La Boheme vs rent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

La Boheme vs rent - Essay Example This is the primary similarity between La Boheme and Rent since they both tell the tale of struggling artists who are trying to get by in a world that does not seem to care much for their art at all. However, this does not mean that they are not happy because the process by which they create art and the manner in which they are rewarded by the creation of their art seems to be enough for them. At the same time, they do wish that their genius was recognized by the world around them but that appears to be only a secondary concern. For the individuals in the plays, love is also an important concern since it governs many aspects of their life and even the works they produce. However, the similarity which stands out between the two plays is death caused by disease that has no cure. For La Boheme, it is tuberculosis while for Rent, it becomes HIV. This similarity also shows that despite the characters living a bohemian life, the reality of death and disease affects them as much as it would affect anyone else in the world. Even their carefree lifestyle cannot protect them from the ravages of disease and eventual death. In Rent however, it is perhaps due to their carefree and careless lifestyle that the individuals are affected by their disease. This is only the first of the differences between the plays since the setting of the plays is also different due to the time and place that separates them. From a Romantic Paris to a post-modern New York, the plays present very different realities even if there are similarities between the characters and the situations they have been placed in. This change in setting means that the dialog, the manner in which the characters interact as well as their social constructs change to reflect the settings. However, in the final analysis, the theme as well as the message of the plays makes it easy to conclude that they plays are more

Moral Responsibility Essay Example for Free

Moral Responsibility Essay ? Most people have natural desires such as getting higher social status; making more money; travelling all around the world; or collecting specific objects like cars, shoes, watches, dishes or stamps. Often this desire becomes a reason why people wake up in the morning, work hard, deal with all their troubles, or patiently save money. Eventually when the person achieves their desire, he/she feels great happiness, and it remains in their lives as a pleasant memory. However, sometimes people have conflicts between their wants and their moral responsibilities. What should human beings put first in their lives? Is there a method that helps human beings to find a balance among different values? My desire was to have designer bags. It started when I was a freshman in college. I had no knowledge about designer brands before I came to college because my parents have never put value on material things and have shown thrifty living is more meaningful than luxury living. I had had no issues with what my parents taught me, but starting in college I have struggled with my original values. My professor made fun of my clothing and accessories, which I bought at the supermarket, with obscure brand logos. She said if I wanted to be a good designer I had to be aware of fashion trends and style, and I also had to use those items. Moreover, the professor advised me that I should treat myself like a professional designer instead of a naive country girl, so I should take more care of my outfit. What she said it made sense to me but it hurt my self-esteem first. After that I started to look at people around me and I realized I had to change from head to toe. I asked my parents to buy new clothes, shoes and accessories, and not at the supermarket. So we went to a department store and I saw the new world at age 19. Everything looked fabulous and beautiful, but also very expensive, especially compared to what I used to wear and carry. That first shopping experience at the luxury department changed my entire value system. I used to give tithe and offering to church without thinking or counting. It was my duty as a Christian and I knew how the church would spend the money that I donate. The church I attended had a partnership with a local orphanage and a nursing home and I regularly went there to serve people with other church members. It was such a significant experience which taught me the spirit of sharing and happiness from contribution to people who are in need. Since my entire values changed, I started to calculate the money I spent for donation and to fulfill myself. I tried to find a few reasons why I did not have to donate. First of all, I worked hard to earn money; second of all, I would sacrifice my short-term wants to save money for a new designer bag. Thirdly, there are many people who are wealthier than I who would give more. A few months after, I had money to buy my first designer bag, so I went to the department store to buy my long-term goal. That bag made me feel happy and satisfied and I found myself showing off my pleasure to people around me.. I thought once I had a bag that I wanted to have it would be just enough, but soon after, I found a new bag that I hoped to have. This started my moral dilemma between satisfying my material greed and the spirit of sharing. I asked my parents to give me wise words about the situation that I faced. They said I should not stop donating money if I feel guilty from it, but I should stop donating money if not getting a bag made me unhappy. They also said I had to think about why I had a part-time drawing teaching job. I said that I worked because I wanted to build my career and to take financial responsibility for myself, so there was no problem with that. I pointed out the amount of fulfillment was greater and longer when I carried out my moral responsibility for orphan children and seniors who were in nursing homes. Therefore I decided to put my moral duty first, but I also made special savings for myself which could afford my personal desire for bags. It seemed the problem was solved but it is not fully solved yet. As my eyes become more sophisticated, my desires grow bigger and more expensive and it will not stop. The utilitarian philosopher, Peter Singer, emphasizes the scientific evidence on conditions of happiness, which shows that once human beings have enough to satisfy their basic needs, they cannot maximize their happiness anymore by gaining wealth. I do partly agree with his opinion because human beings need continuous stimulation, so they work and make progress in their daily lives. The New York Times Op-Ed columnist David Brooks believes that human beings need a reward as motivation in order to work harder and being productive, which means people are supposed to help each other but human beings have natural preference to put themselves as the highest priority, so self-satisfaction is more important than taking moral responsibilities. Although Brooks’ opinion makes sense to me according to my experience, I am not 100% sure which opinion is right and I should follow. In my mind the most important matter is what makes people happier and brings no regret, while finding a balance between self-satisfaction and looking after people who are in need with a true heart.

Media And Communication Studies Problems In Encoding Media Essay

Media And Communication Studies Problems In Encoding Media Essay Introduction Communication is the basic instinct of human being. The interaction and communication process is complex. It directs the researchers to understand the way the cognition works. Latest researches have become more advanced in the context of encoding. CDA (critical discourse analysis) and DA (discourse analysis) have been prerequisite to understand the encoding process. Objectivity, especially in the field of journalism is of great concern. The factors influencing the cognition and the process of encoding have been of the great concern for the communication scholars. Encoding is an integral part of the communication process. With out encoding and decoding it is not possible to communicate and being communicated. If we exclude the encoding the concept of communication is not possible. Mass media in Pakistan like any other media across the globe is working under the lines of responsibility but it is essential to understand the problems in encoding. Process of encoding and decoding is part of everyday communication. Anchormen, news reporters and producers play an important role beyond many others in communication field. Agenda setting, opinions building for a particular purpose have been the major area of interest for the communication experts and the journalists. It is obvious in our daily news media that some hot issues summarily go beyond the surface and the new one take their place to mold the attention of the public from one point to an other. This may go successful in one way when the message is encoded perfectly and then the receiver of the message decodes it in the way the sender wants it. For the successful and objective communication certain studies have been conducted by the communication and language experts focusing especially to the problems in the encoding process. PART II Encoding Definition: Encoding is the translation of purpose, intention, or meaning into symbols or codes. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) By Werner J. Severin James W. Tankard, Jr Mostly these symbols are in the form of numbers, letters or words. These symbols work like bricks in forming the structure of any language. Other shapes of the encoding can be a photograph, motion picture, musical note or in the form of any sound. Encoding is such a process which demands deep attention to understand. It is the part of our routine life. Communication is the vital part of our life. We can not remain in isolation and feel relief when we express our intentions and feeling to any other person. The process of communication involves the most important factor that is encoding. Encoding basically occurs in mind. In other words it is the process of mind in which our intentions and what so ever we want to communicate is converted or shaped into the form of words which may be in the written or spoken form or can be any kind of gesture. We do the encoding on the basis of our knowledge and our past experiences. It is prerequisite for the journalists and communication experts to understand the encoding and its impact on the objectivity of the news or the message being conveyed. Encoding and the Society: Communication works like blood in the body. The process of interaction and transmission of the intentions and ideas from one to other person requires the cognition to come in work. With out the encoding it is impossible to deliver ones intentions to the other. The process of the encoding and decoding follow each other. A person encodes the message in reaction to what he/she decodes. Encoding process is available at every stage. In the field of communication from interpersonal to mass communication; each level has encoding in the process of dissemination of the information. At the mass communication level media disseminate the information to diverse societies. In the societies electronic journalism has a great role in providing the information about daily happening. The general public is regularly exposed to news channels and construct the opinion on the basis of what they watch and listen. Opinion of a society plays important role in the power play at social and national level and even impacts the international power structure. Keeping in mind the importance of the social opinion, it has been the concern of the communication scholars to ensure the objectivity at every stage of news and information dissemination. The process of delivering the information at this level passes through various stages. From the ordinary witness at the crime scene to the reporter, from reporter to the news desk, from news desk to the anchor person and from anchor person to the audiences, the process of encoding is involved at each stage. To ensure the transparency in the information distribution, making it objective and to provide the reality till the audience, certain studies have been conducted by the communication scholars. In the latest studies the scholars have conducted the Critical Discourse Analysis to study the way social power abuse; dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. It thus want to understand, expose and ultimately to resist the social inequality. Additionally the scholars have conducted the Discourse Analysis- a general term for a number of approaches to analyze written, spoken, signed language use. Encoding and the Language: In the process of encoding, language plays an important role. A group of students of the language which is called General Semanticists have worked over the encoding. They also have identified some characteristics of the language. These characteristics are essential to understand in understanding the encoding and the problems in its process. To understand the process of encoding in our society, individuals of the society and the media experts including communication experts and journalists it is essential to be known about these characteristics of the language. Media experts and journalists themselves go through the process of the encoding to shape their selections and intentions and the reality of the world around, and this afterwards again shaped by the minds of individuals in the society. At this point to save the objectivity and the purity of news and the affairs about the world around is the major concern. The misuse of the language takes the communicator or the person being communicated to certain amalgamations of the problems. Following are characteristics of the language identified by the General Semanticists: Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic Language is Limited; Reality is Virtually Unlimited Language is Abstract Assumptions Built into Languages Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic: Words themselves do not change over the period of time, yet the world around us is full of change. In the process of the evolution it is the natural phenomenon that certain species are not permanent in their shape and structure but they keep on developing time to time. In this case it is fact that we use the same fixed limitations and the words to describe any event or the world around. We use some specified words and attributes for certain things and events but with the passage of time their importance and area of influence keep on changing. Mass media communication experts especially the journalists use a specified vocabulary and terms to convey daily happenings. In the developing countries like Pakistan, the journalists in mass media field are not literal to the level essential for their work and the media here is in the developing stage; which has the potential risk to objectivity and the true tackling of the matter of the encoding in the sense of obtaining the information and imparting it to the masses but with the gradual rise in the education towards the importance and the responsibility in the news dissemination process is bringing a positive change. Language is Limited; Reality is virtually Unlimited: According to Wendell Johnson (1972) there are 500,000 to 600,000 words in the English language and they are to represent millions of individual facts, experiences and relationships. The people generally use limited vocabulary for their conversation in daily life. Miller (1963) says that vocabulary for telephone conversation is 5000 words and for novel are 10,000 words. Journalists and communication experts generally have the limited vocabulary. They come across various events in their daily life which they finally encode and give the shape of words and voice and broadcast for the audience and viewers. According to this characteristic of the language they can not show the exact reality of the event. This aspect in other words compromises the objectivity required in the news dissemination process. Due to having the limited vocabulary it becomes hard to convey the true picture of the reality. Language is Abstract: According to General Semanticists in the abstraction process we select some details about anything and leave rest of the details. Every language contains some abstractions. It is one of the most important features of the language. It allows us to think in categories. Much of the human knowledge is bound up in the process of categorizing and classifying. As the words become more abstract their correspondence to the reality becomes less and less direct. In the process of encoding especially according to the journalism perspective, objectivity is the foremost thing to consider. It has adverse effects if the audiences are not conversant to the encoding and abstraction processes. Assumptions Built into the Language: As General Semanticists say; the structure and vocabulary of the language contains many assumptions about the nature of the reality. Wendell Johnson observed that the language we use not only puts words in our mouths, but it also puts notions in our heads. Many folk languages contain certain assumption which are influenced by the culture and norms in which the speakers of that language live. Our mind is like a room which is colored by our experiences and cultures and when we speak in native or foreign language, that language builds assumptions in our mind besides putting words in our mouth. Misuses of the Language: General Semanticists have identified some misuses of the language due its static limited and abstract nature. They have identified four common misuses. Dead-Level Abstracting Undue Identification Two Valued Evaluation Unconscious Projection Dead-Level Abstracting: This concept, described by Wendell Johnson (1946) refers to getting stuck at one level of abstraction. The level could be high or low. High level abstractions are words like justice, democracy, freedom, mankind, and communism, peace with honor, and law and order. The low level abstraction can be like, some one recounting every detail of his or her day. An effective message contains generalizations at a high level of abstraction, but there are also specific details at a low level of abstraction. One effective technique for doing this is to give a lot of examples. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) By Werner J. Severin James W. Tankard, Jr Undue Identification: General Semanticists have described the undue identification as, the failure to see distinctions between members of a category or class. This term points out that they are seen as identical or identified. Another term for this is categorical thinking. In everyday discourse, it is sometimes referred to as overgeneralization. One common kind of undue identification is stereotyping. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) Two Valued Evaluation: This is also known as thinking with the excluded middle. According to this, there are only two possibilities of any thing and there is no third possibility of being something at the middle. For example: Right or Wrong Day or Night The General Semanticists have advised the way to eliminate such kind of misuse of the language by having the multivalued evaluation. In other words, to think that there are a range of possibilities of anything. Unconscious Projection: According to the General Semanticists the unconscious projection is a lack of awareness that ones statements are to a degree statements about oneself. Wendell Johnson (1972) went so for as to claim that basically we always talk about ourselves. William Shakespeare said, Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so. It is the I behind the eye that does the seeing. The seeing goes on inside our heads and inside our nervous system. What we see is our response to what we look at. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) PART III Literature Review Stuart Hall: Stuart Hall has worked over encoding. His paper encoding/decoding was published in 1973. Many of the terms set by Hall remained influential in the field of cultural studies. Hall explored this work during his stay at Birmingham. Hall worked on that how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed. His essay challenged three major things in the communication process. He argued that; Meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender. The message is never transparent. The audience is not passive recipient of the meaning. According to him, distortion is built into the system. It is not the failure of the producer or the viewer. He argued that there is lack of fit between two sides of communication exchange. That lack of fit is between the moment of the production of the message and the moment of its reception. In other words, there is lack of fit between encoding and the decoding process. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall developed the reception theory. This theory analyses that how readers (audience) receive the literary text. This is basically a textual analysis approach that focuses on the range of negotiation and opposition concerning to the audience. According to this theory the text in any form is not accepted passively but the audience or the readers interpret the meanings in their cultural backgrounds and the past experiences. As per this theory, the process of encoding going on in any persons cognition is always influenced by his cultural background and the past experiences of the life. General Semanticists: In the world of communication, encoding has been the matter of the great concern. A group of students of language which was named as General Semanticists, have worked on the problems of encoding. This group was at first led by the Alfred Korzybski, a Polish who later migrated to United States of America. Encoding as being the basic element in the communication process which deals with the work of cognition is unavoidable in the process of analyzing the communication and the interaction of human beings with each other and its effects. In the process of accounting the importance of the encoding we can not put aside the role of the language. The language as being the central tool in the process of the communication affects the whole process of sharing the ideas and interaction with each other. Focusing on the vitality and the role of the language in encoding, they have identified some characteristics of the language that make the encoding difficult-especially in the language. These scholars have been in concern with the role of language in our daily life and its effects over our mental health. They have suggested to use the language in the way as the scientists use, to avoid the problems generated by the misuse of the language. Describing the characteristics of the language which make the encoding difficult, they identified the language as; Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic Language is Limited; Reality is Virtually Unlimited Language is Abstract Assumptions Built into Languages Misuse of the language causes the wrong encoding of any purpose or intention which takes the person being communicated, away from the reality. The person who gratifies his needs for information and news is on the stake of the key performers in the information dissemination process such as media producers, anchor-persons and the news reporters. General Semanticists have also identified some misuses of the language. Wendell Johnson has the prominent work in this regard. The misuses of the language are; Dead-Level Abstracting Undue Identification Two Valued Evaluation Unconscious Projection According to Wendell Johnson, getting stuck to a level of abstraction, and basically we always talk about ourselves, are the matters of the great concern. The field of journalism like other communication activities requires more attention towards these findings by the General Semanticists. The element of the objectivity has been of great concern. S. I. Hayakawa (1964) discusses three kinds of statements focusing the objectivity. Reports Inferences judgment According to him, the statement which is capable of verification is called the report. He describes the inferences as the statements made about unknown on the basis of known and finally he discussed the judgment as an expression of approval or disapproval for an occurrence, person or object. Journalists are sometimes challenged for their objectivity and unveiling the true picture of reality. For this the Hayakawa has advised to follow the report method of the statements and avoid inferences, statements and slanting. Encoding and Mass Media in Pakistan: Mass media in Pakistan has been playing active role in dissemination of the information to the audience at every newsworthy occasion. Certainly there is no scarcity of the hardworking journalists working in the whole process of the communication and the news dissemination. At the present stage there is great competition going on among various TV channels, of which most of the channels are newly emerged. Being the first in the broadcasting race some times the violation of the standards and ethics of news reporting is obvious. Some of the channels have been showing the videos of such a brutal incidents which would never be shown under the codes of ethics. Whether it is print or the electronic media, loopholes in the process of information gathering, processing and distributing stages are apparent. Government has established PEMRA to regulate the media but it too has been kept under the influence of the interests of the governing body in the past. In the print media there are a number of news stories available at the news desks which are firstly encoded by the reporters in the words on the paper, which sometimes are not written properly due to limited vocabulary of the language held with the reporter. There are gatekeepers at various stages of the news production which practice their influence on the word structure of the news. Sometimes a few newsworthy stories are left behind due to unavailability of the space in the print and the time in the electronic media and that reserved space is due to the immense influence of the advertisers, through which mass media generate the revenue. In such above mentioned conditions, the objectivity is the element of great concern in the whole process of the mass media. There have been no work done over the issue of encoding by the mass media of Pakistan and there is no research held over the audience way of the encoding in Pakistan. There are a few channels (TV, Radio) and newspapers which are never influenced by the rivalry of the circumstances and tried to provide the objective news to the audience and vied to unveil the reality. But to analyze the way the mass media in Pakistan encodes the messages and to analyze the way the audience further encode the messages, is the matter of great concern. PART IV Hypothesis To analyze the objectivity and the encoding process by the news media it is essential to set a hypothesis. Under the hypothesis we will discuss the level of objectivity and the way how mass media especially the news media (print and electronic) of Pakistan and the audience encode the news. Statement of the Hypothesis News media (print and electronic media) in Pakistan politicize the news PART V Analysis Mass media in Pakistan has diverse outlets. It is not merely confined to the print media or in the other words the newspapers. There are news agencies, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV channels, internet and the movie industry under the title of the mass media in Pakistan. Debating on the issue of the encoding we will pass through the performance of the all kinds of media in Pakistan focusing on the issue of politicizing of the news elements by the media industry. Pakistan as being one of the developing countries is passing through the process of the evolution in the field of industry, economy and the media field. Where there are various TV channels are getting approval for the start of the broadcast, there many newly born newspapers are sacrificing for there erectness and stability in the corporate culture of the present Pakistan. Besides this there is one more way of recreation, learning and information for the audience and that is radio listening. The radio Pakistan enjoys the vast area coverage with respect to other FM radio stations having a limited area for broadcast. Internet too is full of blogs and WebPages. Society in Pakistan is divided into urban and rural population. The urban population is being exposed to diverse media outlets than the rural population. The emerging news media in Pakistan has been influenced by the political economy being practiced by various corporate and the political bodies. The newly emerging media whether in the form of print or electronic have to vie for their existence and their existence can not be assured with out generation of the revenue. The struggle to generate the revenue some times put these media industries on the way other than the objectivity. The objectivity has been the great concern for the communication experts and the scholars. It would be the foremost responsibility of the mass media to provide the accurate picture of the reality and do not keep the audience away from the reality. Encoding of the news is blurred by the various key players in the media industry due to their affiliations with the corporate world and the political body. Corporate sector influences the media by using the advertisement tool and the political body cares for its interest and if the media go against, it puts the sanctions through the governmental media regulating bodies. This way, the corporate and the political bodies control the contents of the news and other media messages and make the reporters, news editors, columnists, anchor persons and the news producers to think in the way they want. As the general semanticists identified, due to the limited aspect of the language the reporter sometimes can not describe the reality of the incident in the way as it should be. The assumptions built in the language makes the key performers in the media industry to think in the way that is influenced by their culture and past experiences. As the Wendell Johnson said, the opinions of the columnists are to some extent the talks about themselves. These are basically their opinions and not necessarily the reality of something. The element of the judgment according to the Hayakawa is also visible in the opinions given in the news articles and the columns. Reports are the only the way to come up with the reality for the audience. There are the reports that can only be verified and are credible thats why the emphasis is given on the report (a type of statements according to Hayakawa). The audience as per the uses and the gratification theory gratifies their needs from the mass media in the form of the news and the entertainment. And if they gratify their needs on the basis of the news encoded by mass media under the influence of any corporate or the political body, they will live with the wrong picture of the world around them in their brain and that will effect their reaction in the social life. Agenda setting aspect of the mass media is also applicable in this regard. The influential bodies and sometimes the personal bias of any of the key performers in the mass media molds the structure of the news in a particular sense generating collection of words which causes to set a particular agenda in the public. Sometimes the political influence of the political body being the major provider of the advertisements to the mass media makes news media to make an issue over particular news in the media and bury the other news which however may cause any harm to the political body. The contents of the news in the media are also affected by the advertiser which buys large space or the time in the news media and this way controls consciously or unconsciously the news flow and its encoding. Some of the events have been given more than the due time and rests of the important events are kept at the stand by although the newsworthy incidents keep happening all the time in any of the corners of the country. The news is not merely encoded by the news media but it is further encoded by the audience and it then further travels to the rest of the audience through their opinion leaders in the public sphere. If the encoding at any stage in the news media is of that other than reality and away from the objectivity, the travel of the information at any stage will not be fruitful for the audience. PART VI Findings News media in the Pakistan are encoding the news messages for the audience. Those media that are strong are practicing better encoding of the news and focusing on the element of objectivity than those which are newly born and needs revenue from advertisements for their strength building in the media market. The threat to the objective encoding is expected in the talk shows where the anchormen conclude the discussion and give inferences and judgments. This aspect is also visible in the news articles and columns which are basically their own opinions about the reality. Audiences further encode the messages based on what kind of encoding done by the news media they come across. They remain away from the reality if they are gratifying from the inobjective encoding by the news media. Thanks With Best Regards M Bilal Bhatti MS 1 Media Communication Studies IIUI, Islamabad

Extraction of Blue Ice Area in Antarctica

Extraction of Blue Ice Area in Antarctica Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY High resolution satellite data has made it possible to obtain optimistic results in feature extraction processes. High resolution World-View-2 data is used for mapping blue ice areas (BIAs) in Antarctic regions. World-View-2 provides extensively high accuracy, agility, capacity and spectral diversity. First high-resolution 8-band multispectral commercial/business satellite is World-View-2 launched October 2009. Working at an elevation of 770 kilometres, World-View-2 gives 46cm panchromatic resolution and 1.85m multispectral resolution. World-View-2 has a normal revisit time of 1.1 days and it is able of catching up to 1 million square kilometres of 8-band imagery per day. Satellite pictures generally track seasonal annual variations in BIAs coverage over the past 30 year on the East Antarctic plateau region. In late studies, the distribution of BIAs can likewise mulled over from the SAR (synthetic aperture radar) images. In SAR satellite image, blue ice can likewise be outwardly perc eived. The amplitude of blue ice is less than that of snow (white), because the ice surface is smoother than the latter. Yet, distinction is not at all that conspicuous when applying Semi-automatic extraction approach. Blue ice can be distinguished effortlessly in the coherence map got from two SAR pictures in a view of higher coherence of blue ice. It is additionally found that the picture texture data is useful for distinguishing various types of blue ice like rough, smooth and level blue ice. In this study, Atmospheric corrected (QUAC) sharpen calibrated image (World-View-2 data) is used for extracting blue ice areas in Schirmacher Oasis in Antarctic region. Extraction of blue ice area in Antarctica deal with the total area of blue ice areas excluding the other feature (non-target) appearing on or near it. Blue ice areas have some specific qualities that make them of special interest for extraction as they are just 1% of Antarctic region. Many remote sensing approaches have been implemented to monitor and map Antarctic BIAs. 3.1 Methodology Protocol The extraction of blue ice areas is simplified by the Methodology protocol. As the whole image takes time for processing, as Schirmacher Oasis is with an area of 34km ², ranks among the smallestAntarctic oasis and is a typicalpolar desert, so the image is divided in 12 test tiles of different parts of entire World-View-2 image to achieve prior results. Atmospheric correction is done with QUAC (quick atmospheric correction) method to obtain better results. Atmospheric correction to each tile added suitable outputs results to workflow. Calibrated data is also used without applying atmospheric correction to it. Multiband image combination was made from atmospheric corrected data and calibrated data of the study area. Alternating snow and blue ice bands surface patterns are generally found in East Antarctica due to which it is hard task to clearly extract BIAs. For feature extraction processes region of interest (ROI) is considered in which blue ice is target and white ice appearing on or near the blue ice is considered as non-target. Methodology workflow is prepared in order to achieve good and prior results comparing with the previous studies. Extraction of blue ice is not that easy task as dust and white snow appears on it as non-target. Various Semi-automatic extraction methods like TERCAT, Target Detection Wizard, Mapping Methods, Spectral Matching and Object Base Image Analysis (OBIA) are used for extracting blue ice areas in Antarctica. The initial results obtained were good but not better enough to keep them prior. Many trials were carried out for extracting blue ice in Antarctica. Prior results were kept in workflow of methodology to compare them with every trial results. Object based and Pixel based both the classification are used in workflow to get good results. From the High resolution World-View-2 data reference data (digitized data) was prepared for blue ice area and extracted blue ice area was obtained from Semi-automatic extraction methods and OBIA. From the extracted blue ice, blue ice is considered as target and white snow appearing on it as non-target. Comparing reference data and extracted data Bias, % Bias and RMSE values were calculated. After that Average for Bias, % Bias and RMSE values is estimated. BIAS= % BIAS= RMSE= Where, Ref A is Reference area and Ext A is Extracted area n= no. of tiles processed. 3.2 Semi-automatic extraction methods The semi-automatic feature extraction approach intuitively makes endeavours to commonly empowering the insight or data of human perception framework to robustly detect the targeted feature and the computer-aided system to bring fast extraction of targeted feature and exact shape representation. In semiautomatic feature extraction strategy, first target feature is detected by human vision and a couple of estimates in terms of seed points or coaching samples concerning the targeted feature on highlight are typically given. The targeted feature is then portrayed automatically by the PC helped calculations. 3.2.1 TERCAT approach (ENVI 5.1 Exellis Help) [33] The Terrain Categorization (TERCAT) tool creates an output product in which pixels with similar spectral properties are clumped into categories. These categories may be either user-defined, or automatically generated by the classification algorithm. The TERCAT tool provides all of the standard ENVI classification algorithms, plus an additional algorithm called Winner Takes All. This is a voting method that classifies pixels based on the majority compiled from all of the other classification methods that were conducted. In this research, the sub approaches for TERCAT are Maximum Likelihood, Spectral Angle Mapper, Parallelepiped and Winner Takes All. 3.2.2 Target Detection approach (ENVI 5.1 Exellis Help) [33] Target detection algorithms work on the principle of extracting target features based on spectral characteristic of initial coaching spectral signatures of target features, and performing end to the background noise using spectral signatures of non-target features. If the users knows that the image contains at least one target of interest, the wizard can be used to find other targets like it in the same image. The workflow can also be accessed programmatically, so the user can customize options if needed. Target detection tools (ENVI 5.1) were executed to perform supervised image processing tasks into workflows (CEM, ACE, OSP, TCIMF, and MT-TCIMF) to extract blue ice areas (BIAs) as target and white ice as non-target. 3.2.3 Spectral Matching approach (ENVI 5.1 Exellis Help) [33] Spectral matching approaches extract the target features that are described in multispectral imagery based on the target feature’s spectral characteristics. Spectral matching algorithms confirm the spectral similarity or matching between input satellite imagery and reference key points to form an output product within which pixels with similar spectral properties are clumped into target and non-target categories. Spectral Matching (ENVI 5.1) were executed to perform supervised image processing tasks into workflows (MF, SAM, MTMF and SAMBM) to extract blue ice areas (BIAs) as target and white ice as non-target. 3.2.4 Mapping Methods approach (ENVI 5.1 Exellis Help) [33] Selected hyperspectral Mapping Methods describes advanced concepts and procedures for analyzing imaging spectrometer data or hyperspectral images. Spectral Information Divergence (SID) is a spectral classification method that uses a divergence measure to match pixels to reference spectra. The smaller the divergence, the more likely the pixels are similar. Pixels with a measurement greater than the specified maximum divergence threshold are not classified. End member spectra used by SID can come from ASCII files or spectral libraries, or you can extract them directly from an image (as ROI average spectra). Mapping Methods (ENVI 5.1) were executed to perform supervised image processing tasks into workflows [SID SV (0.05), SID SV (0.07), SID SV (0.1), SID MV (0.05) and SID MV (0.09)] to extract blue ice areas (BIAs) as target and white ice as non-target. 3.2.5 Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) approach (Ecognition Developer Help) [34] Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA), is an advanced method used to segment a pixel based image into map objects that can then be classified as a whole. This kind of analysis is ideal for mapping with high-resolution imagery, where a single feature (such as a tree) might have several different shades of pixels. The example of rule-set for Trial 1, 2, 3 and 4 for extracting blue ice areas in this research is stated below; For Trial 1: 02.063 50 [shape.: 0.8 compact.:0.6] Creating ‘level 1’ Export view to segmentation (no geo) Unclassified with mean nir-1>=50 and mean nir-1 Export view to assign class (no geo) Blue ice with mean nir-1>=50 and mean nir-1 Export view to merging (non geo) For Trial 2: 02.063 60 [shape.: 0.8 compact.:0.6] Creating ‘level 1’ Export view to segmentation (no geo) Unclassified with mean nir-1>=100 and mean nir-1 Export view to assign class (no geo) Blue ice with mean nir-1>=100 and mean nir-1 Export view to merging (non geo) For Trial 3: 02.063 70 [shape.: 0.8 compact.:0.6] Creating ‘level 1’ Export view to segmentation (no geo) Unclassified with mean nir-1>=150 and mean nir-1 Export view to assign class (no geo) Blue ice with mean nir-1>=150 and mean nir-1 Export view to merging (non geo) For Trial 4: 02.063 80 [shape.: 0.8 compact.:0.6] Creating ‘level 1’ Export view to segmentation (no geo) Unclassified with mean nir-1>=200 and mean nir-1 Export view to assign class (no geo) Blue ice with mean nir-1>=200 and mean nir-1 Export view to merging (non geo) The on-top rule-set is employed to extract blue ice areas as well as non-target depending on their mean band values. OBIA is making considerable progress towards spatially explicit information extraction advancement, such as is required for spatial planning as well as for many monitoring programmes. The Semi-automatic extraction strategies and OBIA utilized in this study to extract blue ice areas (BIAs) are supported differently on different underlying principles. To compare these strategies objectively, we kept the input ROIs (regions of interest or coaching samples) constant for all methods for each tile. ROIs are different for different tiles as the area differs. After classifying the image into target spectra, i.e., blue ice areas, using the Semi-automatic extraction methods and OBIA approaches, the 12 semi-automatically extracted tiles (for BIAs) were vectorized to calculate the area of individual tile.

SWOT Analysis Essay -- Business Analysis

Organizational performance is a result of business interaction with its internal and external environment (Houben, Lenie & Vanhoof, 1999). There are a variety of internal and external forces that either stimulate or compromise the organization's performance in achieving objectives or goals (Houben, et al., 1999). An analysis can identify and evaluate areas within or outside of the organizations to provide information for leadership. The analysis can be done by internal personnel or external experts. Experts are often used to identify, monitor, forecast and assess environment trends (Swayne, Duncan & Ginther, 2008). Often the SWOT analysis is used to review internal and external areas in the four components; strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis indicates that the strengths and weakness are internal. Strengths are the organizational competitive advantages and distinguishing competencies (Houben, et.al, 1999). Weaknesses hinder the progress of the organization in a certain direction (Houben, et.al, 1999). Weakness can be considered areas of opportunities. Data collections from employees and customer surveys along with financial information can indicate the strengths and weakness. Opportunities and threats are viewed more as external forces. Opportunities are investment or change which the organizations may consider. Threats could be competitors or other known factors which the organization should identify. This paper will review a SWOT analysis that was conducted by an external exporter on the healthcare organization, Kaiser Permanente. The external expert is Datamonitor and is familiar with nonprofit organizations. Datamonitor (2011) indicates â€Å"that Kaiser Permanente (KP) is one of the ... ...amonitor (2011). Kaiser Permanente.,Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. SWOT Analysis; Dec2011, p1-9, 9p DATAMONITOR (2010). Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. SWOT Analysis; Nov2010, p1-8, 8p Hardwick, P.l (2005). Want a better business? Invest in SWOTing . Mississippi Business Journal, 1/31/2005, Vol. 27 Issue 5, pA5-A5, 3/5p Houben, G. Lenie, K. Vanhoof, K. (1999). A knowledge-based SWOT-analysis system as an instrument for strategic planning in small and medium sized enterprises. Retrieved from. http://www.cuaed.unam.mx/puel_cursos/cursos/d_gcfe_m_dos/modulo/modulo_2/m2-10.pdf Weisman, S (2008). S.W.O.T. analysis is no longer the best approach to planning for success. Hudson Valley Business Journal, 10/27/2008, Vol. 19 Issue 43, p11-11, 1/3p Swayne, L. E., Duncan, W. J., & Ginter, P. M. (2008). Strategic

The Role of Climate Change in Coral Reef Destruction Essay -- Global W

Climate change is arguably one of the most discussed issues in climatic conferences and political debates across the world. Establishment of the fact that global warming is the leading cause of climate change continues to persuade people to find out ways of reducing or mitigating the effects it has on the earth. Global warming occurs naturally, but artificial causes, which are mainly human activities, contribute to this effect. The release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from human activates has led to a 0.60C rise in global temperatures (Walther et al., 2002). This implies that different life forms are affected in one way or the other given the effect of temperature on life. Different species of flora and fauna have and continue to suffer the effect of climatic changes. Coral reef is one of seawater features that have been affected by climatic changes. This has led to destruction through coral bleaching and increased mortality, especially due to the warming of the sea that causes an increase in sea water levels (Bakerl, Glynn & Riegl, 2008). An increase in global temperature also increases ocean acidification (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007). These occurrences destroy reefs resulting in a significant drop in other sea organisms that depend on the reef. This implies that climatic changes are among the most destructive environmental elements affecting coral reef population in the world. To understand how climatic changes affect coral reef population, it is important to consider different ecological processes that occur due to climatic changes, the most common being the rise in global temperatures. Results from Different Studies Investigating the Role of Climate Change in Coral Reef Destruction Evidence of Sea Acidi... ...igher—Can We Do Anything About It?. National Geographic. Retrieved Nov 11, 2013: http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-sea-level-rise/ Obura, D. (2005). Resilience and climate change: lessons from coral reefs and bleaching in the Western Indian Ocean. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science , 63, 353–372. Obura, D. & Grimsditch, D. (2009). Coral reefs, climate change and resilience : an agenda for action from the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Neptune: IUCN. Smith, V. & Buddemeier, W. (1992). Global change and coral ecosystems . Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst, 23, 89-118. Sutthacheepn, M. et al. (2013). Impacts of the 1998 and 2010 mass coral bleaching events on the Western Gulf of Thailand. Deep-Sea Research II, 96, 25–31. Walther, G. et al. (2002). Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature, 416, 389-395.

Essay --

Kashif Basaria Ms. Weaver English 2 Honors 7 January, 2014 Preventing Medical Malpractice It is unfortunate to say that medical malpractice is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Medical malpractice is defined as negligence committed by a medical professional. Malpractice lawsuits have existed in the United States for more than 150 years, most of which were never pursued in court. Medical malpractice is interfering with patients’ rights as well as demanding high costs. However, medical malpractice can be overcome by managing the costs involved, and by regulating, enforcing and advocating patient rights. The most common medical malpractice claims are mainly from missed diagnoses. Their common result was, unfortunately, death, found in fifteen percent and forty eight percent of the cases filed. Most common cases involving missed diagnoses for adults were cancer and heart attacks (Jaslow). Other cases that were common were ectopic pregnancies, appendicitis, and fractures of the bone. Most missed diagnoses involving children were cancers, and meningitis (Jaslow). On account to this, Doctor Richard E. Anderson, chairman and CEO of the physician-operated medical malpractice insurer, The Doctors Company, says, â€Å"nobody benefits but lawyers†¦But the second message is [that] medical care is too expensive, we’re ordering too many tests† (Jaslow). Stated from the quote above, â€Å"too many tests† appear to be unnecessary and unwanted tests. Apart from this, some cases regarded the patient’s lack of attention to their disease or disorder. Not only is it the doctor’s responsibility to look after the patient, but it is also the patient’s responsibility to be attentive and persistent about their health and the health care provide... ... a health problem, incorrect supervision of medication to a patient, faulty or sub-standard performance of a diagnosis, surgery, or any other type of procedure, inadequate use of medical tools and instruments and devices and their lack of maintenance, and negligence towards patient records, test results, or any other kind of documentation (Goguen). Although, the list of problems and causes of medical malpractice seems rather endless and long, it can be cut short. Some ways to prevent and avoid malpractice or medical error is to be aware and involved. A doctor can take note of their patient and their medical history. A patient can be aware of their surroundings and the treatment that they are receiving. A patient’s safety should be a doctor’s primary concern, because it is their responsibility to tend to patients needs and to assist them to a proper nourished life.