Acoustic Signal Based Traffic Density Engineering Essay

Traffic monitoring and parametric quantities estimation from urban to battlefield environment traffic is fast-emerging field based on acoustic signals. This paper considers the job of vehicular traffic denseness appraisal, based on the information nowadays in cumulative acoustic signal acquired from a roadside-installed individual mike. The happening and mixture weightings of traffic noise signals ( Tyre, Engine, Air Turbulence, Exhaust, and Honks etc ) are determined by the prevalent traffic denseness conditions on the route section. In this work, we extract the short-run spectral envelope characteristics of the cumulative acoustic signals utilizing MFCC ( Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients ) . The ( Scaly Conjugate Gradient ) SCG algorithm, which is a supervised acquisition algorithm for network-based methods, is used to calculate the second-order information from the two first-order gradients of the parametric quantities by utilizing all the preparation datasets. Adaptive Neuro-F uzzy classifier is used to pattern the traffic denseness province as Low ( 40 Km/h and supra ) , Medium ( 20-40 Km/h ) , and Heavy ( 0-20 Km/h ) . For the development geographicss where the traffic is non-lane driven and helter-skelter, other techniques ( magnetic cringle sensors ) are unsuitable. Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy classifier is used to sort the acoustic signal sections crossing continuance of 20-40 s, which consequences in a categorization truth of?95 % for 13-D MFCC coefficients, ~95 % for first order derived functions and ~95 % for 2nd order derived functions of cepstral coefficients. Keywords: Acoustic signal, Noise, Traffic, Density, Neuro-Fuzzy. Introduction As the figure of vehicle in urban countries is of all time increasing, it has been a major concern of metropolis governments to ease effectual control of traffic flows in urban countries [ 1 ] . Particularly in first-come-first-serve hours, even a hapless control at traffic signals may ensue in a long clip traffic jam doing a concatenation of holds in traffic flows and besides CO2 emanation [ 2 ] . Density of traffic on roads and main roads has been increasing invariably in recent old ages due to motorisation, urbanisation, and population growing. Intelligent traffic direction systems are needed to avoid traffic congestions or accidents and to guarantee safety of route users. Traffic in developed states is characterized by lane driven. Use of magnetic cringle sensors, picture cameras, and velocity guns proved to be efficient attack for traffic monitoring and parameter extraction but the installing, operational and care cost of these detectors significantly adds to the high operational disbursal of these devices during their life rhythms. Therefore research workers have been developing several Numberss of detectors, which have a figure of important advantages and disadvantages relative to each other. Nonintrusive traffic-monitoring engineerings based on ultrasound, radio detection and ranging ( Radio, Laser, and Photo ) , picture and audio signals. All above present different features in footings of hardiness to alterations in environmental conditions ; industry, installing, and fix costs ; safety ordinance conformity, and so forth [ 3 ] . Traffic surveillance systems based on picture cameras cover a wide scope of different undertakings, such as vehicle count, lane tenancy, velocity measurings and categorization, but they besides detect critical events as fire and fume, traffic jams or lost lading. The job of traffic monitoring and parametric quantity appraisal is most normally solved by deploying inductive cringles. These cringles are really intrusive to the route paving and, hence cost associated with these is really high. Most video analytics systems on main roads focus on numeration and categorization [ 4 ] , [ 5 ] , [ 6 ] , [ 7 ] , [ 8 ] . Using general intent surveillance cameras for traffic analysis is demanding occupation. The quality of surveillance informations is by and large hapless, and the scope of operational conditions ( e.g. , dark clip, inclement, and mutable conditions ) requires robust techniques. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be good attack for traffic monitoring and parametric q uantity appraisal intent holding really low installing, operation and care cost ; low-power demand ; operate in twenty-four hours and dark status. Conventional pattern categorization involves constellating developing samples and tie ining bunchs to given classs with restrictions of lacking of an effectual manner of specifying the boundaries among bunchs. On the contrary, fuzzed categorization assumes the boundary between two neighbouring categories as a uninterrupted, overlapping country within which an object has partial rank in each category [ 9 ] . In brief, we use fuzzed IF-THEN regulations to depict a classifier. Assume that K forms, p= 1, .. K are given from two categories, where is an n-dimensional chip vector. Typical fuzzed categorization regulations for n = 2 are like If is little and is really big so = ( ) belongs to C1 If is big and is really little so = ( ) belongs to C2 Where are the characteristics of form ( or object ) P, little and really big are lingual footings characterized by appropriate rank maps. The firing strength or the grade of rightness of this regulation with regard to a given object is the grade of belonging of this object to the category C. Most of the categorization jobs consist of medium and large-scale datasets, illustration: familial research, character or face acknowledgment. For this different methods, such as nervous webs ( NNs ) , support vector machines, and Bayes classifier, have been implemented to work out these jobs. The network-based methods can be trained with gradient based methods, and the computations of new points of the web parametric quantities by and large depend on the size of the datasets. One of the network-based classifiers is the Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier ( NFC ) , which combines the powerful description of fuzzed categorization techniques with the larning capablenesss of NNs. The Scaled Conjugate Gradient ( SCG ) algorithm is based on the second-order gradient supervised learning process [ 10 ] . The SCG executes a trust part measure alternatively of the line hunt measure to scale the measure size. The line hunt attack requires more parametric quantities to find the measure size, which consequences in increasing preparation clip for any learning method. In a trust part method, the distance for which the theoretical account map will be trusted is updated at each measure. The trust part methods are more robust than line-search methods. The disadvantage associated with line-search method is eliminated in the SCG by utilizing the trust part method [ 10 ] . We start with a word picture of the route side cumulative acoustic signal which consisting several noise signals ( tyre noise, engine noise, air turbulency noise, and honks ) , the mixture weightings in the cumulative signal varies, depending on the traffic denseness conditions [ 11 ] . For low traffic conditions, vehicles tend to travel with medium to high velocities, and therefore, their cumulative acoustic signal is dominated by tyre noise and air turbulency noise [ 11 ] , [ 12 ] . On the other manus, for a to a great extent congested traffic, the acoustic signal is dominated by engine-idling noise and the honks. Therefore, in this work, we extract the spectral characteristics of the wayside acoustic signal utilizing Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients ( MFCC ) , and so Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier is used to find the traffic denseness province ( low, Medium and Heavy ) . This consequences in 95 % truth when 20-30 s of audio signal grounds is presented. We begin with description of the assorted noise signals in the cumulative acoustic signal in Section II. Overview of past work based on acoustic signal for traffic monitoring is provided in Section III, followed by characteristic extraction utilizing Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients in IV. Finally, the experimental apparatus and the categorization consequences by SCG-NFC are provided in Section V, and the decision is summarized in Section VI. VEHICULAR ACOUSTIC SIGNAL A vehicular acoustic signal is mixture of assorted noise signals such as tyre noise, engine tick overing noise, noise due to wash up, engine block noise, noise due to aerodynamic effects, noise due to mechanical effects ( e.g. , axle rotary motion, brake, and suspension ) , air-turbulence noise and the honks. The mixture weighting of spectral constituents at any location is depends upon the traffic denseness status and vehicle velocity. In former instance if we consider traffic denseness as freely fluxing so acoustic signal is chiefly due to tyre noise and air turbulency noise. For medium flow traffic acoustic signal is chiefly due to broad set thrust by noise, some honks. For heavy traffic status the acoustic signal is chiefly due to engine tick overing noise and several honks. A typical vehicle produces assorted noise depends on its speed, burden and mechanical status. In general, estimate can be done as vehicular acoustic signal is categorized as, Tyre noise Tyre noise refers to resound produced by turn overing Sur as an interaction of turn overing Sur with route surface. The tyre noise is besides considered as chief beginning of vehicle ‘s entire noise at a velocity higher than 50 kilometers per hours [ 12 ] , [ 13 ] . Tyre noise has two constituents: air noise and vibrational noise [ 13 ] , [ 14 ] . Air noise dominant in the frequence ranges between 1 KHz to 3 KHz. On the other manus vibrational noise is dominant in the frequence scope 100 Hz to 1000 Hz. Effect is generated by route and Sur, which forms a geometrical construction that amplifies the noise ( elaboration consequences in tyre noise constituent in the frequence scope 600 Hz to 2000 Hz ) , produced due to tyre-road interaction [ 14 ] , [ 15 ] , [ 16 ] . The directionality of horn depends upon tyre geometry, tyre yarn geometry, weight and torsion of Sur. The entire Sur noise power along with horn consequence lies in the frequence scope 700-1300 Hz. Fig. 1. Relationship between the noise of the Sur and the noise of the vehicle harmonizing to its velocity. The Sur noise is caused by three different factors: The Sur hitting the land ( Fig 2 ) The quiver of the air through the tread form ( Fig 3 ) The quivers go throughing through the Sur ( Fig 4 ) ( B ) ( degree Celsius ) Fig. 2. ( a ) Tyre hitting the land, ( B ) Vibration of the air through the pace form, ( degree Celsius ) Vibrations go throughing through the Sur Engine noise Engine noise is produced due to internal burning of engine. Engine noise contains a deterministic harmonic train and stochastic constituent due to aerate intake [ 11 ] . The fuel burning in engine cylinder leads to deterministic harmonic train where lowest harmonic tone refers to cylinder fire rate. On the other manus stochastic constituent is mostly due to the turbulent air flow in the air consumption, the engine chilling systems, and the alternator fans. The engine noise varies with velocity and the acceleration of vehicle [ 11 ] , [ 17 ] . A stationary vehicle produces distinguishable engine tick overing noise whereas traveling vehicle produces different engine noise in correspondence with cylinder fire rate. In the recent old ages, makers designs quieter engine to stamp down the noise degree. So engine noise might be strong on front side of auto compared to other waies. Exhaust noise The exhaust noise is produced due to full fumes system. The system goes from the engine burning compartment through exhaust tubings to the exhaust silencer nowadays at the dorsum of the vehicle bring forthing exhaust noise. The exhaust noise is straight relative to burden of the vehicle [ 18 ] . The exhaust noise is characterised by holding power spectrum around lower frequences. Exhaust noise is affected by turbo coursers and after ice chest [ 18 ] , [ 19 ] . Air Turbulence noise Air turbulency noise is produced due to the air flow generated by the boundary bed of the vehicle. It is outstanding instantly after the vehicle base on ballss by the detector ( e.g. mike ) . It produces typical drive-by-noise or whoosh sound. The Air turbulency noise depends on the aeromechanicss of the vehicle, wind velocity and its orientation [ 20 ] , [ 21 ] . ACOUSTIC SIGNALS FOR TRAFFIC MONITORING Today ‘s urban environment is supported by applications of computing machine vision techniques and pattern acknowledgment techniques including sensing of traffic misdemeanor, vehicular denseness appraisal, vehicular velocity estimate, and the designation of route users. Currently magnetic cringle sensor is most widely used detector for traffic monitoring in developing states [ 22 ] . However traffic monitoring by utilizing these detectors still have really high installing and care cost. This non merely includes the direct cost of labour intensive Earth work but besides, possibly more significantly, the indirect cost associated with the break of traffic flow. Besides these techniques require traffic to be orderly flow, traffic to be lane driven and in most instances it should be homogenous. Mentioning to the developing parts such India and Asia the traffic is non lane driven and extremely helter-skelter. Highly heterogenous traffic is present due to many two Wheelers, three Wheelers, four Wheelers, auto-rickshaws, multi-wheeled coachs and trucks, which does non follow lane. So it is the major concern of metropolis authorization to supervise such helter-skelter traffic. In such environment the cringle sensors and computer-vision-based trailing techniques are uneffective. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be good option for traffic monitoring intent holding really low installing, operation and care cost. Vehicular Speed Appraisal Doppler frequence displacement is used to supply a theoretical description of individual vehicle velocity. Premise made that distance to the closest point of attack is known the solution can suit any line of reaching of the vehicle with regard to the mike. [ 23 ] , [ 24 ] . Feeling techniques based on inactive sound sensing are reported in [ 25 ] , [ 26 ] . These techniques utilizes microphone array to observe the sound moving ridges generated by route side vehicles and are capable of capable of supervising traffic conditions on lane-by-lane and vehicle-by-vehicle footing in a multilane carriageway. S. Chen et Al develops multilane traffic feeling construct based inactive sound which is digitized and processed by an on-site computing machine utilizing a correlativity based algorithm. The system holding low cost, safe inactive sensing, unsusceptibility to adverse conditions conditions, and competitory fabrication cost. The system performs good for free flow traffic nevertheless for congested traffic public presentation is hard to accomplish [ 27 ] . Valcarce et Al. work the differential clip holds to gauge the velocity. Pair of omnidirectional mikes was used and technique is based on maximal likeliness rule [ 3 ] . Lo and Ferguson develop a nonlinear least squares method for vehicle velocity appraisal utilizing multiple mikes. Quasi-Newton method for computational efficiency was used. The estimated velocity is obtained utilizing generalized cross correlativity method based on time-delay-of-arrival estimations [ 28 ] . Cevher et Al. uses individual acoustic detector to gauge vehicle ‘s velocity, breadth and length by jointly gauging acoustic moving ridge forms. Wave forms are approximated utilizing three envelop form constituents. Consequences obtained from experimental apparatus shows the vehicle velocities are estimated as ( 18.68, 4.14 ) m/s by the picture camera and ( 18.60, 4.49 ) m/s by the acoustic method [ 29 ] . They besides had estimated a individual vehicle ‘s velocity, engine ‘s unit of ammunitions per minute ( RPM ) , the figure of cylinders, and its length and breadth based on its acoustical moving ridge forms [ 17 ] . Traffic Density Estimation Time appraisal for making from beginning to finish utilizing existent clip traffic denseness information is major concern of metropolis governments. J. Kato proposed method for traffic denseness appraisal based on acknowledgment of temporal fluctuations that appear on the power signals in conformity with vehicle base on ballss through mention point [ 30 ] . HMM is used for observation of local temporal fluctuations over little periods of clip, extracted by ripple transmutation. Experimental consequences show good truth for sensing of transition of vehicles Vehicular Categorization Classification larning strategies normally use one of the undermentioned attacks: Statistical classifiers based on Bayes determination theory, assume an implicit in chance distribution for unknown forms, e.g. maximal likelihood appraisal, maximal posterior chance appraisal, Gaussian mixture theoretical accounts, concealed Markov theoretical accounts or k-nearest neighbour method. Syntactic or structural classifiers based on additive or nonlinear interrelatednesss of characteristics in the characteristic vector lead to linear/non-linear classifier. Acoustic characteristic coevals are chiefly based on three spheres: clip, frequence, and both time-frequency sphere. Time sphere characteristic coevals offers really low computational demand, but characteristics are frequently hampered by environmental noise or air current effects. Frequency sphere characteristic coevals see a stationary spectrum in a given clip frame. As traveling vehicles are non-stationary signals, the influence of Doppler effects and signal energy alterations either have to be neglected or the investigated clip frame must be chosen short plenty to afford quasi stationary signal behaviour. Time-frequency sphere characteristic coevals see the non-stationary signal behaviour of go throughing vehicles and it lead to accurate steps of signal energies in clip and frequence sphere at the same time, these attacks are holding a high computational complexness. TABLE I. Vehicular acoustic characteristic extractors and classifiers Sphere Ref. Feature Extractor Classifier used Accuracy Time [ 31 ] TE, PCA Fuzzy Logic, MLNN 73-79 % 95-97.5 % [ 32 ] Correlation based algorithm Frequency [ 33 ] HLA NN Vehicle: 88 % Cylinder: 95 % [ 34 ] HLA, DWT, STFT, PCA k-NNS, MPP kNN: 85 % MPP: 88 % [ 35 ] AR mod. MLNN up to 84 % Time-Frequency [ 36 ] DWT MPP 98.25 % [ 34 ] HLA, DWT, STFT, PCA k-NNS, MPP kNN: 85 % MPP: 88 % TABLE II. Acronyms from subdivision III and IV TE Time Energy Distribution MLNN Multi Layer Neural Network. PCA Principal Components Analysis NN Artificial Neural Network HLA Harmonic Line Association k-NNS K – Nearest Neighbor Search DWT Discrete Wavelet Transform MPP Maximum Distance Approach STFT Short Time Fourier Analysis AR mod. Autoregressive Mold CWT Continuous Wavelet Transform FEATURE EXTRACTION USING MFCC An omnidirectional mike was placed on the prosaic pavement at approximately 1 to 1.5 m tallness, and it recorded the cumulative signal at 16000 Hz trying frequence. Samples were collected for clip continuances of around 30s for different traffic denseness province conditions ( low, medium and heavy ) . The assorted traffic denseness states induce different cumulative acoustic signals. To turn out the above statement, we have examined the spectrograph of the different traffic province ‘s cumulative acoustic signals. Fig. 3. Spectrogram of the low denseness traffic ( above 40 kilometers per hour ) . Fig. 4. Spectrogram of the Medium denseness traffic ( 20 to 40 kilometers per hour ) . Fig. 5. Spectrogram of the Heavy denseness traffic ( 0 to 20 kilometers per hour ) . For the low denseness traffic status in Fig. 3, we merely see the wideband drive-by noise and the air turbulency noise of the vehicles. No honks or really few honks are observed for low denseness traffic status. For the medium denseness traffic status in Fig. 4, we can see some wideband drive-by noise, some honk signals, and some concentration of the spectral energy in the low-frequency ranges ( 0, 0.1 ) of the normalized frequence or equivalently ( 0, 800 ) Hz. For the heavy denseness traffic status in Fig. 5, we notice about no wideband drive-by engine noise or air turbulency noise and are dominated by several honk signals. We note the several harmonics of the honk signals, and they are runing from ( 2, 6 ) kilohertz. The end of characteristic extraction is to give a good representation of the vocal piece of land from its response features at any peculiar clip. Mel-Frequency cepstral coefficients ( MFCC ) , which are the Discrete Cosine Transform ( DCT ) coefficients of a Mel-filter smoothed logarithmic power spectrum. First 13-20 cepstral coefficients of a signal ‘s short clip spectrum compactly capture the smooth spectral envelope information. We have decided to utilize first 13 cepstral coefficients to stand for acoustic signal for matching traffic denseness province. These coefficients have been really successfully applied as the acoustic characteristics in address acknowledgment, talker acknowledgment, and music acknowledgment and to vast assortment of job spheres. Features extraction utilizing MFCC is as follows, Pre-emphasis Pre-emphasis stage emphasizes higher frequences. The pre-emphasis is a procedure of go throughing the signal through a filter. It is designed to increase, within a set of frequences, the magnitude of some ( normally higher ) frequences with regard to the magnitude of the others ( normally lower ) frequences in order to better the overall SNR. Y [ n ] = x [ n ] -?x [ n-1 ] , ? ˆ ( 0.9, 1 ) ( 1 ) Where ten [ n ] denotes input signal, y [ n ] denotes end product signal and the coefficient ? is in between 0.9 to 1.0, ?= 0.97 normally. The end of pre-emphasis is to counterbalance the high-frequency portion that was suppressed during the sound aggregation. Framing and Windowing Typically, address is a non-stationary signal ; therefore its statistical belongingss are non changeless across clip. The acquired signal is assumed to be stationary within a short clip interval. The input acoustic signal is segmented into frames of 20~40 MS with optional convergence of 1/3~1/2 of the frame size. Typically each frame has to be multiplied with a overacting window in order to maintain the continuity of the first and the last points in the frame. Its equation is as follows, W [ n ] = ( 2 ) Where N is frame size Y [ n ] = X [ n ] * W [ n ] ( 3 ) Where Y [ n ] = Output signal Ten [ n ] = Input signal W [ n ] = Hamming Window Due to the physical restraints, the traffic denseness province could alter from one to another ( low to medium flow to heavy ) over at least 5-30 min continuance. Therefore, we decided to utilize comparatively longer primary analysis Windowss of the typical size 500 MS and displacement size of 100 MSs to obtain the spectral envelope. Fig. 6. Primary Windowss of size=500 MS and shifted by 100 MSs to obtain a sequence of MFCC characteristic vectors. DFT Normally, Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT ) is used to calculate the DFT. It converts each frame of N samples from clip sphere into frequence sphere. The calculation of the FFT-based spectrum as follow, Ten [ k ] = ( 4 ) Where N is the frame size in samples, x [ n ] is the input acoustic signal, and. X [ k ] is the corresponding FFT-based spectrum. Triangular bandpass filtering The frequences range in FFT spectrum is really broad and acoustic signal does non follow the additive graduated table. Each filter ‘s magnitude frequence response is triangular in form and equal to integrity at the Centre frequence and diminish linearly to zero at centre frequence of two next filters. We so multiply the absolute magnitude of the DFT samples by the triangular frequence responses of the 24 Mel-filters that have logarithmically increasing bandwidth and cover a frequence scope of 0-8 kilohertz in our experiments. Each filter end product is the amount of its filtered spectral constituents. Following equation is used to calculate the Mel for given frequence degree Fahrenheit in HZ: F ( Mel ) = 2595 * log 10 [ 1+f/700 ] ( 5 ) The ith Mel-filter bank energy ( is obtained as ( = ( * , thousand ˆ ( 0, N/2 ) ( 6 ) Where ( is the triangular frequence response of the ith Mel-filter. These 24 Mel-filter bank energies are so transformed into 13 MFCC utilizing DCT. DCT This is the procedure to change over the log Mel spectrum into clip sphere utilizing DCT. The consequence of the transition is called Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient. The set of coefficient is called acoustic vectors. = cos ( ?j ) , j ˆ ( 0, 12 ) ( 7 ) Data energy and Spectrum The acoustic signal and the frames alterations, such as the incline of a formant at its passages. Therefore, there is demand to add characteristics related to the alteration in cepstral characteristics over clip. 13 characteristic ( 12 cepstral characteristics plus energy ) . Energy=? X2 [ T ] ( 8 ) Where X [ t ] = signal Fig. 7. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for low traffic denseness province Fig. 8. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for Medium traffic denseness province Fig. 9. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for Heavy traffic denseness province ADAPTIVE NEURO FUZZY CLASSIFIER An adaptative web is a multi-layer feed-forward web where each node performs a peculiar map based on incoming signals and a set of parametric quantities refering to node. Fuzzy categorization systems, which are founded on the footing on fuzzy regulations, have been successfully applied to assorted categorization undertakings [ 37 ] . The fuzzed systems can be constituted with nervous webs, and attendant systems are called as Neuro-fuzzy systems [ 37 ] . The Neuro-fuzzy classifiers define the category distributions and demo the input-output dealingss, whereas the fuzzed systems describe the systems utilizing natural linguistic communication. Nervous webs are employed for developing the system parametric quantities in neuro-fuzzy applications. An ANFC consist of input, rank map, fuzzification, defuzzification, standardization and end product beds [ 37, 38, 39 ] . Fig. 10. An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier Figure 10 demonstrates generalized classifier architecture with two input variables x1and x2. The preparation informations are categorized by three categories C1 and C2. Each input is represented by two lingual footings, therefore we have four regulations. Membership bed: The end product of the node is the grade to which the given input satisfies the lingual label associated to this node. Normally, bell-shaped rank maps are chosen to stand for the lingual footings. ( U ) = exp [ – ( ) 2 ] ( 9 ) Where [ ai1, ai2, bi1, bi2 ] is the parametric quantity set. The bell-shaped maps vary harmonizing to alterations in the values of these parametric quantities, therefore exhibiting assorted signifiers of rank maps on lingual labels Ai and Bi. In fact, any uninterrupted, such as trapezoidal and triangular-shaped rank maps are besides campaigners for node maps in this bed. The initial values of the parametric quantities are set in such a manner that the rank maps along each axis satisfy ˆ-completeness, normalcy and convexness. The parametric quantities are so tuned or trained with a descent-type method. Fuzzification bed: Each node generates a signal corresponding to the conjunctive combination of single grades of lucifer. All nodes in this bed are labelled by T, because we can take any t-norm for patterning the logical and operator. The nodes of this bed are called regulation nodes. In order to cipher the grade of belongingness to certain category label the additive combination of the firing strengths of the regulations at Layer 3 and use a sigmoid map at Layer 4. If we are given the preparation set { ( ) , k = 1, .. .. , K } where refers to the k-th input form and = Experimental Consequences We have collected the route side cumulative acoustic signal samples from chhatrapati square to T-point of Nagpur metropolis. Datas were collected with 16 KHz trying frequence. These informations covered three wide traffic denseness categories ( low, medium and heavy ) . Feature extraction is done utilizing MFCC where primary window size is 500 MS and displacement size is of 100 MS. Case 1: First 13 cepstral coefficients were considered. TABLE III. Classification truths of assorted traffic denseness categories based on individual frame. Traffic Density Class Accuracy ( % ) Low 74 Medium 64 Heavy 72 Case 2: The full characteristic vectors consisted of the first 13 MFCC coefficients and their first and 2nd order clip derived functions computed. This led to a 39-D characteristic vector per frame. TABLE IV. Classification truths of assorted traffic denseness categories based on first and 2nd order derived functions of first frame. Traffic Density Class First order derived function Second order derived function Low 75 74 Medium 66 64 Heavy 78 72 Case 3: MFCC coefficients correspond to full frames are considered ( i.e. T= sample signal length in clip, ex. T=30s ) . Decision This paper describes a simple technique which uses MFCC characteristics of route side cumulative acoustic signal to sort traffic denseness province as Low, Medium and Heavy utilizing Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier. As this technique uses simple mike ( cost: 500 Rs ) so its installing, operational and care cost is really low. This technique work good under non lane driven and helter-skelter traffic status, and is independent of illuming status. Classification truth achieved utilizing Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy classifier is of ~95 % for 13-D MFCC coefficients, ~95 % for first order derived functions and ~95 % for 2nd order derived functions of cepstral coefficients. The research on vehicular acoustic signal which is mixture of engine noise, tyre noise, noise due to mechanical effects etc. expands from vehicular velocity appraisal to denseness appraisal. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be an alternate, research shows acceptable truth for acoustic signal. Vehicular categorization with Acoustic signals proved to be first-class attack peculiarly for battleground vehicles, and besides for metropolis vehicles. Clearer definitions of scenarios and applications are required to bring forth a more consistent organic structure of work. New application countries are likely to emerge for traffic signal timings optimisation utilizing cumulative acoustic signals and besides categorization of bikes proved to be emerging country for research. Finally the categorization systems can be extended in a manner that extracted characteristics are utilised as characteristic fingerprints, which affords trailing of vehicles over multiple detector nodes.

Epsteins Essay

We must all acknowledge and adhere to the feeling of boredom, as we have all felt its distinct dampness in some form or another. Epstein’s essay â€Å"Duh, Bor-ing† is able to capture and enforce its ideologies through direct references and quotations; with a little education and perseverance you are able to decipher and put meaning behind the unique examples he portrays in his writing. Epstein starts his essay with â€Å"Somewhere I have read that boredom is the torment of hell that Dante Forgot† (Epstein 1). In using this quote from Albert Speer we really get the feeling that boredom is unbeneficial and in fact tormenting at times. As many will agree with that statement, Epstein further goes on to say â€Å"When bored, time slows drastically, the world seems logy and without promise, and reality itself can grow shadowy and vague† (Epstein 2). There again giving you the feeling that boredom can cause you to perceive time differently and cause life to become dark and gloomy at times. He does a great job incorporating these quotes into his writing to really back the feeling that we carry towards boredom. We have all felt the negative vibes portrayed from boredom and many of us try to avoid them at all costs. Being able to form my own opinions, judgments and thoughts on the subject allows Epstein’s essay to be easily relatable and interesting to read. Epstein further allows you to connect with the text by particularizing on the different types of boredom perceived. Situational Boredom, in which he relates to a â€Å"dull sermon† (Epstein 1) and existential boredom caused by modern culture. Epstein lets us ponder the thought that maybe our own modern culture is to blame for boredom. He elaborates that boredom is often less pervasive in simpler cultures â€Å"One hears little of boredom among the pygmies or the Trobriand Islanders, whose energies are taken up with the problems of mere existence† (Epstein 2). With everything becoming increasingly more technological and people able to live easier, longer and healthier lives maybe we create our own boredom through modern society. He also refutes existential boredom in saying â€Å"Even animals know boredom, we are told, though they are deprived of the ability to complain directly about it† (Epstein 1). An animal at most represents the closest thing to be at its core un-modernized. Although deprived from the ability to complain about it, animals symbolize pure primal instinct and yet are affected by boredom just alike. Naturally boredom has a negative stigma wrapped around it but as Toohey suggests â€Å"Boredom is good for us†¦ Boredom can function as a warning sign†¦telling those who suffer unduly from it that they need to change their lives† (Epstein 5). Epstein’s allowing that negative stigma to be refuted upon and replaced with that of a greater self-perception. That maybe boredom is a self-defense mechanism or a symptom in reaction to your own life struggles and yet curable. Epstein constant analytical approach to the advantages and disadvantages of boredom helps make this essay work in building credibility to the fact that he’s not one-sided or condensed. He capitalizes on the indifferences boredom promotes and truly tries to look at the subject from all angles and sides drawing power and reason from multiple sources and references. Overall with the use of distinct wordy visuals and references Epstein able to make his writing work in that of capturing his readers and allowing them to form their own interpretation on the matter.

Childhood Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Childhood Obesity - Essay Example It has related obesity and performances among teenage girls in both the U.K and United States. Research has been carried out in various universities where grades have been compared to the obesity levels in girls. The researches have been caused by the numerous cases of obesity that have affected school grades. During the test, students were examined their abilities in Math, English and science (Poon 2014). Results show that obese girls acquired poor grades in the tested subjects. The studies were conducted in universities and colleges. On the contrary, the blog has proved to be false in some of the comments because other researchers have shown that both obese girls and boys have gained poor grades (Poon, 2014). Moreover, other contradicting results have been obtained from studies that have highlighted obese girls who have achieved better grades. Some psychologists have argued that there is the presence of other factors that lead to low grades in schools. The obese girls may have had other issues rather than health complications that led to their poor performance. The podcast has included discussions on the rising cases of obesity in the United States and their cause of health threats to the population (Gardner, 2010). The main presenter is Doctor Grossman who claims that parents should adopt the right programs to help their obese children. However, the doctor has used bogus claims on the consequences instead of focusing on prevention of obesity. Families should adopt obesity prevention methods to prevent their children from health complications. Prevention strategies should include the abolition of junk foods from homes and provision of advices on the dangers of obesity. Programs should include more contact time between parents and their children because they help in the sharing of knowledge about obesity (Gardner, 2010). Children should be encouraged to practice regularly rather than staying indoors and playing video games. The TV

Pricing Strategies and their impact on Revenue Research Paper

Pricing Strategies and their impact on Revenue - Research Paper Example Revenue management has been a practice in the hotel industry for approximately 20 years (Anderson et al., 1994). Good revenue management results from a correlation of pricing and hotel occupancy. The study came to the conclusion that the hotels which maximized their revenue tended to have relatively higher prices and did not engage in price undercutting (Enz & Canina, 2008). Another study found that Asian market consumers did not seem to be influenced by discounts (Lomano, 2008). It may be argued that since these studies were conducted in varying Geographical regions and in different economic circumstances, they may offer practical insights that may be used to determine pricing in the hotel and hospitality industry (Varki & Colgate, 2001). There is however a shortage of research as regards the impact of pricing on individual hotel revenues. Markets have had relatively stable occupancy and a steady growth in revenue since the beginning of the century (O’Neil et al., 2006). The changing dynamics of the market through the provision of advertising through the internet and an increase in supply is certain to lead to increased competition. It is thus important that the hotel industry reevaluate their pricing models to reflect their changing dynamics if they are to maximize their revenue (O’Neil et al, 2006). This paper will study the impact of these changing dynamics on the hotel industry with specific focus on individual hotel case studies and other strategies and economic models. Purpose The defining purpose of this literature review is an analysis of available literature concerning pricing in a market context and how it affects hotel revenue and its management. The review studied the correlation between hotels charging relatively lower prices and client demand for rooms. The review further goes on to analyze literature with regard to the behavior of demand when a particular hotel decides to set higher prices than the competition. The review evaluates the influence of contextual pricing approaches on financial performance of the hotel; whether it is advantageous to charge higher or lower prices than rivals. The review additionally analyzed the response of clients concerning price strategies through the study of relative ADR. The literature review recommendations are made basing on the views of data studied from various journals and from the opinions of experts in the hospitality industry. The significance of customer satisfaction, loyalty, resulting from quality provision of service is linked to pricing and subsequently revenue management. Discussion The concept of revenue management has its roots in the mid 1980s airline industry (Belobaba, 2002). Due to its success in the airline industry it was subsequently adopted by the hospitality industry. Pricing remains an elemental part of revenue management as can be shown by a variety of literature on the subject. Since the concept was adopted from other service industries, its defin ition may tend to be different in each of the perspectives used (Stanford, 2003). Price Elasticity of Demand The price elasticity of demand is defined as the quantity of a good or service demanded relative to its price. When Price Elasticity of demand is greater than 1 it means that demand is influenced by prices and vice versa. Strobl et al. (2012) found that the hotel industry’s prices are influenced by demand. During periods of low demand, rooms are discounted and available to all. During periods of high demand, administration would apply revenue management and avail rooms only to customers who would maximize revenue. Revenue

Literature review on drug ddiction in davao city, philippines and the Research Paper

Literature review on drug ddiction in davao city, philippines and the importance of psychological educational rehab centers for the youth - Research Paper Example Thus, the very presence of rehab center for the youth in the city would remarkably prove this important claim. Drug addiction in Davao City is a major concern as well as its total elimination or if not alleviation. This is due to strong political power that the City government substantially possessed over its people. The people remarkably supported the City Mayor’s vision on eradicating drug addiction in the city to make it free from crimes. In fact, Barangays are active in their participation on the lecture about the ill-effects of misusing drugs (City Government of Davao, 2012). In other words, the entire Davao City is in perfect harmony and unity with the goal of the government to build a City that is free from ill effects of drug addiction. Thus, it has just become a norm in the City to hear somebody shoot to dead especially when the victim would be a law breaker or offender and drug user. It in this reason that different institutions in the country have remarkable opinion the prevailing justice system in the country if indeed it is able to adjust the justice needs of the rural poor (Franco, 2008). This is due to the fact that those primarily victims in the shoot out are poor young individuals but with remarkable inclusion in drug addiction and other related crimes. However, the City government does not want to end up every law breaker being shot to dead at the street especially the youngsters. Thus, rehab center for the youth is present in Davao City having the government’s active and full moral support. Young people who are confined in rehab centers in Davao City are those with significant backgrounds in committing crimes and other law-breaking activities including but not limited to juvenile and statutory rape, robbery, riots, murder and drug abuse. Within this rehabilitation center young people are provided with care primarily on psychological concerns and educational activities and needs. In the Philippines, particularly in Davao City,

Leadership Profile second stage (Qaide azam Mohmad Ali Jinah) Essay

Leadership Profile second stage (Qaide azam Mohmad Ali Jinah) - Essay Example (Wolpert, 1984, p. 182) Adair, (2002, p. 3) concludes that no communities are identified that do not have leadership in several characteristics of their communal life, though numerous may not have a particular overall leader to make and execute decisions. National practicability depends in some measure on effective leadership. Successful leaders participate in both professional leadership activities (e.g. setting a chore, creating a process for attaining ambitions, lining up methods and routes) and personal leadership activities (e.g. building confidence, gentle for people, acting with integrity). Great suggestions proposed by the right being in the wrong situation, or to the immoral audience, or at the badly chosen time are meant to fail. Great leaders are those who employ and focus the appropriate combination of elements on the dot to impact their world in impressive ways. This idealism, combined with his feeling, dating back to the London days, that there was a role for him on Indias political stage, le d him to join the Indian National Congress in 1906 and, three years later, to make a bid, which proved successful, to enter the Imperial Legislative Council as the nominee of the Muslims of Bombay. At Congresss 1906 session, Jinnah acted as private secretary to the president, Dadabhai Naoroji. It was a landmark session: for the first time Congress asked, through its president, for "Swaraj," using the Hindi word for self-rule. Later, when Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Poona, famed for his assertion, "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it," was prosecuted by the Raj, Jinnah served as one of the Brahmin defendants lawyers. Remarkably, the majority of what we know about leadership derives from the observation of how folks relate to their immediate heads. Nonetheless, probing individual opinions of â€Å"leadership† at the national level is a striking intention (Meigs, 2001, p. 4).

Why do Incumbents win majority of time during election Essay - 1

Why do Incumbents win majority of time during election - Essay Example Since they are in office, they can use the privileges provided to them by the taxpayers in the form of free travel, mailing, airtime, town hall meetings, hiring sizable staff to assist them in making them more likeable and others to strengthen their campaign. Furthermore, during their time in office, they certainly make some friends in the corporate world and political arena, such as labour unions, professional lobbyists and big businesses, who are likely to express their desire to find their campaigns in return for favors and advantages in the future (Gelman & King 1148). Recent statistics confirm the same. During the 2012 election cycle, every incumbent was able to raise more than 0.9 million US dollars as part of their fundraising campaign, but the same figure remained at less than 0.15 million for the challengers. Therefore, incumbents were able to outraise their challengers by 405 million to 88 million. Sitting members of Congress are paid to meet and talk with the voters, attend town hall meeting, appear regularly on the media, liaison with the press and engage in actions and decisions, which could assist them in improving their overall image because this is an imperative part of their job as members of Congress (Ashworth and Bueno de Mesquita 1009). Therefore, they can run their campaigns while performing these jobs and taking advantage of the perquisites available to them while they are in office. However, a challenger, if he or she is not extremely wealthy, would have to use their savings, go into debt and find other ways of financing to run a campaign (Sabato 142). If the challenger is not already a political servant, celebrity, or well known in the masses, it puts him or her at even a bigger disadvantage against the incumbent. This is true because the incumbent has served for at least two or six years in case of Congress and Senate respectively, thus allowing

Equity & Trusts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Equity & Trusts - Essay Example An imperfect gift can only arise in the first two cases, and a gift would be imperfect if the transfer of title of the subject matter of the gift does not takes place from the settlor's name to the trustees. There can be no possibility of an imperfect gift in the third case because no formalities of transfer of rights are necessary. The exact constitutive requirements of a trust depend upon the nature of the property forming the subject-matter. In case of unregistered land, execution of a deed is necessary, whereas, in registered land, the trustee will need to be registered as proprietor on the register of title. In case of chattels (including cash), it has to be conveyed by either deed or delivery. In case of chose in action, this depends upon the different types of chose in action. In case of shares, for example, they can only be transferred by the recording of the transfer in the company’s books by the company secretary. The general attitude of the courts is reflected by Turner LJ’s statement in Milroy v. ... settlement, the settlor must have done everything which, according to the nature of the property as subject-matter of the settlement, was necessary to be done in order to transfer the property. If the settlor's chosen mode of donation fails, the court will not perfect the gift by allowing it to take effect by other modes. This case goes further to state that the beneficiary cannot allege in an imperfect gift that the settlor constituted to declare himself a trustee. In Richard v. Delbridge2, D decided to gift his lease of premises and business to his grandson R, who was an infant. He signed a memorandum and gave it to R’s mother, but before making a reference to the gift in his will he died. It was held that no self-declaratory trust was created: â€Å"It is necessary to show, not only an intention to benefit someone; but an intention to be trustee for that person†. According to Choihtram v. Pagarani3, â€Å"Men often mean to give things to their kinsfolk, they do not often mean to constitute themselves trustees. An imperfect gift is no declaration of trust†. Thus, equity will not come to the aid of any person who has given no consideration for the gift. For example, if a father, due to parental affection, promises to give his property to his son but dies before the actual conveyance, equity will not aid the son’s for the enforcement of that promise unless he had provided any consideration. However, this rule became very rigid in practice and may sometimes run into contradiction with the basic elements of quity i.e. fairness and justice. For instance, if a father declares in front of many people to give his entire property to only one son then that son has to give no consideration for that. But if the father dies unexpectedly before actual conveyance then

Constitutional Law of the European Union Case Study

Constitutional Law of the European Union - Case Study Example Accordingly. Germany must defend that the decision to restrict its national policy of supporting companies with financial benefits should have been taken by unanimous voting. Article 94 also envisages that there shall be a unanimous decision in respect of directives, regulations and regulations affecting the common market functioning. This is a good defence for Germany to maintain that if national companies are not supported with financial benefits, they will be adversely affected by unhealthy competition from the financially strong companies. Though there are proviso for derogation of these requirements by adopting Qualified Majority Voting, (QMV), the derogation power for overriding the unanimous voting requirements can not used for restricting a single member state from supporting its national companies when there possibilities of similar practices being followed at all member states in some form or other though the commission may not have received complaints.. There is no reason how it will distort competition when such practices likely to be followed by all the member states. Hence a decision of this nature should not be discriminatory towards a single member state alone. ... In the instance case itself, though there were complaints against France and Germany, action is directed at Germany only. Hence the decision is blatantly discriminatory by the abuse of QMV. The EC Treaty itself has provisions for creating interventionist funds to ward off difficulties. Hence Germany can rely on the above defences before the court of justice for cancelling the impugned decision. As Luxembourg Compromise was only a guideline and not statutory until recently without anticipating any such exigency, Germany can argue that this QMV principles must be reviewed so as to prevent vested interests from joining together against a single member state by insisting on unanimous voting. Germany's practice has been open and transparent while other member states are not likely to be so as there is no way of detecting such practices in guise. Germany being singled out alone will result in competition distortion. Moreover the commission does not appear to have followed the procedures giving opportunity to Germany before taking the impugned decision. In case no C-288/962, the court of justice has observed as follows. Plea in law alleging failure to observe the rights of the defence 92 By its first plea in law the German Government complains that the Commission denied it and the Land of Lower Saxony access to the observations, mentioned in section II of the grounds of the contested decision, which had been sent to the Commission, during the administrative procedure, by letters of 31 August 1995, 1 September 1995 and 4 September 1995, by four competitors of Jadekost. 93 According to section II, the letters in question pointed out, in particular, that Jadekost had used the aid granted to win market share from its competitors through sales at below-cost prices.

Government office and its customer service Essay

Government office and its customer service - Essay Example However, the government has been criticized because of its inefficiency that arises from influences of the politicians that are interested in keeping power via investment. The DPS has been too aggressive because it is one of the significant partners in the government. This was criticized because it caused delay in the privatization of the national telecoms carrier. Further, it caused inefficiency in the tobacco company that forced serious restructuring of government. The DPS’s ethnic of the Turkish constituency has a significant interest in the tobacco sector, and during 2007, it was criticized of frustrating the sale of tobacco under the successor government. According to Cohen, Eimicke, and Heikkila (10), the government, especially DPS has been moving to modernize its capability to offer fast, high quality customer service, but it lags behind the private sector. The government is viewed as wasteful and corrupt when offering the resources required in a different office. This has affected the credibility and even the possibility of efforts to organize, legalize and plan the customer services. Meanwhile, the government has lost its image as an institution where people can do well and serve their fellow customers. The government employees have suffered an essential decline in status in the recent years due to increase of negative perception from public. It has been criticized because it lacks methods to convince customers to effect change and improve their lives via working in government offices. The government’s forceful effort to attack the pentagon has not significantly changed the common perceptions of government. According to Cohen, Eimicke, and Heikkila (5), the focus on tax cut and downsizing the customers have increased the criticism of government because it finds more difficult to respond to crisis of persistent public problems. This is caused by the inefficiencies in the government budgeting and

Birthday Letters Essay Example for Free

Birthday Letters Essay In the three texts the characters that are presented as new women are also presented with a downfall, those who are presented as traditional women are seen to survive and do well. Within the three texts, Dracula, A Street Car Named Desire and Birthday Letters, the authors present the female characters within certain ways which allow us as the audience to look closely at the battle of equality between men and women and the rise of feministic views. However the battle isnt always apparent and some female characters allow themselves to be the inferior characters compared to the male characters who take on dominant roles within their relationships. Within the three texts a downfall of death is presented, this is always presented to those women who are presented as New Woman. Feminism is a movement for social, cultural, political and economic equality of men and women. It is a campaign against gender inequalities and it strives for equal rights for women. 1 Within the three texts we are presented with many female character types, A Street Car Named desire, allows its audience to compare and contrast its female characters. We are presented with Blanche who is on first appearances seen as a New woman ( A women of the late 19th century actively resisting traditional controls and seeking to fill a complete role in the world2) she lives by herself, has no male role controlling her life and makes her own decisions, however it isnt too much later that we learn a different aspect of Blanche, she becomes a character that needs a man to keep a roof over her head and food in her mouth. We are easily able to compare Blanche with her sister Stella, who is a women that presents traditional roles however some times does challenge these, Stella lives with Stanley and allow him to control her life, he tells her what to do and she takes on stereotypically traditional roles within the house. However we do see some New Woman actions within Stellas character such as when Stanley hurts her she runs away however this is then counter parted with Stella returning to Stanley. In the end it is Blanche that has the biggest downfall within the novel and we are left with the question of is this because she presents a post- feministic woman? This question can also be placed when looking at Dracula, Lucy is presented to the audience as a very sexually aware female she is also shown to have less traditional views on marriage why cant they let a girl marry three men or as many as want her and save all this trouble3, Lucy is also like Blanche presented with the biggest downfall within the novel, she is controlled by Dracula and even killed more than once. Sylvia Plath like Lucy and Blanche also are presented with death within the novel, Sylvia could be seen to have the biggest downfall of all three of the characters, it is not only physical but also a mental problem. Hughes talks of his and Sylvia Plath life journeys through his poetry and we come to understand the life style that they lived, Plaths death is central to Hughes poetry and we are able to understand the kind of women Sylvia is, she is shown as a weak women who needed her husband by her side, when he fails to do so she becomes weaker and commits suicide. However we can see the power that Plath had on Hughes due to the high impact that Sylvias suicide had on his poetry Years after your death4. Plaths downfall doesnt seem to be due to her position as a women it is presented within the opposite, she is a traditional women and this causes her problems. Dracula sees a downfall for its female characters in the way of death, Lucy is killed by a male character. Arthur Holmwood buries the stake deep in Lucys heart in order to kill the demon she has become and to return her to the state of purity and innocence he so values. The language with which Stoker describes this violent act is unmistakably sexual, and the stake is an unambiguous symbol for the penis. In this way, it is fitting that the blow comes from Lucys fianci , Arthur Holmwood. Lucy is not only being punished for being a vampire but also being available for seduction by Dracula himself, who we can recall has the power to only attack a willing victim. When Holmwood slays the demonic Lucy, he returns her to the role of a legitimate, monogamous lover, which reinvests his fianci e with her initial Victorian virtue, again degrading Lucys female role, needing a male character to take care of her to the end of her life. Lucy Westenra, is first presented to the audience as an out going, sexually aware, less traditional women. In many ways, Lucy is much like Mina Murry. She is a paragon of virtue and innocents, qualities that draw the attention of three men to her. However Lucy does differs from her friend in one key area, which makes her much of a New Women, Lucy is sexualised. Lucys physical beauty captures the attention of the three men, which is where she displays a comfort of playfulness about her desirability. This is displayed in an early letter to Mina when Lucy states why cant they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save her all this trouble. This presents the idea that Lucy has troubles that she cannot and will not meet, going against the New Women model. Stoker presents this simple, small idea of Lucys instability to a huge volume when he describes the undead Lucy as a creature of a ravenous sexual appetite. Lucy is presented as a dangerous threat to men and their self control, Lucys second death returns her to a harmless state presenting her again with purity, assuring the men that things are exactly how they are suppose to be. Lucy presents the idea of the new woman to the reader, she is also represented as a creature when she is a vampire. Dracula succeeds in transforming Lucy and becomes a vampire vixen, Van Helsings men see no other option than to kill her, in order to return her to a purer, more socially respectable state. After Lucys transformation, the men keep a careful eye on Mina, worried they will lose yet another model of Victorian womanhood to the dark side. It is here seen that Lucy is a model female until she is turned into a vampire. Late in the novel, Dracula mocks Van Helsings crew, saying, Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine. Here, the count voices a male fantasy that has existed since Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden that womens ungovernable desires leave men poised for a costly fall from grace. Women through out Dracula are shown as something that men own and something that can be used as a bargaining tool. Blanche like the female characters within Dracula is also presented as a object by Stanley when he attacks her, however when Blanche is with Mitch alone he treats her in a way that she expects as a New Woman Can I-uh-kiss you-good night? 5 with dignity and respect, this isnt however carried through out the whole novel. Blanche doesnt accept males help through out the play and tries to hide the things that she has done before, this adds to her downfall which allows her to become more and more depressed and pushing towards her downfall. Which we can also assume this happens to Plath, Hughes talks of their past and their lives together, this allows us as the audience to know what events happened to add to Plaths depression and her death. Looking at other sources we find out that Ted Hughes, had left her for another woman6which then pushes Plath to her suicide. This goes against the idea that the Downfall of woman is due to woman being post feminist woman. The three texts all see big punishment for its three leading ladies, this influences them in many ways and pushes them all towards their deaths. In the 1880s and the 1890s saw the publication of many studies in psychology and sexology. For example, Dr. Krafft-Ebing, a German sexologists medico-legal study Phychopahia Sexualis, documented hundreds of cases of divergent, deviant sexuality, listing, cataloguing and typing each individual. Under Sadism in Women, he describes case 42, a womens who sexual history prefigures that of Stokers Lucy: A married man presented himself with numerous scars of cuts on his arms. He told their origins as follows: When he wishes to approach his wife, who was young and somewhat nervous, he first had to make a cut in his arm. Then she would suck the wound, and during the act become violently excited sexually. Most critics agree that Dracula is, as much as anything else, a novel that feeds on the Victorian male imagination, particularly concerning the topic of female sexuality. In Victorian England, womens sexual behaviour was dictated by societys extremely rigid expectations. A Victorian woman effectively had only two options either she was a virgin or she was a wife and mother. If she was neither of these, she was considered a whore. A women never had the right to choose which kind of life style she wanted to have, she was simply labeled if she didnt conform, we can see this with Lucy when she must choose who she wants to marry she simple states that in her ideal world Why cant they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble. 7 This is very degrading, Lucy, is stating that she wishes she didnt have to make a choice and she wishes that her life was all laid out for her, however it could be argued that she wants this because of her personality rather than her fate. By the time Dracula lands in England and begins to work his evil magic on Lucy Westenra, we understand that the impending battle between good and evil will depend upon female sexuality, both Lucy and Mina are less like real people than two-dimensional embodiments of virtues that have, over the ages, been coded as female. Both women are chaste, pure, innocent of the worlds evils, and devoted to their men. But Dracula threatens to turn the two women into their opposites, into women noted for their voluptuousness-a word Stoker turns to again and again-and unapologetically open sexual desire. Blanche within A Street Car Named Desire is also presented as a sexual desire from Mitch and even Stanley. Mitch likes her not only for her looks but who she is I like you to be exactly the way that you are8 Mitch doesnt think of Blanche in a sexual way until later on in the play. Blanches fear of death presents itself in the fear of her ageing and loosing her beauty. She refuses to tell anyone her own age why do you want to know9 Blanche seems to believe that by continually asserting her sexuality towards men especially those who are younger, she will be able to avoid death and return to the world of teenage bliss that she experienced before her husband committed suicide. However, beginning in Scene One, Williams suggests that Blanches sexual history is in fact a cause of her downfall. When she first arrives at the Kowalskis, Blanche says she rode a streetcar named Desire, then transferred to a streetcar named Cemeteries, which brought her to a street named Elysian Fields. This journey, the precursor to the play, allegorically represents the trajectory of Blanches life. The Elysian Fields are the land of the dead in Greek mythology. Blanches lifelong pursuit of her sexual desires has led to her eviction from Belle Reve, her ostracism from Laurel, and, at the end of the play, her expulsion from society at large. Sex and death are intricately and fatally linked within Blanches experiences through out the novel. In Scene One, Stanley throws a package of meat at his adoring Stella for her to catch. The action sends Eunice and the Negro woman into peals of laughter. Presumably, theyve picked up on the sexual innuendo behind Stanleys gesture. In hurling the meat at Stella, Stanley states the sexual proprietorship he holds over her. Stellas delight in catching Stanleys meat signifies her sexual infatuation with him. This also shows Stella in light of the new woman, however Stanley is the one initiating the sexual activity again pushing Stella back into her traditional role. Stella tries on many occasions pushing herself into the role of the new woman however Stanley always fails to allow her to do so. A Streetcar Named Desire presents a sharp critique of the way the institutions and attitudes of postwar America placed restrictions on womens lives. Williams uses Blanches and Stellas dependence on men to expose and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South. Both Blanche and Stella see male companions as their only means to achieve happiness, and they depend on men for both their sustenance and their self-image. Blanche recognizes that Stella could be happier without her physically abusive husband, Stanley. Yet, the alternative Blanche proposes-contacting Shep Huntleigh for financial support-still involves complete dependence on men. When Stella chooses to remain with Stanley, she chooses to rely on, love, and believe in a man instead of her sister. Williams does not necessarily criticize Stella-he makes it quite clear that Stanley represents a much more secure future than Blanche does. Five: contextual information linking to the authors and the characters. The decade in which Stoker wrote and published Dracula was one of the unprecedented anxiety and uncertainty about the social roles, sexual nature and natural spheres of activity of men and women. As many women fought for a larger role in public life and a bigger challenge towards the traditions that define women as being, passive, domestic and naturally submissive, the debate opened to men and the males natural role. While Victorian feminists advanced on previous male preserves, crossing boarders and redefining categories, the more conservative press reacted by reiterating gender normalities, insisting that the essential differences between the sexes and their separate duties. Stoker deliberately located the gothic horror of Dracula in the late nineteenth century world of technological advances, gender instability and the rapid increase in conversation. Mina Travels with a portable typewriter which presents her with power and knowledge of a skill such as writing, which today we take for granted.

Behavior of Packet Counts for Network Intrusion Detection

Behavior of Packet Counts for Network Intrusion Detection Statistical Behavior of Packet Counts for Network Intrusion Detection Abstract— Intrusions and attacks have become a very serious problem in network world. This paper presents a statistical characterization of packet counts that can be used for network intrusion detection. The main idea is based on detecting any suspicious behavior in computer networks depending on the comparison between the correlation results of control and data planes in the presence and absence of attacks using histogram analysis. Signal processing tools such as median filtering, moving average filtering, and local variance estimators are exploited to help in developing network anomaly detection approaches. Therefore, detecting dissimilarity can indicate an abnormal behavior. Keywords— Anomaly detection, statistics, Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS). I. INTRODUCTION NOWADAYS, the use of the Internet has become important and it increased considerably. Internet use has spread to daily work, business, education, entertainment and etc. Computer networks bring us a lot of benefits, such as computing and better performance, but they also bring risks. So, security systems have to be built to face those risks. One of those systems is the network intrusion detection system (NIDS), which is designed to alert the network administrators to the presence of an attack. Recently, intrusions are classified as serious Internet security threats due to the mass service disruption they result in, the unsafe use of the Internet, and the difficulty to defend against them [1]. Some attacks aim to consume large amount of resources to prevent legitimate users from receiving satisfactory performance. Network Intrusion Detection System is a tool to detect the attacks that attempt to compromise the availability, integrity or confidentiality of the network. It has been started to be used frequently as one component of an effective layered security model for an organization. This system monitors network traffic continuously for malicious activity, and raise alerts when they detect attacks. Existing intrusion detection systems can be classified into signature detection systems/ misuse and anomaly detection systems [2-3]. Signature detection systems rely on a database of a predefined set of attack signatures. They detect attacks by comparing the observed patterns of the network traffic with the database. If the attack is listed in the database, then it can be successfully detected and identified [4]. On the other hand, anomaly detection systems are designed to compare the parameters of the normal network traffic to the observed unusual traffic [5]. In such cases, the detected deviation from the normal traffic is declared as an attack. Such methods can detect new kinds of network attacks. In this paper, we aim to studding the intrusion and attacks behavior by monitoring the changes in the traffic of the network. Detecting dissimilarity between the correlation results of control and data planes can indicate an abnormal behavior [6]. This paper is organized as follows. Section II includes the anomaly detection techniques. Section III, includes the suggested statistical analysis. Section IV, includes the simulation results. Section V includes the concluding remarks. II. Anomaly detection techniques A number of studies have focused on developing network anomaly detection methods. For example, Haystack [7] is one of the statistical anomaly-based intrusion detection systems. In this system, a range of values is set to indicate the normal status of each pre-defined feature. If the values measured during a session lie outside the normal range, then the score of a subject is raised. Haystack was designed to work offline and that was considered as one of its drawbacks [8]. Statistical Packet Anomaly Detection Engine (SPADE) [9] is also one of the statistical anomaly-based intrusion detection systems. It uses the concept of an anomaly score to detect sport scans. A simple frequency domain based approach is used to calculate the anomaly score of a packet. The fewer the packets, the higher the anomaly score. One drawback of the SPADE is its high false alarm rate. In this paper, we concentrate on the statistical analysis of the correlation sequence between packet and control counts in computer networks [10]. The suggested approach is based on distinguishing histograms of the correlation sequences of normal and abnormal traffics. The correlation sequences are processed either directly or after pre-processing with differentiator, median filtering, or local variance estimation. III. Statistics Histogram Analysis Histogram is defined as a graphical representation of the distribution of data, a histogram is a function that counts the number of observations that fall into each of the disjoint categories, Thus, if we let k be the total number of bins and n be the total number of observations, the histogram mi meets the following conditions [7]: (1) Median Filtering The median filtering is based on sorting the data and selecting is the middle number. It is used to exclude impulsive values in the correlation sequences. Mean The mean is the average of a set of numbers (2) Variance The variance is a measure of how items are dispersed about their mean. The variance of a whole population is given by the equation [11] (3) where M is the local mean. IV. Proposed Approach The proposed approach can be summarized in the following steps: Network traffic packet traces are typically provided in raw tcpdump format [12]. Therefore, it is necessary to preprocess packets to extract the features in the format needed to carry out further analysis [6]. Extracting a count features, from the packet header information . Computing the similarity between the two traffic groups; control and data by using cross-correlation function. Applying some sort of pre-processing on the correlation sequence with median filtering, moving average, differentiator, and local variance estimation. Histogram estimation of the original correlation sequences and the pre-processed sequences. Creating databases for the histograms with attacks and without attacks. Setting thresholds based on these histograms for discrimination. V. experimental results We have used the cross-correlation results between the control and data packets when there is no attacks and when there is an attack for one day of KSU traffic. Fig. 1 shows the correlation coefficients between the control and data packets when there is no an attack. Fig 2 shows the correlation coefficients when there is an attack applied. Fig. 3 shows the correlation coefficients histogram distribution for normal and abnormal traffic. Fig. 4 shows the histogram distribution of the correlation coefficient median for normal and abnormal traffic. Fig. 5 shows the histogram distribution of correlation coefficients mean for normal and abnormal traffic. Fig. 6 shows the histogram distribution of the correlation coefficients local variance for normal and abnormal traffic. The experimental results reveal that when there is an attack, a noticeable difference in histogram distribution is found. Fig. 1 : Correlation coefficients for normal traffic. Fig. 2 : Correlation coefficients for abnormal traffic. Fig. 3 : Correlation coefficients histogram distribution for normal and abnormal traffic. Fig. 4 : Histogram of the correlation coefficients median for normal and abnormal traffic. Fig. 5 : Histogram of the correlation coefficients local mean for normal and abnormal traffic. Fig. 6 : Histogram of the correlation coefficients local variance for normal and abnormal traffic. From these figures, we can set a probability threshold for each case, based on which, a decision of normal or abnormal traffic can be taken. VI. Conclusion The paper presented a statistical study for the correlation coefficients between packet and control planes of network traffic. Simulation experiments have shown that there is a difference in histogram distribution between normal and abnormal traffics. With the aid of signal processing tools like median filtering, local mean filtering and local variance filtering, we can set a group of thresholds to distinguish between normal and abnormal traffics.

Mechanism Of Action Of Warfarin Biology Essay

Mechanism Of Action Of Warfarin Biology Essay Warfarin is an anticoagulant medication that is used to prevent thrombosis (clots) and embolism in many disorders. Warfarin activity has to be monitored by frequent blood testing for the International Normalized Ratio (INR). Warfarin is a synthetic derivative of coumarin, a chemical found naturally in many plants it decreases blood coagulation by interfering with vitamin K metabolism. Mechanism of Action of Warfarin Warfarin is vitamin K antagonist that produce its anticoagulant effect by interfering with the cyclic interconversion of vitamin K and its 2,3 epoxide (vitamin K epoxide). Vitamin K is a cofactor for the posttranslational carboxylation of glutamate residues to ÃŽÂ ³-carboxyglutamates on the N-terminal regions of vitamin K-dependent proteins (Whitlon, et al., 1978; Fasco, et al., 1982) .123456 These coagulation factors (factors II, VII, IX, and X) require ÃŽÂ ³-carboxylation for their biological activity. Coumarins produce their anticoagulant effect by inhibiting the vitamin K conversion cycle, thereby causing hepatic production of partially carboxylated and decarboxylated proteins with reduced procoagulant activity.78 In addition to their anticoagulant effect, the vitamin K antagonists inhibit carboxylation of the regulatory anticoagulant proteins C and S and therefore have the potential to exert a procoagulant effect. In the presence of calcium ions, carboxylation causes a conformational change in coagulation proteins91011 that promotes binding to cofactors on phospholipid surfaces. The carboxylation reaction requires the reduced form of vitamin K (vitamin KH2), molecular oxygen, and carbon dioxide, and is linked to the oxidation of vitamin KH2 to vitamin K epoxide. Vitamin K epoxide is then recycled to vitamin KH2 through two reductase steps. The first, which is sensitive to vitamin K antagonists,123 reduces vitamin K epoxide to vitamin K1 (the natural food form of vitamin K1), while the second, which is relatively insensitive to vitamin K antagonists, reduces vitamin K1 to vitamin KH2. Treatment with vitamin K antagonists leads to the depletion of vitamin KH2, thereby limiting the ÃŽÂ ³-carboxylation of the vitamin K-dependent coagulant proteins. The effect of coumarins can be counteracted by vitamin K1 (either ingested in food or administered therapeutically) because the second reductase ste p is relatively insensitive to vitamin K antagonists (Fig 1). Patients treated with a large dose of vitamin K1 can also become warfarin resistant for up to a week because vitamin K1 accumulates in the liver and is available to the coumarin-insensitive reductase. Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Warfarin Warfarin is a racemic mixture of two optically active isomers, the R and S forms in roughly equal proportion. It has high bioavailability,1920 is rapidly absorbed from the GI tract, and reaches maximal blood concentrations in healthy volunteers in 90 min after oral administration.1921 Racemic warfarin has a half-life of 36 to 42 h, circulates bound to plasma proteins (mainly albumin), and accumulates in the liver where the two isomers are metabolically transformed by different pathways.22 The dose-response relationship of warfarin is influenced by genetic and environmental factors, including a recently identified common mutation in the gene coding for one of the common cytochrome P450 enzymes (2C9), the hepatic enzyme responsible for oxidative metabolism of the warfarin S-isomer.2324 This mutation likely contributes to the variability in dose response to warfarin among healthy subjects.25 In addition to known and unknown genetic factors, various disease states, drugs, and dietary fac tors can interfere with the response to warfarin. The anticoagulant response to warfarin is influenced by pharmacokinetic factors, including drug interactions that affect the absorption or metabolic clearance of warfarin, and pharmacodynamic factors that alter the hemostatic response to given concentrations of the drug. Variability in anticoagulant response also occurs as a result of inaccuracies in laboratory testing, patient noncompliance, and miscommunication between patient and physician. Other drugs may influence the pharmacokinetics of warfarin by reducing GI absorption or by disrupting its metabolic clearance. For example, the anticoagulant effect of warfarin is reduced by cholestyramine, which impairs its absorption, and is potentiated by drugs that inhibit warfarin clearance through stereoselective or nonselective pathways.252627 Stereoselective interactions affect oxidative metabolism of either the S-isoner or R-isomer of warfarin.2627 Inhibition of S-warfarin metabolism is more important clinically because this isomer is five times more potent as a vitamin K antagonist than the R-isomer.2627 Clearance of S-isomer warfarin is inhibited by phenylbutazone,2829 sulfinpyrazone,30 metronidazole,31 and trimethoprim- sulfamethoxazole,32 each of which potentiates the effect of warfarin on the prothrombin time (PT). In contrast, drugs such as cimetidine and omeprazole that inhibit clearance of the R-isomer have only moderate potentiating effects on the PT in patients treated with warfarin.272833 Amiodarone inhibits the metabolic clearance of both the S-isomer and R-isomer and potentiates the anticoagulant effect of warfarin.34 The anticoagulant effect is inhibited by barbiturates,32 rifampicin,34 and carbamazepine,32 which increase its metabolic clearance by inducing hepatic mixed oxidase activity. Although long-term alcohol use has a potential to increase the clearance of warfarin through a similar mechanism, consumption of even relatively large amounts of wine was shown in one study29 to have little influen ce on PT in subjects treated with warfarin. For a more thorough discussion of the effect of enzyme induction on warfarin therapy, the reader is referred to a critical review (Table 2 ).35 The pharmacodynamics of warfarin are subject to genetic and environmental variability. Hereditary resistance to warfarin occurs in rats36 as well as in human beings.3738 Patients with genetic warfarin resistance require doses fivefold to 20-fold higher than average to achieve an anticoagulant effect. This disorder is attributed to altered affinity of the receptor for warfarin since the plasma warfarin levels required to achieve an anticoagulant effect are increased. Two mis-sense mutations in the factor IX propeptide have been described394041 that cause bleeding without excessive prolongation of PT. When affected individuals are treated with coumarin drugs, factor IX activity decreases to about 1 to 3%, while levels of other vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors decrease to 30 to 40% of normal. These mutations are uncommon and have been estimated to occur in Subjects receiving long-term warfarin therapy are sensitive to fluctuating levels of dietary vitamin K,4243 which is provided predominantly by phylloquinone in plant material.43 The phylloquinone content of a wide range of foodstuffs has been listed by Sadowski and associates.44 Phylloquinone acts through the warfarin-insensitive reductase reaction.45 Important fluctuations in vitamin K intake occur in both apparently healthy and sick subjects.46 Increased intake of dietary vitamin K sufficient to reduce the anticoagulant response to warfarin42 occurs in patients on weight-reduction diets consuming green vegetables or receiving vitamin K-containing supplements, and in patients treated with IV supplements containing vitamin K. Reduced dietary vitamin K1 intake potentiates the effect of warfarin in sick patients treated with antibiotics and IV fluids without vitamin K supplementation and in states of fat malabsorption. Hepatic dysfunction potentiates the response to warfarin through im paired synthesis of coagulation factors. Hypermetabolic states produced by fever or hyperthyroidism increase warfarin responsiveness, probably by increasing the catabolism of vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors.4748 Drugs may influence the pharmacodynamics of warfarin by inhibiting synthesis or increasing clearance of vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors or by interfering with other pathways of hemostasis (Table 3 ). The anticoagulant effect of warfarin is augmented by the second-generation and third-generation cephalosporins, which inhibit the cyclic interconversion of vitamin K,4950 by thyroxine, which increases the metabolism of coagulation factors,48 and by clofibrate, through an unknown mechanism.51 Doses5253 of salicylates > 1.5 g/d also augment the anticoagulant effect of warfarin,54 possibly because these drugs have warfarin-like activity. Acetaminophen has also been reported to augment the anticoagulant effect of warfarin,52 although this contention has been challeng ed (see below). Although heparin potentiates the anticoagulant effect of warfarin, in therapeutic doses, it produces only slight prolongation of the PT. Drugs such as aspirin,55 nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,56 high doses of penicillins,5758 and moxolactam50 increase the risk of warfarin-associated bleeding by inhibiting platelet function. Of these, aspirin is the most important because of its widespread use and prolonged effect.59 Aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can also produce gastric erosions that increase the risk of upper-GI bleeding.58 The risk of clinically important bleeding is heightened when high doses of aspirin are taken in combination with high-intensity warfarin therapy (INR, 3.0 to 4.5).5560 In two studies, one study61 in patients with prosthetic heart valves and the other study62 in asymptomatic individuals at high risk of coronary artery disease, low doses of aspirin (100 mg/d and 75 mg/d, respectively) were also associated with increased rates of minor bleeding when combined with moderate-intensity and low-intensity warfarin anticoagulation. The mechanisms by which erythromycin63 and some anabolic steroids64 potentiate the anticoagulant effect of warfarin are unknown. Sulfonamides and several broad-spectrum antibiotic compounds may augment the anticoagulant effect of warfarin by eliminating bacterial flora and aggravating vitamin K deficiency in patients whose diet is deficient of vitamin K.65 Wells and associates66 performed a critical analysis of articles reporting possible interaction between drugs or foods and warfarin. Studies were assigned to one category if the interaction was considered highly probable, to a second category if interaction was probable, to a third level if judged possible, and to a fourth level if doubtful. Of 751 citations retrieved, pertinent results from 172 original articles are summarized in Table 3. Strong evidence of interaction was found for 39 of the 81 different drugs and foods appraised; 17 potentiate warfarin effect, 10 inhibit, and 12 produce no effect. Many other drugs have been reported to either interact with oral anticoagulants or alter the PT response to warfarin,6768 but convincing evidence of a causal association is lacking. In a case-control study,52 low to moderate doses of acetaminophen (nine or more tablets per week) were reported to be associated with excessively prolonged INR values. The presence of a causal association bet ween acetaminophen use and potentiation of a warfarin effect is uncertain. The article52 was supported by an editorial,53 but has been challenged by personal experiences (case series) cited in two letters6970 and by the results of a prospective study71 in normal volunteers. However, until more information is presented, it would be prudent to monitor the INR more frequently when acetaminophen is used in this quantity by patients during warfarin therapy. Indeed, it would be reasonable to monitor the PT more frequently when any drug therapy is added or withdrawn from the regimen of a patient treated with an oral anticoagulant. DRUG INTERACTIONS: Your doctor or pharmacist may already be aware of any possible drug interactions and may be monitoring you for them. Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of any drug, vitamin, or herbal product without checking with your doctor or pharmacist first.Warfarin interacts with many prescription, nonprescription, vitamin, and herbal products. This includes medications that are applied to the skin or inside the vagina or rectum. The following interactions listed do not contain all possible drug interactions. The interactions with warfarin usually result in an increase or decrease in the blood-thinning (anticoagulant) effect. Your doctor or other health care professional should closely monitor you to prevent serious bleeding or clotting problems. While taking warfarin, it is very important to tell your doctor or pharmacist of any changes in medications, vitamins, or herbal products that you are taking.This drug should not be used with the following medications because v ery serious interactions may occur: imatinib, mifepristone.If you are currently using any of these medications listed above, tell your doctor or pharmacist before starting warfarin.Aspirin and aspirin-like drugs (salicylates) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, naproxen, celecoxib) may have effects similar to warfarin. These drugs may increase the risk of bleeding problems if taken during treatment with warfarin. Carefully check all prescription/nonprescription product labels (including drugs applied to the skin such as pain-relieving creams) since the products may contain NSAIDs or salicylates. Talk to your doctor about using a different medication (such as acetaminophen) to treat pain/fever. Low-dose aspirin and related drugs (such as clopidogrel, ticlopidine) should be continued if prescribed by your doctor for specific medical reasons such as heart attack or stroke prevention. Consult your doctor or pharmacist for more details.Many herbal medicati ons have blood-thinning or blood-clotting effects, and some may directly affect warfarin. Tell your doctor before taking any herbal products, especially bromelains, coenzyme Q10, cranberry, danshen, dong quai, fenugreek, garlic, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, goldenseal, and St. Johns wort, among others.This medication may interfere with a certain laboratory test to measure theophylline levels, possibly causing false test results. Make sure laboratory personnel and all your doctors know you use this drug.This document does not contain all possible interactions. Therefore, before using this product, tell your doctor or pharmacist of all the products you use. Keep a list of all your medications with you, and share the list with your doctor and pharmacist

The Holocaust: Number The Stars :: essays research papers

The Holocaust   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The title of my book is Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and it is a historical fiction. My book was about a jewish girl named Ellen that stays with her best friend's family the Johansens to avoid being caught by the nazis and relocated along with her family. I selected this book because it was by Lois Lowry and I read other books by her so I thought that this book would be good. I also chose this book because it was a Newberry award winner.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Annemarie Johansen is the main character in the story, she is a ten year old girl that lives with her parents and sister at their home. She first appears at the beginning of the book racing her friend down a copenhagen street and throughout it and at the end. I liked her because she is strong when she needs to be, and is a friend when she needs to be. Annemarie was willing to save her friend by risking her and her life. Ellen Rosen was also one of the main characters in the story she is a nine year old girl living with her parents. Ellen appears in the story at the beginning also. Ellen a jew, who is Annemarie's friend is forced to hide with Annemaries family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My book takes place during the german occupation of Denmark in 1943. It is in Copenhagen during the fall weather.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Germans are relocating all the jews in Denmark and Ellen and her family find out that they will be relocated. Annemarie's family assumes responsibility for Ellen Rosen, Annemarie's best friend, when ellen's family flees for their safety. Annemarie and her parents take her jewish friend Ellen in to hide with their family. Ellen is almost caught when soldiers come to the house asking questions about the daughter's identity but she is still kept a secret. Ellen is taken to Annemaries uncle's house where they are able to escape to Sweden by hiding in a hidden compartment of a boat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Both Ellen and Annes family are hiding from the nazis to prevent them from being relocated. The diary of Anne Frank takes place in Amsterdam, Holland and my book both takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1943. Ellen pretends to be part of her friends family in hiding but in annes diary she and her family and friends are in hiding together in an attic.

A Digital Nation :: Internet Technology Technological Essays

A Digital Nation Have you ever heard someone say that we live in a digital nation? Do you know what a digital nation is? Well you should know because you are living in one. Our nation revolves around the use of computers. Can you go through a normal day without using something computer related? I don't think so. Many everyday things that you take for granted are computer based, such as: ATM's, credit cards, grocery check outs, and gas stations to name a few. I support Jon Katz's article The Netizen: Birth of a Digital Nation. Our nation would be a totally different place today if the computer was never invented. Computers have evolved incredibly in the past few years. Programs on computers help to make schools more organized and are used many times a day. Today most of the student's records are kept on a computer instead of in filing cabinets. Such as records of shots, attendance, grades, test scores, any problems the child has, and many others. With computers you can pull up a child's file within seconds instead of having to find the file in a cabinet, which could take several minutes. Computers keep all the files organized and make finding things easier for teachers, which helps them to get more things done in their busy day. Many teachers when assigning papers require them to be typed. Typed papers are a lot easier to read then hand written ones. Having a typed paper cuts down on the time needed to grade the papers and makes reading them a lot easier. Before computers, the time teachers needed to grade twenty papers was maybe four hours and now they can grade them in about two hours. Computers allow us to communicate with people all over the world. Thanks to the Internet you can talk with people from other counties and get a response within a few seconds. Instead if you had written a letter you might not get a response for weeks. The Internet also allows people who don't know each other to meet and become friends. Being able to connect to the Internet allows families to stay in touch even though they live thousands of miles away. The capabilities of being online makes things so much easier and faster, which we need, in order to keep up with the fast paced world we live in.

Creating a Prototype Security Gate with Lego Mindstorm Essay examples -

SECURITY GATE Abstract: For many years many people have used security gates to take care of parking lots, buildings, and roads. It all started with people watching over restricted areas. Nowadays, we have a more sophisticated system for security gates. You usually have to stop and put a card into the machine or pay a certain amount of money. The problem is that you must stop and reach out to insert something in order for the crane arm to lift up. We have thought of an idea to improve this current procedure. We have thought of installing a special code or device in cars so that every time it stands in a security gate, it sends a code to the security gate, and if it’s the right code, allow the car in. Using Lego Mindstorm, we made a prototype of such a car. We downloaded a NQC code into the RCX of the car(s) and security gate. The NQC will only let the car with the right code in, but it will sound an alarm for all the cars that do not have the correct code. This will keep everything safer, make the procedure faster, and hopefully make everything easier for everyone. Background: Security gates were invented a long time ago. It even surprised us when we read the article, â€Å"Toll Roads in the United States† on Wikipedia and found out that they started to come out in the 1790’s. Security gates are also known as turnpikes, toll roads, and toll pikes. Years ago, people would stand in a certain place on a road and collect fees from people who used that particular road. After several individuals noticed that a lot of people were doing this to get money, they eventually got together to from companies. These companies used the money to improve the roads instead of collecting the money and keeping it to themselves. The... ... SendMessage(3); ClearMessage(); Wait(1); } */ SendMessage(3); Wait(1); SendMessage(3); PlayTone(1800, 200); On(LEFT+RIGHT); Wait(200); find(); follow(); } } Rejected Car: //motors and sensors #define LEFT OUT_A #define RIGHT OUT_C #define EYE SENSOR_2 //threshold #define BLACK_LIGHT 34 #define BLACK_DARK 38 task main() { SetTxPower(TX_POWER_HI); SetPower(LEFT+RIGHT, 1); SetSensor(EYE, SENSOR_LIGHT); On(LEFT+RIGHT); Fwd(LEFT+RIGHT); until(EYE>BLACK_LIGHT && EYE Wait(8); Off(LEFT+RIGHT); ClearMessage(); repeat(10) { SendMessage(4); } until(Message() !=0); //ClearMessage(); //until(Message() !=0); if(Message() == 5) { Wait(120); On(LEFT+RIGHT); Rev(LEFT+RIGHT); Wait(120); SetPower(LEFT+RIGHT, 7); Fwd(LEFT); Rev(RIGHT); Wait(95); SetPower(LEFT+RIGHT, 1); Fwd(LEFT+RIGHT); Wait(100); Off(LEFT+RIGHT); } }

American Westward Movement: Significance of the Contributing factors

American Westward movement, advocated by many as the divine destiny of the United States, is the movement of the people from the settled regions of the United States to lands farther west between early 17th and late 19th century. The earliest and most significant of the factors which contributed to the westward spread of ‘American frontier’ was the economic motives of the colonists.Fur traders in New England, New York and Pennsylvania bartered with the Native Americans in the Ohio River Valley and the Great Lakes for beaver pelts. Southerners reached to the Mississippi and beyond to trade with native Americans for deerskins. Later, the farmers who could not meet their mortgage payments on their lands as a result of the depression caused by the financial collapse in 1837 also moved westward for free land. Epidemics was another major contributing factor for the westward movement.In the East, more people died of such diseases as typhoid, dysentery, tuberculosis, scarlet fev er and malaria than from any other cause. Yellow fever so decimated the population of New Orleans and settlements along the Mississippi River to the north that the regional death rate exceeded its birth rate for nearly a century and in the 1830s an epidemic of cholera, which had started in Asia, rampaged through Europe, and came across the Atlantic on passenger ships, struck the East Coast and spread inland.The third significant contributing factor was The American Civil War. The civil war caused so much misery that thousands of people looked upon west as a means of escape from their devastated homes. To these people the West was the means to achieve health, wealth and happiness. The significance of these factors lies in the fact that the western expansion they caused resulted in making United States one of the most powerful countries in the world.Further, the American expansion also meant that the west was dominated by Anglo-American ways of life and institutions rather than French or Spanish ones; because latter were also trying to expand in North America in 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. However, the American westward movement curbed their efforts in this regard. Nonetheless, though the American westward movement was very beneficial for the United States, it proved fatal to the Native Americans who were the indigenous people settled in these lands. Their culture and way of life suffered destruction as a result of the westward expansion.