Game Theory Essay

Game theory happens to be a branch of applied mathematics which is used in social science. Its main objective is to capture behaviors but in this case mathematically in strategic situations where the success of an individual in choice making is largely dependent on the choices that are made by other people. This is the base or the main theme that underlies in the game theory. This is the same theme that is supposed to be articulated in this article. The author ignores the fact that game theory come in different types and only expresses one type of game theory specifically zero sum and non zero sum game theory. He concentrates only on this type of game theory leaves the reader with little or no information concerning the other types of game theory. (Miller, 2003) However, in the article, the author only concentrates on only one aspect of game theory and goes ahead and offers solutions or recommendations to that one aspect that he deals with. Game theory has gone ahead and included other aspects in the line of business other than the competition. This competition was only of one individual based on the expense of the other person which was commonly referred to as zero sum games. These happen to be the only issue that is covered here by the author of this article. I can therefore say that this article fails to present all the aspects which are involved or which matters as far as game theory is concerned. I can therefore say that there is more to game theory and that the recommendations proposed may not be that effective even if implemented. Some of the recommendations may therefore be said to deviate from the core subject that is under discussion. (Barnett, 1995) However this does not mean that the article is null and void. The author in the article gives a very good example of the basic concept and the meaning of game theory. By use of the example of the two people in the article, the author paints out a clear picture of the principle of game theory and what is involved. It is clear to understand even to a person who does not have an idea of what game theory is. Further, the author gives recommendations or rather rules of what to do so that one may emerge successfully in any business that he or she may be conducting. (Barnett, 1995) The author may be said to fully address the issue to the game theory on the context that he is viewing form; that of competition. In addition, unlike in the other cases where the recommendations that are set are usually impractical, here the author sets the recommendations that are practical in real life and which if they are implemented effectively will help the two organizations succeed in their sole objective of increasing their sales or rather profits. (Miller, 2003) The author also familiarized the reader with all the factors that maybe of essence incase one is involved in the business and experiencing these types of problems. He covers a larger area other than only the game theory gives recommendations which if they are implemented, they result to implementation of the recommendations of game theory. In conclusion, even though the author fails to deal with the other types of game theories, he has completely discussed this type of game theory giving all the recommendations required which would even be applicable to the other game theories if they are implemented as directed. ? References Barnett, F. (1995). Making Game Theory Work in Practice. Wall Street Journal , A14. Miller, J. (2003). Game Theory at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishers.

Capitalism: Does It Cause or Alleviate Poverty?

Capitalism: Does it cause or alleviate poverty? By: Zahoor Khan [email  protected] com To tackle the issue of poverty has been remained a massive challenge in the known history of human civilization for all global economic isms of the world. Each economic ism has its own strategies to address this issue. Capitalism tries to resolve the issue of poverty on the basis of demand supply forces.Capitalism is generally considered to be a philosophy of economic systems that favors private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income by individuals or corporations, competitive 1 markets, voluntary exchange, wage labor, capital accumulation, and finance . There may be two possible solutions of the issue of poverty in Capitalism. Firstly, each individual economic agent has monetary incentives to work and perform various economic activities. Thus monetary incentives stimulate the economic agents towards the performance of various economic activities. This may be considered as an indirect solution of poverty in context of Capitalism. Secondly, individuals possess ownership rights. They can possess various productive resources and have the right to use these resources for production and consumption purposes. Each economic agent (Consumer Producer, Government) is assumed to be rational and will therefore try to optimally utilize their resources in their best interests. Thus, this behavior works as an automatic stabilizer in the 1 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Capitalism economy to resolve the economic issues including the issue of poverty of all masses.The in-depth analysis of the system reveals that both possible solutions of the issue of poverty suggested by the system are factitious. The first solution is viable if fortunately all people become part of the labor force in an economy. This solution does not take into consideration children, housewives, old men and women, insane, and permanently disable people that from where they can access to the basic facilities (food, shelter, hospital†¦). The second solution is based on the assumption that all the people of the economy possess some productive resources, which is unrealistic.This assumption may be questioned in many ways: From where the people will get the economic resources? What will be the way of acquisition of resources? All the people cannot participate in the labor force, then how these people will acquire economic resources etc. One other possible way may be the intervention of government, to take some steps towards the solutions of the issue. This method is feasible as compared to the earlier methods. Unfortunately, this method is not very effective to address the issue because of many hurdles.Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon which cannot be effectively addressed only with the help of the government. This issue requires multidimensional measures at the micro, Meso and macro levels. The issue of poverty is considered as a social issue in Capitalism. The society, in capitalism is divided on the basis of ‘have’ and’ have not’. The upper class, ‘the capitalists’ controls the entire economy on the basis of their capital while the ‘worker class’ cannot own capital irrespective of their efforts in the process of production. Thus capitalists accumulate more and more wealth on the basis of their capital.This phenomenon naturally intensifies the earning gap between the two classes. The ultimate outcome of this process will be in the form of macroeconomic evils i-e income inequality, poverty, accumulation of wealth. The issue of poverty gives sub-birth to many social and economic issues. Some important of them may be in the form of income disparity, class conflict, and deprivation. The philosophical foundation of Capitalism can make it more clear that whether the system has the required potential to resolve the issue of poverty effectively or otherwise. Capitalism is ba sed on three philosophical pillars. i.Materialism ii. Individualism iii. Hedonism. Capitalism as a living ideology believes in a materialistic world view. According to this philosophy all human needs and desires are subject to material satisfaction i-e whatever is needed/desired will be satisfied in this material world because there is no concept of the world hereafter. So unlike an Islamic consumer, a capitalist consumer will be always conscious about his material utility and will therefore try to spend all his money on material commodities. The second important element of Capitalism’s philosophical foundation is â€Å"individualism†. Individualism refers to ndependent behavior of economic agents to accomplish their economic goals. According to this concept all people’s interests are independent from each other’s. Each individual has to work for his own personal goals. Thus, the resulting outcome of this behavior will be in the form greed, unconsciousnes s about other’s rights, immorality in business practices, weakness of social bond etc. The last foundation of Capitalism, as a living ideology is ‘Hedonism’. Hedonism refers to a philosophy where one’s become pleasure seeker and ‘self-centered’ while to accomplish various goals. Hedonism is the logical consequence of ‘Individualism’.Looking into the philosophical foundations and ideological structure of capitalism it seems that the capitalism is a byproduct of human reason which promotes individualisms, self satisfaction as a supreme priority, greed, unconsciousness about other’s rights and unconsciousness about the overall welfare of the society. In the light of these logical consequences resulting from the Capitalism, The system will ultimately worse off the poor and marginalized people, followed by the increasing gap between the poor and rich and thus the extreme level of living standards and provision of many social and sub-economic issues†¦

Operation MARKET GARDEN - September 1944 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5750 words

Operation MARKET GARDEN - September 1944 - Essay Example With a lot of American, Commonwealth and British troops stationed in London, the unified Anglo-American command sought to find a way of entering Germany. Some of the Allied leaders believed that the entry into Germany could be done if it was launched from the south of the Europe through Italy into Germany. However, pressures from the bombing of London by periodic German airforce raids over Britain created a case for an urgent action to stop the Germans from bombing London. General Montgomery came under intense pressure by the British government to seek a military intervention across the English channel to mainland Europe. The Americans who overwhelmingly outnumbered the British and Commonwealth troops had command over the joint Allied command. They did not favour the direct invasion of Germany through the northern frontier. They supported an incursion through a weaker point in the German defence lines. With his influence and respect, Montgomery planned an operation meant to lead the Allies to enter German territory. This led to what became know as Operation Market Garden. In the operation, the Allied forces were to seize a series of strategic positions like bridges and cause a number of Allied troops to parachute behind enemy lines to lead to penetration. The plan of the operation was to break the Nazi frontier and liberate the rest of Europe by December 1944. However, due to large scale operational failures and the strong and efficient control of the frontier by the Nazis, the operation failed to live to expectation and it the Allies were forced to use a different approach several months later1. However, the operation came with so many important lessons that are relevant to modern military warfare. It can be applied to numerous situations and can be used to plot several hypothetical cases. The fact that there are numerous approaches and systems to the Operation Market Garden means that it could be evaluated and

The Hughes H-1 racer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Hughes H-1 racer - Essay Example Hughes, Jr.1 In 1934, Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Co., a division of the Hughes Tool Company. Their mission was to build the best racing planes in the world. Hughes Aircraft did just that when it built its first internally designed airplane in 1934: the H-1 racer. Howard Hughes, along with Richard Palmer and a small team of engineers, designed the H-1 racer and Glenn Odekirk, together with his team, built it.2 The wood and metal single-seat monoplane was streamlining at its very best, designed for speed, pure and simple. Designing, building, and extensively testing the plane took the team 18 months but it was well worth the effort. On September 13, 1935, Hughes himself piloted the H-1 to a record-breaking 352 miles per hour at Martin Field, near Santa Ana, California. The previous record was 314 miles per hour. The H-1 was not only the fastest plane, but it was the fastest plane that could fly from standard runways, had practical flight characteristics, and had an almost unimaginable range of nearly 4000 miles (Parker, 2002). The H-1 had two sets of wings. The wings Hughes used to break the landplane speed record were of a low aspect ratio and shorter than those which he used for high-altitude transcontinental flight. The former was originally intended only for short flights at low altitudes; in the latter, Hughes set a new transcontinental record on January 18, 1937 for long-distance, high altitude flights when he recorded an average speed of 332 miles per hour over a course of 2,490 miles.3 The H-1 was powered by a Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior radial piston engine rated at 700 horsepower at 8,500 feet but which could deliver 1,000 horsepower for high-speed flight. According to Hughes (as cited in Michel, n.d.), â€Å"the H-1 racer was fast because it was clean and yet it attained its speed with a Pratt and Whitney engine of perfectly

Managerial Applications of Technology (Virtual Workforce) 3 Assignment

Managerial Applications of Technology (Virtual Workforce) 3 - Assignment Example Remote workers need to have proper communication with their colleagues, the managers, and other teams or team members in the organization. Technology also provides support to organize through availing IT services and appliances which makes remote workers more effective. There are a number of advantages of using virtual employees. One advantage is that it reduces the amount of physical space that an organization allocated to its employees. Virtual employees have flexibility which enables such organizations to have flexibility to some extent (Tedesco, 2013). For instance, a virtual employee would not be affected, by any physical disturbance in the organization’s premises. The other thing is that virtual employees can be more productive because of less commuting time. The disadvantage of virtual employees is that they have minimal interactions with their colleagues thus it can be hard for them to work together. It is also hard for an organization to motivate virtual and protect them from distractions. Given that the usage of virtual employees has both advantages and disadvantages it is good to come up with strategies to maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages. An organization can do that by improving their communication with the virtual workers to make sure that they feel like a part of the organization. For things like motivation and distraction an organization can organize seminars where they can advise the virtual employees on how to best manage time and avoid distractions. To maximize on their output an organization can set goals for them to meet in certain duration (Amigoni & Gurvis,

Moral Criticisms of the Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Moral Criticisms of the Market - Essay Example Most corporations expressed this through creation of foundations or through the exercise of corporate social responsibility. Business, if led with administrators or managers with benevolence to sustainability not solely for one’s company but also for the welfare of employees, would be able to manage and balance desire for profit also for the good of others and for the community where business is undertaken. But while Ewert argued that this innate selfish precept of human being is inherent to his â€Å"fallen nature†, it cannot be however assailed that selfishness cannot be induced from the environment. Human greed nowadays has already developed into structural forms. Whenever government is corrupt and have misuse the revenue exacted from peoples and from business establishments, the rest of the society are encouraged to adapt to a system that promotes greed and selfish interests. In most nations where corruption is rampant and were done with impunity, its followers also debase its moral standard to fit in with what is expedient and best at a moment.

History of money Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History of money - Essay Example The function of money is identifying the value of a standard measurement of goods and services. Money is used as a denominator where one can express the measure of the value of a commodity. Money is also identified as existing through human convections. For this reason, human beings have the power to change the value of money or change it. It is in the nature of money that it is identified as being subject to fluctuations due to value with all other commodities that it may be compared to. Money is, however, more stable when compared to goods. This is because good’s value is related specifically to the individuals that demand the goods. Use of money is a measure of value for establishing the proportional value that could make it possible to equalize all commodities with this standard where it is accepted and makes the community and enables exchange.The nature of money is that all commodities, things, and objects are measurable by money. Exchange of goods and services for money occur when the parties reach a common ground for agreement on exchange basing the agreement on the idea of proportionality. The nature of money allows humans to reach an agreement that serves the needs of their intercourse and interaction although it might not be possible to for different goods to be equal.The nature and condition of transactions are dependent on the good and service that the buying party wants. Since nature requires equality, where unequal individuals receive shares unequally, the significance of money in the act of exchange is demonstrated

Contruction & analysis Exercises Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Contruction & analysis Exercises - Essay Example The curtains flapped about in the draught caused by a carelessly half-closed window. And on the floor, to the left of the chairs lay Jerry Pinto, very, very quiet.in fact, very, very dead Mary Pinto entered the room. She had a tranquil air about her; her skin looked translucent, her mouth was soft, and her eyes large and dark, giving her an appealing wide-eyed look. She was six months into her pregnancy-a fact barely discernible on her slight figure. Mary deposited her shopping bag on the sideboard next to the half empty glasses, humming a tune, and smiling to herself. "Jerry, how are you, darling" she said with genuine affection, in the direction of where she expected him to be sitting Not hearing his reply she turned around, and stood stupefied for a momentonly for a momentthen she ran to where he lay fallen on the floor. She seemed somehow to understand, as soon as she saw him, that he was dead. Perhaps it was the way he lay. In that strange and stiff fashion She ran over to him and sat down by his side, gently lifting up his head, cradling it in her lap. The sobs came hesitant and rasping at first, but louder and more abandoned as the moments passed. She must have sat thus, for what seemed like an age to her. But it must have been no more than five minutes Mary suddenly stopped crying, and wiped her eyes. ... The voice at the other end was familiar " Quick! Come quick! I think Jerry's dead!" said Mary into the receiver " Mrs. Pinto yes Mrs. Mary Pinto here. I think so. He's lying on the floor, and I think he's dead" she said, as her voice caught on another sob. The call over, she busied herself in the room, moving here and there, straightening up the furniture, trying not to look where it layItHe was it now. No longer Jerry. Before long, Mary heard the sound of a car. Even before the knock, she was at the door to open it. Two plains clothes men stood there. She knew them wellthey were Jerry's colleagues after all. On seeing them, Mary suddenly felt the tears start again. James Hendricks, the young officer who had joined the force only recently was plainly moved. He helped Mary gently to a chair. Aneez Afzal, the other cop, a veteran, kept his face expressionless. But as he moved towards Jerry, it crumbled for a moment in an expression of grief and despair. Jerry was his colleague and friend, and they'd been working together for the last five years "Is he dead " Mary managed to ask. "I'm afraid so", replied Afzal. "Tell us what happened, Mrs. Pinto. Where were you, and how long back did this happen" "You know, how punctual Jerry is", said Mary. "He had just returned from the police station by 5.30, as usual. I was sitting here with my sewingI hadn't cooked any dinner today. You know, every Wednesday we go out for dinner. But Jerry was so tired"Her breath caught on a sob again, and she took some time to compose herself. "I thought it better to have dinner at home. I put a leg of lamb in the oven, and nipped across to Vipul's, you know, Vipul's the Indian store down the road I didn't have any vegetables at home. I left Jerry to unwind over a drink. I was hardly away

Civil Disobedience to Black Power Essay Example for Free

Civil Disobedience to Black Power Essay Up until the 1960’s the civil rights movement was practiced through peaceful protests established from the idea that equal recognition amongst all peoples was only acquired through non-violent acts. In the late 60’s these techniques transformed into fast and more efficient methods with different value sets. The changes within the Civil Rights movement occurred because African Americans were sick of the painfully slow progress accomplished through the civil rights movement, didn’t agree with the idea that being mistreated, disrespected, and stomped over (figuratively and literally) was the only resolution to overcome racism and segregation, and decided that violence and bloodshed (stemming from the theory that asking for deserved rights was to slow a process, when they could just take them) was aggressive enough to catch the eyes of many and gain Black Dominance or at least equal rights. Even with the Civil Rights Act in place, African American’s were tired of being neglected and disregarded. Peaceful protesting was only doing so much, the alternative of Black Power had begun to flourish in the late 60’s because it demanded respect through violent, attention-grabbing approaches that were created to actually change segregation and equality. The 1950’s and early 60’s were eras driven by the consumer culture, the US was extremely wealthy, the automobile industry was booming, suburban lifestyle had grown, television became extremely popular, and the general view of America was good (to say the least). The only ‘bad’ aspect of the US was inequality and the unrecognized rights (Blacks deserved). The US originally opted for saving justice and peace amongst Black communities in civil and non-violent ways, but there was limited execution. In 1954, for example, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. This landmark case began a series of significant Civil Rights movements with regards to desegregation and equal rights. The early 60’s brought upon new perspectives and the idea of peaceful resolution was one of them. Due to the fact that American culture was thriving in material goods and prosperity African Americans figured the best way to go about change was to do it in calm, civil, non-brutal manners. Organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began to emerge. Doc A, B, and C convey the goals pertaining to African Americans (in the early 0’s) and their hope for equal rights, legal citizenship, voting rights, and equal economic/labor opportunities. Doc A showcases the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s perspective that love transforms hate and nonviolence is the best way to bring about integration. The early 60’s held so much potential and optimism. African American’s were seeking equal privileges so contently because they experienced Americans’ positive response to America’s success and didn’t want to harm the culture or destroy the peace. One attempt for Civil Rights included a peaceful protest in Birmingham, Alabama. The response of the police was outrageous. As seen in Doc B, the photograph (from 1963) shows racist and corrupt police attacking African Americans after a peaceful protest (to allow Blacks into church). Rather than defend himself, the black man depicted in the photo is responding with no resentment or anger. Many African Americans were beaten and sent to jail; including Martin Luther King, Jr. Doc C (1963) is a letter written by MLK from the Birmingham Jail promoting peace and arguing that â€Å"injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. † MLK desired peace rather than violence because of his educational background and upbringing-his father was the minister of the Ebenezer Baptist Church and he passed on his understanding, tolerance, and religious views (inspired by peace) to his son. MLK could be peaceful, even after going to jail for no reason. After the Birmingham incident, John F. Kennedy announced his promise to end racial discrimination on radio and television. The speech served as motivation to civil right leaders, a wake-up call to Congress, and the inspiration for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 (unfortunately JFK never lived to see these passed). Although these rights were legally authorized, African Americans were not fully protected. Just because they were laws in place, didn’t mean they were implemented with major concern or emphasis. Race riots, racial profiling, and illegal discrimination were still occurring. African Americans realized that in order to truly get what they wanted, they needed prompt uncivil protests. Stokely Carmichael, a violent-protest-supporter, coined the phrase â€Å"black power† and stated â€Å"I am not going to beg the white man for anything I deserve; I’m going to take it. † We see the change in strategy for Black Nationalism. Carmichael’s speech, entitled, â€Å"what we want† from 1966 (Doc E) implies the only way to get money, property, respect, and in general civil rights for African American’s is to demand it, whether it was by strike, boycott, riot, or any other possible means of violent rebellion. The reasons why there was such a focus on gaining equality through violence was because peaceful protests were not developing equality quick enough, African American’s needed each other in order to attain enough votes for one collective ballot, and violent acts needed the most attention because they needed to be stopped the fastest. Take, for example the scenario of when a child throws a fit, the parent will do whatever it takes to stop the child’s interrupting objection and annoying whines, the same initiative for Black Power. Some philosophers even argue that Black Power was an act of revenge, Blacks felt obligated to torture Whites and act in violent ways to get even with them for their previous treatment of African slaves. At this point African Americans had to fight for things Whites got easily, like jobs, money, respect, social status, religion, privacy and the general right to be able to go to common-day-places (like the grocery store or local restaurant) and not have to worry about discrimination. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (Doc F in 1967) preached that black people must resort to violence because they have not made any gains through peace. Malcolm X, a Black Power activist and violent-protesting-leader supported this idea and said, â€Å"Stand on your own feet and solve our problems ourselves instead of depending on white people to solve them for us. † This quote shows the foundation for Black Power-fast, unexpected, memorable recognition. Malcolm X ridiculed Martin Luther King’s attempt at Birmingham saying it showed the uselessness of nonviolent-protest. The increasing amount of African Americans promoting violence concerned American citizens. Whites believed that if the government didn’t take action, mass riots and destruction would erupt everywhere, and they were somewhat on track. By 1968, (according to Doc G) 62% of African Americans were registered to vote, that’s 33% more than in 1960. This evidence suggests that the violent acts did make an impact and shape the Civil Rights movement into what we view it as today.

The social consequences as a result of EU expansion Essay Example for Free

The social consequences as a result of EU expansion Essay The accession of ten nations of Eastern Europe will increase the existing social crisis in these nations and also the entire EU. The Eastern Europe population has already suffered a lot as a result of increase in unemployment levels, poverty decreased wages, the destruction of various social provisions in the region in an attempt of fulfilling the membership requirements of EU. There has been introduction of conditions of a free market, the enterprises which were formerly being controlled by the governments have been privatized and also taking up measures which are quite radical by various states in order to join the EU has left the economies and social conditions of their countries very much devastated (MCCORMICK, 2007). The wage levels in the countries that are seeking to be admitted to the EU community are currently lower by 5 to 8 times as compared to the wage levels in the EU. The per capita average of the gross domestic product in EU countries is currently about twenty four thousand two hundred and fifty euros which is quite high when compared to that of states that are seeking to join the EU community such as Hungary and Latvia that only have a gross domestic product of seven thousand and eighty euros and three thousand seven hundred and forty respectively. The main cause of poverty in most states seeking admission into the EU community is unemployment; it has increased drastically in these countries over the last one and a half decades. A good example is that of the republic of Czech where it has increased from about zero point seven percent in 1990 to about six point five in the year 1998 and it is currently about eleven percent. On average, this percentage is twice as much in EU (Fischer, 2000). Although, the figures given above do not give a true reflection of the comparison, since there exists a lot of regional disparity. But the quest for countries to become members of the EU community and thus trying as much as they can to fulfill the conditions set is an obvious factor that has made these countries to experience some of these devastating problems like increased levels of unemployment and deterioration in the social amenities. In Bratislava which is the Slovakian capital, which is about sixty kilometers away from Vienna, the levels of unemployment are about four percent. This increases to approximately sixty percent in the rural regions which are about two hundred kilometers to the east. A comparable range of unemployment can be observed in the state of Hungary. Although, the unemployment levels are very minimal in the Budapest City, in the rural areas it increases to more than forty percent (MCCORMICK, 2007). The enterprises of the Western Europe consider the regions in the east of Europe as a paradise for their investments. This has made the states in the Eastern Europe to reduce their taxes in an attempt to make of making these regions attractive to the Western Europe investors. Czech Republic has reduced the rate of business taxes by about seven to twenty four percent. Poland has followed the steps of Slovakia and has introduced a tax rate which is uniform of nineteen percent which is applied uniformly whether one is just as ordinary employee or is a millionaire (MCCORMICK, 2007). The tax incentives together with massive differentials in the average wages has made several corporations to rapidly shift their production plants to the Eastern Europe states. This will in future make the states in these regions such as Slovakia to become the major car producers in the world when computed per person of the Slovakian population. Information and Technology as well as service industries are also being moved to these regions this will in future mean the creation of massive jobs in these regions as well as development of infrastructure (Roney, Budd, 1998). However, despite the major benefits that is likely to arise as a result of the tax incentives in these regions, the tax experts are warning the governments of these states that these measures are likely to be insufficient to enable these governments adequately cater for all their needs. They will also never be fully compensated for the shortfalls they will experience from the decreased revenues arising due to the reforms. These tax measures will leave several big holes in their budgets and as a result they will not be able to provide their citizens with all the necessary social amenities (MCCORMICK, 2007). In part, this state of affairs has been achieved already in the countries that wish to become members of the EU community. As far as the economists are concerned the foreign trade and budget deficits are the real potential crisis to the economies of these accession states. A good example is the one Estonia where the deficit in its budget rose to about fifteen percent in 2003. This is higher by about five times when compared to the deficit in the Argentinean budget in 2001 which was responsible of provoking a massive financial crisis. In 2004 Hungary, there was massive pressure on the forint as a result of the increasing deficit in the country’s budget. At that time the deficit in the foreign trade was about fifty eight percent while in Latvia it approximated sixty four percent of the total gross domestic products (Hofmann, Turk, 2006). Contrary, the accession countries will not improve the state of affairs even after they become members to the EU community. All the relevant economic indicators show that the disparity in wages between the west and the east will continue to persist for more than a decade after their accession. Again the reforms being undertaken by the states in the east of Europe will continue even after their accession. For example, the government of the Republic of Czech revealed that more reduction in pensions provision and health sector were necessary. Considering the prevailing welfare condition in the country, such a move can only be equated to privatization (MCCORMICK, 2007). Most likely, the Western Europe conditions will be modified with the conditions of states that are seeking accession. Even more attacks which are very comprehensive on the social standards and wages will be required to continue being competitive. According to an economic research study that was conducted by the University of Munich, indicated that the cut in wages that has been proposed in East Germany should be implemented. This is because after the accession of the Eastern Europe states, the regional financial support that was coming from the Brussels will decrease and this will lead to increased unemployment which will be a major threat to the economy of these countries (MCCORMICK, 2007).

Gaussian Mixture Model

Gaussian Mixture Model Many computer related vision technology, it is critical to identify moving objects from a sequence of videos frames. In order to achieve this, background subtraction is applied which mainly identifies moving objects from each portion of video frames. Background subtraction or segmentation is a widely used technique in video surveillance, target recognitions and banks. By using the Gaussian Mixture Model background model, frame pixels are deleted from the required video to achieve the desired results. The application of background subtraction involves various factors which involve developing an algorithm which is able to detect the required object robustly, it should also be able to react to various changes like illumination, starting and stopping of moving objects. Surveillance is the monitoring of the behaviour, activities or other changing information usually of people and often ina surreptitiousmanner. Video surveillance is commonly used for event detection and human identification. But it is not easy as think to detect the event or tracking the object. There are many techniques and papers introduced by many scientists for the backend process in the video surveillance. Different automated softwares are used for the analysis of the video footage. It tracks large body movements and objects. In this report we discuss the application of mixture of Gaussian (M.O.G) which is used as a background subtraction model in order to achieve object/target recognition; this method involves calculation the mean and standard deviation of each pixel frame which will be discussed more in detailed as the report progresses. 2. Background Subtraction (Literature Review) Figure 1 Background subtraction Flow Diagram [1] According to [1], the above figure shows the basic flow diagram on how background subtraction algorithm is based. The four important steps described by [1] and which play an important role in background subtraction are described below and include: 2.1 Preprocessing Temporal or spatial smoothing is used in the early pre processing stage to eliminate device noise which can be a factor under different light intensity. Smoothing technique also includes removing various other elements like environment such as rain and snow.   In real-time systems, frame size and frame rate are commonly adopted to reduce the data processing rate. Another key factor in preprocessing technique is the data format used by the background subtraction model. Most algorithms can handle luminance intensity which is one scalar value per each pixel.   As shown in the examples below [2]: Figure 2 Image on the left shows snowing and image on the right is a resultant of smoothing effect In the figure 2, shown are two images which shows snow on the left and whereas with the application of spatial and temporal smoothing on right image results in the elimination of snow producing an more clear and effective image for background subtraction. 2.2 Background Modeling This step uses the new video frame in order to calculate and update the background model. The main aim of developing a background model is that it should be robust against environmental changes in the background, but sensitive enough to identify all moving objects of interest. 2.3 Foreground Detection In this step, it identifies the pixels in the frame. Foreground detection compares the video frame with the background model, and identify candidate foreground pixels from the frame. Commonly- used approach for foreground detection is to check whether the pixel is significantly different from the corresponding background estimate as show below: A different foreground detection scheme is normalised threshold based statistics as shown below: Where,  µd and are the mean and standard deviation of the for all spatial locations (x,y). 2.4 Data Validation Finally, this step eliminated any pixels which are not connected to the image. It involves the process of improving the foreground mask based on the information obtained from the outside background model. Most background models lack three main points: 1. Ignoring any correlation between neighbouring pixels 2. The rate of adaption may not match the moving speed of the foreground object. 3. Non-stationary pixels, from moving leavers or shadow cast by moving objects are at times mistaken for true foreground objects. 3. Background Reading There are different types of background modelling which are as follows: 3.1 Simple Frame Difference Frame difference is considered the simplest form of background subtraction. The method involves the subtraction of previous pixel frame with current pixel frame and if the value obtained from this greater than a set threshold then it is considered as the foreground. Advantages: Less complex The method can easily and quickly adapt to changes Able to distinguish the background from foreground much affectively. Disadvantages: Not Robust, object has to continuously move. Only applicable when with fixed camera. Fails to handle illumination changes. 3.2 Moving Average Filtering Referring from [3], Moving Average filtering is a method in which an estimate value of a particular background pixel value is weighted as average of the previous values. Pixels in the far part are weighted at Zero and the weights increase smoothly.  Ã‚   3.3 Online Gaussian Model In this method, we assume the background as a Gaussian distribution rather than a single value. To calculate Gaussian for 1-D is as follows[4]: Where, x is the current pixel value,  µ is the mean of each pixel and sigma is the standard deviation of the pixel. Finally, the following equations are used in online updated of Gaussian mean and variance: In the above equations[4]:  µ(t) is the mean for each pixel where ÃŽÂ ± is the learning rate, t is the time of the previous pixel and x is the current pixel value. à Ã†â€™2(t) is the standard deviation of the each pixels. The foreground decision rule applied here is when the distance between each pixel value and Gaussian model is larger than a certain threshold, it is considered as the Foreground. 3.3 GMM Gaussian Mixture Model In order to use GMM the following equations are considered: In the above equations [4]:  µ(t) is the mean for each pixel where ÃŽÂ ± is the learning rate, t is the time of the previous pixel and x is the current pixel value. à Ã†â€™2(t) is the standard deviation of the each pixels. The description and implementation of GMM model will be discussed more in detail in the later part of the report 3.4 Codebook based Technique It is a method where a quantized and clustering technique is motivated by Kohonen to construct the background model from long observation sequences, without making any parameter assumptions. For each pixels, a codebook contains one or more codewords and mixed backgrounds can be modelled by using multiple codewords. Samples at each pixel are clustered into the set of codewords based on a color distortion metric together with a brightness ratio. [4] 4.0 Gaussian Mixture Model In this report we implement the Gaussian Mixture Model for background subtraction. This background subtraction model is more robust than other models discussed in previous section. Most importantly it can handle multi-modal situations e.g. trees and sky which is more effectively filtered by the GMM model. Each pixel value is modelled by a mixture of Gaussian rather than a particular type of distribution. Based on the variance of each of the Gaussian of the mixture, we determine which Gaussians may correspond to background colors. Pixel values that do not fix the background distributions are considered foreground until there is a Gaussian that includes them with sufficient consistent evidence supporting it [5]. This method is very adaptable with lighting changes, repetitive motions and slow moving objects. This method contains 2 main significant parameters -Alpha, the learning constant and T, the proportion of the data that should be accounted for by the background The Gaussian mixture components for a pixel have normalized weights calculated from the past observations. The likelihood that a pixel has a value of Xt is assumed to be:    [5] The parameters of the mixture components are updates with the new frames. A retrieved pixel value is compared with all the components of the mixture assigned to that pixel to find out if there is a match. A match is said to happen when the retrieved pixel value is within 2.5 times standard deviation of a mixture component. The update procedure is different for the matching component and other components. The mean values and the covariance matrices are updated for only the matching component. The value formulas for the matching components are: And the weights are updated with given formula    [6] In case there is not a match between the current pixel value and the mixture components related to that pixel .the component having the smallest likelihood with respect to the current pixel value is discarded. A new Gaussian component is created in place of the discarded one, having a mean value equal to the current pixel value, and a variance equal to a predetermined constant. To retrieve the foreground the following equation is used. Where, T is the threshold value for the sum of the weights.[6] 5.0 Algorithm In order to give a better understanding of the algorithm used for background subtraction the following steps were adopted to achieve the desired results: Firstly, we compare each input pixels to the mean mu of the associated components. If the value of a pixel is close enough to a chosen components mean, then that component is considered as the matched component. In order to be a matched component, the difference between the pixel and mean must be less than compared to the components standard deviation scaled by factor D in the algorithm. Secondly, update the Gaussian weight, mean and standard deviation (variance) to reflect the new obtained pixel value. In relation to non-matched components the weights w decreases whereas the mean and standard deviation stay the same. It is dependent upon the learning component p in relation to how fast they change. Thirdly, here we identify which components are parts of the background model. To do this a threshold value is applied to the component weights w. Fourthly, in the final step we determine the foreground pixels. Here the pixels that are identified as foreground dont match with any components determined to be the background. 6.0 Experimental Results For better results, median filter was used where the main purpose was to filter out unconnected pixels from the large connected pixels (e.g. people, vehicles) so that it was easy to distinguish between the background and foreground. With median filter the value of the output pixel is determined by the median of the neighboring pixels instead of the mean. Median has a much smaller insensitivity compared with mean to extreme values. The function used was medfilt2(A,[m n]). Figure 3 GMM Background Subtraction with high light intensity In the above image, the picture on the right shows the output of background subtraction using the GMM model. There is still false negative foreground detection which produces the disturbances in the image. Although it still shows the objects moving hence, making it suitable for object tracking. The reason for these disturbances can be narrowed down to illumination changes. Figure 4 GMM Background Subtraction with Low light intensity For the above, a short 30 second video was recorded where light intensity was moderate and the camera was still. It can be observed that the hand is visible and false negative detection is low which suggests that the model works robustly in low light intensities. From the above results, we can say that there are still improvements to be made in the algorithm mostly to work with illumination which increases the false negative background subtraction. 7.0 Further Improvements The GMM model used in this paper could be further tweaked to provide better results in terms of zero disturbances/noises. The use of morphological filters could be implemented into the algorithm to reduce these unconnected pixels which were seen in the figures above and make it more robust in object tracking. The algorithm has the capabilities of further improvements to run large size videos and importantly the ability to process more frames per seconds using larger number of Gaussians in the mixture model. Apart from the above improvements, we further plan to research the model using PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) technique to study the processing rate of frame/second and observe the robustness of the algorithm in terms of disturbances/noise. There are possibilities of false positive results where background could be recognised as foreground. 8.0 Conclusions In this project we implemented a very strong and widely used background subtraction method according to the paper Adaptive background mixture models for real-time tracking. This method is very adaptable for lighting changes and shadow removals. Also it finds the repetitive actions as well with the use of mixture of Gaussians. Alpha and T are the key parameters in this paper. The values of these parameters changes with the different cameras and different environment. So it is very important to get the best values for them to work with for different videos. Also we tried to improve the output quality by using some filtration methods like median filter. The guassain model is not perfect with the result since there are some disturbances after the modelling also. But there are many good post processing techniques are introduced and we referenced two of them. A new region Gaussian background model for video surveillance by Xun Cai and Long Jiang, and Improved Post-Processing for GMM based Adaptive Background Modeling by Deniz Turdu,Hakan Erdogan. But the 1st paper doesnt give any clear information about the techniques failed to explain the equations as well. Second paper introduces a very good technique and we couldnt able to get the result properly. But this assignment was very challenging for us and helped us to get a very good knowledge about different background subtraction methods used in Video surveillance. 9.0 References [1] Robust techniques for background subtraction in urban traffic video Sen-Ching S. Cheung and Chandrika Kamath, 2006/07 [2] Background Subtractions of Moving Objects https://computation.llnl.gov/casc/sapphire/background/background.html [3] Page444, Computer vision A modern approach, David A. Forsyth [4] Dr J. Zhang, CSC7006 Lecture 2 Slides, Queens University Belfast. [5] Adaptive background mixture models for real-time tracking, Chris Stafer, W.E.L Grimson [6] Improved Post processing for GMM based adaptive background modelling by Deniz Turdu, Hakan Erdogan

Compulsory Heterosexuality :: Sexuality Gender Society Essays

Compulsory Heterosexuality In today’s world, as humankind is still in progress, we have a much more liberated world compared to past. In terms of politics, we learned discrimination is not a honourable case to be involved in and we tried to minimize constraints reflected on â€Å"other† races, â€Å"other† nationalities, in short all of the others that are not similar to â€Å"us†. â€Å"Us† is, without doubt, white, Western man. Despite all the back-drawed prejudices of others in the name of liberation, respect and equality, it does not seem to be the situation for non-heteronormatives to live in a peaceful environment. Since I came to Amsterdam as an exchange student this term, I had the opportunity to experience daily-life with all the people from different sexes, genders not considered â€Å"normal† which is rarely the case in Turkey. Amsterdam made me face non-heterosexual world and I realized that these people do suffer from unequal rights mostly in other parts o f the world. I questioned myself as being far away from that topic in the past and it really made sense to me to investigate about supremacy of heterosexuals. In my opinion, only after we learn to respect all kinds of differences out of majority we are able to have liberal minds, which makes the world a better place to live for all people. That is the reason I decided to write my paper on compulsory heterosexuality. To come to main idea, my arguement will be dominantly on heteronormativity. I will try to prove that both heteronormativity and gender are social constructs, which means that they are all learned behaviours by society through culture, tradition and religion. I will show a world where any norms and taboos exist, to turn our origins of nature. I will support my arguement by the works of writers and researchers on that topic. My whole effort will be on to claim that there is nothing called heteronormativity by nature, it can not be. We can not rule out the genes and instinct behaviour of people. It is just a coverage, to live in a reproductive and moral society. My final idea would be to accept all forms of non-heterosexuality as being â€Å"normal† , just like heterosexuality, by ignoring all social constructs to open our mind to a brighter world. Review There is quite extensive research on studies of lesbians and gays and the compulsory heteronormativity. One major researcher is Adrienne Rich.

Is Translations about Language or Politics? Essay -- English Literatur

Is Translations about Language or politics? Friel famously said of Translations, â€Å"it is about language and only language.† However, the political statement which Friel denies need not be active, but passive, as seeking an understanding of the situation must consider politics, however Friel actively avoids political comment perhaps due to the volatile situation in the 1980s when the play was first put on. D.H. Lawrence famously said, â€Å" Never trust the teller, trust the tale† and with that in mind, I wish to explore the reasons why audiences and readers may perceive translations as a political play. The action of the play over three acts shows the profoundly disturbing influence of the English domination over the Baile Beag community and its life. Lenin once said, â€Å"politics is who whom† considering who acts and who is acted upon. Exploring politics from this point of view, one is easily able to perceive the numerous political aspects of the play. One such clearly political aspect of the play is the colonial force arriving from England. A movement of armies from one country to another, is a clearly political act, â€Å"a gesture†, â€Å"to indicate a presence† as was Doalty’s movement of the Theodolyte. On the other hand, if the play is about language (as Friel says) then perhaps it is about language on two levels. On the one hand it considers language on an international level (for example, the Irish and English languages) whilst on the other it considers language on an interpersonal level, the way perhaps we â€Å"interpret between privacies† or our choice of individual words in our speech. There are numerous ways in which one may consider the play to be about national language. Many would consider language as ... ...haracters acting as a mouthpiece for Friel’s political points of view, and because of this, I believe Friel’s play must concern politics to some degree. In conclusion I believe Friel is telling a half-truth, when he says the play is about â€Å"language and only language.† This is true insofar as the only issue the play is directly and aggressively considering is the importance of language. However, I believe Friel knew all to well that anyone watching of reading the play would have to consider politics, at least on a social level, in order to fully understand the importance of the social and national issues in the play. Therefore, Friel’s play is neither a play solely about language (as he asserts) or solely about politics; the two are inextricably linked leaving us with a socio-political play which emphasizes the importance of language as a political tool.

Crime and Social Issues Essay

Many crime problems in my area which are creating difficulties for peoples day by day. I have seen many crimes have been done in my area. * Snatching * Drugs dealing * Shop lifting * Stabbing * Gang fighting * Theft and robbed * The area where I live is ok; I have been robbed for my money a couple of times – nothing too bad. But my friends live in a really bad estate. There’s always stuff going on there. People are shot and stabbed all the time. * It all starts with people getting rude with each other. One person is rude to someone else, and then the victim goes and gets their gang for revenge. Sometimes it’s just two gangs fighting and punching each other. But on this estate, it’s nearly always killing. Guns and knives are everywhere. * It’s always worse when the gang hires someone else to do the killing. They only give a description of the person they want taken care of. So the hit man hasn’t even seen the guy he’s going to shoot before. Sometimes they shoot the wrong person. Then, if the person who was killed by mistake was in a gang, their gang goes and gets revenge. So it never ends. * I’m most worried about knife crime, because you can get knives anywhere – from the kitchen, shops and people from round the estates. My friend’s big brother was stabbed in the chest with a knife, because he was involved in some bad stuff. * In my school it’s not so bad because they check us for weapons. The only weapons we’re allowed are compasses. * I’m not so afraid of gangs, because they don’t have a reason to go after me. But my friends Dad got involved in drugs. Now he’s got some gangs after him because of some trouble that happened. * When I visit my mates on the estate, I feel more protected than afraid, because I know my friends and their brothers are looking out for me. People there recognise me now, so I know even the drug dealers would look after me on their patches. They know I’m not causing any trouble. But I’d be very; very afraid for my life there if no-one was looking out for me. Snatching: About 10 houses in front of me was this young lady walking by a car parked along the grass patch outside one of the terrace houses. As she was reaching the rear end of this clean decent looking Silver Proton Waja, I noticed the engine started and the left rear passenger doors window was being wound down. Suddenly a man emerged out of the rear passenger doors window his entire torso! And making a grab of this ladies handbag!!!! As this man emerged from the cars window, the Silver Proton Waja was pulling out of its parking position slowly not in a hurry with the man from within just dragging the lady and her handbag along until she gave it up!! Then they drove off slowly no hurry!!! Conclusion: My report about crime problem in my area which I have describe in my report, we should do safety every time and inform to police about any crime or suspicious activities in area or any surrounding area.

Health Policy Week

Could it be that the healthcare system wants the issue to rise because that is how they make their money, or is it because not enough studies or programs exist for those people who have no insurance and can't get the necessary help they need to attack the problem? This paper will talk about and confront the many problems and concerns of obesity and will depict how the healthcare personnel can address the situation. II. Identifying Patients at Risk A. Economic despair and the geographic locations play a major part in obesity In America. African Americans are the race that is feeling the oppression of obesity.B. Blacks, those who are middle-aged, and lower-income adults continue to be the groups with the highest obesity rates. The healthcare law could help reduce obesity among low-income Americans if the uninsured sign up for coverage and take advantage of the free obesity screening and counseling that most insurance companies are required to provide under the law (Sharpe, 2013). Ill. Obesity and the Health Policy A. ) Many health officials are offering nutrition advice for obese patients but been proven ineffective at the individual levels. B. Obesity causes many chronic illnesses. Some illnesses include diabetes, high blood pressure, liver diseases, and some form of cancers to name a few. IV. Increased Health Cost Caused by Rising Obesity A. ) Surgeries are being done to assist people with losing weight. Gastric banding and gastric bypass surgery are what personnel are relying on to lose weight and the cost isn't cheap. B. ) Obesity healthcare cost is staggering in the United States. Physicians are probably putting the disease on the bottom of their to-do list because that is where they are making their money.

Blood Clotting Essay

Coagulation, or thrombogenesis, is the process by which blood clots in an attempt to restrict blood loss from an injury site, and repair the damaged vessel. Most of the time clotting is a good thing, however there are circumstances when a clot can form abnormally, leading to heart attack, stroke, or other serious medical problems. A blood clot forms almost immediately after the bleeding occurs, which is possible through enzymes and other substances in blood that respond to breaks in vessel walls. The clot is a temporary fix preventing further blood loss. There are four major parts of blood clot formation. The first step in clotting is the formation of the platelet plug. Platelets are the smallest of the three major types of blood cells whose primary function is to prevent bleeding. When encountering a damaged blood vessel, the platelets become stimulated and rush to the injury site where they clump together, forming a plug and restricting the bleeding. They also release substances to begin the chemical reaction of the clotting process. These chemical reactions are responsible for growing the blood clot. Dissolved proteins, also referred to as clotting factors, are contained within the blood for the purpose of promoting blood clots. These proteins send signals to each other and enhance each other’s activity exponentially at the site of injury, resulting in a rapid chemical chain reaction which produces fibrin, the main protein forming clots. This blood clot formed with fibrin is tougher and more durable than the platelet plug. Once the blood clot forms, it is important that it not grow and spread to the rest of the body, which can cause serious damage. This is where â€Å"anti-clotting† comes in to play. Proteins such as antithrombin, protein C, and protein S, are known anti-clotting proteins and exist in a natural balance with the clotting factors. These substances work to neutralize excess clotting factors, preventing the clot from going to places it should not. The final part of the process is where the clot is slowly broken down by the body. Once the damaged tissue heals, the body gradually degrades the clot and reabsorbs it. The tough fibrin strands in a blood clot are dissolved by an enzyme called plasmin. Plasmin is activated by other substances working together to help the clot break down. The whole process of blood clotting is whenever the blood is exposed to certain substances. These are known as thrombogenic substances because they promote the formation of thrombus (clot). Many of these substances, such as tissue factor, collagen, and von Willebrand factor, are located in the skin or in the blood vessel walls, typically separated from flowing blood. If they come into contact with flowing blood, this typically means the blood vessel wall is ruptured and bleeding. A clot may also form when blood is not flowing properly. http://www.hematology.org/patients/blood-disorders/blood-clots/5233.aspx http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/blood-clots

Multinational Expansion Of Companies Essay

Ghe increasing multinational expansion of companies requires individuals who can perform effectively across national borders by handling cross national job assignments (Stahl & Bjorkman 2006). Expatriates/international assignees are employees who work outside their national borders. A lot depends on human resource (HR) management in selecting appropriate workforce and rewarding them accordingly in company’s best interests. HR managers need to show expertise in choosing suitable personnel for international assignments based on employee’s personal characteristics, interests, overseas experience and the type international assignment. Moreover, it becomes the responsibility of HR managers to look after compensation packages, and compliance with regional work standards and government policies. Hence, it is necessary to review all these issues in detail to gain an idea on the role of HR professionals in relation to international assignees. Firstly, to understand the aspects of expatriate selection and functions, it is first necessary to review the reason for global expansion of companies and their requirements. Companies Go Global   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are various reasons for companies choosing international existence. They include increased pressure on costs, search for new markets, greater customer demands and product and service qualities, government policies, search and desire for technology development, worldwide communication and information flow, increasing global opportunities with interdependence of nations in trading blocs, integrating cultures and values leading to common consumer demands, availability of skilled workforce, decreasing trade barriers, and E-commerce (Briscoe & Schuler 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This increasing globalization requires companies to look for employees with ability to operate at varied conditions. Accordingly, various criteria are set for the selection of international assignees. International assignees may be parent-country nationals (PCNs), host-country nationals (HCNs) or third-country nationals (TCNs) Selection of International Assignees   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Human resource (HR) managers have a major role in selecting international assignees. The highly followed selection process includes self-selection, creating a candidate pool, technical skills assessment and making a mutual decision (Frazee 1998).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   HR management has to consider several criterion before selecting the candidates, such as candidate’s maturity, ability to handle foreign languages, possession of favorable outlook on the international assignment by the expatriate and his/her family (Briscoe & Schuler 2004). Apart from these personal characteristics like health, desire for the assignment, individual resourcefulness and adaptability are very important.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   International assignees should have various qualities such as computer literacy, prudent negotiating skills, ability as a change agent, visionary skills and effective delegatory skills (Briscoe & Schuler 2004). Functions of International Assignees   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The functions of international assignees may include all or any of the following areas depending on job responsibilities. Technical responsibilities Managerial responsibilities Cultural responsibilities such as interacting with local nationals and local communities In general, global long term assignments may vary between two and five years. In long term assignments employees are generally loaned to the host company by the home company (Mullaney 2007, p. 3). The position and seniority of the assignee often determine the nature of the assignment package. Executive assignees are seen as prominent members of the local management team, whereas assignees at manager level or below are credited with career development opportunity. An Insight on the Roles of HR Managers In the current globalization arena, the role of human resource (HR) personnel in relation to international assignments should be viewed in specific perspectives: human resource personnel and international assignees, and the role of past experience in dealing with diverse employees. Whatever the role is, the basic requirements are openness to people, flexibility, autonomy, and career motivation (Frazee, 1998, p. 29). Firstly, the phases in selection of international assignees can be described as self-selection, creation of a candidate pool, assessment of technical skills, and making a mutual decision. Firstly, the candidate has to self analyze whether he or she can be a global assignee. Moreover, the favorability of family and other conditions need to be evaluated. In selecting global assignees, it is better to opt for self-selection than traditional selection. While traditional selection in meant for choosing assignees by employers through various interviews and tests, self-selection promotes self-assessment of candidates and decide on whether or not to go for the next step for selection process (Frazee, 1998, p. 29). The factors of self-selection include personality and individual characteristics, career and family issues. According to Johns, in case of personnel who shift from another position to HR, the experience in past positions and the change of influencing abilities pertaining to the post may help perform better as a HR manager in dealing with employees from different backgrounds (as cited in Frazee, 1998, p. 52).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Furthermore, HR managers do have a major role in proper orientation of global assignees and making them adjust with new environment. Moreover, HR personnel need to evaluate the costs associated with expatriate programs. Finally, they may have to deal with situations where employees may rise about differences in compensation between local and global assignees. Requirements of International Business Management in the Context of HR Professional in Working with International Assignees In my opinion, such requirements as workforce planning and staffing, training and health safety, and Crisis Management are the central issues of international business management in the context of HR profession when working with international assignees. The most significant subject for planning of training for international assignees is the importance of understanding the restricted culture and language. The organization of the compensation programs for multiple workforces around the world is a compound and not an easy work that is put into effect with the help of the balance sheet approach.   Health and safety practices vary among countries as per related laws in those countries. However, HR managers should understand and cope with business decisions that are concerned with strategies, health and safety systems, and different practices faced in countries that may have an impact upon workforces and employee relations between international assignees. So, the requirements include learning the laws, systems of working and understanding the cultures of the countries. Global HR activities that involve preparation, scheming, structuring, implementing, organizing, or developing may be unsuccessful if they are used without considering the differences in countries. Successful processes and systems that are used in one country may fail when they are used in the same way in another one. All the aspects of the international business have a human element. The human recourse management was underestimated for a long time, but its functions and roles, nowadays, are accepted to be one of the most important. Nevertheless, ‘the HR professionals must first learn the geography and characteristics of the field’ (Ohmae, 1990). Potential Involvement of International HRM   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With the increasing human resource problems in the multinational companies due to increased global operations, it has become to necessary to redefine the scope and role of the human resource management.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   International HRM should be involved as a active partner in formulating global strategies. Necessary skills need to be imparted into senior HR professional through proper training. HR professionals should lead developing processes and activities involving emerging strategies (Briscoe & Schuler 2004, p. 398). Companies should facilitate the development of global strategies by finding out the skills necessary for management and employees, and a major role should be played by the HR department in accomplishing it (Briscoe & Schuler 2004, p. 398). Enhanced interaction is essential among line management, HR personnel and workgroups. Moreover, it is better to decentralize the functions of the headquarters IHR departments. Also, main HR departments should assign basic administrative responsibilities to venders with expertise in HR activities, as the main departments will need to deal with many growing global responsibilities (Briscoe & Schuler 2004, p. 398). Expatriate Performance, Training and Interactions Joint ventures and foreign subsidiaries are usually structured and organized much like their mother companies; the only distinction is that they have both expatriate and local managers. That’s why the international business operations are more difficult and have more complex structure than the domestic business operations. â€Å"Regardless of the effectiveness or availability of Performance Management (PM) tools, expatriate PM success depends largely on the manager and expatriate in question: how well they both understand, internalize, and accept PM, and how skillful they are in its implementation. To this end, appropriate PM training should be available for all expatriates, including their superiors.† (Johnson 2003). The high level of the performance management of the expatriate leads to improvements in their careers and company’s development.   The performance management system that is used in the global business includes a lot of areas of international human recourse management responsibility, such as evaluating foreign managers and international assignees for pay increases. However, one of the most important obstacles to the successful administration and progress of these managers and international assignees is the regular require of recognition of the value of their overseas experience and expatriation, in general, and the casualness with which companies often evaluate these international assignees foreign performance. Certainly, big enterprises that have a lot of overseas assignees and many foreign subsidiaries say that ‘most (83%) do not use performance management to measure international assignees’ success. And many (35%) don’t use any type of measurement at all.’ (Andersen 1999, p. 18) One of the most important factors that influences upon the international assignees’ performance is the performance appraisal system of the company. However the correct and effective system of the performance appraisals is not an easy task even in the native country. The knowledge and the skills that have to be developed by the international assignees differ a lot from the abilities of the workers of the company that is located in the native country should have.   The international assignee and other foreign managers have to increase and make use of the knowledge that is necessary for any managerial assignment without any doubt. The requirement for more number of highly qualified human resource personnel has resulted in the need to use larger numbers of foreign nationals. ‘Most multinational firms favor hiring local nationals for foreign subsidiaries, home-country nationals at headquarters, and, where a regional organization exists, a mix of foreign and home-country managers for regional positions.’ (Johnson 2003) Thanks to such method of international HR management the ethnic groups unite usually varies with the environment of a firm’s business and with the product strategy. So, the role of the staff that works at the native country diminishes in the case of lowering the importance of the area expertise. The principal subject for a large amount of companies in the management of their international assignment system is the arrangement of the competing interests of the firm, international HR management, and the international assignees and family. The business that is concerned about its globalization requires fast deed in order to produce innovative revenues, and to direct the expenses and threats involved with doing that. International human resource department requires adequate lead time to discover and choose successful international assignees. As Ohmae (1990) writes ‘they need a low enough case load of international assignees to be able to provide good service; they want to be able to apply an effective process for selecting and developing quality of international assignees candidates; and they desire to be able to apply a consistent policy of treatment of international assignees.’ International assignees themselves, and their families, need sufficient compensation for the individual and profession sacrifice they make while they relocate; they would like their family concerns to be given essential priority; and they look ahead to   be able to come back to a profession promotion that   takes benefit of their foreign practice. So, the way to success in the global operations is to satisfy the needs of companies and the needs of international assignees. The role of international assignees is very significant; because whether the business strategy will be clear and understandable all over the world depend on their working performance. In order to improve the results of the work there are a large amount of programs that consist of relevance, acceptability, sensitivity and practicality. The factor of relevance means that the HR manager and the worker should realize the relevance of their labor in the general activity and to evaluate the situation correctly. Acceptability is the right evaluation of the job from the side of the HR manager and the diligent execution of the duties by the expatriate. It needs to be seen as fair, reasonable, and accurate. Sensitivity is the attitude of the administration that includes taking into consideration cultural differences and adequacy in evaluating the business reality. The fact that the programs should be practical for the expatriates is also important. They should correspond to the business strategy and be not difficult to execute but not to simple. In this case there is a threat that such program will be done partially. These entire characteristics have to be implemented by the HR managers and need special attention. Compensation for International Assignees   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   International HR department has to create compensation packages that appropriate for employees and profitable to the companies. The components of a balance sheet approach that are helpful in determining expatriate compensation are described below. Home-country salaries International standard Regional standard Better of home or host policy Expatriate Failures The three main reasons for expatriate failure are inappropriate selection, inadequate preparation and the stress associated with expatriation (Enderwick & Dunning 1994). Proper training of expatriates before giving international assignments is necessary to overcome failure. All in all, performance of international assignees depends greatly on proper selection and training. Moreover, appropriate compensation packages are necessary. Women as International Assignees   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Coming to the gender differences in international assignees, there are important aspects to consider. It has been observed that though the number of women employees is increasing over the years, they are not making a substantiate percentage in international assignments. To be precise, in spite of having 47% women workforce in the United States by 1998, only 13% to 14% were selected for international assignments (Varma et al. 2004). Also, in spite of having 30% female students in MBA programs in the US, only 14% are being selected by corporate America for international postings (Koretz, 1999).   Furthermore, the estimated number of female expatriates is between 2 and 5 percent only (Harris, 1993).There are multiple reasons for this scenario.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The important cause is the reluctance of management to send women employees abroad stating that they face more prejudice than men at the new workplace. Also, supervisor-subordinate relationship seems to be an important factor. It was found that female employees showed higher agreement with female supervisors than males (Varma et al. 2004). It becomes crucial, as most of cases require women to interact with male supervisors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Other related reasons can be explained such as over estimation of women’s problems at workplace by males, and lower availability of corporate development programs such as fast track programs, individual career counseling and career planning workshops for women. Further reasons include the traditional confinement of women to only certain job categories, socio-cultural issues of host countries and the problems of dual career couples. Conclusion In conclusion it is necessary to say that global HRM is more democratic than it was earlier. It provides employees with lots of opportunities and possibilities without paying attention to such factors as cultural characteristics or racial prejudices. Global HRM tries to present cultural diversity at all level of organizations. HRM model in public sector is characterized by lifetime employment, social cohesiveness and seniority wages. The vitality of organization is less important in the country that family ties and friendship. It is seen that GCC countries are not greatly influenced by globalization processes. Managers try to promote their relatives instead of teaching staff how to work. HRM model in the private sector is only on the evolution stage. It is still trying to find innovative ways how to manage the staff effectively. It is recommended for strategic human resource management of future to be characterized by cultural diversity and equal job opportunities for all people. HRM should use the concepts of globalization and labor division in order to achieve highest results. HRM should provide qualified employees with proper positions. Human resource managers should also have highest qualification and professionalism to achieve company’s goals and objectives. One more recommendation is to create more job places and to provide people with them. The cultural dimensions of power distance index, individualism, masculinity, uncertainly avoidance index and long-term orientation are necessary to be studied by the HR managers. The improvements of the programs that are aimed at the expatriate’s learning should include relevance, acceptability, sensitivity and practicality. As the result the production will increase as well as the organization’s revenue and profits. All in all, HR management has a great responsibility in company’s success pertaining to international assignments. They need to identify required personnel with adequate skills and experience to carry out international assignments. HR managers should plan proper reward packages to retain efficient employees on international assignments. Moreover, they need to adjust existing and adopt new policies in order to gain compliance with respective country’s policies and standards. Also, they are supposed to plan and implement relevant training for employees to perform effectively as international assignees. References 1998, ‘ROI on International Assignees’, HR Focus, Vol. 75, no. 3, p. S5. Briscoe, D. R. & Schuler, R. 2004, International Human Resource Management, Second Edition, Routledge, London and New York. Budhwar, Pawan. Human Resource Management in Developing Countries. London:   Routledge. Chiavenato, Idalberto. 2001. â€Å"Advances and Challenges in Human Resource Management in the New Millennium†. Public Personnel Management,30, pp. 17-25. Dunning, Joseph. 1999. Governments, Globalization and International Business. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Eaton, Jack 2000. â€Å"Transnational Companies, Globalization and Industrial†, Comparative Employment Relations, Cambridge, Polity Press. Enderwick, P. & Dunning, J. H. 1994, Transnational Corporations and Human Resources, vol. 16, Routledge, New York. Frazee, V. 1998, ‘An HR Pro Forges a Well-rounded perspective’, Workforce, Vol. 77, no. 2, p. 52. Frazee, V. 1998, ‘No Common Thread in Expat Selection’, Workforce, 4, 4, p. 9. Frazee, V. 1998, ‘Selecting Global Assignees’, Workforce, 3, no. 4, pp. 28-30. Harris, H. 1993, ‘Women in international management: Opportunity or threat?’,Women in Management Review,8, no. 5, pp. 9-14. Hofstede, Geert.1998. International and Cross-Cultural Management Research. Sage: Jean Claude Usunier. Iii, Edward E. Lawler. 2003. Creating a Strategic Human Resources Organization: An Assessment of Trends and New Directions. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Johnson, David. 2003. International Business: Themes and Issues in the Modern Global Economy. London: Routledge. Kim, Pan Suk. 1999. â€Å"Globalization of Human Resource Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective for the Public Sector†. Public Personnel Management, vol. 28, pp. 27-37 Koretz, G. 1999, ‘A Woman’s Place Is..  :Men Frown on Female Execs Abroad’, Business Week, 3646, no. 28, p. 28. Less Available to Female than to Male Expatriates?’, Journal of Business Ethics, 43, no.  ½, pp. 125-136. Mullaney, E. 2007, ‘Global Mobility in a Brave New World’, International Assignment Perspectives, PricewaterhouseCoopers, pp. 1-54. Ohmae, K. 1990. The Borderless World. New York: HarperCollins. Rowden, Robert W. 1999. â€Å"Potential Roles of the Human Resource Management Professional in the Strategic Planning Process†. SAM Advanced Management Journal, vol. 64, pp. 22-28. Selmer, J. and Leung, A. S. M. 2003, ‘Are Corporate Career Development Activities Sims, Ronald R 2002. Organizational Success through Effective Human Resources Management. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Solomon, C. M. 1997, ‘Destination U.S.A.’, Workforce, pp. 18-22. Sparrow, Paul, Brewster, Chris and Harris, Hilary. 2004 â€Å"Globalization and HRM†, Globalizing Human Resource Management, Oxon, Routledge. Spring, Joel. 1998. Education and the Rise of the Global Economy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Stahl, G. K. & Bjorkman, I. 2006, Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management, Edward Elgar. Varma, A., Stroh, L. K. & Schmitt, L. B. 2001, ‘Women and International Assignments:   The Impact of Supervisor-subordinate Relationships’, Journal of World Business, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 380-388.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Fayols Concept Management Essay

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Fayols Concept Management Essay Henri Fayol is widely acknowledged as the earliest pioneer and advocate of the task of management Parker and Ritson, 2005 His management theories were first proposed in the early 1900s. Despite many criticisms, Fayol’s theories still form the basis of management practices and teachings in the 21st century. Taking some articles for reference, this essay will mainly analyse the advantages and disadvantages of Fayol’s concept of five functions of management in modern enterprises by some examples. There are about three main parts in this essay beginning with the introduction. And in the main body of this article, based on some academic researches, there are about seven parts discussing the advantages and disadvantages of Fayol’s concept of five functions of management. A conclusion will be made at last. There is no doubt that Fayol is best known for a three-fold contribution to management theory. Among his contributions, the concept of five functions of management i s worth discussing all the time. Fayol identified five key functions of management and these functions of managerial activity are: forecasting and planning, organizing, coordination, command and control. According to Fayol, forecasting involves analyzing the future and drawing a plan of action (Pugh ad Hichson, 2007). And as for organizing, Fayol believed that an organization’s structure was important, as it can facilitate the optimum conduct of its business activities (Pugh and Hichson, 2007). According to Pugh and Hichson (2007), in his original writing, Fayol used the term â€Å"command† to illustrate a manager’s responsibility to lead and direct employees towards the achievement of organizational goals and strategies. About the function of coordination, Fayol made a suggestion that managers should bind together, unify and harmonize all the organization’s activities and efforts. In contemporary management practice, this can be explained into that the m anagers should be responsible for making sure that all the organizational business activities are coordinated to make the employees can unify together within one department or among different departments. The last not the least function of management is control. Fayol recognized the importance of control within an organization and support that it ensures â€Å"everything occurs in conformity with established rules and expressed command†. In the article of â€Å"Fayol-standing the test of time†, McLean (2011) firstly introduced the contents of the five functions of management and stated that in contemporary society, there are some advantages of these functions to development of the enterprises. First, McLean (2011) stated that with the development of globalized knowledge economy, the abilities of forecasting and planning can gain success in the competition. Second, organizing can ask the managers to carry out an appropriate infrastructure, which will optimize the organi zation’s system, resources, procedures, processes and services and enable knowledge to be disseminated to those who need it, when they need it. Third, McLean (2011) also stated that control is one of the most important responsibilities of a manager and under the control of the managers. Under control of the managers, the policies and strategies can be implemented according to plan and within budget, set timescales and allocated resources. Fourth, under the function of command, the managers can develop a thorough knowledge of their employees, which can generate a positive psychological contract that engages employees with their jobs and the organization. What’s more, Fayol’s managerial functions are frequently cited as the inspiration for the contemporary practice of dividing managerial activity (and management textbooks) into the functions of planning, leading, organizing and controlling (Davidson and Griffin, 2000; Lewis, Goodmand and Fandt ,1995).

Group project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Group project - Essay Example However, Google was able to perform a higher business transformation than Yahoo in the last decade. Transformation is about developing strategies, which are designed to create a â€Å"forward thinking† business that keeps in touch with emerging technologies, consumer needs, and creates goals for the future. Such a process involves devising specific company’s staff, programs and policies which aid in the achievement of those goals. Google is considered a transformed e-business. Yahoo provides the same products and resources. However, it is not considered a transformed e-business mainly because it has not achieved an understanding of consumer trends and has not been able to incorporate consumer trends into their goals and strategies (Mills, 2007). The process of transformation that Google has orchestrated for its company is explained in this study. Google grew steadily since its inception in 1998 and made many improvements to its search engine, such as the Google Directory, Search through Wireless Devices, several language versions for those users who preferred to search in their own language, and Google Toolbar. These enhancements propelled Google to become the most popular search engine. At the same time, Google increased its revenue stream through a carefully devised â€Å"Keyword Targeted Advertising program,† and partnership deals with the world’s largest portals, like China’s NetEase and Japan’s BIGLOBE. Another device to attract small businesses was the AdWords program (â€Å"Google Corporate History,† 2007). At the end of 2000, Google was attracting more than 100 million search queries every day. Google continued with its partnerships and innovation to widen its user base. By the end of 2001, and Google had become a profitable company. Google’s search capacity has been evolving every year and it now includes the File Type search, Google Image Search, and Google Catalog Search. It also provides a Google Search

Peruse some sources to find a relationship between dress codes and Essay

Peruse some sources to find a relationship between dress codes and success in the work place. Remeber to focus on anglophone cultures - Essay Example This is because an organization’s image is represented by its employees, with outstanding expertise and academics, one’s appearance lay the foundation for perceptions; internal as well as external (Howard, p. 234). Eventually, appearance plays a great deal in one’s success. Dressing in a work appropriate manner portrays one’s seriousness towards their job. If the employer doesn’t dress appropriate, employees would not see him respectfully. Dressing appropriately shows good work ethics, mainly because employees are meant to display a professional image to the clients and customers. Although, dress code provides an opportunity for self-expression, but wearing things inappropriate can hinder the success level (Neil, p.279). Furthermore, certain criteria should not be ignored while dressing for work, like cultural aspects and nature of the job. Organizations give peculiar guidelines regarding dress code to help their workers verify what constitutes fitting and agreeable work environment clothing. In accordance with the Anglophone culture: a suit and wingtips would look perfect on a financial analyst; while it might look out of place on a telephone operator. In the same manner, a professor cannot go to the class wearing miniskirt, or gowns or really casual clothes. Several studies have shown that looking good from outside can make one feel good inside, which is why it is also vital to take care of employees’ comfort. Many companies also have pretty impressive dress code policies, designed in a way that allows employees to have a professional image, as well as respecting the comfort and style element intact. On the other hand, there are companies with formal dress code policies and documents with specific instructions prohibiting women from wearing certain pieces of jewelry and men from wearing cufflinks or sneakers (Workplace Law Handbook, p.179). Guidelines provided by companies for dress code and attire correspond with several factors, such

Personal Philosophy of Nursing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Personal Philosophy of Nursing - Assignment Example The author’s personal philosophy of nursing is grounded in the theory of Virginia Henderson and her definition of nursing. Adapted from the book of Daniels (2004), Henderson’s definition of nursing is stated as: â€Å"The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will, or knowledge. The author wants to become a nurse because of the calling to serve and care for other people. She wanted to make a difference by creating a significant impact on patients’ lives and be remembered as a nurse who cared for them with passion. The author believes that this significant impact can be achieved through a holistic, patient-centered and passionate care. The author reflects and would like to live up to her personal and societal life values including human dignity, integrity, autonomy, altruism, and social justice. The author would like to be remembered as a nurse with a commitment to patients and community, a nurse who follows the footsteps of Virginia Henderson. Above all, the author values social justice or the fair and equitable allocation of resources. The author highly feels that this should be the most lived up values because quality care must be provided to all needing population regardless of who they are and what are their status in life and nurses are fully responsible for doing all the efforts to lead the patient to recovery and independence.

Maya Angelou Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Maya Angelou - Essay Example The author believes that the sense of displacement is stronger than the racial prejudice alone (Neubauer): "If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat." Essentially this work is interlaced with themes such as â€Å"self-acceptance, race, men, work, separation, sexuality, motherhood† that can be seen as glued together by the central theme of racism (Lupton). Racism continues not just as a theme in ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ but rather as the underlying fabric on which Angelou’s tale is woven. On the other hand, the theme of motherhood emerges strongly late in the work with the birth of Guy, Angelou’s son. However, subtle references to motherhood remain scattered throughout the work. The connection between Momma Henderson and the author is essentially about motherhood where the older woman serves as Angelou’s link to her social and racial identit y. Angelou’s work dwells on the use of metaphor to propagate her point of view. The author has adeptly blended racist undertones and overtones with the metaphor of a caged bird. The utilization of the caged bird stems from Dunbar’s poem titled ‘Sympathy’ where a caged bird is shown singing in order that its prayers for freedom be realized. Angelou likens herself and her community to the caged bird that can see the world around it but remains restricted by the cage from freedom of exploration (McMurry). The African Americans had been emancipated, but socio economic liberties remained few and far in between. The situation in Angelou’s case was exacerbated by a rural community and her female gender. While Dunbar’s caged bird keeps singing in frustration, Angelou is seen as transforming her frustration to her self-acceptance while still being caged by society at large (McMurry). The author has demarcated the cage in the metaphor as social roles t hat have become so well entrenched that no flexibility or hope for change exists anymore. In Angelou’s tale of self realization and development, society’s roles and statuses serve analogous to the bars of a cage. Among other metaphors, Angelou tends to transform Momma Henderson metaphorically to preserve her image as the community leader. Momma Henderson provides Angelou with a submissive method to deal with life but the author feels that this is not the life for her. Since Momma Henderson is her ideal, Angelou does her best to transform the older woman to preserve her own sense of dignity. Angelou’s metaphorical transformation of Momma Henderson reveals both a desire for gaining respect and the fear of being disrespected (Lupton): "... did an excellent job of sagging from her waist down, but from the waist up she seemed to be pulling for the top of the oak tree across the road." Angelou’s mastery of the pen is also evident in her poetic collections such as ‘And Still I Rise’ where a defiant Angelou is seen fighting against overwhelming odds. The recurrent theme of the collection is emergence from defeat where Angelou keeps repeating that she keeps rising no matter how doleful and discouraging the defeat (Neubauer). The theme of self definition tends to emerge in this work as in other works by Angelou and keeps recurring throughout the entire piece. The author’s use of â€Å"I† in her constant reminder of â€Å"I rise†