stress. This makes a person to suffer from varied signs of trauma. There is similarly other factor in the social realm like trauma like war or politics that can lead to extensive or unexpected cases of trauma. Cases like when one watches dangerous instances that may lead to the death of a person or witnessing the death of a person c an cause trauma, while instances of human rights violations like kidnapping or torture are most common causes of posttraumatic disorders (PSTD)( Alexander, 2012). There are also cases of domestic violence that cause trauma like marriages, child abuse and sexual cases. Studies show that sexual violence is a common cause of trauma. The trauma may have notable effects on a person’s emotions. Avoiding emotional distress is viable but may not work; however, stopping emotions can be stopped by intense emotions. Therefore, there is a probability to manage emotions, reflect, and control them before they become hard to control. Emotions like fear and anxiety are notable in experiences. Keeping aware of things allows one to apply defense mechanisms before they go out of hand. Additionally, it is necessary that one becomes aware of the symptoms of trauma. Every person responds differently, this can lead to emotions like anger and fear and it may be destructive on an individual’s life like keeping distance from friends and misusing drugs. It is easy to see a person with traumatic signs. They are grouped into physical, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive signs. A person’s body may react by facing pains, tiredness, lack of appetite, and lack of sleep. These signs are common irrespective of the physical condition of the person. The emotional signs arising from trauma are fear and anxiety, shock and belief. This makes a person become overwhelmed. The emotional stress that arises due to trauma can affect a person’s behavior and their relation with other people (Blaustein, Kinniburgh, 2010). They remove themselves from the social setup, start abusing drugs, and acquire poor tendencies. The pattern of though acquired by a person is affected by the event and cognitive signs like poor concentration, and difficulty making decisions arise. These signs begin once the traumatic event is experienced. This event is hard to recover from and may take up to years to acquire their original state. The victim-based elements can lead to variations of the impact of traumatic experiences, which regard to: gender, age and lifestyle, and nervous system as well as the distress surrounding the experience. Trauma can alter the meaning of life and create feelings and experiences not easily grouped in diagnostic guidebooks. These existential effects comprise of notable emptiness, lack of connection with the spiritual being or disruptions in ability to care and trust (Arvidson, et. al., 2011). There exist varied forms of traumatic reactions like depression, psychotic depression, anxiety, and stress. Trends applied in the flow of energy and information defined as chaotic states show the absence of resolution of trauma. The impact is that it interferes with the capacity to adapt to changes in an environment. The attachment association at the start of life shapes the maturity of a child’s brain, which starts an adaptive activity in the assessment visual and auditory socio-emotional communicative signs and stress reaction. This model of critical understanding into child development similarly operates in teenagers and adults. Reid states that trauma takes place before there is sufficient differentiation of the person from others and before one acquires the ability to symbolize, a child is not able to remove itself from experience. This is common in adults and children going through traumatic disorders. Effects of Trauma                      When faced with a dangerous situation, people in most cases go through feelings of fear and helplessness. This experience can be through physical harm or witnessing an event. After these experiences begin to go through experiences that changes how they see life. The length of time these problems are noted may have a bad impact on the victims. There are varied effects that arise from these conditions; a person may get overwhelmed with fear and others may begin showing symptoms. The most common symptoms include mental and physical re-minder of the experience(s). Re-experiencing the trauma is common in the survivors. This means that they continue to have similar mental, emotional, and physical experiences that took place sometime back. This can be thinking about the trauma, witnessing image of what took place, feeling disturbed and feeling physical impressions similar to what took place. The victims acquire the feelings and act a though the trauma is taking place again; they start feeling vulnerable, panic, anger and think of harming people (Roth, 2013). This is since they are anxious and get agitated, they get trouble sleeping and concentrating. These problems are never voluntary and the victim finds it hard to control it from taking place. Mentally, the experience can comprise, bad memories, change of mood when reminded of the event, difficulty controlling emotions due to anxiety and difficulty concentrating. There are similarly physical reactions to trauma like difficulty sleeping, getting agitated, startled by loud sounds, getting sweaty and shaky when faced with certain situations and difficulty breathing. Due to these upsetting feelings, the trauma victims in most cases behave as though they are in constant danger when stressed or something reminds them of an event. They may tend to feel unsecure in cases that are not dangerous. Since these people acquire the feeling of danger in certain circumstances, they may become aggressive in cases that are not necessary. Although going through the signs are not a pleasant feeling, they show that the body and mind are trying to handle the traumatic experience. These signs are automatic and there is a probability that going through these signs are part of the mind’s effort to make sense of what takes place. Post Traumatic Symptoms                      There are two forms of symptoms for traumatic victims: secondary and associated symptoms. In secondary symptoms, issues arise due to post-traumatic experiences and avoidance signs. For instance, since a person wants to evade talking about a traumatic experience an increased number of symptoms may arise as a result. As time goes by, the secondary symptoms are a trouble and affect the victim compared to the first experience and avoidance signs. Associated symptoms are issues that arise indirectly from excessive fear; however, it may take place because of things that take place at the time the trauma happened. For instance, a person who is psychologically traumatized in an accident may be harmed physically and depressed due to he cannot work or leave the house. There are varied issues known as secondary or associated trauma signs: aggressive tendency to other people can take place due to frustration over the ability to manage the traumatic signs (Lopez, 2012). Similarly, it can take place when other events that took place at the period of trauma make the person angry. Some people become aggressive since they grow up in a family with people overreacted when they become angry and could not manage their feelings. Since anger makes people to stay away, they similarly hinder people from creating a positive connection and getting assistance. Anger and aggression have the ability to result to job issues, marital and relationship is sues as well as loss of close associates. Similarly, guilt can arise when traumatic sign make it hard to meet the daily responsibilities. Moreover, it can take place when people start doubting their actions or what they missed in trauma. Most people in trying to resolve issues end up blaming themselves. This is not genuine and it does not take into consideration issues that arise. This leads to extensive levels of distress and can stop a person from meeting other people. The society in such cases ends up blaming the survivor and this is not right. The victims can at times feel disconnected from their friends, family, and associates. In most cases, it does not take into consideration the reason as to why the event took place and starts having trouble in expressing what they feel. After the traumatic experience, the victims are not able to handle some issues and stop trying to mend their relationships with friends and family (Roth, 2013). The victims can similarly face some physical signs and issues that arise due to facing extended period of physical distress or anxiety. They hence stop going for medical checkups, as it is constant reminder of trauma and leads to anxiety and hence poor health. The habits commonly applied by victims of trauma like consumption of alcohol have the effect of deteriorating the health of victims. Similarly, other things can take place like when going through trauma like physical injury (Lieberman, van Horn, 2008). Lastly, misuse of drugs and alcohol are other ways that people going through trauma us e to stop any bad feelings. These common steps would prove harmful to the victims in future. However, the posttraumatic experience signs and other trauma-connected issues could take up a big chunk of an individual’s attention when they do through pain, and distress. Effective Therapeutic Interventions                      People have varied meanings to their lives and this is common in their experiences and life choices made. The life forms their identity and it is shaped by psychological, cultural or event. It is hence necessary to take into consideration the elements necessary for effective management of traumatic experiences. The ability to sustain continuity at a general life perspective and trauma level is believed to be a sign of managing trauma. This ability ought to show itself and the victim should be aware. Acquiring meaning from life is a vital step in coping with trauma. The most effective process entails an inner search for value of life to the victim. Questions like why and what to achieve are some of these questions for the survivor in getting meaning. The realization of the ability of the body as a problem and solution in post-traumatic experiences results to the emergence of psychotherapy. In reference to talk therapy as a model of coping with trauma, the method acts as though the mind and emotions are an area of healing. The body processes are more accurate when compared to using talk or emotional elements (David and Driscoll, 2013). The strength and persistence of traumatic experiences shows that we are able to repeat tendencies, feelings, and thoughts in a repetitive manner. These patterns may go on for long disregarding efforts to control it. This persistence arises due to past traumatic instances having being due to life or death. The interventions affecting the ameliorating trauma ought to focus on advancing the effectiveness of psychobiological communications in the body attachments and maximizing the maturation of limbic-autonomic connections and brain systems applied in regulation. Assessing oneself is the most effective way to coping with trauma among the varied ways available in assessing oneself in cases of traumatic experience. Possessing the feeling of responsibility, guilt or passiveness are what goes through an individual. These factors start to rise when coping begins. According to psychologists and spiritual leaders, there ought to undertake several processes to cope with trauma. The first step is to taking good care of the body, it can be physical injury or emotional affliction. This is through eating fruits and a balanced diet, constant exercise like running and sit-ups as well as getting enough sleep to get a healthy body (Kuhn, and Pieramici, 2011). These steps are vital as it helps an individual cope with stressful situations and improves their mood. Additionally, one is able to mobilize their support model through creating a good relationship and connecting with others going through these experiences. When one is able to talk about what they experience they are in a good position to understand their emotions and are able to note what needs rapid action. Keeping a normal schedule is another professional measure that helps cope with trauma. The victims should stay in touch with others and avoid keeping to themselves. Their daily activities should progress as normal as this will allow them to setup themselves and acquire a sense of order and avoid life iss ues that arise. Having fun with life is another way to coping with stressful situations, as doing things that one likes; cooking, watching the television, or singing. This allows one to restore their life. Victims of traumatic experiences in most cases go through hard times in life and may feel secluded from others. In such instances, it is recommended to seek help from experts like psychiatrist, counselors, spiritual leaders, or other people who may offer valuable assistance (Allen, 2008). In this regard, meditation and prayer are useful ways and is often encouraged by spiritual leaders like pastors and priests. Looking for spiritual guidance could be of great help to victims in getting to understand and get answers to questions or doubts people face in life. In all the efforts applied to help victims of trauma to cope with the condition, it is highly recommended that they do not do things that would aggravate their condition. This could be like avoiding drug, stressful environments, and harmful people. It is common for trauma victims to engage in drugs as a way to ease their pain. However, professional studies and advice show that these drugs pose a harm in any progress made to get b etter (Legome, and Shockley, 2011). It is hence more advisable to take time and follow doctors and pastor’s advice. Taking time off to relax, walk in parks and listening to soothing music is helpful. Spending time with family and friends are also vital in soothing the mind.   Spiritual and Practical Methods to coping with Trauma                      Trauma is both a psychological and emotional change of the body. An effective of treating the mind is through soothing the mind and acquiring meaning to life. This can be through use of spiritual and practical measures in handling trauma. Spiritual leaders like pastors and priests are known and keen to handling depression and trauma. They help individuals to handle depression and trauma. They are of the belief that prayer allows us to handle issue we face in life. Christians see trauma as one where it stimulates through the feel of guilt or harming other people’s feelings as well as having outlived God’s will leading to depression. Moreover, when one has the feeling of death, it can harm and lead to trauma (Johnson, 2011). In this regard, meditation on the Holy Scriptures, prayer and other spiritual activities can allow one have the ‘balm of Gilead’ that heals the sick or sin. References are made to the scriptures on how G od comforts the depressed and not pulled down by depressions. There is justification for spiritual healing, though spiritual leaders call upon their follows to acquire a more practical model and look for treatment from health professionals. Conclusion                      Posttraumatic experience is a condition that causes much distress to its victims. This paper has focused on varied issues that relate to posttraumatic experiences and considers it an act of detachment of the memory from the self. It focused on the causes of trauma. They are varied types like those caused by natural disasters; floods, fire, and earthquake: there those that arise from personal experience like sexual harassment, rape, accidents, and death. Its victims have symptoms that are easy to identify like depression, lack of concentration, sweaty and shaky. They have some memories that trigger a reaction of fear and insecurity. The victims end up being in a state that they lose control of themselves. The effects that arise from this condition is that they can harm themselves and those close to them, they become detached from the social setup and this may lead to them getting involved in drugs and alcohol to cope with it. It is treatable and this is through psychotherapy, which involves the victims, process and integrates so that they can in the end work as other memories work as opposed to working on its own. Therapy entails handling and comforting the victim to restore the feeling of safety. They victims here are allowed to tell their story and are able to understand themselves and their environment in a setting of light and hence restore relationships. This process is with the help of professionals like counselors and psychiatrists. Similarly, the treatment can take a spiritual turn where pastors and priests help the trauma victims to cope with their conditions. Spiritual and professional are vital as they help restore the person in a state of peace and tranquility. Overall, trauma victims need a lot of love, care, and consideration for them to get back to their initial state. They need to go through exercises, relaxation and go about their normal activities with the help of friends and family. The ir future is hence brighter and goes back to normal with the society playing a role. References Alexander, J. (2012). Trauma: A Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Allen, J. (2008).Coping With Trauma, Second Edition: Hope Through Understanding. Arlington: American Psychiatric Pub Arvidson, J. et. al. (2011) Treatment of Complex Trauma in Young Children: Developmental and Cultural Considerations in Application of the ARC Intervention Model. Journal of Child Adolescent Trauma, 4: 1, 34 — 51 Blaustein, M., Kinniburgh, K. (2007). Intervening beyond the child: The intertwining nature of attachment and trauma. British Psychological Society Briefing Paper, 26, 48–53. Blaustein, M., Kinniburgh, K. (2010). Treating traumatic stress in children and adolescents: How to foster resilience through attachment, self-regulation, and competence. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Boer, P. and Verken, C. (2009). AO Handbook: Orthopedic Trauma Care: Orthopedic Trauma Care. New York: Thieme. Chemtob, C. M., Nomura, Y., Abramovitz, R. A. (2008). Impact of conjoined exposure to the World Trade Center attacks and to other traumatic events on the behavioral problems of preschool children. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 162(2), 126-133. Johnson, S. (2011). Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors: Strengthening Attachment Bonds. New York: Guilford Press Kuhn, F. and Pieramici, D. (2011). Ocular Trauma: Principles and Practice. New York: Thieme. Legome, E. and Shockley, L. (2011). Trauma: A Comprehensive Emergency Medicine Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Levetown M. (2008). Communicating with children and families: from everyday interactions to skill in conveying distressing information. Pediatrics.121: pp. 1441-1460. Lieberman, A., van Horn, P. (2008). Psychotherapy with infants and young children: Repairing the effects of stress and trauma on early attachment. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Lopez, L. (2012). Trauma Counseling: Theories and Interventions. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Roth, M. (2013).Memory, Trauma, and History: Essays on Living with the Past. New York: Columbia University Press. V., David and Driscoll, P. (2013). ABC of Major Trauma. New York: John Wiley Sons Source document

Land Vegetation Ethiopia

Land Vegetation Ethiopia 1. Project Summary Land cover/use Study projects provide policy makers, industry and community interest groups, and landholders with accurate information on  woody vegetation cover, information on changes in the cover, mapping and providing statistical information. In earlier times the northern Ethiopian highlands were characterized by humid climate and denser vegetation (Bard et al., 2000). Significant human impact on the land resource resulted in 65 per cent of the total land mass to be a dry land. Land clearing for agricultural activity has become an increasingly main topic in the natural resource debate that contrasts the economic aspects of land development to the people dependent on it and with the ecological need to conserve. This project is a one of the initiative to investigate the land cover and its respective slope of the study site and to recommend technologies applicable to the overall land cover study projects in the dry high lands of Ethiopia. The study combines field verification  and computer processing using state-of-the-art remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies. The study specifically applies and eexplore the potential of Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) bands of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer ASTER images to discriminate land use categories where the land is fragile with mixed uses villages, patches of forest, patches of grazing land, crop land, wasteland, etc. the study will also explore the potential of ASTER images to provide stereo images for DEM generation of the scene that can be used to generate the Slope. The DEM generation task will investigate developing a rational polynomial function model. At last integration of the land cover and the DEM together with other GIS data can be used as input data to classify the suitability of land for specific land use. 2. The Problem Statement and Justification for the Research More than 63% of all smallholders in Ethiopia have less than 1 hectare of land. Population is growing rapidly and, although in the northern parts of the country the average rural population density is only 33 persons per square km, the population density per unit of arable land is much higher (138 persons per square km). Land fragmentation is common and the more fragmented holdings are, the more time it takes to manage them, with potential consequences for productivity. The national average is 3.2 parcels per smallholder, though districts averages vary from a little over 1 to more than 5. The broadest areas of high fragmentation are in eastern Amhara and Tigray, although there are also districts with high average fragmentation in Gambella, parts of SNNP, and the eastern highlands. (Ethiopian Agricultural Sample Enumeration, 2001/02. Central Statistical Authority.). As a result of fragmentation, farm sizes are very small and the use of fallow is rapidly disappearing, causing problems of declining soil fertility and erosion. Population growth increases the demand for land and contributes to farming on steep and fragile soils, also leading to erosion problems. It increases demand for biomass as a source of fuel, leading to deforestation and increased burning of dung and crop residues, thus increasing the problems of erosion and nutrient depletion. Population growth increases demand for livestock products and therefore leads to increased livestock numbers, causing overgrazing and consumption of crop residues by animals. In such situation Land degradation is a great threat for the future and it requires great effort and resources to improve. The major causes of land degradation in Ethiopia are the rapid population increase, severe soil loss, deforestation, low vegetative cover and unbalanced crop and livestock production. Inappropriate land-use systems and land-tenure policies enhance desertification and loss of biodiversity. The balance between crop, livestock, and forest production is disturbed, and the farmer is forced to put more land into crop production. The government has envisaged long- and short-term strategies to reduce the pressure on land and land fragmentation. Among the short term strategies are providing technical and vocational training to the landless youth to enable them to find off-farm employment and encouraging emigration to urban centers and to other parts of the region for resettlement. These strategies recommended allocation and reallocation of land to be based on the land use classification to be done in detail study. Understanding the current status of land use is very important and this project will come up with important elements of current land use study using remote sensing technologies to provide reliable information that help to prepare a complete land use plan. Justification Land Cover/ Slope Study To approach the growing problems of natural resource management, spatially explicit information about physical, biotic, and human factors must be available in a variety of geographic and temporal scales (USFWS 1976). Local planners and managers require detailed knowledge of the region for which they have responsibility as well as information on the regional, state, and national levels. Land cover data are essential at several scales. Current land cover data are vital to many applications including: making basic habitat assessments, delineating specific vegetative communities, calculating soil loss, and evaluating water quantity/quality within and between watersheds. The list of categories to be mapped is determined through the objectives of the mapping effort. This thesis describes such a mapping effort, one of presenting a basic land cover/Slope map, along with methods useful for land use planning applications. The conventional methods in producing DEMs need large campaigns that result in land surveying teams using analogue or analytical techniques. In the last decades satellite stereo image based topographical map production is turned into operational state from its experimental state. Recently many local scale landscape or topographical monitoring requirements are maintained by high resolution satellite images (Kanab 2002, Zomer et al. 2002, Baily et al. 2003, Su ¨zen and Doyuran 2004a, b, Liu et al. 2004). Advantages of ASTER for land evaluation The ASTER sensor is carried on board the Terra satellite that was launched in December 1999. The sensor has 14 spectral bands; three for Very Near Infra Red (VNIR) at 15 meters resolution, six for Short Wave Infra Red at 30 meters resolution, five for Thermal Infra Red at ninety meters resolution. Graphic 1 (below) shows the band coverage of the ASTER sensor. Thus with such resolution and number of bands it is possible to discriminate small fragile lands typical of Ethiopian highlands. In addition ASTER imagery has an extra channel of image data that is created by the sensor capturing a backwards looking image for the third VNIR band. So for image band three there exists one (nadir) image channel and also a backwards looking (off nadir) image channel. This creates an along-track stereo effect that provides DEM generation capability to be used for slope study. Scope This thesis presents a small watershed land cover/Slope map representing for the northern region of the country. It will provide information just beyond the local watershed by demonstrating feasibility of using selected satellite imagery for regional planning as well. It is known that Land suitability analysis is the process of matching demand, crop requirement, and supply, the quality of the land. Where it is necessary to specify the type of specific land use (e.g for forest plantation, maize, rangeland, etc.) so as to match with crop requirement, basic land characteristics, such as depth of soil, climate, amount of pH, level of soil nutrient, depth to ground water, etc.. Thus the scope of this thesis is limited to generating parameters necessary for the land suitability analysis. Project Objectives General objective To demonstrate the feasibility of Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imagery to provide base line data for land use planning for sustainable land management Specific objectives Investigating discriminating power of ASTER Imagery in studying land cover in highly fragmented high lands of northern Ethiopia. To develop rational polynomial function model to generate a DEM that will be further processed to develop slope information. 4. Description of Project Activities and Methodology Selecting Study Area The landscape of Ethiopia is extremely diverse. In order to map land cover on a regional scale, it is necessary to understand the structure and dynamics of land cover on a local scale. To this end, the study area will be located to approximately represent throughout the northern part of the region. Thus the site will include major physiographic regions, i.e., predominantly mountains, valleys, and plains. On top of that the study site will be chosen on the following criteria: ease of access to allow comparison of actual land cover to images in hand, availability of current digital cover maps, and representation of regional land cover. Classification Scheme The first step in land cover mapping is to determine a classification system, i.e., to list the land categories to be mapped. Several items will be considered in this process: The objectives The characteristics of the data And the accuracy requirements. As in most well planned mapping efforts, the objectives determine the classes and the procedures used. Since the objective of this study is to identify fragmented land use types rather than classifying different vegetation types, emphasis will be placed on land impacted by human activities. The data available also determined the level of detail. ASTER imagery is assumed to be the best data currently available. The relatively high spatial resolution and the number of spectral bands of this imagery offers the best opportunities for discriminating a variety of cover types among any available satellite data such as Landsat. Imagery ASTER imagery with 15m spatial resolution, which is taken in the dry season of 2003, is the basic dataset from which land cover and Slope will be mapped. The data to be used for land cover study will be the VNIR bands (Band 1: 0.52-0.60 Lm; Band 2: 0.63-0.69Lm and Band 3N: 0.76-0.86Lm) of and 3N and 3B bands for the Slope study. A DEM created from ASTER level 1A (L1A) imagery can be expected to have a vertical accuracy of approximately 25 meters. Although in areas with less vegetation or man made features, this can rise to approximately 11 meters. It is therefore useful for small to medium scale mapping applications, 1:50,000 to 1:100,000. Only the near-infrared (NIR) channel of ASTER image has stereoscopic view capability as another NIR sensor is located as back view on board Terra satellite. Therefore, one NIR sensor collects image in nadir direction while another NIR sensor gets image in back-looking direction. Using two different looking directions, stereo imaging and DEM generation can be attained (Welch et al. 1998, Toutin 2002, Hirano et al. 2003). Training Data for image classification Since this study applies supervised classification, training data are needed at the start of classification. To this effect training data will be acquired from a variety of sources such as available maps, aerial photography of the same year and expert knowledge and review. Image Classification One scene for the land cover study and another nadir scene for the Slope study will be used for classification. To georeference the image, Ground Control Points (GCPs) will be collected from easily identifiable points using Geographic Positioning System (GPS). Image classification will be done either using pixel based supervised image classification or with object-oriented image classification depending on the accuracy to be achieved. ILWIS 3.3 software format will be the major image processing tools that will be used. Ground Truth and Classification Accuracy Assessment Before a map should be used, it is necessary to know its accuracy (Congalton1996). Accuracy assessment will be made using ground truth points to be collected from the major land use/cover types using GPS. It is recommended to have a ground truth at the same time of data acquisition, or at least within the time that the environmental condition does not change. A general rule of thumb is 75 to 100 reference points per category for a large image (Congalton 1996). However; for such a small scale study quite less number of reference points will be feasible. Statistics The Confusion Matrix In order to determine the errors in the classification, the following model called confusion matrix: (IDRISI module CONFUSE.) will be applied where: Matrix columns = ground data (assumed ‘correct) Matrix rows = map data (classified by the automatic procedure) Cells of the matrix = count of the number of observations for each (ground, map) combination Diagonal elements = agreement between ground and map; ideal is a matrix with all zero off-diagonals Errors of omission (map producers accuracy) = incorrect in column / total in column. Measures how well the map maker was able to represent the ground features. Errors of commission (map users accuracy) = incorrect in row / total in row. Measures how likely the map user is to encounter correct information while using the map. Overall map accuracy = total on diagonal / grand total Statistical test of the classification accuracy for the whole map or individual cells is possible using the kappa index of agreement www.sc.chula.ac.th/courseware/2309507/lec_content.htm). Users and producers accuracy measure the correctness of each category with respect to errors of commission and omission. Accuracy of each class cannot be completely stated in one statistic; both accuracies are needed for a valid assessment. Users accuracy is obtained by dividing the number correctly classified by the total number of pixels, within the classified image, of that class assessed. A low users accuracy represents a high error of commission. Producers accuracy is calculated by dividing the number of pixels correctly classified by the total number of reference points within that class (bottom row of error matrix). A low Producers accuracy represents a high error of omission. The Kappa statistic describes the degree of superiority (expressed as a proportion), that the classification results have as compared to a random classification. DEM Generation Developments in computers, broadening of visualization applications and the availability of geospatial data, made the use of digital elevation models (DEM) an indispensable quantitative environmental variable in most of the research topics. The landscape change and process-based studies in digital Earth sciences require the excessive use of DEM (Ka ¨a ¨b 2002, Zomer et al. 2002, Baily et al. 2003, Su ¨zen and Doyuran 2004a, b, Liu et al. 2004), for landslide susceptibility/hazard assessment, erosion susceptibility, glacier monitoring, geomorphological mapping, etc., in order to quantitatively represent or to analyse the morphology or the landscape. Within this study, the major steps that will be performed are (1) pre-processing and (2) The first step in pre-processing is the orthorectification of raw L1A images. The whole scene ASTER L1A image will be orthorectified using available 1: 50,000 scaled topographic maps. DEM generation from stereoscopic imagery is dependent on establishing the mathematical model relating the scene coordinates of conjugate points to the ground coordinates of the corresponding object point. Either rigorous or approximate models can be used to establish such a relationship. Rigorous modeling necessitates a full understanding of the imaging geometry associated with the involved sensor. Moreover, it involves the external characteristics (as represented by the Exterior Orientation Parameters EOP) and the internal characteristics (as represented by the Interior Orientation Parameters IOP) of the imaging sensor. Such characteristics are derived with the help of control information, which might take the form of a calibration test field, ground control points, and/or onboard navigation units (e.g., GPS/INS). However, the derivation of these parameters might not be always possible due to: the lack of sufficient control; weak imaging geometry (especially for satellite imaging systems with narrow angular field of view); and/or intentional concealment by the data provider (e.g., Space Imaging does not release the IOP and the EOP for their commercially available imagery). Therefore, there has been an increasing interest to investigate approximate models, which do not explicitly involve the internal and external characteristics of the imaging system. (A. Habib, E. M. Kim, M. Morgan, I. Couloigne, 2005). There has been an increasing interest within the photogrammetric community to adopt approximate models since they require neither a comprehensive understanding of the imaging geometry nor the internal and external characteristics of the imaging sensor. Approximate models include Direct Linear Transformation (DLT), self-calibrating DLT (SDLT), Rational Function Model (RFM), and parallel projection (Vozikis et al., 2003; Fraser, 2000; OGC, 1999; Ono et al., 1999; Wang, 1999; Gupta et al., 1997; El-Manadili and Novak, 1996). This thesis will apply RPF; it is based on the ratios of polynomials with different degree which can vary from 1 to 3. The coefficients are estimated using a large number of Ground Control Points (GCPs). In general, the procedure for DEM generation from stereoscopic views can be summarized as follows (Shin et al., 2003): †¢ Feature selection in one of the scenes of a stereo-pair: Selected features should correspond to an interesting phenomenon in the scene and/or the object space. †¢ Identification of the conjugate feature in the other scene: This problem is known as the matching/correspondence problem within the photogrammetric and computer vision communities. †¢ Intersection procedure: Matched points in the stereo-scenes undergo an intersection procedure to produce the ground coordinates of corresponding object points. The intersection process involves the mathematical model relating the scene and ground coordinates. †¢ Point densification: High density elevation data is generated within the area under consideration through an interpolation in-between the derived points in the previous step. The image orientation with rational polynomial functions involves general transformation to describe the relationship between image and ground coordinates. They provide a generic representation of the camera object-image geometry. The RPF provided with the high resolution satellite images connect image space and object space by: Row or column = rpf (ÃŽ », Ï•, h) Where row/column is the image coordinates and ÃŽ », Ï•, and h are longitude, latitude and ellipsoidal height in geographic coordinates of WGS84 datum (Grodecki et al., 2004). Direct solutions use rational function coefficients and sensor parameters information without any control points and refinement the original coefficients. Indirect solutions use ground control points for computing coefficients without using sensor parameters (Tao, Hu 2001). Our solution is based on ground control points without any initial values of coefficients. First approximate values of parameters extract and then precise values compute with using ground control points. Rational Function Model with 20 parameters (Valadan, Sadeghiam 2002) is used in this paper as follow: Where : are the normalized row and column of pixel in image. : are the normalized coordinates of the image point in the Conventional Terrestrial (CT) coordinate system. : Rational Function Coefficients (RFCs). Estimating the RFM coefficients The method by which the RFM coefficients are recovered depends on the availability of a physical sensor model. In cases where a physical model is provided a terrain independent scheme can be applied. This scheme is based on the generation of a 3D grid in object space, using the physical sensor model. The 3D grid should contain several layers of points and its characteristics are determined by the coverage of the image and the terrain relief differences. Then, a Least Squares solution of the RFM coefficients can be derived. Finally, an estimation of the quality of the derived RFM coefficients should be carried out based on an evaluation of the residuals in a higher density 3D grid. When a physical model is not available, a terrain dependent scheme is used. As in this scheme it is not possible to generate a 3D grid, the solution is highly sensitive to the terrain relief, as well as to the distribution, number, and quality of the GCPs used. Generation The generation process involves four steps: primitive extraction, primitive matching, space intersection, and interpolation. Primitive extraction: At this stage, a decision has to be made regarding the primitives to be matched in the normalized scenes. Possible matching primitives include distinct points, linear features, and/or homogeneous regions. The choice of the matching primitives is crucial for ensuring the utmost reliability of the outcome from the DEM generation process. In this research, point features are chosen. Fà ¶rstner interest operator (Fà ¶rstner, 1986) will be used to extract distinct points from the imagery. The operator identifies points with unique grey value distribution at their vicinity (e.g., corner points).The next section discusses the matching procedure of these points. Primitive Matching: The matching criteria deal with establishing a quantitative measure that describes the degree of similarity between a template in the left scene and a matching window, of the same size, within the search space in the right scene. Either correlation coefficient or least squares matching could be used to derive such a similarity measure Space Intersection: Following the matching process, conjugate points undergo an intersection procedure to derive the ground coordinates of the corresponding object points. The RPF equation will be used for such computation. Interpolation: So far, the ground coordinates of matched interest points, which passed the consistency check, are derived through space intersection. These points are irregularly distributed and are not dense enough to represent the object space. Therefore, they need to be interpolated. In this research, Kriging will be used to interpolate the resulting object space points into regular grid. The Kriging methodology derives an estimate of the elevation at a given point as a weighted average of the heights at neighboring points. 5. Project Milestones and Expected outputs 5.1. Expected output Following are the expected outputs from this research; Based on the success of ASTER imagery in demonstrating land cover classification and slope generation, the result herein may be used as basic data to assist slope management, land use planning, and other land management efforts such as land suitability, and landslide susceptibility mapping when combined with other GIS data. Provides a procedure based on the rational polynomial function model for generating DEM directly from a stereo ASTER images, and other experimental results. In particular, the method can be quickly and easily applied to areas with little map data, and at low cost. Based on the success it can be extended for all the northern high lands of Ethiopia. 5.2. Dissemination plan The immediate users of the research result are policy makers, teaching institutes and other planning and development organization in their programming of land use management. It will also assist the local government in the design and making of policy issues. The small holder farmers are the ultimate users of the research results through well designed land management projects that are effective in ensuring sustainable development of the resources they are dependent on. 6. Work Plan 7. References Fraser, C. S., H. B. Hanley (2003). Bias compensation in rational functions for Ikonos satellite imagery. 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(2006) Comparison of pixel-based and object-oriented image classification approaches—a case study in a coal fire area, Wuda, Inner Mongolia, China. International Journal of Remote Sensing 27, 4039-4055.