Saturday, August 31, 2019

Gun Control Argument

Gun Control The gun control debate in the US is often contentious and politically divisive. And with upcoming elections always looming in the near future, we will continue hearing a great deal from the media as well as politicians about what should or should not be done about â€Å"too many guns† in our society. Unfortunately, too many Americans do not take time to truly understand the issues and the reasoning behind both sides of the controversy. To help get a clearer perspective of the problem, there are two very short, but well written pro/con pieces, regarding the debate, by Mitch Albom and Thomas Sowell.Each presents his own rationale for what should be done about gun control. According to Albom’s â€Å"Don’t Shoot Holes in Gun Control Bills,† gun control is something that is needed. He cites several episodes between Los Angeles and Detroit where the availability of obtaining a gun is so easy, that people roll up to someone, roll down a window and sta rt spraying bullets. The argument being made here is that with guns being so easy to obtain, anyone is capable of carrying one. In a lot of cases, self defense is not the issue with them.A lot of gun crimes are out of â€Å"hair trigger tempers with a hair trigger weapon. † The big point being made is that most of these violent crimes with guns are a result of someone blowing off steam. It is not only gang members doing the shooting either. One man was cited as not liking a hamburger he received so he threw it at the clerk at the drive through window. She in turn threw a soda at him so he returned moments later and shot her. He states that contrary to the belief that guns don’t kill people, people kill people, that the weapon that kills is the gun being used.It is the weapon that does the killing. There are some very valid points as to how lack of gun control can allow crime to run rampant, but not everyone sees it that way. On the other side of the argument is Thomas Sowell. His essay â€Å"Mass Shootings and Mass Hysteria† claims that gun control is not the cause of violence. He claims when we are allowed to carry guns for self defense, a mass shooting is less likely to happen as it will be thwarted a lot sooner by bystanders as they will take action upon themselves to thwart the attacker.He states people committing these illegal acts are not going to stop just because guns are illegal. When looking into who would stop these people, another person with a gun is the answer. Sowell also cites the flaw of the waiting period, stating the Columbine incident, involved a couple of kids who waited a long time to plan out their attack, nor would the tragedy have been prevented by a program for troubled youth. The kids committing this mass murder passed their psych evaluations. Some people support gun control just because they don’t like guns.He concludes by saying criminals are less likely to commit a crime when they know the person they a re going after may very well have a gun of their own. He wants to compare the statistics to accidental gun deaths and statistics on gun murders being much less where gun ownership is widespread. On a lighter note, to demonstrate the real irony of the issue, a spring 2006 segment of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, entitled â€Å"Bye, Bye, Birdie,† tackled the gun controversy by satirizing former Vice President Cheney’s accidental shooting of his friend during a sporting event.This makes light of a serious issue but the underlying theme is of a serious nature. They bring to the point how this hunting club allows you to shoot animals that truly cannot escape. It is depicting the event with Vice President Cheney as this is where he was with his friend when he accidentally shot him. While it is humorous, when you look at the real issue it does lay out a serious angle. To the intelligent viewer, this can be very effective. They can become engaged in an entertaining fashion but take the serious message from the satire.To the not so intelligent viewer, this may look like a big joke, which can take away from the effectiveness of the message, even if it brings ratings due to the entertainment value. In the end these sources make valid points from their points of view. There are two very different schools of thought and even when satire is involved, it is a very controversial topic. The perspectives are out there. Now it is time for the viewer and reader to take what they wish from it all.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Company Profile of Coca-Cola

Company Study By:bonnie may alvior bsit4 November 8,2012 History of Coca-Cola Company In line with the company’s trust for expansion and in response to the growing market demand, a 5 year construction schedule for the new Bacolod Plant took place in the last quarter of 1994, to replace its old plant in 15th Lacson St. , Bacolod City which was constructed in 1948. In the search for the site of the new plant, the following were the objectives. * To relocate the bottling plant and its facilities in an industrial area designated and approved by the local government authorities. To construct a bottling plant away from the city but still near the different market centers which should significantly reduce the delivery time and cut down cost of hauling. In the Visayas on the projected sales * To be able to support other plants in the Visayas on the projected sales growth and product volume requirements of the regions. 14 sites were identified and considered but the lot in Mansilingan was selected with its confidence to the objectives and specific identified. The lot is 10 hectares in area and used to be a sugarcane field. It is about 8 km from the city proper.The construction of the Php 700 million two lines capacity plant started in 1997 and was inaugurated in October 28, 1998. The new plant in Bacolod is the latest and one of the largest in the network of 19 facilities operated by Coca-Cola Bottlers Phil’s. , Inc. across the country. The plant has a capacity of 50,000 physical cases per day with provision for two (2) more lines in the future. The 10 hectares production centre is home to 281 employees and incorporates up-to-the minute computerized production systems, a waste water treatments and electronic bottle inspection. 2 VISION/MISSION STATEMENT VISSIONWe are a world class beverage plant producing the highest quality products and services to our customers at optimum cost. MISSION * Leadership Our leaders are made model of excellence. They exemplify dynamic leadership by exercising sound business ethics and moral values. As coaches and mentors, they are the fountains of strength, constantly providing clear direction o associates and showing concern for their welfare. * Shareholders We are the shareholders, the beneficiary of our success. We commit to enhance shareholder value through continuous improvement and optimization of our resources generating profits to ensure sustainable growth. Community We are responsible corporate citizens in the community. We foster harmonious relationships through the development and preservation of the environment and sustain the economic upliftment of the people. 4 SERVICES OFFERRED The Coca-Cola Company provides superior quality products and services that are affordable to the customers and constantly available in the market. The customer is the reason for their existence. The customers’ needs drive the business and the number one goal is customer’s satisfaction. The following ar e the on the ground programs the company also offered: COKE FOUNDATION Provide education by donating school in the depressed areas all over the country called (Coca-Cola Red School House). In their 100 years in time they build a school in Tayasan, Negros Oriental which will be inaugurated early December. * FEEDING PROGRAM They visit all over the country and serve the children and mothers in remote areas. * WATER SUPPLY Coordinate with the AIDE FOUNDATION to provide water supplies in a ramp pump. The company constructed water ramp pump in Moises Padilla, Silay, San Jose Neg. Occ. , Don Salvador, La Carlota and Kabankalan City (ongoing). * EMPLOYMENTProvides job for specific courses, TESDA graduates and technical courses. 3 SYSTEM (SOFTWARE/HARDWARE) USE SOFTWARE * Coca-Cola Company use COKE 1 system wherein the same system that the company uses in Philippines, Australia, China and Germany. The system covers the supply change, human resource, finance, Sales and Logistics. * And also, SAP system which is a powerful tool that integrates multiple business processes and functions into one comprehensive system. SAP reduces lack of integration across business line which will raise the risk of duplication, mistakes and inconsistency data.SAP provides different approach than their competitors in market. Each piece (module like FI, MM, and SD) can operate independently from all other software. And the key benefit of using this approach is that companies can implement individual module that fits the company needs, and have the flexibility to add other module later when their business grows. HARDWARE * Unit uses in the Coca-Cola Company are Lenovo, IBM and HP products. There are also Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras for surveillance purposes. 5 COCA-COLA COMPANY (Index Page Picture) 1 ABS-CBN COMPANY CORPORATE PROFILE ABS-CBN is in the business of producing world-class entertainment, news and information programs and in the continuous adoption of breakthrough techn ology to deliver these to its audiences not just in the Philippines, but globally. This content is distributed primarily in the Philippines through its flagship station in Mega Manila, ABS-CBN Channel 2. Backed by a regional network of 25 originating stations, 8 affiliates, and a collection of strategically –located relay stations across the archipelago, ABS-CBN’s nationwide reach is unmatched to this day.ABS-CBN also airs in free-to-air UHF on Studio 23 and operates the country’s leading radio network consisting of 3 AM band stations and 14 in the FM band. ABS-CBN also provides news and entertainment programs for nine cable channels, targeting specific niche markets who prefer foreign entertainment programs, blockbuster Filipino movies, news and commentary, music, anime, and sports. ABS-CBN also owns Skycable , the Philippines’ largest cable television service provider which has close to 500,000 upscale subscribers in Metro Manila and key urban areas nat ionwide.Outside the Philippines, ABS-CBN reaches an estimated 2 million Filipinos out of the more than 8 million Filipinos overseas, through ABS-CBN Global’s The Filipino Channel (TFC). TFC is available in the USA, Canada, the whole Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Japan, and a host of other Asia-Pacific via cable TV, direct-to-home satellite, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and the Internet trough TFCNow! ABS-CBN in-house produced programs also reach foreign audiences through the distribution of ABS-CBN content to countries in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.Star Cinema, ABS-CBN movie production unit, has a 75% share of the local film market based on gross box office receipts, consistently producing one blockbuster hit after another. ABS-CBN also leads the local music production and distribution outfit in the country through Star Records. ABS-CBN Publishing completes ABS-CBN’s tri-media offering with 14 glossy magazine titles, addressing the needs of the Philippine upscale market with features on fashion and lifestyle, gossip and entertainment, culinary arts, interior design, sports and male-specific interests.Blazing the trail in new media technology, ABS-CBN interactive pioneered traditional media and SMS tie-ups in the country with the launch of TV text promos and TV polls/voting systems. ABS-CBN’s online properties-entertainment and news sites, online games, and social networking through one of the leading social networks in world, multiply- have proven to be strongly patronized by the growing Filipino online community. Driven by its passionate commitment to bold innovation, ABS-CBN is leading the change in the country’s media landscape with its depth of creative talent and breath of platforms. SYSTEM (SOFTWARE/HARDWARE) USE SOFTWARE Most of the hardware use in ABS-CBN is Cisco device for switches and routers. These devices are use to connect to the network in Manila. For operating system the company use Windo ws XP, Windows 7 and Windows Networking 2000. For the editing, they use Adobe products. The ABS-CBN also use a Library System to store videos and for the access of data, the admin is assign to the IT Support and Engineering Accounts and user is assign to the editors. Hardware Most of the hardware use in ABS-CBN is Cisco device for switches and routers.These devices are use to connect to the network in Manila. 10 CORPORATE VALUES * Meritocracy * Granting commensurate rewards at the right time for good performance (caring for our people) * Expecting rewards earned through performance rather than because of entitlement * Taking quick and appropriate action on failure * Excellence * JUDGMENT AND DRIVE FOR RESULTS * Using best judgment to balance speed, quality and cost to attain best returns * Using best judgment to balance the need to deliver short-term business results with what is best for the organization in the long term. Going beyond the boundaries of my role/unit to ensure result s * Gathering and using available data/information to make decisions and resolve problems; moving on despite the absence of complete data/information * EMBRACING CHANGE * Exploring new ways and challenging old ways, including past successes, to achieve breakthroughs and continuous improvement. * RISK TAKING * In a constantly changing competitive environment taking action based on an assessment that opportunities and rewards are worth the risks and ensuring everything possible is done to mitigate those risks. * Teamwork COMPANY INTEREST AND TRANSPARENCY * Providing the right information at the right time to the right people * Taking personal accountability for making my team a high powered and high performing team 8 * Putting the good of the company/team before my personal interests * OWNERSHIP * Taking accountability for my role, output and decisions * CONFRONTING CONFLICT * Surfacing issues directly with concerned parties so that these may be resolved constructively and if resoluti on is not attained, jointly escalating the issue * Accepting my accountability for causing conflicts, if any Teaching and Learning * Training someone to become better than myself at my role * Taking accountability for my continuous learning by defining my development areas and taking deliberate action to fill my skill gaps * Analyzing failures and deriving lessons for them * Providing continuous training and learning experiences so that you constantly become better than you are at your role today and are equipped for larger roles at the appropriate time (caring for our people) * Honest and Integrity * Delivering on commitments; my words equal my actions * Speak out, speak true Providing an environment where one can speak out and be heard (caring for our people) * In the Service of the Filipino Worldwide * To serve the country and its people has always been and will always be the meaning of our work. * Whatever we do and whatever we go, we shall always be faithful to our commitment o f being in the service of the Filipino. 9 TITLE PAGE Coca-Cola Company Index Page Picture——————————————————1 History of Coca Cola Company Bacolod Plant————————————————————2 Services Offered ——————————————————–3Vision/Mission Statement———————————————-4 System (Software/Hardware) Use————————————-5 ABS-CBN Company Index Page Picture—————————â€⠀Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€6 ABS-CBN Corporate Profile——————————————7 ABS-CBN Corporate Values—————————————8-9 System (Software/Hardware) Use————————————10 Kabankalan Catholic College Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental IN PARTIALL FULLFILLMENT IN OJT-500 BONNIE MAY G. ALVIOR BSIT 4

Thursday, August 29, 2019

The afterlife in Dante's Inferno compared with Homer's Odyssey Essay

The afterlife in Dante's Inferno compared with Homer's Odyssey - Essay Example In addition, trip to the afterlife provides a spiritual fortification and moral uplift, which realizes the mortal man his duties and obligations towards the divinity and fellow beings while his temporary stay on the earth, so that readers can make amends in their behaviors and realize that they are responsible for the deeds they are performing; Homer’s journey of the land of gods in his illustrious Odyssey, John Milton’s depiction of heaven and hell in Paradise Lost, William Blake’s experiences of seeing God and angels in Songs of Innocence and Dante’s Inferno reflect and present the imaginary idea of world hereinafter imitated and followed by these authors in their practical life, which vehemently force the readers to protect themselves from sinful life, as they will have to harvest the crop of their deeds and misdeeds in the afterlife. Dante’s trip to afterlife and depiction of the circles of hell concentrates upon the same motif. Dante’s Inferno describes that his journey starts from Good Friday, when the poet sets out on his trip and comes across ancient writers, poets, politicians, philosophers and religious people during his visit of hell. Here the poet points out the reasons that lead the people towards the wrath of God i.e. in hell, which are based on Biblical stories and set of belief indicating specific reprimands and penalties against particular sins. Since, Dante’s journey to the hell serves as the part his perception of religion and Scriptures, which is related to the sinners’ fate in afterlife, so his trip starts from first to nine circles, as has been narrated in the Old and new Testaments. The Inferno’s protagonist character finds renowned Roman poet of B.C. era i.e. Virgil as his guide, who leads him towards different circles. (Canto I, Lines 47-61) Being non believer of Christ, but

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Speech Final about our last group project Essay

Speech Final about our last group project - Essay Example With the ever increasing multicultural diversification of the society these dynamics are therefore predicted to remain as a major concern for group workers like us volunteers. Team dynamics is determined by factors like, environment of the team, time, and composition of the team. The group dynamics can be categorized into five main domains: (1) patterns of interaction and communication processes, (2) cohesion and attraction that arises interpersonal, (3) influence and integrating socially, (4) control and wiled of power, (5) and the overall culture of the group. Comprehension of group dynamics is critical for effective practice with individuals together with the community in this case the school community. Therefore by ignoring the therapeutic power of dynamics of the group greatly reduces the ability of a worker like a volunteer to aid the members to attain their goals. This is very vital for any successful participation in volunteer work because it forms a benchmark for good workmanship. According to Engleberg & Wynn (p.245) argue that lack of training or wrong composition of the team will result in critical skill gaps that will most of the time lead to the decrease in the overall performance of the team. Moreover, the size of the team will influence the outcomes of the groups. By studying the relationship between the size of the group and group outcome in work places a negative relationship between the quality of the relationship among team members, size of the work group and organization was found. The processes of communication and patterns of interaction are paramount in group dynamics. These are very important components of social interaction that are an influence to the behavior and attitude of members of the group. The face to face group members have an experience of both verbal and non-verbal types of communication. Leaders who are effective in their work are to ensure that they listen attentively to the meaning

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

The Breakfast Club Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Breakfast Club - Movie Review Example There are several methods of communication, verbal and nonverbal, that appear in this film. Each character has their own different attitude and self-concept that is evident throughout the majority of the movie. They have difficulties communicating because they are more likely to be arguing about certain subjects that they are discussing. Since their peers have labeled them as a certain type, it seems as though their self concept of themselves is much different than the image that they convey to others. What many of the characters realize throughout the film is that their self concepts of themselves really do not differ that much from each other. Sometimes, they put up a certain front in order to almost fit their stereotype and it is an effort to put up a wall. However, the characters start to ask questions of each other and this breaks the stereotypes. Each student's self image and self concept starts to evolve and they realize that maybe they have more in common then they first real ized. Interpersonal communication is something that people do not realize that they are doing. Sometimes it is a subconscious reaction. Those subconscious reactions are, however, very strong and powerful messages. Interpersonal communication can be defined as how involved people are when engaging. This includes proximity and how close together people are standing or sitting in relation to each other. Interpersonal communication also includes sensory responses such as eye contact. It also includes feedback. In a smaller group, the communication is more intimate because people are usually in closer proximity to one another and feedback is more immediate as response times are generally quicker (Borchers). That is one situation that members of â€Å"The Breakfast Club† have troubles overcoming. Generally these are a group of students that typically would not interact. However, when put in a single room together and there is a small group of them, they must somehow communicate wit h one another. Even though this is a group that would stereotypically not usually mingle, they still are able to communicate with one another. Despite the fact that each character had their own certain stereotypes, as the film carries on, they start to defy their stereotypes in order to communicate with one another. The other members of the group realize that how they had stereotyped another person was not in fact who they really were. Just because someone looks or acts a certain does not define what is truly within them. By the end of the film though, they have learned more about each other despite their differences and have somehow united and gained unspoken friendship despite the oddity that none of them fit in the same social groups with each other. When discussing interpersonal communication, there are four major principles. The first is that it is inescapable; the second is that it is irreversible; is complicated; and lastly, is contextual. Each of these is fundamental to comm unication. Communication is contextual. Depending on the type of environment you are in, what your own motives or desires are, the interaction of a classroom or even different cultures, genders or stereotypes even interact differently (King). The beginning of The Breakfast Club is a time when obviously none of the students want to be there. They feel as though they are stuck with a group of people that will make the day long because it seems as though none of them have anything in common. At times, their

Monday, August 26, 2019

Alliances and the Airline Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Alliances and the Airline Industry - Essay Example Deregulation of the airline industry in the United States in 1978 led to the formation of the alliance. The deregulation was the most notable event that brought about the radical changes within the industry. M. Potter claims that Alliances are a means to extend or reinforce competitive advantage, and not a sustainable means of creating it. Oum, Taylor, and Zhang (1993) offer a universal definition: a worldwide airline network composed of a group of related airlines that provide services to consumers. They do so through a common computer system, automatic baggage transfer system, fares and ticketing, joint marketing, code sharing of flights and coordinated flight schedules. This paper will discuss the extent to which alliances have become a characteristic of the airline industry. Why did airlines come about? Deregulation of the airline industry lead to the formulation of alliances. The effects of deregulation were quick to filter though it took almost a decade for the European countri es to follow. The airlines could now choose the ways they wanted to take and fix the prices as they found it fit without any regulatory interventions. It thus enabled airlines to work according to demand-supply and other market factors. Airlines gained their freedom, and they had to fend for themselves in taking careful steps in order to walk the paths of positive financial bottom lines. Globalisation has set in new rules and with Increased Competition for and from new markets, the ground markets have altered airlines to adapt slowly to these challenges. Alliances have contributed highly to solving such problems as described by Harrigan (1988, p.67). With the Privatisation and unpredictability of the new market and its inherent vulnerability to global incidences, the industry had to adapt itself to aliening with the privatised industries as a survival mechanism. From basic code-sharing agreements, these alliances have come along the way, and today involve a closer co-operation betwe en partners. They ensured they integrated with even the non-flying partners like hotels and credit card companies. The hotels and credit companies play an extremely significant function in the development of the global airline industry. Airlines had to integrate their flight Routes by flying from shared hub points and common terminals and coordinating their flight schedules. Thus, passengers who want to connect from one alliance partner to another can do so with little inconvenience and effort. Airlines in an alliance offer fares that favour a combination of alliance partners because they have an integrated route network in place. This includes fares around the world that display the alliance global network. It permits travellers to travel round the earth entirely using the members of a single alliance leading to the Low Cost Revolution. Member airlines have linked their mileage programs in order to satisfy the consumer craving for miles. This helps them to reward travellers for fly ing within the alliance network. M. porter says that Alliances are frequently transitional devices. They proliferate in industries undergoing structural change or escalating competition, where managers fear they cannot cope. They are an indication to uncertainty, and comfort provider. Strategy and airline alliances De la Sierra (1995) claims that in order to gain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace an alliance has to be internationally strategic. It must posses the following

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Human Resource Staffing Principal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Resource Staffing Principal - Essay Example Staffing, in fact efficient and dedicated staffing has been always a focal point of HR experts around the globe in the quest of sorting out the best and the perfect method to staff men for the job. Staffing is the process of finding the best of the human resources available to satiate the needs of growing or even sustain modern organizations. Small or large, every organization undergoes a process of staffing, and this is what makes staffing and important aspect of every organization (Morgen Witzel, 2004). The first step towards staffing is having a strategy that will be the basic guidelines in the entire staffing process. Developing a staffing strategy means analyzing the short and long term goals of the organization and then developing the positions that are required to achieve those goals. This way the organization managers know what exactly is required and what will be the suitable candidate. This also makes realize the remuneration and the additional facilities that are provided to the employee. The most fundamental issue that is haunting the top managers is finding the right work force that will not only fulfill the requirements of the job but also compete with other brands in the market. For this, the HR staffers develop a strategy of what type of staff they need and what are the sources that will satiate those demands. Developing a staffing tactic also requires identifying the key human resource areas and also realizing the sources of substitutes if a position goes vacant unexpectedly. After the development of a definite strategy comes the stage where the position is defined and the resources for that position is delineated. For example, an organization dealing in motorcycle sales is expanding and opening a new office in another state. The strategy requires making two fundamental decisions, would the organization’s own staff will be managing the sales in all the cities in that state or will he organization be letting our dealerships to local inves tors. How will those sales managers/dealers be managed and where to get the people interested in doing those jobs. Who will be performing what job and what salary and other benefits will he get in return all are delineated and this is what constitutes developing a HR staffing strategy. There are multiple types of organizations according to working styles and this is what determines they models of HR they have. Most of the organizations like the sales department of Apple or DHL couriers simply can not do without people to people interaction and thus require people to manage the reins of the organizations despite the fact that most of the 9-5 jobs are being automated. However, services like the airports and hospitals cannot be just closed down at 5pm because the shift is over, these require to be working in shifts and therefore have three shifts of eight hours each. Regular staff allows for the regular work to be done on regular basis and thus brings consistency in the work done. With growing interdependence on technology and unavailability of efficient work force everywhere, many organizations even rely on telecommuting or freelancing to get results. Companies like Cisco, Intel and Deloitte have a reliable number of telecommuters. Most of the internet and computer based jobs are filled by telecommuters, this way the employers have to pay only for the work done, reduce costs and achieve

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Group Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Group Discussion - Essay Example ependent from the client company to avoid any conflicts of interest that may arise due to any links relationship between the auditor and the company (Regan, 2003). The contracting of one of Mary Maid Service partner’s uncle to carry out auditing casts doubts over the auditing process. The Uncle may give false opinion about the company in order to maintain good relationships with his nephew/niece who is one of the shareholders. Additionally, by charging low fees, the Uncle might be protecting his commercial interests. Most audit firms that charge fees lower than market rate make up for the deficit by providing non-audit services such as tax advice. In such a case, the interests of the auditor to protect his commercial interests may contradict with protecting shareholders’ interests. Contracting the partner’s Uncle may also expose the company to self-interest threat from the partner. Therefore, it is in the best interest of Mary Maid Service that the Uncle to one of the partner’s does not audit the company’s financial statements. Public confidence in financial markets and the conduct of public interest partly relies on audit reports; the company should contract an independent auditor to avoid compromising the credibility of the reports and opinions (Regan,

Nelson Goodmanss New Riddle Of Induction Term Paper

Nelson Goodmanss New Riddle Of Induction - Term Paper Example The traditional problem of induction was popularized by David Hume and it reamined quite traditional until Nelson Goodman proposed a new problem which he called â€Å"the new riddle of induction† as expressed in the third chapter of Fact, Fiction and Forecast. By the new riddle of induction Goodman put forward a claim that not all generalizations are confirmed by their instances. In other words â€Å"confirmation of a hypothesis by an instance depends rather heavily upon the features of the hypothesis other than its syntatical form† (72). He distinguished the lawlike (that a given piece of copper conducts electricity increases the credibility of the statement asserting that other pieces of copper conducts electricity, and thus confirms the hypothesis that all copper conducts electricity) and accidental (that a given man now in this room is a third son does not increase the credibility of the statement asserting that other men now in this room are third sons and so does not confirm the hypothesis that all men now in this room are third sons) statements. Yet, both are cases in which the hypothesis is a generalization of the evident statement. Thus, Goodman argued: â€Å"only a statement that is lawlike – regardless of its trut h or falsity or its scientific importance – is capable of recieviing confirmation from an instance of it; accidental statements are not† (73). As such, there is need for a way of plainly distinguishing the lawlike from the accidental statements. However, the problem of induction goes beyond merely trying to exclude a few cases that are admitted by our definition of confirmation. Hence, Goodman proposed a new predicate, â€Å"grue.†

Friday, August 23, 2019

Consumer Behaviour in the Gangster Subculture Essay

Consumer Behaviour in the Gangster Subculture - Essay Example However, in the internal contexts, diversity is a tool that enables organizations to learn more about the tastes and preferences of different cultures. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to stress the impact of cultures and subcultures in determining the management strategies employed by organizations. Given that the topic of cultural diversity issues a wide array of consumption behaviours, this paper will delve into the gangster sub cultural consumption behaviours, looking at how the cultural and sub cultural factors contribute to this consumption trend. Besides, the paper will give a detailed analysis of the characteristics exhibited by consumers belonging to this segment, hence giving a guide on how to tailor production and management processes of an organization to suit the expectations of these consumers. Indeed, this paper issues designers and innovators an insight on how to assess the viability and potentiality of their projects and ideas, putting into perspective the need for organizations to widen their market share by attracting and retaining more customers. Culture represents the external part that influences the consumer tendencies or behaviours. In this case, cultures are a representation of the effect of other individuals on a personal consumer choice. Culture is an independent set of factors that are shaped based on the beliefs and knowledge of the society. Despite this, other factors constituting culture are irrelevant in other societies, as they do not reflect the beliefs or knowledge of that society. In understanding the lives of the people within a culture, subcultures play a pivotal role. Therefore, subcultures are a representation of minor groups within a culture (Solomon et al., 2014). Numerous beliefs and knowledge sum up to form a culture. In many cases, subcultures are linked to the youth, as they have various beliefs that aid in the formation of many sub-groups.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Christopher Columbus Essay Example for Free

Christopher Columbus Essay From the date of his birth to the amount of schooling he received as a child, to the final resting place of his remains historians are simply not sure. It is even claimed that he was, at the age of 21 a privateer. â€Å"Columbus’s son Ferdinand stated in History of the Life and Deeds of Christopher Columbus that in 1472 Columbus was given command of a ship on a privateering expedition to Tunis in northern Africa. In a lost letter, Columbus supposedly related to his son how Rene I, duke of the French province of Anjou, had commissioned Columbus to make a surprise attack on a large Spanish ship sailing off the coast of North Africa. 4 However Ferdinand’s claim is the only proof available and the claim is largely believed to be false. There is a lot of information that is well known, and well documented. Christopher Columbus completed four sea voyages. Starting with his most famous in 1492 and ending in 1506. Although he took to the sea at the age of 14 he was not commissioned to his own ship until much later. At the age of 41 he made his historic voyage to the new world. Although Columbus is given credit for discovering America it was not named for him, it was named after Amerigo Vespucci. The name America was given to the Western Hemisphere by European writers and mapmakers after Columbuss death. Nothing in their experiences had led the first explorers to realize that they had come into contact with a vast and unrecorded continent, many times the size of Europe. Previously there had been no accounts, or even rumors, of the unknown peoples of this new continent in European scholarly literature and discus sion or in popular chronicles. † 5 If Christopher Columbus had one true purpose, it was not to find the new land or even riches for King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I. His true calling which led him to the sea was to travel to the East by going west. He wanted to find a direct trade route to Asia, and to explore the region discovered by Marco Polo. His obsession to find this region was so intense it actually led him to believe that Cuba was part of Asia. In an ironic twist of fate, the closest Columbus would ever come to reaching Asia was on one of his earliest voyages. In 1474 Columbus, hired on as a sailor, set off for Khios, an island in the Aegean, this was to be the first long voyage Columbus would ever take and the closest he ever came to Asia. Columbus spent a year on this island and was able to become economically independent from his family. 7 To truly understand why someone would be obsessed with finding a direct trade route to Asia, you must understand why this was necessary. â€Å"The event that had the most far reaching effects on Europe in the 15th Century was the fall of the city of Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) to the Mu slim Ottoman Empire. Constantinople had been the capital of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire for centuries, and it was an important center for trade between Europe and Asia. In 1453 the Ottoman Empire, which had already conquered much of southeastern Europe, captured the city, closing an important trade route from Europe to the east. European merchants could still buy Asian goods from Muslims in places such as Alexandria, Egypt. However, Europeans longed for a sea route to Asia that would allow them to bypass the Muslims and purchase Asian products directly. In addition, European princes and kings quickly realized that the first nation to find such a route could become very wealthy by monopolizing the highly profitable Asian trade. 8 Although Columbus never found that direct route to Asia, he did find recognition and wealth from his travels. â€Å"The widely published report of his voyage of 1492 made Columbus famous throughout Europe and secured for him the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and further royal patronage. † 9 Christopher Columbus was also a family man. He had two sons; his first was with wife â€Å"Felipe Perestrello e Moniz, the d aughter of a well respected, though relatively poor, noble family. † 10 They had a son Diego in 1480 or 1481, historic records are unsure of the exact date. Felipe died shortly after. Diego was boarded in a Spanish Monastery were Columbus found great support for his voyages in the monks who lived there. They introduced him to nobility, share ancient maps and vital information about sea currents and the size of the oceans themselves, and for a short time he was â€Å"maintained at the expense of the queen. † 11 His second son Fernando was born out of wedlock to a young peasant woman named Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, in 1488. Beatriz is believed to be the great love of Columbus’ life and his love for her helped him through the toughest portions of his life as he awaited the end of the war to take Granada. Christopher Columbus was an entrepreneur, as well as an opportunist; on his second voyage he carried with him African slaves to the new world. 12 Columbus also claimed a dowry offered to the first person to see land on his maiden voyage. During his first voyage, on October 12, 1492 a lookout spotted land a couple hours after midnight from the crow’s nest of the Pinta. The lookout’s name was Rodrigo de Triana for his sighting; he should have received a pension of 10,000 Maravedis per year. That was roughly what an able sailor could make in a year at the time, however Columbus pocketed the money himself, claiming he saw lights the night before. 13 This however would not be a onetime occurrence, in 1491 Columbus made a final appeal to Spanish Monarchs but his plan was rejected. In the past his plan was rejected for technical reasons, such as his assessment of the size of the ocean, it was believed to be too large to cross or the distances and measurements that Columbus came up with were not accurate. This time, the request was denied due to simple greed. â€Å"Columbus had asked for one tenth of all the riches in the indies, and his demands for the titles of admiral, which would give him the right to judge commercial disputes; of viceroy, which would make him the personal representative of the monarchs; and of governor, which would enable him to act as supreme civil and military authority in any new lands he discovered. † 14 However, â€Å"Columbus had successfully won over many of the learned scholars and scientific advisers, nd Ferdinand’s treasurer, Luis de Santangel, interceded on Columbus’s behalf. Arguing that the investment was small considering the potential reward, Santangel convinced the king and queen to reverse their decision. A court official was dispatched on horseback to bring Columbus back. After several more weeks of negotiating a contract, in April 1492 Columbus left for Palos de la Frontera and his rendezvous with history. † 15 On Au gust 3, 1492 Columbus sets off for the Canary Islands with his three ships, the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria. The Canary Islands were a necessary stop over for two reasons, first the rudder of the Nina needed repair and secondly Columbus had studied the swift moving currents that were found off the Canary Islands. 16 September 6, 1492 the armada left the Canary Islands via those swift currents in search of a direct route to Asia, what he found instead would change mankind forever. Columbus’ second voyage was his largest in size. In his first voyage Columbus had three ships, but in his second he had 17 ships. This time he was taking provisions to set up colonies as well as soldiers and livestock designed to stay on the island and establish colonies. His first voyage consisted only of enough provision and personnel for a year long voyage based on exploration and discovery. In September 1493 the fleet sets off from Cadiz, Spain for the Canary Islands. Once again utilizing the swift currents of the Canary Islands, the fleet reaches Hispaniola in November 1493, an island Columbus discovered in his previous voyage. Columbus’ third voyage leaves Sanlucar, Spain with six ships on May 30, 1493. For the first and only time Columbus purposely splits his ships and sends half his fleet to Hispaniola and takes the other half on a more southerly route to the Cape Verde Island. In August 1498 Columbus returns to Hispaniola and assumes the role of governor. HE resides as governor for two years before he is arrested for misadministration, and was arrested, bound in chains and returned to Spain. Columbus, in an act of defiance refused to have his chains removed until the monarch gave the orders to do so. 17 â€Å"On December 17, 1500, Columbus went before the royal court. The king and queen instructed that whatever items were taken from Columbus at his arrest be restored to him. The monarchs would not reinstate Columbus’s titles, however. This was, however, neither victory nor vindication for Columbus. With his titles annulled, the former governor spent the next two years in despair and humiliation. † 18 Columbus had another chance to win back his good name, and on his fourth voyage in May of 1502, he would leave Cadiz, Spain with four ships. 19 In June of 1503 Columbus’ ship is marooned and beach on the island of Jamaica. It suffers a severe case of sea worms and is no longer sea worthy. The crew is spends a year on island and in November 1504 Columbus heads back to Spain. On May 20, 1506 Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain. 20 â€Å"both of his sons, his brother Bartholomew, and his faithful friend Diego Mendez were at his side when the admiral murmured â€Å"Into thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit† and passed away. His body was buried initially in Valladolid, but in 1509 his son Diego transferred the remains to the monastery of Las Cuevas in Sevilla. The current location of Columbus’s remains is still debated. They were moved to the Americas in the middle of the 16th century, first to Santo Domingo and then, in 1795, to Havana, Cuba. Then his remains supposedly traveled back to Spain in 1899 where, it is claimed, they are interred in the Cathedral of Sevilla. † 21 So in death, as in life, Christopher Columbus is a noble man, and spirit, and a true explorer, entrepreneur and mystery. Although his accomplishments have recently been criticized by modern historians as untrue, making claims that the Vikings discovered America long before Columbus, the credit still goes to Christopher Columbus.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Minimize Counterproductive Or Deviant Behaviour Management Essay

Minimize Counterproductive Or Deviant Behaviour Management Essay Counterproductive and deviant behaviours can be found all around us, but matter largely in professional fields. When in an organisation, any deviant behaviour is detected; it is an indication toward a serious threat to organisation as well as the staff from different perspectives. In human resources, deviant behaviours of employees and managing them have gained increased attention due to a range of reasons. For the success of an organisation, management of deviant and counterproductive behaviours is very critical. In this essay, the causes behind deviant behaviours, their influence on the employees, the person and organisation as a whole and the ways to manage/ minimise these deviant behaviours will be addressed. Counterproductive behaviours have become a workplace norm and its popularity is rising gradually. It is very obvious that workplace situations vary and therefore, they leave an impact on employees as well. These deviant behaviours by the employees not just harm the organisation but also affect other organisational members (Spector Fox, 2002). Counterproductive Workplace Behaviours are the acts by the members of an organisation, which are against the organisational legitimate interest (Sackett, 2002). These are intentional as well as unintentional behaviours, resulting from different causes and motivations. It has been identified in journal of organisational behaviour (2008) that an estimated 75 per cent of the employees do engage in such deviant harmful behaviours like; unexcused absenteeism, sabotage, theft, and vandalism cooperate (McGurn, 1988; Harper, 1990). Other such behaviours that have been reportedly found are sexual abuse of women (Gruber, 1990), organisational cynicism (Wilkerson, 2002), withholding efforts (Kidwell Bennett, 1993), spreading rumours (Skarlicki and Folger, 1997), physical assault and verbal abuse (Spector and Fox, 2002), lying (Depaulo and Depaulo, 1989), and absenteeism (Johns, 1997). These behaviours violate organisational working standards and can be antisocial (Robinson Bennett, 1995). Also they may affect the overall performance, decision making and even the organisational financials which can be very costly and harmful for the organisations wellbeing. Many researchers have identified a direct link between the personality traits of the employees and the Counterproductive behaviour at workplace (Salgado, 2002; Colbert, Mount, Harter, Witt, and Barrick, 2004; Dalal, 2005; Blickle, Schlegel, Fassbender, and Klein, 2006; Berry, Ones, Sackett, 2007). However, it has also been viewed that many times, even intrinsically honest employees are forced to behave inaptly, if the work environment or management are unjust towards them; or if they have been treated poorly. Managers are also seen to be the ones creating such workplace environment unintentionally where they are basically contributing towards their employees deviant acts (Greenberg, 1997). Therefore only personality is not a sole predictor of deviant workplace behaviour (Robinson and Greenberg, 1998) and many other factors contribute in counterproductive workplace behaviour. The management in turn fires the honest and capable employees so as to diminish these deviant organisational behaviours, but counteractively they need to put in a lot of efforts towards identifying the real causes of these behaviours and should wisely minimise these acts. The focus of this essay throughout the rest of the paragraphs is to critically identify the causes behind counterproductive workplace behaviour, the extent to which these behaviours influence the workplace norm, its overall power and how these behaviours can be minimised. Therefore, in a sequential manner, all of these points will be analysed. Countless factors influence counterproductive behaviour which consists of acts that harm or are intend to harm the organisation or its stakeholders. A vital aspect is to identify the reasons behind that, why employees are involved in these deviant behaviours. There are certain factors that influence counterproductive behaviour, identified by Litzky, Eddleston Kidder (2006), which are under the direct control of manager that may unconsciously force the employees into engaging in deviant behaviours like; unsatisfactory compensation or rewarding structures, unfair employee treatment, negative attitudes, social pressures to conform, job performance ambiguity and violation of employees trust. Competing for financial rewards causes employees to think only for themselves with the belief that nonstandard behaviours are compulsory to get ahead in their career fight (Crossen, 1993; Peterson, 2002). Managers are identified to be often as the main cause behind workplace theft, because many of them ignore such issues in order to conform to the social pressures, and thus encourage other employees to engage in similar deviant behaviours (Greenberg, 1997). These research studies have found that financial rewards are one of the prime reasons behind the counterproductive behaviours of employees. Not only for competing and leaving the colleagues behind, but also in the run of gaining more financial rewards, these employees sometimes do not feel reluctant to take aggressive actions. Deviant behaviours is one such acts that these employees are found to be practicing. Another research study (Fodchuck, 2007) revealed that both the employee characteristics and the workplace environmental aspects are linked with counterproductive behaviour in an organisation. Organisational factors like job design, workplace injustice and perceived stress initiates these behaviours and individual characteristics that helps in triggering CWB consists of self-control, will power, sensation seeking (Marcus and Schuler, 2004), and motives (Rioux and Penner, 2001). All these researchers have argued that these environmental aspects are increasingly linked with the deviant behaviour in the organisation. A management journal, (Robinson OLeary-Kelly, 1998) termed Counterproductive workplace conducts as antisocial behaviour, because these acts are harmful for the organisation. As per this study, the antisocial behaviours of employees are influenced in work groups through social learning and social information processing method. The workgroup largely influence an individual employees antisocial behaviour, and CWB of a workgroup is a significant predictor of the individual employees CWB at work. A study conducted in 2008 (Skarlicki, Barclay Pugh) explain downsizings and layoffs as the major factor behind counterproductive behaviour by the employees because most victims, who lose their jobs, are loyal workers and consider this management decision as an unfair treatment towards them. These employees in turn engage in organisational retaliation as revenge to their wrongdoer. Their negative emotions emerge by bad mouthing about the organisation to the organisational members and others, conveying a strong negative impact of the company. This retaliation is very similar to previously defined antisocial behaviour (Giacalone and Greenberg, 1996), counterproductive behaviour (Fox and Spector, 2005) and organisational deviance (Robinson and Bennett, 1995) thus overlapping with the duskier side of the organisational behaviour theories with potentially negative consequences for the organisation and other individuals. Many times in such situations even the informational justice and supp orting information does not help to be effective in reducing this retaliating behaviour (Dalal, 2005). All of these research studies have discussed that these factors extremely play their role to generate deviant behaviour among employees. Another study by Smithikrai (2008) suggests that personality traits and Counterproductive workplace behaviour have a direct link with each other; however, situational moderators in which counterproductive workplace behaviour takes place can increase the cogency of personality measures in predicting deviant behaviours. Situational factors in relation with personality traits are strong stimulators of counterproductive workplace behaviours. Individual behaviour reflects relevant traits when the situation is week, whereas when the situations are strong then the behaviour of the employees are clear, and they meet the behavioural demand of the situation (Blickle et al, 2006; Robinson Greenberg, 1998; Marcus Schuler, 2004). Therefore situational strength is very much critical in identifying these deviating individual behaviours, and in strong situations the employee performance gets monitored where Counterproductive workplace behaviour is not tolerated (Berry et al, 2007; Greenberg, 1997) . Wilkerson, Evans Davis (2008) conducted a study testing evidence of the co-workers social influence on other employees bad mouthing, organisational cynicism and supervisor assessments of employees organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The study suggests that the badmouthing behaviour of close co-workers largely impacts other co-workers, influencing their similar behaviours, due to the result of social information processing. Further the study advises that there also becomes a possibility of a chain reaction effect, where the organisational cynics are likely to engage other in their bad mouthing behaviour, creating other cynics within the organisation. This results in negative performance outcomes, reduction in management trust and further intentions of engaging in OCB (Litzky et al, 2006; Crossen, 1993). Bad mouthing has found to be one of the critical factors behind generating deviant behaviour. Yet another research by Tepper, Henle, Lambert, Giacalone and Duffy (2008) states that abusive supervision consequences in lower level of employee commitment with its employer, leading to little desire of working with the organisation, lower level of attachment with the organisation resulting to greater deviance against the organisation. This explains that effective employee commitment is estimated to facilitate the relationship between abusive management and organisational deviation. Abusive supervision is yet another costly workplace factor impacting negatively on employees, employer as well as organisational performance (Litzky et al, 2006; Crossen, 1993). Research study by jones (2009) have a different viewpoint, stating that there are different relations among different types of injustice, desire toward revenge and counterproductive work behaviours with ones supervisor and organisation separately. The results identified that counterproductive workplace behaviours related with organisation can be minimised through increase in procedural justice whereas behaviours related to supervisors can be minimised when the supervisor treat their employees fairly, with dignity, and respect as well as provide justifications for decisions that influences them (Litzky et al, 2006; Crossen, 1993). There are many factors identified that influence instigate deviant behaviours by the employees (Peterson, 2002). Of all these factors influencing Counterproductive behaviours every aspect has strong and weak impact over the behaviours, depending on the situation and the individual (Crossen, 1993). Age, cognitive ability, self-control, emotional intelligence and personality all correlates and create strong or weak affect over these behaviours by the employees (Fodchuk, 2007). Therefor situational moderator and personality mediator helps in increasing or decreasing the power of these behaviours by the employees (Rioux Penner, 2001). Reduction of these deviating behaviours in an organisation begins with recruitment and selection phase of hiring new employees through the use of personality testing, cognitive ability screening, and integrity screening (Marcus Schuler, 2004). But since situational factors emerge out of routinely day to day operations of the organisation including organisational constraints, illegitimate tasking, lack of compensation and rewards, interpersonal conflicts and lack of organisational/management justice thus organisation needs to involve much more into minimising these behaviours (Robinson et al, 1998). Mangers are equally liable and in a better position to control and minimise these behaviours within the organisation (Giacalone Greenberg, 1996). If the outcome is similar by different employees on a particular position, then this can be termed as a warning for the manager to identify his personal behaviour and management ability (Robinson Bennett, 1995). It is the job of manger to create an ethical working environment so that inherently honest employees do not turn their behaviours into negative and counterproductive ones (Skarlicki, et al, 2008). Apart from this building reliance relationships, creating ethical policies and procedures, setting achievable targets, creating effective supervision and monitoring performance ultimately helps in toning down the deviant behaviours of the employees in the organisation (Depaulo Depaulo, 1989; Smithikria, 2008). Similarly one step that the organisation can take into reducing these behaviours can be through enhancing organisational justice, allowing workplace participation of employees, maintaining communication, and paying close attention to identification of signs for interpersonal conflict (Tepper et al, 2008; David, 2008; Spector, 2005). Besides this lay off, employees needed to be financially supported and should be well informed in advance, or given a notice period so that they may not bad mouth the organisation and put its integrity at stake. Making other opportunities available to them after some time period also helps (Wilkerson et al, 2008; Jones, 2009) In the last, combating deviant and counterproductive workplace behaviours can be costly and very much time consuming but organisations are in a much predicted position of minimising these behaviours through identifying the main factors and taking actions in reducing it, which would thus increase the organisational performance, workplace environment and the overall success.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Drug Induced Schizophrenia: Causation Analysis

Drug Induced Schizophrenia: Causation Analysis Drug Induced Schizophrenia Often, when people associate schizophrenia with individuals most people very seldom understand that this mental illness disorder can be associated with the abuse of illegal drug use. The impact that drug induced schizophrenia has on the user and the repercussions from the extension of the emotional hardships brought upon the user’s family are staggering. This paper will set in place an understanding of the risks associated with illegal, recreational drugs, which can be a caustic combinations of poisonous chemicals introduced into the body causing serious and sometimes irreversible damage to the human brain and psyche. Drugs like cocaine, cannabis, and hallucinogens can cause mental health problems and, when paired with a pre-existing mental illness, can exacerbate the symptoms of such illnesses. Some drugs, when taken frequently for long periods of time, can actually manifest as psychotic symptoms indicative of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to the Australian Government’s National Drug Strategy (dualdiagnosis.org/drug-addiction/psychosis). Symptoms of drug-induced psychosis and schizophrenia may occur when a drug user has a mental illness prior to drug use. It may be hard to identify symptoms that are exclusively due to the drug use itself. Most symptoms, if the condition is unrelated to drugs, will continue after abstinence from the drug. The opposite is true for drug-induced psychosis; the schizophrenic-like effects will more or less subside after the drug wears off. However, this is not true for all drug users as frequent and prolonged use can cause side effects that last up to years after use discontinues (dualdiagnosis.org/drug-addiction/psychosis). Because drugs cause interruptions in the absorption and release of brain chemicals like serotonin or dopamine, the internal structure and function of the brain changes as use continues (Rosenthal, 1997). Essentially re-mapping the chemical functions of the brain, much in the same way as a police officer re-routing traffic on a roadway or completely blocking access to t he roadway altogether. With heavy, long-term use, nearly any drug can cause symptoms of psychosis in the user. A few, however, tend to be more closely correlated with drug-induced psychosis than others. Stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines can contribute to psychotic symptoms that can last days, months, and years after the drug use stops. Long-term use is attributed to loss of memory and problems with concentration. In a study noted in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, about one-half of cocaine users showed psychotic symptoms after use. When freebased or used with a needle (intravenously), the risk for these experiences increase dramatically (dualdiagnosis.org/drug-addiction/psychosis). Delusions attributed to alcohol can cause disorientation, disorganized speech and mental confusion. In most cases, these effects go into remission when sobriety occurs. Alcohol is also one of the most widely abused substances, along with marijuana and cocaine. Psychedelic drugs like phencyclidine (PCP) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) affect the user in a way that mimics actual psychosis, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. These hallucinogen drugs, however, are not shown to induce psychosis with the first use. The symptoms are more prevalent after repeated use of the drug over a period of time. Schizophrenia is often difficult to identify in most individuals. Addiction and mental illness mimicking schizophrenic episodes can be difficult to diagnose with the incredible diversity and breadth of tolerances individuals have relating to the reaction their bodies and cognitive brain function have to the absorption through tissues, metabolic rates and other physiologica l factors to foreign chemicals when introduces into the body. Those individuals that show symptoms or clear cognitive dysfunction are sometimes referred to by lay people as having a scrambled or short-circuited brain. That description is indicative of schizophrenic behavior. There are also clear signs of recognition to the condition that correlate with drug abuse and schizophrenic behaviors such as problems with law enforcement or legal problems, sporadic homelessness, reoccurring use of the emergency room or a chronic need for hospitalization (Kosten, 1997). Psychotic symptoms present themselves among individuals who are enthralled in heavy illicit drug use. The good news with these psychotic users who reach treatment, over half are consistently documented as positively responding to treatment with the use of ant-psychotic drugs coupled with individual and group counseling within one to six months. The bad news is for success with abstinence to continue with a drug induced schizophrenic patient requires them to conform to counseling and a consistent regiment with no deviation of the prescribed ant-psychotic medications (Rosenthal, 1997). This is the downside of this particular mental decease, when a patient begins something similar to normalcy a great majority of them discontinue all treatment including counseling and prescribed medication believing they no longer need the intervention because of their confidence and belief they are functioning well and do not attribute their continued improvement of their mental health to the medical in tervention (Rosenthal, 1997). Amongst one of the most dangerous and damaging drug to the function of the brain is the abuse of amphetamines. Amphetamines permanently damage neurological routing with no ability to repair brain function loss in the frontal lobe that controls personality and emotional behavior of amphetamine users, the scariest part of this particular drug is the user does not have to have an extended history of illicit use; the neurological damage begins to occur with the first use of amphetamines (Kokkinidis, 1980). Psychosis or schizophrenia can set in with these users almost immediately based on their physiological ability or inability to tolerate hard narcotic use. It is believed that the over activity of dopamine in the brain is a leading cause of schizophrenia and the use of un-prescribed illicit drugs exacerbates psychotic behaviors. While it is true those individuals under the influence of alcohol can exhibit psychotic or schizophrenic behavior it is rarely long lasting and if observed over a long period of time would probably move out of the realm of actually being schizophrenic. Alcohol is a depressant and lowers brain chemical functioning within an individual causing a loss of inhibition, an inability to be rationale, and decreased emotional ability that can appear childlike to the opposite end of the spectrum of violence with their behavior due to alcohol blocking dopamine production. Studies are leaning that the opposite might be true with narcotic use that drive the production of dopamine causing euphoria, anxiousness, and paranoia (Bowers, 1980). An interesting study shows that a large segment of schizophrenic illness lies within the minority community and the illness combined with illegal drug use and illegal activity has certainly blinded law enforcement professionals with the problem of this particular mental illness and the damaging affects it is having on the minority population that in large goes unrecognized do to the disparity of race between law enforcement and the offender (Ruiz, 1982). When users with mental illness and certainly predisposed minorities to drug induced metal illness such as schizophrenia are labeled offenders in the criminal justice system those patients are being mislabeled and find themselves amongst the incarcerated, instead of hospitalization as appropriately needed (Ruiz, 1982). Once these users or patients are incarcerated the chance of receiving services that are needed are almost non-existent within U.S. prisons. Funding is not available for these types of inmates to be properly supervised a nd medically treated. Staff within most prison facilities are not equipped or provided training to address schizophrenia or psychosis on a meaningful basis of supervision other than to supervise the schizophrenic inmates living existence (Ruiz, 1982). On the opposite side of the incarcerated offender is the user on the street that is left to function in a world he/she is not equipped to function in. There is almost no city in the United States equipped with resources to handle the overwhelming influx of uninsured mental health patients. Most people who are inflicted with this disease do not have the ability to maintain employment and have often exhausted or alienated themselves from family members and all other support that is needed (Ruiz, 1982). Contributing to the cycle of drug induced schizophrenia is the lack of stability in individuals from the increase levels of dopamine being produced in their brain. When abnormally high levels of dopamine are present it can contribute to manic episodes, loss of sleep and long periods of duration that an individual is awake without R.E.M. sleep can have immediate negative effects on the psychological well-being of the user. Lack of sleep and over a period of time lack of consistent sleep due to drug use can lead to psychosis amongst drug users who are in a high state of dopamine arousal (Roman, 1972). Also contributing to the sleep loss psychosis is the inability to recognize diminished physical and mental abilities and there affects due to the combined mental illness and drug use. Often these are the circumstances that create the perfect recipe for a drug induced schizophrenic subject to become irritable, confused and then becomes violent because they irrationally believe they are in danger, thus acting out in a manner in which the schizophrenic subject is convinced they are appropriately reacting to an event when in reality the event is not real. Conclusion While researchers agree that drug induced schizophrenia is difficult to understand in the realm of the causation coming from predisposed physiological mental conditions or physical destruction from chemical drug abuse. There is an overwhelming agreement that the subject that is in battled with psychotic or schizophrenic disease coupled with drug addiction is immersed in a very difficult fight for proper diagnosis, access to care and avoiding the labels of being criminally culpable for a condition that is no longer in the subjects control. The difficulty not only lies with the mentally ill, but with their families and the helplessness that accompanies these individuals disease. The cost of revolving incarceration is a high factor with no positive result for the addicted user and for society. The reevaluation of schizophrenic and psychotic subjects from drug use as an area of criminal and social justice that continues to be ignored by no doubt the incredibly high cost of treating these individuals and the very low rate of compliance that data has so far shown for success is a primary cause of denial for proper treatment.

Monday, August 19, 2019

The Fragility of Freedom Gadamerian :: Gadamer Freedom Essays

The Fragility of Freedom Gadamerian ABSTRACT: This paper examines the nature of freedom in Hang-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics. It focuses on the last section of Wahrheit und Methode advancing the hypothesis that Gadamer’s model of understanding is derived from his particular appropriation of the Platonic notion of the beautiful which poses a passive interpretative posture toward the object of understanding and deprives the activity of interpretation the essential creative quality of freedom. I argue that to the extent that the object of understanding presents itself as immediate revelation of truth, the interpreting subject is reduced to a mere acknowledger of truth as opposed to a creative producer. Opponents of teleological ontology and of philosophy of history have been attracted to hermeneutics as a more congenial perspective for the exploration of such issues as truth and right, knowledge and action, necessity and freedom. The appealing claim of hermeneutics is that universality need not be and should not be absolute as an ultimate end of a process of actualisation. In the view of hermeneutics, a determinate universal converts freedom to necessity however much consciousness may mediate activity. That is, even though activity engenders change, consciousness is more an expression of necessity in relation to the absolute than an expression of freedom. Indeed, in this view, teleological mediation between freedom and necessity is no reconciliation but rather a subsumption of freedom by necessity. To rehabilitate freedom, hermeneutics opts for a non-teleological history with an open, indeterminate future. The departure from teleology finds a new non-essentialist ground for truth a nd universality, namely, mutual understanding. In this paper, I examine Gadamer’s notion of mutual understanding, fusion of horizons, to assess the place reserved for freedom. I focus on Gadamer’s appropriation of the Platonic notion of the beautiful as the model of understanding and I argue that such a notion of understanding poses a passive interpretive posture toward the object of understanding, i.e. tradition or contemporary alien culture. In this model of understanding, I shall argue, the latter presents itself as immediate revelation of truth and thereby deprives interpretation of the productive quality which Gadamer would like to attribute it. I begin by providing some theoretical background to Gadamer’s notion of understanding noting its debt to Heidegger’s phenomenological ontology. I then proceed to examine Gadamer’s appeal to the Platonic dialectic of the beautiful as a model for understanding which highlights, to my mind and as I noted, the latent passivity of Gadamerian interpretati on.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

The Cabin/ unreliable narrator :: essays research papers

The Cabin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kevin Jones Unreliable narrator   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2nd per Do I know where the bathroom is? What do you mean, do I know where the bathroom is? I’ve been in the Delta View Mental Institute for five years now and you are still asking me if I know where the bathroom is. I know this place like the back of my hand. I’m not crazy, how many times do I have to tell you people? These other people in here, those are the crazy whacks. The only reason they put me in here is because they didn’t know what else to do with me. What’s that? You want to hear my story? Well that’s just too bad, you already think I’m crazy. Well ok since you asked nicely. It was October 16, 1993, my senior year at Lemoore High. I had three really good friends Ginger Tubs, Mike Bellowing, and Mary Johnson. We were always getting into trouble together. My family owned this cabin up in the mountains and we decided to go up and spend the weekend there. We were so anxious to get up there that we ditched school on Friday and drove up that morning. We arrived in Pine Flat Village at noon and I realized that I had forgot my key so we just broke into the cabin through the window; the lock was rusted and broke easily. Once inside we unpacked all of our things and started a fire in the fireplace. Ginger started complaining that the living room was getting too smoky. Ginger is constantly complaining. She is the type of person who wants everything to be perfect, sometimes you just want to grab her by the throat and squeeze until her lips turn blue and the color flees from her face. I told Ginger to go to the other room and lie down, I didn’t know that the pilot had gone out and the house was filling with gas, honest. The rest of us decided to go for a ride and check out the scenic views of the mountains. We were about two miles from the cabin when we heard the deafening explosion. Mary, Mike, and I all turned around and saw the thick black smoke swelling from the clearing where the cabin was. I slammed my foot onto the accelerator and zoomed back to what used to be the cabin, now it was a black shack ablaze with a deep crimson inferno. The Cabin/ unreliable narrator :: essays research papers The Cabin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kevin Jones Unreliable narrator   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2nd per Do I know where the bathroom is? What do you mean, do I know where the bathroom is? I’ve been in the Delta View Mental Institute for five years now and you are still asking me if I know where the bathroom is. I know this place like the back of my hand. I’m not crazy, how many times do I have to tell you people? These other people in here, those are the crazy whacks. The only reason they put me in here is because they didn’t know what else to do with me. What’s that? You want to hear my story? Well that’s just too bad, you already think I’m crazy. Well ok since you asked nicely. It was October 16, 1993, my senior year at Lemoore High. I had three really good friends Ginger Tubs, Mike Bellowing, and Mary Johnson. We were always getting into trouble together. My family owned this cabin up in the mountains and we decided to go up and spend the weekend there. We were so anxious to get up there that we ditched school on Friday and drove up that morning. We arrived in Pine Flat Village at noon and I realized that I had forgot my key so we just broke into the cabin through the window; the lock was rusted and broke easily. Once inside we unpacked all of our things and started a fire in the fireplace. Ginger started complaining that the living room was getting too smoky. Ginger is constantly complaining. She is the type of person who wants everything to be perfect, sometimes you just want to grab her by the throat and squeeze until her lips turn blue and the color flees from her face. I told Ginger to go to the other room and lie down, I didn’t know that the pilot had gone out and the house was filling with gas, honest. The rest of us decided to go for a ride and check out the scenic views of the mountains. We were about two miles from the cabin when we heard the deafening explosion. Mary, Mike, and I all turned around and saw the thick black smoke swelling from the clearing where the cabin was. I slammed my foot onto the accelerator and zoomed back to what used to be the cabin, now it was a black shack ablaze with a deep crimson inferno.

Chile Essay -- essays research papers fc

Introduction Chile is a republic located in southwestern South America. On the north side of Chile lies Peru, to the east is Bolivia and Argentina, and on the south Peru is bounded by the Pacific Ocean. The Archipelagoes Islands extend along the southern coast of Chile from Chiloà © Island to Cape Horn. Among these islands are the Chonos Archipelago, Wellington Island, and the western portion of Tierra del Fuego. Some other islands that belong to Chile include the Juan Fernà ¡ndez Islands, Easter Island, and Sala y Gà ³mez. All of these islands lie in the South Pacific. Chile also happens to claim a section of Antarctica. The capital and largest city of Chile is Santiago. Land and Resources The most dominant physical feature in Chile are the Andes Mountains, which extend the entire length of the country, from the Bolivian plateau in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south. PHYSICAL REGIONS Chile can be divided in to three topographic zones: the lofty Andean cordillera on the east; the low coastal mountains on the west; and the plateau area, which includes the Central Valley, between these ranges. Three major geographical and climatological regions can be distinguished: the northern (arid), central (Mediterranean), and southern (temperate marine) regions. The ranges of the Andes are the widest in the northern region. This forms broad plateaus that contain the country’s highest peak, Ojos del Salado, which is located on the border with Argentina. The plateau area is occupied by the great Atacama Desert, which contains vast nitrate fields and rich mineral deposits. In the central region the plateau gives way to a valley, known as the Central valley. The valley, which ranges form 40 to 80 km (25 to 50 mi) in width, is the most heavily populated area of the country. The fertile area between the Aconcagua and Biobà ­o rivers forms the agricultural heartland of Chile. The central Andes are narrower in width and have lower elevation that those in the north. The most important passes in the Andes are located here. The country’s finest natural harbors are located in this region. The southern region is without an interior valley; it disappears below the sea at Puerto Montt. Peaks of the submerged coastal mountains form the long chains of islands along the coast. Chile lies in a zone of geologic instability and is subject to earthquakes and volcanic activity. ... ...hydroelectric power. Major efforts have been made to harness this potential, and by 1998 about 52 percent of Chile’s energy was generated from waterpower. TRANSPORTATION Chile has a network of about 49,000 miles of roads. Only 14 percent are paved. Railroad lines total over 1500 miles in length and are confined to the northern two-thirds of the country. Spur lines to important coastal towns connect the main north-south system. Because of the difficult terrain, many coastal cities rely on water transportation from various ports including Valparaà ­so, Antofagasta, and Punta Arenas. There are also important international airports located near Santiago, and Arica. Conclusion Chile is a country that is developing very quickly and therefore is in demand when exporting the goods that are produced here are taken into account. All of the factors presented have the same developing relationship. The increase in skills, knowledge, communication, and population are what make this economy grow. Works Cited Fellmann, Getis, and Getis. Human Geography, Sixth Edition, Updated Edition. McGraw Hill. New York, 2001. Hudson, Espendhade. Goode’s World Atlas, 20th Edition. Rand McNally, 2000. Chile Essay -- essays research papers fc Introduction Chile is a republic located in southwestern South America. On the north side of Chile lies Peru, to the east is Bolivia and Argentina, and on the south Peru is bounded by the Pacific Ocean. The Archipelagoes Islands extend along the southern coast of Chile from Chiloà © Island to Cape Horn. Among these islands are the Chonos Archipelago, Wellington Island, and the western portion of Tierra del Fuego. Some other islands that belong to Chile include the Juan Fernà ¡ndez Islands, Easter Island, and Sala y Gà ³mez. All of these islands lie in the South Pacific. Chile also happens to claim a section of Antarctica. The capital and largest city of Chile is Santiago. Land and Resources The most dominant physical feature in Chile are the Andes Mountains, which extend the entire length of the country, from the Bolivian plateau in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south. PHYSICAL REGIONS Chile can be divided in to three topographic zones: the lofty Andean cordillera on the east; the low coastal mountains on the west; and the plateau area, which includes the Central Valley, between these ranges. Three major geographical and climatological regions can be distinguished: the northern (arid), central (Mediterranean), and southern (temperate marine) regions. The ranges of the Andes are the widest in the northern region. This forms broad plateaus that contain the country’s highest peak, Ojos del Salado, which is located on the border with Argentina. The plateau area is occupied by the great Atacama Desert, which contains vast nitrate fields and rich mineral deposits. In the central region the plateau gives way to a valley, known as the Central valley. The valley, which ranges form 40 to 80 km (25 to 50 mi) in width, is the most heavily populated area of the country. The fertile area between the Aconcagua and Biobà ­o rivers forms the agricultural heartland of Chile. The central Andes are narrower in width and have lower elevation that those in the north. The most important passes in the Andes are located here. The country’s finest natural harbors are located in this region. The southern region is without an interior valley; it disappears below the sea at Puerto Montt. Peaks of the submerged coastal mountains form the long chains of islands along the coast. Chile lies in a zone of geologic instability and is subject to earthquakes and volcanic activity. ... ...hydroelectric power. Major efforts have been made to harness this potential, and by 1998 about 52 percent of Chile’s energy was generated from waterpower. TRANSPORTATION Chile has a network of about 49,000 miles of roads. Only 14 percent are paved. Railroad lines total over 1500 miles in length and are confined to the northern two-thirds of the country. Spur lines to important coastal towns connect the main north-south system. Because of the difficult terrain, many coastal cities rely on water transportation from various ports including Valparaà ­so, Antofagasta, and Punta Arenas. There are also important international airports located near Santiago, and Arica. Conclusion Chile is a country that is developing very quickly and therefore is in demand when exporting the goods that are produced here are taken into account. All of the factors presented have the same developing relationship. The increase in skills, knowledge, communication, and population are what make this economy grow. Works Cited Fellmann, Getis, and Getis. Human Geography, Sixth Edition, Updated Edition. McGraw Hill. New York, 2001. Hudson, Espendhade. Goode’s World Atlas, 20th Edition. Rand McNally, 2000.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Koyal – a Multi-Purpose Expert System – Md-Cob-Coa Knowledge Representation Using Prolog in J2Se

Koyal – A Multi-purpose Expert System – MD-CoB-CoA Knowledge Representation Using PROLOG in J2SE Prof. Sreedhar Babu Department of Electrical Engineering Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham Amritapuri, Kerala [email  protected] com Archana, Vineeth & Veena Department of Computer Science & Applications Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham Amritapuri, Kerala [email  protected] com Abstract— Expert systems are AI? s greatest commercial success. It is a research-oriented application area of AI. An expert system uses knowledge specific to a problem domain to provide â€Å"expert quality† performance. Predicate logic is being used for knowledge representation which is further programmed using PROLOG inference engine for deriving intelligent conclusions. The current research paper introduces a rule-based expert system that provides a medical diagnosis for determining the health problems and classification of birds and animals. The user has to have some knowledge about these topics so that he can query the system. Three knowledge bases are provided for each domain. The specialized computer language PROLOG embedded into J2SE is used to develop this system. Keywords-component: Expert System; Knowledge-base; Medical Diagnosis, Rule-based ES, Knowledge representation PROLOG; J2SE. 1. INTRODUCTION : THE KOYAL EXPERT SYSTEM The current paper of Koyal has mainly two modules: 1. 1. Knowledge Base 1. 2. User Interface 1. 1 Knowledge Base [1 & 2] Mainly, three knowledge bases are required for the system. They are bird? s knowledge base for identifying a bird, animal knowledge base for identifying an animal and a disease knowledge base for medical diagnose. The system uses this knowledge base for finding solutions. Knowledge is represented in rule-based format. The rule of the system is in the form of: IF first premise and second premise, and †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. THEN conclusion This is semantically same as a Prolog rule: conclusion:first_ premise, second_ premise, †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Premises are written as attribute-value pair. The attribute is represented as a predicate and the value as the argument to the predicate. Each knowledge base will have to have a high-level goal, which calls the sub goals to be satisfied. When all the premises are satisfied, then the final conclusion is obtained. . 2. User Interface The user interface is the Prolog interpreter? s interface, and the input data is stored directly in the program. It is implemented in Java by loading the prolog inference engine into the java program. The prolog program itself will provide a user interface. The predicate ask and menuask will provide these functions. The ask is responsible is for getting the information from t he user and remembering the user? s response. The ask predicate will have to determine from the user whether or not a given attribute-value pair is true. The ask prompts the user with the requested attribute and value and seeks confirmation or denial of the proposed information. The ask is represented as object-attribute-value triples where the attribute values are tied to various objects in the system. The menuask will further improve the user interface by adding a menu capability which gives the user a list of possible values for an attribute. The main precondition of our Koyal System is that a common user who has no knowledge about the specialized „domain? annot interact with the system and in such a situation the output accuracy will depend on the user inputs. 2. Description of the System Flow The system flow chart represented in the figure 2 displays the flow of the information from one process to another . We can say that it is a detailed representation of the structured chart in the Fig. 2. 1. 2. 1. User The user will enter the text and this text is passed to the inference engine. 2. 2. Inference Engine A rule-based syste m requires some kind of program to manipulate the rules – for example to decide which ones are ready to fire. (i. . which ones have conditions that match the contents of working memory). The program that does this is called an inference engine, because in many rule-based systems, the task of the system is to infer something from knowledge base. This inference engine will prove or disprove the goal/rules in the knowledge base and used to derive conclusions. e. g. a diagnosis, from the data using the rules. 2. 3. Knowledge base The knowledge base contains rules which describe general knowledge about a particular problem domain. 2. 4. User Interface The User Interface will interact with the user i. e. it will query the user for getting information to satisfy goals inside knowledge base. The predicates ask and menuask works here to gather information from user. 2. 5. Working Memory The working memory of a rule-based system is a store of information used by the system to decide wh ich of the condition-action rules in the knowledge base is able to be fire. It might be used to store intermediate conclusions i. e. the satisfied goals and any other information inferred by the system from the data (using the condition-action rules). Finally the inference engine will infer the working memory more solution. . Knowledge Representation Using PL [4 & 5] Since Predicate Logic is one of the oldest and most important logistical approach for reasoning, primarily developed and used in the area of mathematics by logicians as a means of formal reasoning and now it is vastly being used by the programmers for expert systems for its flexibility of accurate natural language representation, this paper also includes the various methods of knowledge representation supported by Predicate Logic that can be conveniently programmed with the PROLOG programming language. The major predicates that are being used in the paper include: The following symbols will be used for logical connectives. ~ not or negation & and or conjunction V or or disjunction ? if †¦ then or implication ? If and only if or double implication Valid statements or sentences in PL are determined according to the rules of propositional syntax. For the estimated validity of uncertainties, heuristics based on either fuzzy or neural network or neuro-fuzzy can be implemented. Let the predicate function B(X) be a bird with a particular name X, then the composite predicate B(X) which needs various functional variables to be satisfied type of family, color, head, voice, flight type, throat, type of food it eats, country, region, tail, size etc. †¦ Fig. 3. 1 represents the associate network for the classification of birds. For X = albatross, the functional variables are family type, color, size etc. are indicated, i. e. , if N1(F), N3(C) and N9(S) are the predicate functions with variables, family type, color and size of birds etc. , then the w. f. f. (well-formed formulae) can be written as follows, E1: ? X BIRD(X) E2: B (N1(F) & N2(O) & N4(N) & N5 (L) & N6(Bi) & N9(S) & N10(W) & N3(C) ) E3: B (N1 (albatross) & N2 (tubenose) & N4 (external_tubular) & N5(at_sea) & N6(hooked) & N9(large) & N10(long_narrow) & N3(white) ) E1 > E2 The various predicates for E2 are defined in E3 ? X B(X) > E3 resulting in X = laysan_albatross The various functional predicates of the composite predicate expression E1 specified in E2 as B (N1(F) & N2(O) & N4(N) & N5 (L) & N6(Bi) & N9(S) & N10(W) & N3(C) ) where F indicated family, O indicates order, N indicates nostrils, L indicates live at, Bi indicates bill, S indicates size, W indicates wings, C indicates color . . Working of the System: [6] †¢ User enters the problem which he wants to know about the particular domain. †¢ The entered query is analyzed and a keyword is extracted depending on the â€Å"domains†. †¢ The keyword is passed to the inference engine. †¢ The inference engine will call the high level goal of the knowledge base that starts the program. †¢ ask/2 and menuask/3 predicate will poses questions to the users and get enough information which is used to satisfy the sub-goals. †¢ Known/3 predicate is used to remember the answer entered by the user. The built-in predicate „asserta? stores the satisfied goals dynamically in the working memory. †¢ Another built-in predicate retractall/1 is used to delete clauses dynamically from the prolog internal database during the execution of a goal thus backtracking can be avoided. †¢ Finally the inference engine will retrieve the final goal from the working memory and provide solution to the user problem. Fig 4. 2 describes the various major predicate functions implemented in Koyal J2SE with PROLOG as supportive declarative language. 5. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING [3 & 7] 5. Introduction to System Implementation Implementation is the stage of project. When the theoretical design is turned into a working system. At this stage the main work load, the greatest upheaval and the major impact on the existing practices shifts to the user department. Prolog files include knowledge base and user interface. The size of the knowledge depends on the awareness of the creator about the domain. By referring theses knowledge base the system will derive solution for the problems. Knowledge base is one factor which determines the expertness of a system. It defines a common vocabulary for researchers who need to share information about the domain. It includes machine-interpretable definitions of basic concepts in the domain and relationship among them. 5. 3 TESTING Testing methodologies are adopted in the course of any system development. Any systems performance is based on testing that it follows. Some of the most prominent methods are: †¢ White Box †¢ Black Box 5. 3. 1 White Box Under white box testing the modules were tested individually and all the bugs were eliminated. This testing method has been of little influence to the whole project since most of the modules have to be integrated for well functioning. 5. 3. 2 Black Box The core testing was undertaken under this testing. Once all the modules were integrated the whole system was tested to ensure that it matches with the specification. 6. THE CONSTRAINTS OF KOYAL EXPERT SYSTEM: 1. The knowledge of the Koyal expert system is domain specific. 2 . Identification of the keyword is critical 3. The user should have some knowledge about the domain otherwise the system will respond with less accuracy. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We humbly express our gratitude to Sri Mata Amritanandamayi, the Chancellor of Amrita Visva Vidya Peettam and the fellow faculty and student members of computer science for the successful completion in the prototype design and implementation phases. REFERENCES Websites: ? ? ? ? http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Expert_system http://www. wtec. org/loyola/kb/c1_s1. htm http://www. aaai. org/aitopics/pmwiki/pmwiki. php/AIT opics/ExpertSystems http://www. paine. org/students/lectures/lect3/node7. ht ml Fig. 5. is the architectural flow diagram of Koyal for the classification of birds, animals and the medical diagnosis. If the implementation stage is not carefully planned and controlled, it can cause chaos. Implementation involves careful planning, investigation of the current system and its constraints on implementation, design of methods to achieve the changeover, training of staff in the changeover procedure and evaluation of changeover methods. This phase of implementation has allowed us to integrate various cutting edge technologies in the project which involves the implementation of Prolog and Java. Testing phase included white box testing and black box testing thought most of the testing was performed as system testing. 5. 2 IMPLEMENTATION The implementation phase of software development is concerned with the translation of the structural design specification into source code. The primary goal is to write source code and internal documentation. Testing, Debugging and modification are performed in this phase also. The first step in developing an expert system has been the creation of a Prototype model of the actual system on the basis of the reference model available. In case of an expert system each system? s knowledge is domain specific so every system has its own advantage and disadvantage. We cannot consider the system as expert in every aspect. This will require time and much effort to develop such a spool proof system. After testing the prototype further modification were incorporated in it by including extra features and implementing the knowledge base part of our system. The prototype is then tested. After the user is satisfied with the function of the prototype the actual system is developed. JPL is a library using the SWI-Prolog foreign interface and the Java jni interface providing a bidirectional interface between Java and Prolog that can be used to embed Prolog in Java as well as for embedding Java in Prolog. In both setups it provides a reentrant bidirectional interface. jpl allows the loading of prolog engine to Java. Thereby we can load the prolog files which contain knowledge regarding the domains. ? Books: http://www. primenet. com/pcai/New_Home_Page/ai_in fo/expert_systems. html A Guide to Expert Systems by Donald A. Waterman Ist Edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. [2] Russell, S. and P. Norvig, 2002. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, Second Edition. [3] Analysis and design of information systems by V. Rajaraman, 5th print, PH [1] Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems by Dan W. Patternson, PHI Pvt. Limited, Eighth Reprint 2000. [5] Expert Systems Theoty and Practices by Jean-Louis Ermine, PHp Publications, 2007 [6] Introduction to Expert Systems by Peter Jackson, Addison-Wesley, Pearson Education Asia ltd. , Reprint 2000 [7] Foundation of Artificial Intelligences and Expert Systems† by V S Janakiraman, K Sarukesi, P Gopalakrishnan, Macmillan Series in Computed Science, Reprint 2001. [4]