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Saturday, August 31, 2019

Othello Essay

The Jacobean era in which William Shakespeare first wrote Othello, eventually published in 1622, is one which is rightly remembered as being held to strict, dogmatic codes of sexuality and gender-power structures. On the threshold of Queen Elizabeth’s crowning, England under King James continued to be a strictly patriarchal society, with the realms of war and diplomacy being fully impenetrable to women. Considered the primary means to demonstration and execution of power, such venues were perceived to have held sway over all manner of social order. From a cosmetic vantage, it appears through characters such as Brabantio, Othello and Iago that Shakespeare acknowledges a sociological structure which largely keeps women beholden to these powers of men. However, through its intricate weaving of deception which is continually based on a distortion of the realities between men and women, Shakespeare wily toys with conventional wisdom regarding sex and power, dismantling many of the assumptions pertaining to the topic which were processional from the cultural hegemony of his time and place. While the work is constantly given over to opportunistic sleights against the cunning malice of the female heart, the flaws of the male characters are ultimately the cause of tragedy. Shakespeare’s work is marked by a rare propensity for his time, to encourage a reconsideration of the reciprocal relationship inbuilt to the breakdown which occurs between love, lust and loyalty  While men such as Othello and Brabantio characterize power as being in the hands of the wealthy and physically impressive, Desdemona silently and passively illuminates that sexuality is the true power broker. Even before it is the force which weakens his senses, Othello recognizes that all of his fearsome strengths are blunted by his infirmity in the hands of love and lust: â€Å"When light-winged toys Of feathered Cupid seel with wanton dullness My speculative and officed instrument, That my disports corrupt and taint my business, Let housewives makes a skillet of my helm.† (1.3, 263-267) Fittingly, the conclusion magnifies this irony, consistent with the convolution of gender power and responsibility as it persists throughout. Othello recognizes that it is his indiscretion, not Desdemona’s, which has delivered him to incurable suspicion. When he finally succumbs to his misguided jealously, it becomes invariably clear that his physical strengths, those very same which were said to have won him the heart of Desdemona, were not simply made benign by the power of her sexuality. Worse, his powers are turned against him, unleashed from his control and wielded by a fog of lustful rage. In the denouement of the play, Othello is inconsolable of his own guilt. After choking the life out of his innocent wife, Othello is left powerless. In this is the eventual resolution of Shakespeare’s treatise on the falsehood in the power dynamic between men and women. Indeed, the power which is shown to be reflected in the woman is one which contradicts traditional assumptions of 16th century female gender roles. That the women in this play, and Desdemona in particular, ultimately command such power over the judgment of men is quite telling of Shakespeare’s unique perspective. The twisted frustration which marks the conclusion of the play is a strikingly aggressive declaration by the playwright that cultural assumptions regarding the genders are not just too often grossly misunderstood, but consequently also subject to terrible repercussions.

“Poor People would be better off if they had fewer children to feed and clothe”. Essay

â€Å"Poor People would be better off if they had fewer children to feed and clothe†. The competence of the poor in rearing children will always be a notion of concern in every society, notably in the Caribbean region. Sadly, we suffer from different economic and social developmental issues which dates back as far to the issuing of independence from our colonial states with the exception of some French Caribbean countries such as ; Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin and British Virgin Islands. However, most countries are plagued with the demon of unemployment courtesy of the fluctuating economy in the world at large and in the west. Most countries also suffer from brain drain leading back to the slow economy . For each society to be effectively studied, one has to go beyond the surface and dissect the situation, as cells are to the body so are people to the society/ country that we live in, hence the importance of population studies in finding out issues that plague the society, further leading us to the topic of discussion and evaluation today which is â€Å" Poor p eople would be better off if they had fewer children to feed and clothe†. There is no doubt in my mind that this statement is indeed factual. Poor by definition means having little or no money, goods or means of support. Therefore if i was poor and I had less dependents to worry about I would be better off having fewer children to feed and clothes, and if I should take the liberty of drawing your imagination to the reality of having the responsibility to also send multiple children to school and provide them with technological advancements†¦ poor people are 120% better off if they had less responsibility. The rich however, do not suffer from the aches of having too much children or too little because in essence they can survive this plight . For this notion of response, the writer will be drawing knowledge from the Malthusian theory and also the Neo – Malthusian and Marxist theory , but for now let us focus a bit on the Mathus ideology and how effective it is on the evaluation of the population growth and trends. Thomas Malthus, the founder of this theory postulates that if the population continues to grow rapidly, then the effects would be detrimental, he pointed this out in his famous treatise. He states that the population increases in geometric proportions ( 2, 4, 6, 8) while the food resources available for them would  only increase arithmetically i.e 1, 2,3†¦ in simple words if the human population was â€Å"allowed† to increase at a faster rate than the food supply , a point would come when food sources couldn’t support the growing population. Malthus in his thinking doubted the ingenuity of mankind and technology and even though his theory is not exactly wrong it doesn’t necessarily fit the Caribbean perspective. Food and clothes are available yes, but do we all have the capital to purchase these goods to make life comfortable? Further leading us to thinking of Karl Marx who is hell bent on that it is the inequality of the ruling class that causes poverty, malnutrition, crime and hunger. This would be solved if fair opportunities were given to other people and not only those with wealth running through their veins; this theory fits in to the Caribbean society today. The ruling would be the politicians and those who are apart of big organizations. These are the people whose children are better off in life and they also receive heavy wages and they perform less taxing work. Compared to the middle class and lower workers, who work for such unfair wages. Thus leading to the underdevelopment of the impoverished and certain population trends such as the heavy migration levels in each country. This further leads to the loss of human development because the people who leave their home countries for better job opportunities and improvements in living standards leave a gap in the society which the government has to fill, costing more. The issue of crime and deviance in the society can be related to having poor back grounds and broken homes, especially juvenile delinquency. The writer took it upon herself to assess these implications and to the extent at which they are true and I came across a family in my community who can be considered as poor. This family living in one 2 bedroom house, with an outside bathroom and kitchen has 35 peop le living in it. In this family there are 2 people over 60 years old , their 4 children and their children’s many children. Each child has no less than 5 children and to add all of them are without fathers, as they have refused to take up their responsibilities. It is sad to say that these sisters have not obtained an education higher than a secondary level, and so they are virtually unemployed with the exception of one sister who is a domestic helper. They are also living without electricity and running water. We were asked to assess the population in relation to development. How exactly development is possible when surrounded  in situation such as these? In most cases such as these, the children like the ones in my community will end up leaving school and history will repeat itself, other situations such as deviant behavior and teenage pregnancy will also spiral out of control leading to an ineffective society full of stagnant individuals, who will just eventually weigh the economic system down , increase in tax to support welfare systems, a low GDP rate, increase in criminal activities and even untimely deaths. The health care of these less fortunate are also at stake. As individuals how can we stop the ongoing misery of an overpopulated society, crime and deviance, health care deficiencies, brain drain , hunger and the rhetorical cycle of unemployment? Well there are several organization which seeks to relief the poor such as UNICEF and Food for the poor , who are always present when natural disasters( hurricanes , earthquakes, volcanoes) wreaks havoc in countries , orphanages and in the case of dire needs and physically challenged. In Jamaica there is also the PATH program which was instituted to help children who are going to school, students on this program receive a monthly stipend, health care and lunch at school, a big help to most. Also , if they excel academically , they are awarded scholarships to continue their territory education . Now back to Malthus, who has his solution which takes the form of moral restraint. The usage of using birth control methods ( contraceptives/ condoms) or just simply abstaining from sexual activity until one is ready emotionally and economically , getting married older, spacing children and having less children. These methods when combined will curve the growing population and create more productive individuals, the poor would be able to take advantage of the help they are receiving and they will then be able to get an effective job which will help them to become less dependent on the society to take care of them, thus poor people would be better off because in essence they wouldn’t be poor again.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Lying in Business Essay

Q.1: It is not always okay to lie in a business context. However, there will be very less specific circumstances that lies will be okay. Some time there will be the situation where we can lie it may be the case of help to others . In a business context, it might be okay, if liars have good purposes. For example, they are lying because they want to avoid a risking investment of the investor, and they are lying because they want to help the company from a bankruptcy. In short, it is okay to lie in a situation that lairs want to enhance business. But liars have to verify that it is not for their benefit, and it doesn’t interfere others in which they are involved. Q.2: It is not fair at all, if the managers fire their employees without thinking what the natures of the lie are. The lie may be have some advantage therefore manager should notice the outcome if not so then there will be many kinds of punishment given to the employees but fired is not only the solution. Some time employees knows the reason better than manager and have not to tell the manager because the managers might not understand the nature of the problem, and they will against the decisions. Sometimes, only the person who involved in the problem would understand the problem. Q.3:Â  Withholding information for your own advantage is the same as lying or not. It will be depended on the nature of the information. If the information is about deal or not deal, life or death, is basically a type of lying. The information itself will be interfered another parties and cause casualty damages to them, and the withholding party can gain benefit instead. However, if the information is for one’s party advantages but it does not interfere another party at all, this hidden information will not be considered as lying because the information is not necessary mean to another party. Q.4: In a business context, if someone has something to gain by lying, in my point of view there might be 90 to 95 percent of people. Because it is the nature of human beings when they see their benefit or they are gaining by lying then they don’t thought ever that it is wrong or it is against ethics. They are taking risk and have aggressive approach to have or to make more and more profit.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

South Africa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

South Africa - Essay Example It is important to note that 1948 was an election year whereby there were two major parties competing; i.e. the National Party and the United Party (Worger, 2004). The United Party on one hand had a soft stand on apartheid as it tended to lean towards integration of all communities and races, which was believed to be unavoidable. To the majority whites, this meant that all South Africans would therefore enjoy equal rights under the leadership of the party and therefore, there were fears among the whites that the non whites would increase competition in the job market especially if they were allowed to migrate to the urban centers, which would have also meant that the cost of labor in the industries would have gone up as the whites utilized cheap labor from the non whites. The National party on the other hand utilized this fear and came up with a pro-apartheid policy which it vowed to establish once it was elected into power and which saw its winning the elections and therefore produc ing the first prime minister under the apartheid regime (Thompson, 2001). The events that followed can only be termed as the worst historical injustices in the history of South Africa.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

An investigation into perceptions of employee benefits in UK Literature review

An investigation into perceptions of employee benefits in UK - Literature review Example Employee benefits can be short term, long term and termination benefits. Short term benefits generally include monetary and non-monetary benefits for a short period. Long term benefits include pensions and other retirement plans. A possible narrowest definition will include employer-provided benefits for accident, death, retirement, sickness or unemployment (Weathingtin and Tetrik, 2009). However, in order to better understand the employee benefits, it is important to cover all forms of employee benefits and compensation schemes used across the globe. The most frequently used employee benefit forms are as follows: 2. Payments for retirement plans and private insurance: These include costs of starting such plans and contributions in forms of payments or insurance premiums through alternative arrangements for funding (The British Psychological society, 2014). The government has set policies for providing benefits under various plans in case of personal loss. The personal loss covers the following aspects: 4. Extra payments to employees through cash. Other than bonuses and wages, cash payments are also provided to employees on the basis of performance. This category of benefits includes the following factors: Employee benefits and compensation packages have become a very common as well as necessary phenomenon for employees and workers in the 21st century. As a result of globalizations and increasing opportunities in work and career, workers and employees have started realizing their worth and have started demanding more from their employers (Dulebohn, et al., 2009). As a result companies have not integrated benefits and compensation system into their core management. As the economic environment is becoming more service oriented and work forces are becoming white collars, these employee benefits are naturally expected. The necessity of employee benefits is more for employers than for employees. In the current

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Impact of Major Sporting Events on Host Communities Essay

Impact of Major Sporting Events on Host Communities - Essay Example 2010). Thus, this essay critically evaluates whether major sport events are of major benefit to the host city, region, or country. Social Impacts Tourism research has presented a wide array of proof that major sport events can have negative and positive impacts on a host city. Several of the positive outcomes concern economic gain or national honour and high spirits among citizens. This national honour leads to the ‘psychic income’ related to hosting a major event (Gratton & Henry 2001, 32). Moreover, major sporting events have been said to introduce nations to new knowledge and lead to a liberalisation of ideals in closed societies. As a worldwide event, sport draws active involvement and mass viewership, both creating the sub-cultural features of such sport (Gratton & Henry 2001). Commonly, scholars give much attention to the economic effects of major sporting events, thus studies in this field is scarce. According to Hall (1992), social impacts is â€Å"the manner in which tourism and travel affect changes in the collective and individual value systems, behaviour patterns, community structures, lifestyle and quality of life† (as cited in Robinson et al. 2011, 155). ... Recently, there has been an increasing attention given to the social gains of major sporting events for societies. The investigation of Waitt (2003) on the social outcomes of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 reported that in spite of disapproving outlooks and objections to the prelude to the event, all through the event there was â€Å"a reason to celebrate rather than protest† (as cited in Pedersen et al. 2010, 238) and citizens disclosed a heightened feeling of national pride. Likewise, Kim and Petrick (2005 as cited in Pedersen et al. 2010, 238), in an investigation of the South Korea FIFA World Cup in 2002, discovered that even though the passion does appear to ebb after the sport event, it does not fade entirely. A further social gain of major sporting events for hosting societies is the gift of urban restoration. In fact, hosting the 1987 America’s Cup has been recognised as the driving mechanism for the reconstruction of the metropolitan zone in Fremantle, Austra lia. It has been discovered that the apprehensions about severe traffic jams and overcrowding were groundless (Pedersen et al. 2010). Rather, as stated by Pedersen and colleagues (2010), citizens believed that development in infrastructures and opportunity for improved tourism would further enhance the better standard of living in the period after the event. Nevertheless, positive impacts may not constantly stem from major sporting events. According to Higham (1999 as cited in Hinch & Higham 2011, 55), some of the negative outcomes of sport events are interruptions to traditional lifestyle, displacement of local communities, and congestion. Hall and Hodges (1996 as cited

Monday, August 26, 2019

Knowing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Knowing - Essay Example There were some who doubted if he was really born in the United States of America. Going by our criteria, most reasonable people in society have no problem with President Obama’s proving that Donald Trump was wrong. This gives justification to President Obama’s birth certificate. Secondly, President Barack Obama released a copy of his birth certificate to prove the doubters wrong. The majority of people accept that his birth certificate is legitimate and that he was in fact born in Hawaii. Finally, we can accept the accounts of witnesses at the time, who verified that he was born in Hawaii. We believe that those doctors actually carried out the birth of Barack Obama and did not make anything up. On the other hand however, one example that does not meet these criteria was the claims of Harold Camping, who predicted that the world would end on the 21st of May, 2011. According to our definition of knowledge, Harold Camping was not justified in his conviction that the world would end. The reason for this is that not only did the event not happen, but many people did not trust his word before the supposed event. Subsequently, Camping’s claims were not proven true, so they cannot be accepted as the truth, no matter what anyone says. Lastly, many people do not believe in Camping’s worldview.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Syriana Film assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Syriana Film - Assignment Example differing viewpoints to underline the main themes of the film, namely; international corruption, cartels and the issue of corporate social responsibility. Gaghan described his inspiration for the film beginning with his work on Traffic3, where he felt that America’s dependency on foreign oil had distinct similarities with drug addiction. Indeed, a fundamental issue reiterated in Syriana is how the role of oil is central to US policy towards the Middle East and the US position within the contemporary framework of international relations. In turn, the relationship between Matt Damon’s character Bryan Woodman and Prince Nasir also presents a different insight into Middle Eastern politics through Prince Nasir’s frustration at American control in the area and his desire to undertake national reform and develop the economy for sustainability in the long term. Additionally, the increasing work of Bryan Woodman’s character with the Prince comes at the sacrifice of his marriage due to the death of Bryan’s son. Bryan’s payment of $175 million from the Prince and role as economic advisor causes his wife to accuse him of exploiting his son’s death for commercial gain. To this end, the death of Bryan’s son and sacrifice of his marriage is arguably symbolic of the central theme of Syriana regarding the interrelationship between oil, globalisation and the balance of power in international relations. For example, it is submitted that the oil industry symbolises the sacrifice of ethical concepts of morality as the control of oil in the Middle East is seen as fundamental to the balance of power within the international framework. This is highlighted by the American unease with Prince Nasir giving a natural gas drilling rights contract to China. The three central stories that interweave throughout the film purposively depict three very different men operating over various continents to highlight the long term and immediate consequences of pursuing wealth and

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Leadership & Effective Communication (MANAGEMENT) - Case Study Assignment

Leadership & Effective Communication (MANAGEMENT) - Case Study - Assignment Example Maslow’s hierarchy is a theory that is greatly used in the present work employment. The hierarchy is based on the fundamental needs of human beings. The main principle is that of tending to pay attention to the lowest needs while ignoring the highest one when faced with a problem. The hierarchy designed by Abraham Maslow in 1943 looks like a triangle with the first four basic needs or deficit needs; physiological, safety, love and esteem, needs related to self growth; cognitive, aesthetic and self-actualization (McLeod 2007). Shark’s old boss failed to meet one of the basic needs that highly motivate employees which is esteem. Shark says that most employers only value their stores and employees are just but a number that can be replaced at anytime. This de-motivates a person not to put in effort needed for the company to be successful. The other related need that Shark’s old boss did not give is job safety, a person who is only taken as a number does not view his work as being safe but fears to loose it anytime. The other need that Shark felt was not met is love. Love was not shown as they were only used without being heard and they were taken as numbers. The reason why Shark’s old boss did not meet these basic needs was; due to lack of respect to his employees and only considered his business to be important. The missing needs can be met by valuing employee and appreciating their personal input to a business. The boss should have respect and form a habit of listening to them, hence development of employer-employee rapport that will improve the esteem and make each person feel that their job is safe. Most junior employees are creative and have ideas that can take a business to the next level, they should be listened to and ideas adopted if they are for the good of the company. Equity theory of motivation states an employee relates output to input to be equal. An employee expects to be rewarded for putting in more effort to deliver. He

Friday, August 23, 2019

Capital Structure Evaluation of Sample Firms Essay

Capital Structure Evaluation of Sample Firms - Essay Example Such sustainable growth requires increasing investment in long term assets, which in turn needs to be financed by long term funds. The two conventional long term sources of fund are debt and equity. The proportion of such debt and equity determines the capital structure of the firm. There are benefits and shortcomings of both the funding options. While debt funds are considered to be less costly owing to the interest tax shield that they provide, equity funds are considered to be more expensive owing to its inherent risk profile. Though debt funds reduce an organization's weighted average cost of capital (WACC), such funding increases the risk profile of the organization owing to long term commitments secured by asset collaterals, which could seriously increase the bankruptcy risk of the organization during an economic downturn. The modern thinking on capital structure is primarily based on the seminal work done by Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller. The Modigliani-Miller theorem (1958) states that in an ideal world, the value of a firm is independent of its capital structure. When a firm increases its gearing ratio, the overall risk to the equity holders increase thus increasing the cost of equity, thereby having no net effect on the value of the firm. One important aspect of this theorem is that it ignores the bankruptcy and transaction costs, and assumes information is freely available to all firms. The optimum leveraging point of an organization is, therefore, always a source of debate, and has been subject of various continuously evolving theories and models. Some of these recent theories and classical models are examined and validated by analyzing the capital structures of five organizations (PLCs) from four different industry sectors. The firms chosen are as below. Table 1-1 Company Name Industry Sector TESCO Food manufacturing and products BP Oil, gas and energy Exxon Mobil Oil, gas and energy BHP Billiton Metals and mining British Energy Utilities TESCO is a giant in the food manufacturing sector with an annual turnover of 47.3 billion. TESCO was founded in 1919 in the UK, and has since grown to set up footprints across the world in the Asia, Europe, and the US. It is one of the leading food retailers of the world, and has diversified into petrol retailing. BP is primarily in the business of oil exploration and refining, and operates out of several countries. Its other businesses include alternative energy, and shipping. It has an annual turnover of $361 billion. Exxon Mobil is also in the business of oil exploration/ production, gas, and power. Its downstream business includes oil refining, and marketing of fuel products and lubricating oil. Its annual turnover is $390 billion. BHP Billiton is the world's largest diversified natural resources company with businesses including alumina, aluminum, copper, energy, coal, iron ore, nickel, manganese, oil and gas and uranium, as well as gold, zinc, lead, silver and diamonds. It employs

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Letter of Intent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Letter of Intent - Essay Example ience provided me with a detailed insight into construction and architectural drawings and visual and mechanical inspection of various building elements. I observed the importance of having good leadership and managerial skills in order to excel in the field as an executive. While I explored and polished my leadership and managerial skills in this job, I realized that the importance of being formally qualified in the same cannot be overemphasized. This experience spurred an interest in me to specialize in education and leadership. Five years from now, I want to see myself among the top management executives in my company. I need to have thorough understanding and knowledge of the critical knowledge areas of management band leadership in order to realize my plans. My goal is to establish a strong business model wherein I lead responsibly and effectively. I am positive that getting a Master degree in Education and Leadership from Thompson Rivers University will open new doors of opportunity for me and speak for my competencies and skills as a learned leader before the prospective

Psychological Disorder Analysis Essay Example for Free

Psychological Disorder Analysis Essay Psychological Disorder Analysis Iris Sally July 19, 2010 PSY/270 Joan Rachmel Many people suffer from psychological disorders. Psychological disorders interfere with an individuals ability to function normally in society. Marla is a 42-year-old Hispanic female who comes to the mental health clinic complaining of trouble sleeping, feeling jumpy all of the time, and an inability to concentrate. These symptoms are causing problems for her at work, where she is an accountant. Based on the background information that Marla provided, Marla appears to be suffering from adult ADHD. ADHD, usually occurs in begins in childhood, but some children who suffer from ADHD have symptoms that persist into adulthood. People who suffer from ADHD are characterized as having great difficulty attending to tasks or [they] behave over actively and impulsively, or both (Comer, 2007, p. 428). Marlas feelings of being jumpy all the time is a major symptom of ADHD, which characterizes her as being overactive and impulsive. She also has trouble concentrating because of constant movement and an inability to pay attention. In arriving at a diagnosis, I considered the following questions: 1. Please tell me about yourself including your social environment and any other important aspects of your life? While Marla’s social environment is unknown, many adults who suffer from ADHD have friends and family. Marla has trouble coping with daily life because her ADHD has been hindering her ability to focus, and therefore interrupting the things that are important in her life. 2. What prompted you to seek therapy? Marla, like many individuals who decide to seek therapy, decide to seek therapy because of their inability to concentrate and the impulsivity/hyperactivity is affecting their work life. Also, Marla has difficulty sleeping, sometimes a symptom of ADHD, which may be caused by her hyperactivity or impulsivity. It is difficult for many individuals with ADHD to lie still and get comfortable enough to fall asleep and stay asleep, because of the incessant urge to constantly move around or fidget excessively, a common symptom of ADHD. 3. How would you describe yourself growing up? As a child, Marla may have suffered from many of the same symptoms she is currently battling in adulthood because ADHD usually begins in childhood and progresses to adolescence and in Marlas case, into adulthood. For the diagnosis to be given to an adult, the individual must have symptoms which began in childhood and are ongoing up to the present (Martin, 2007). Therefore, all adults who suffer from ADHD developed the symptoms in childhood. As an individual like Marla grows into adolescence and even further into adulthood, the symptoms of over activity and impulsivity become less apparent. The decrease of intensity in the ADHD symptoms may make the symptoms easier for individuals like Marla to handle, but they still affect the persons life. . What are your expectations of therapy? Marla is probably hoping that therapy will help her to overcome the issues she is currently facing because she can learn new techniques that will help her feel less jumpy and be able to concentrate more when she is at work. Techniques taught in behavioral therapies can help Marla gain more control over her actions, so that she can better deal with her hyperactivity or impulsivity. 5. Can you think of any one event t hat precipitated this onslaught? Marlas current state of mind can reveal several things including that she may be stressed with some of the events that are occurring in her life. Even though the onset of ADHD is in childhood, high levels of stress have been cited as one of the major contributing factors of ADHD, along with biological causes (abnormalities in certain regions of the brain have been implicated most often) and family dysfunction (Comer, 2007, p. 429). Certain events may have occurred in Marlas personal or professional life that has made her abnormal behavior more apparent to her. 6. What made you anxious today, yesterday? Since ADHD is often times brought on by stress, something dramatic and stress inducing such as daily life hassles, including working, dealing with her family, and taking care of herself, could all have raised Marlas stress levels. 7. Does anyone else in your family suffer from feelings such as you are experiencing? More and more adults are starting to realize that the symptoms of ADHD they see in their children are behaviors theyve been living with since their own childhood. ADHD can run in families. Some studies indicate that 25% of close relatives of kids with ADHD also have this neurological disorder. For parents, that number is even higher: In children with ADHD, more than 50% of the time at least one parent has ADHD, too. 8. Do you think badly of yourself for being this way? Children with ADHD often feel badly about themselves. They might think theyre stupid, naughty, bad or a failure. Not surprisingly, their self-esteem takes a battering and they find it hard to think anything positive or good about him or her self. Most people who discover they have ADHD, whether children or adults, have suffered a great deal of pain. The emotional experience of ADHD is filled with embarrassment, humiliation, and self-castigation. By the time the diagnosis is made, many adults with ADHD have lost confidence in themselves. 9. Is there anyone in your life that you confide in, or have opened up to in the past? Educating your loved ones about ADD/ADHD and the ways in which it affects your social skills and interpersonal behaviors can help alleviate a lot of conflict and blame. If you are working hard at your end to learn strategies to improve your social skills, your friends and family may be more willing to give you a little extra wiggle room if they know what you’re dealing with. 0. Please tell me about your upbringing. Did you think you were â€Å"popular† growing up? People like Marla, who suffer from adult ADHD usually reports feelings of isolation in childhood because they had few friends. Their hyperactivity and their inability to focus for long periods at a time on a given task made it difficult to form lasting friendships. These individuals like Marla, also felt disconnected from their peers as they were ridiculed and were often scolded by their teachers for being difficult pupils. Children with ADHD do not sit down for long periods at a time in the classroom and their constant movements make them disruptive in class. Often, these children are reported by their teachers to their mothers. Also, they feel like they are not smart in school because they may have gotten bad grades because of their disruptive behavior and their inability to focus on schoolwork. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder that interferes with an individuals ability to focus, to be quiet or sit still, and to be calm. Children or adults who have ADHD are constantly on the move and they are unable to sit quietly or relax. Research suggests that 3-7% of children suffer from ADHD (Faces of Abnormal Psychology Interaction, 2007). Most of the children that suffer from ADHD are males. A diagnosis of ADHD requires that the symptoms of the disorder are interfering with a persons ability to be productive or effective in their life. There are three subcategories of ADHD that include: predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type, predominantly inattentive type, and the combined type. Individuals who suffer from the predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type of ADHD are overactive, spontaneous, speak and move excessively, and have difficulties following instructions. Individuals who suffer from the predominantly inattentive kind of ADHD have difficulties concentrating, focusing on tasks, and avoiding distractions. With the combined type of ADHD, individuals display both the impulsive-hyperactive symptoms and the inattention symptoms. ADHD makes it difficult for children and adults to have solid social lives. Sufferers of the disorder often report that they have few friends and that they are harassed at school. Research shows that ADHD is excessively diagnosed in the U. SA, which may lead to children and even adults being over-medicated. The use of Ritalin, the main drug used to treat ADHD, has risen tremendously since the early nineties. To combat problems of over-diagnosis, it is recommended that children are well observed by medical and mental health professionals. The use of other therapy procedures involves teaching both the parents of ADHD children and the children themselves how to cope with ADHD. For instance, behavioral therapy procedures are teaching parents how to use good and bad reward techniques to train their children how to behave appropriately. For instance, when children sit and behave themselves, they will be receive good rewards from their parents and when they are overactive and disruptive, they will not be rewarded because of their display of bad behavior. The most effective drugs used to treat ADHD are stimulants, which include Ritalin and other stimulant drugs, like Aderall and Concerta. Ritalin is the most popular drug used to treat ADHD. Ritalin has a calming effect in children and adults, making it easier for them to complete certain tasks and decreasing hyperactivity or impulsivity. However, there is a lot of controversy surrounding Ritalin with many clinicians arguing that it is over prescribed because of its effectiveness against ADHD. Marla, who suffers from adult ADHD, which is very similar to childhood ADHD, would also be prescribed a stimulant, like Strattera, a newer drug used to treat ADHD, which would decrease her over activity and help lessen her insomnia. ADHD is a difficult disorder to live with. Anyone who suffers from this disorder may have difficulty in their social life and is unable to complete simple tasks because they cannot focus, or even sit still long enough to focus. However, modern drug therapies, like Ritalin are available to help and give young children and adults the ability to gain some control of their life. Also, therapies combined with prescription drugs are an even more effective treatment method to combat the problems of impulsivity, over activity, and inattention. References

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Composite Materials In Automotive Brake Disc

Composite Materials In Automotive Brake Disc Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore the uses of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) in the automotive industry, their advantages over current grey cast iron discs, their manufacturing processes and potential commercial applications. Cast iron brake discs consume much fuel due to its high specific gravity. As a result, a better and perhaps cheaper alternative is needed to fulfil the needs of high end automotive industries and even mid range consumer vehicles. INTRODUCTION Reducing green house gases and fuel consumption is a common goal for automotive industries and of paramount importance. Auto industries have dramatically increased the use of aluminium in light vehicles in order to reduce weight and help improve efficiency. Aluminium alloy based metal matrix composites (MMCs) with ceramic particulate reinforcement have shown great promise for such applications [1,2]. These materials having a lower density and higher thermal conductivity as compared to the conventionally used gray cast irons are expected to result in weight reduction of up to 50 60 % in brake systems [3]. Under severe service conditions like higher speed, higher load etc, these advanced materials have the potential to with stand these conditions. Basic mechanism of mechanical properties The high fracture toughness or crack resistance mentioned above is a result of the following mechanism: under load the ceramic matrix cracks, like any ceramic material, at an elongation of about 0.05%. In CMCs the embedded fibres bridge these cracks. This mechanism works only when the matrix can slide along the fibres, which means that there must be a weak bond between the fibres and matrix. A strong bond would require a very high elongation capability of the fibre bridging the crack, and would result in a brittle fracture, as with conventional ceramics. Thermal and electrical properties The thermal and electrical properties of the composite are a result of its constituents, namely fibers, matrix and pores as well as their composition. The orientation of the fibers yields anisotropic data. Oxide CMCs are very good  electrical insulators, and because of their high porosity their  thermal insulation  is much better than that of conventional oxide ceramics. The use of carbon fibers increases the  electrical conductivity, provided the fibers contact each other and the voltage source. Silicon carbide matrix is a good thermal conductor. Electrically, it is a  semiconductor, and its  resistance  therefore decreases with increasing temperature. Compared to (poly)crystalline SiC, the amorphous SiC fibers are relatively poor conductors of heat and electricity. CMC Brake Discs Disc brakes  are typically made out of grey cast iron. This material is has high tensile strength and can withstand a high temperature before failing. In high performance vehicles the amount of heat generated by friction when braking can be too great so the brakes fail or must be changed often. The failure is due to thermally induced fractures. Also these brakes can be heavy and susceptible to corrosion, which cause failure. Other composites have been tested such as Metal Matrix Composite, and Carbon Carbon Composites. The challenges with these materials are the ability to dissipate heat caused by friction isnt optimal at high enough temperatures. A typical grey cast iron disc brake can withstand a surface heat of 400 C before failure occurs. Type C/C-SiC is a Carbon fiber phase added to a Silicon Carbide matrix. The resulting material has increased strength with a lower density and high tribological characteristics. The most predominant feature is its ability to withstand high temperatures without failure. Due to its low coefficient of thermal expansion and high thermal conductivity, this CMC can retain its strength at high temperature. This CMC was manufactured as a disc brake with 2D reinforced discontinuous fibers. The fibers are placed perpendicular to the surface of friction to maximize Thermal conductivity. The result is a disc brake that can withstand surfaces temperatures of 1000 C with minimal wear. Problems There are multiple reasons for CMC disk brakes not being implemented among regular cars. Firstly, there is a low demand for high performance brakes due to the brakes themselves being rather expensive. As CMCs gain popularity, the cost of the raw material is expected to reduce, regardless of it being slightly expensive. Since regular cars arent used at high speeds, the amount of heat generated with low friction is small. As such, the Carbon Silicon Carbide brakes become inefficient and much weaker particularly in colder conditions. Thermal expansion of the composite and ceramic matrix results in this weakness. Cracking can occur on the surface of the brakes as the material expands at different rates under different temperatures. ADVANTAGES The integration of long multi-strand fibres has drastically increased the crack resistance,  elongation  and  thermal shock  resistance, and resulted in several new applications. As a result this has overcome the common problems associated with the conventional technical ceramics like alumina, silicon carbide, aluminium nitride, silicon nitride, or zirconia. Elongation  to rupture up to 1% Strongly increased  fracture toughness Extreme  thermal shock  resistance Improved dynamical load capability Anisotropic  properties following the orientation of fibers In comparison to the conventional grey cast iron brake disk the carbon-ceramic brake disk Weighed round 50 per cent less reducing the unsprung mass by almost 20 kilograms Improved brake response and fading data High thermal stableness No hot judder Excellent pedal feel Improved steering behavior High abrasion resistance and this longer life time and the advantage of avoiding almost completely brake dust The table below shows the properties of grey cast iron and its advanced alternatives (SGL Group n.d.) Property Unit Material C/SiC material, general C/SiC for carbon- ceramic brake disk Gray cast iron (GG-20) Density g cm-3 1,8 2,9 2,45 7,25 Tensile strength MPa (=N mm-2) 10 240 20 40 200 250 Modulus of elasticity GPa 20 240 30 90 110 Flexural strength MPa (=N mm-2) 20 210 50 80 150 250 Elongation at break % 0.05 0.8 0.3 0.3 0.8 Thermal shock resistance   (second thermal coefficient K) W m-1 26.500 46.000 > 27.000 < 5.400 Thermal stability  °C 1350 1350 approx. 700 Maximum operating temperature   (brake disk)  °C 1400   non-oxidizing 900 700 Linear coefficient of thermal expansion K-1 1.0 3.5 2.6 3.0 9 12 Thermal conductivity W m-1K-1 20 150 40 54 Specific heat capacity (cp) kJkg-1K-1 0.6 1.7 0.8 0.5 Manufacturing Processes There are currently 5 known manufacturing procedures for matrix forming. They are: Matrix deposition from a gas phase Matrix forming via pyrolysis of C- and Si-containing polymers Matrix forming via chemical reaction Matrix forming via sintering Matrix formed via electrophoresis Matrix deposition from a gas phase involves a process known as chemical vapour deposition where in the presence of a fibre perform, the deposition takes place between the fibres and their individual filaments and thus called chemical vapour infiltration. Pyrolysis (Pyrolysis  is a  thermo chemical  decomposition  of  organic material  at elevated temperatures without the participation of  oxygen) of C- and Si-containing polymers involves hydrocarbon  polymers to shrink during  pyrolysis, and upon  out gassing  form carbon with an amorphous, glass-like structure, which by additional heat treatment can be changed to a more  graphite-like structure. Matrix formation via chemical reaction works by one material being located between the fibres that react with a second material to form the ceramic matrix. Sintering is used to manufacture oxide fibre/oxide matrix CMC materials. Special  precursor  liquids are used to infiltrate the pre-form of oxide fibres. In the  electrophoresis  process, electrically charged particles are dispersed in a special liquid are transported through an  electric field  into the preform, which has the opposite electrical charge polarity. Application in Brake Discs Carbon/carbon  (C/C) materials have found their way into the  disk brakes  of  racing cars  and  airplanes, and C/SiC brake disks manufactured by the LSI process were qualified and are commercially available for  luxury vehicles. The advantages of these C/SiC disks are: Very little wear, resulting in lifetime use for a car with a normal driving load of 300,000  km, is forecast by manufacturers. No  fading  is experienced, even under high load. No surface  humidity  effect on the friction coefficient shows up, as in C/C brake disks. The corrosion resistance, for example to the road salt, is much better than for metal disks. The disk mass is only 40% of a metal disk. This translates into less unsprung and rotating mass. The weight reduction improves shock absorber response, road-holding comfort, agility, fuel economy, and thus driving comfort. The SiC-matrix of LSI has a very low porosity, which protects the carbon fibers quite well. Brake disks do not experience temperatures above 500  °C for more than a few hours in their lifetime. Oxidation is therefore not a problem in this application. The reduction of manufacturing costs will decide the success of this application for middle-class cars.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Substation And Equipment Surge Protection Engineering Essay

Substation And Equipment Surge Protection Engineering Essay Substation and Equipment Surge Protection: Types, characteristics, related calculations, examples with applications for industrial systems Gautami BhattAbstract-This paper describes the various types of surge protectors, their types and characteristics. This paper will also describes lightning surge arrestors, about them and how the power system is protected against them. Index Terms-surge, lightening, switching, BIL, insulation, protection, substation INTRODUCTION Each electrical equipment should have a long service life of more than 25 years. The conductors are supported on insulators/embedded in insulation system. The internal and external insulation is continually exposed to normal voltages and occasional abnormal voltages. These abnormal voltages include temporary over voltages at power frequency, lightening surges and switching surges. Over voltages at power frequency have a low over voltage factor but a longer duration while the latter have higher voltage duration and lesser duration. Protection against power frequency over voltages is achieved by employing an over voltage relay at the secondary of a transformer or by using an Inverse definite-Minimum Time Overvoltage Relay. Protection against transient voltage surges is achieved by the help of Surge arrtestors. The surge arrestors, coordinated spark gaps, surge suppressors, over heard ground wires, neutral earthing, shunt capacitors etc. are located strategically to intercept the lightening surges or to reduce the peak and rate of rise of surges. Protective systems for the different abnormal voltages act at different speeds depending on the over voltage. Temporary power frequency over voltage occurs for anything between ms to s and hence the over voltage relay acts within 70ms. Lightening surges last for micro seconds and thus typically the surge arrestor acts within 1.2micro seconds. Switching surges are in the range of a couple of hundred micro seconds and surge arrestors for them are typically designed for 100micro seconds. This paper focuses on lightening surges, their types, protection against them, and the different types of lightning surge arrestors. LIGHTENING OVER-VOLTAGES Lightening Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) performed his famous experiment (1745) of kite flying in thunder cloud. Before his discovery lightening was considered to be Act of God. Franklin proved that the lightening stroke was due to discharge of electricity. Franklin also invented lightening rods to be fixed on tall buildings and earthed to protect them from lightening strokes. The large spark accompanied by light produced by an abrupt, discontinuous discharge of electricity through the air, from the clouds generally under turbulent conditions of atmosphere is called lightening. Representative values of a lightening stroke: Voltage: 200MV Current: 40MA Duration: 10^-5 sec KW:810^9 KWh:22 Energy: An overhead conductor accumulates statically induced charge when charged clouds come above the conductor. If the cloud is swept away from its place, the charges on the conductor are released. The charge travels on either sides giving rise to two travelling waves. The earth wire does not prevent such surges. Another curious phenomenon is the unpredictable paths of lightening strokes. Normally they try to reach the earth and are therefore intercepted by lightning rods, trees, tall structures, etc. Empire state building has been struck by lightning several times. However some lightning strokes do not observe any rules and travel in all sorts of Haphazard fashion. A B type stroke occurs due to sudden change in the charges of the cloud. If cloud 1 suddenly discharges to cloud 2, there is a sudden change in the charge on cloud 3. A discharge that occurs between cloud 3 and earth is called B stroke. Such stroke does not hit lightening rod, or earth wire. No protection can be provided to the over head line against such strokes. Attractive effect of Over Head ground wire and earth rods (MASTS): Earth rods (also called lightning rod) are placed on tall buildings. These are connected to the earth. The positive charges accumulate on the sharp points of the lightning rods; this is why lightning strokes are attracted to them. The earth wires are placed above the over head transmission lines. At every tower this wire is grounded. The positive charges accumulate on this wire. The negatively charged strokes are attracted by the earth wire. In absence of the earth wire the lightening stroke would strike the line conductors causing flashovers in transmission line. Earth wires do not provide 100% protection. Weak strokes are not attracted by earth wires. B type strokes are not attracted by earth wires. None the less earth wire has proved to be a good solution to very dangerous direct strokes. Earth wires have a shielding angle. The conductors coming in the shielding zone are protected against direct strokes. The shielding angle is between 30 to 40 degrees. An angle is 35 degrees is said to be economical and satisfactory for Overhead lines. Overhead Shielding Screen (earthed) The equipments in a substation are protected from direct lightning strikes by one of the following ways. Overhead shielding scree(Earthed). Covering the overhead lines approaching the substation Lightning Masts installed at strategic locations in the switchyard. The tower-top is earthed. Mast is an independent structure. According to IEC masts are preferred for outdoor switchyards upto 33KV. For 66KV and above, the lightning masts become too tall and uneconomical. The overhead shielding wires are preferred because they give adequate protection and the height of structures in the substation provided with overhead shielding wires is comparatively less than that for the lightning masts The entire switchyard is provided with earthed overhead shielding screen. The size of conductor is usually 7/9SWG, galvanized steel round stranded conductor. Transmission line conductors are protected by overhead shielding conductor (earthed). The shielding angle (alpha) is defined as follows. A vertical line is drawn from the earth wire. Angle alpha is plotted on each side of this vertical line. The envelope within angle 2alpha is called the zone of protection. The shielding angle according to ANSI is defined as 30 degrees while in the IEC world it is 45 degrees. The clearance between phase conductor and overhead shielding wire should be more than minimum phase to earth clearance. Lightning Strikes on Over Head Lines These can be the following: Direct strikes on line conductor, direct stroke on tower top, direct stroke on ground wire and indirect stroke or B stroke on overhead line conductor. Direct strikes on overhead lines are the most harmful. The voltage being of the order several million volts, the insulators flashover, puncture, and get shattered. The wave travels to both sides shattering line insulators, until the surge is dissipated sufficiently. The wave travels to both sides shattering line insulators, until the surge is dissipated sufficiently. The wave reaches the substation and produces stress on equipment insulators. At times these strikes are prevented from striking the line conductor. All high voltage overhead lines are protected by earth conductors. This mesh covers the complete switchyard. Direct Strokes on tower-top Consider, L = inductance, I = Current in tower, R =Effective resistance of tower. e = voltage surge between tower-top and earth. So if the change in current with respect to time is 10KA/ and the resistance is 5 ohms and inductance being 10micro Henry. Then e will be 200KV. This surge voltage appears between the tower top and earth. The line conditions are virtually at earth potential because of neutral grounding. Hence voltage appears between the tower top and earth. The line conductors are virtually at earth potential because of neutral grounding. Hence its voltage appears between line conductors and tower-top. If this surge voltage exceeds impulse flash-over level, a flash-over occurs between the tower and the line conductor. Therefore the resistance is kept low for each tower. A direct stroke on earth wire in the mid-span can cause a flashover between line conductor and earth wire or line conductor and tower. Indirect strikes on line conductor can have the same effect as direct stroke on conductor. They are more harmful for distribution lines but are not significant for EHV lines. Other factors are low tower footing resistance insulation level of lines. For lines rated above 110KV voltage level, the line insulation is high and back flashovers are rare. For line between 11KV and 33KV, the insulation of lines is relatively low and back flashovers are likely to occur. Protective devices against lightning surges Several devices are used in order to protect the power system against lightning surges. An overview of them is given here while some are discussed in detail. A. Overview of protective devices against lightening surges Device Where Applied Remarks Rod gaps across insulator string, bushing insulator, support insulator Difficult to coordinate Flashover voltage varies by Create dead short circuit Cheap Over heat ground wires (earthed) Above overhead lines Above substation area Provides effective protection against direct strokes on line conductors, towers, substation equipment Vertical Masts In substations Used instead of providing overhead shielding wires Lightning spikes/rods (earthed) Above tall buildings Protects buildings against direct strokes. Angle of protection between 30 to 40 Lightning arrestors On incoming lines in each substation Near terminals of transformers and generators Pole mounted on distribution lines Diverts overvoltage to earth without causing short-circuit Used at every voltage level in every substation and for each line Phase to ground Surge absorbers Near rotating machines or switchgear Across series reactor valves Resistance capacitance combination absorbs the over voltage surge and reduces steepness of wave B. Rod gaps The simplest protection of line insulators, equipment insulators and bushings is given by Rod gaps or coordinating gaps. The conducting rods are provided between line terminal and earthed terminal of the insulator with an adjustable gap. The medium in the gap is air. The rods are approximately 12mm in dia. or square. The gap is adjusted to breakdown at about 20% below flash-over voltage of insulator. The distance between arc path and insulator should be more than 1/3 of the gap length. Precise protection is not possible by rod gaps. The break-down voltage varies with polarity, steepness and wave-shape, weather. The power frequency currents continue to flow even after the high voltage surge has vanished. This creates an earth fault only to be interrupted by a circuit breaker. Operation of rod gap therefore leads to discontinuity of supply. The advantage of gap is low cost and easy adjustment on site. For more precise operation, surge arrestors are used. Horngaps, the gap between the horns is less at the bottom and large at the top. An arc is produced at the bottom during high voltage surge. This arc commutes along the horn due to electromagnetic field action and length increases. The arc may blow out. Impulse ratio of protective devices is the ratio of breakdown voltage on specified impulse wave to breakdown voltage at power frequency. Typical impulse ratio values are Sphere gap: 1 Rod gap: 1.6 to 3 Horn gap: 2 to 3 LIGHTNING ARRESTORS Surge arrestors are usually connected between phase and ground in the distribution system; around the terminals of large medium voltage rotating machines and in HV, EHV, HVDC sub-stations to protect the apparatus insulation from lightning surges and switching surges. The resistor blocks in the surge arrestor offer low resistance to high voltage surge and divert the high voltage surge to ground. Thereby the insulation of the protected installation is not subjected to the full surge voltage. The surge voltage does not create short-circuit like rod gaps and retains the residual voltage across its terminals. Surge arrestor discharges current impulse surge to earth and dissipates energy in the form of heat. After discharging the impulse wave to the earth, the resistor blocks in the surge arrester offers a very high resistance to normal power frequency voltage, acting like an open circuit. Some of the types of surge arresters being used today in the industry are Gapped-Silicon-carbide Surge arrestors called the valve-type or conventional Gapped arrestors. These consist of silicon-carbide discs in series with spark gap units. Zinc-Oxide Gapless Arrestors called the ZnO Arrestors or metal oxide arrestors. These are gapless and consist of Zinc oxide discs in series. ZnO arrestors have superior V/I characteristics and higher energy absorption level. They are preferred for EHV and HVDC installations. Fig.1-A ZnO surge arrestor[1] Gap-type Sic Arrestors are connected between phase and earth. It consists of silicon-carbide resistor elements in series with gap elements. The resistor elements offer non-linear resistance at power frequencies, the resistor elements in series offer high resistance with gap elements. The resistor elements offer non linear resistance, at power frequency frequency over voltages, the resistance offered is large. For discharge currents the resistance is low. The gap unit consists of air gaps of appropriate length. During normal voltages, the surge arrestor does not conduct. When a surge wave travelling along the line reaches the surge arrester, the gap breaks down. Since the resistance being offered to it is low, the wave is diverted to earth. After a few micro seconds the normal frequency wave reappears across the arrester. Therefore arc current in gap unit reduces and the voltage across the gap is not enough to keep up the arc. Therefore the current flowing to the earth s automatically interrupted by and normal condition is restored. Thus, the high voltage surge is discharged to earth and the insulation of the equipments connected to it are protected. Fig.2- Charecteristics of ZnO block[1] CLASSIFICATION OF SURGE ARRESTORS Surge arresters can be classified based on voltage, current, and energy capability as follows Station Type Line Type Distribution Type Standard normal current peak(A) 10,000 5000 2500:1500 Voltage rating (Kv rms) 3.3-245 3.3-123 Upto 3.3 Application Large power stations and large substations Intermediate and medium substations Distribution system; rural distribution SURGE ARRESTORS, SPECIFICATION AND TERMS Some of the terms and definitions related to surge arrestors are given here in order to better understand the content given in this paper. Surge Arrestor is a device designed to protect electrical equipment from transient high voltage, to limit the duration and amplitude of the follow current. Non-linear resistor. The part of the arrester which offers a low resistance to the flow of discharge currents thus limiting the voltage across the arrestor terminals and high resistance to power frequency voltage, thus limiting the magnitude of follow current. Rated voltage of the arrester is the maximum permissible RMS voltage between the line terminal of the arrestor as designated by the manufacturer. It should be noted that all equipments are rated by the phase to phase voltage rating but for surge arresters phase to ground rating is the rated voltage. Follow Current is the current that flows from connected power source through lightening arrester following the passage of the passage of the discharge current Normal discharge current is the surge current that flows through the surge arrester after the spark over, expressed in crest value (peak value) for a specified wave. This term is used in classifying surge arrester as station type, line type distribution type. Discharge current is the current flowing through the surge arrester after the spark over. Power frequency spark-over voltage is the rms value of the power frequency voltage applied between the line and earth terminals of arrester and earth which causes spark over of the series gap. Impulse spark over voltages. Highest value of voltage attained during an impulse of given polarity, of specified wave shape applied between the line terminal and the earth of an arrester before the flow of discharge current. Residual Voltage (discharge voltage) is the voltage that appears between the line terminals and earth during the passage of the discharge current. Rated current of a surge arrester is the maximum impulse current at which the peak discharge residual voltage is determined. Coefficient of earthing is the ratio of the highest rms voltage of healthy phase to earhh to the phase to phase nominal voltage time hundred expressed in percentage during an earth fault on one phase. Thus, for an effectively earthed system the coefficient of earthing Ce Therefore surge arrester voltage is Ua > 0.8 * Um rms Surge voltage (Vs) KV instantaneous is taken as 2.5 times Critical Flash Over Voltage (CFOV) of line insulation. Therefore discharge current Ia is given by . TESTS ON SURGE ARRESTERS The following are the list of standard tests performed on a surge arrester according to the IEC 1/50 impulse spark over test. Wave front impulse sparkover test. Peak discharge residual voltage at low current. Peak discharge residual voltage at rated diverter current. Impulse current withstand test. Switching-impulse voltage test. Discharge capability of durability. Transmission line discharge test. Low current long-duration test. Power duty cycle test. Pressure-relief test. Acknowledgment The author would like to sincerely thank and express her gratitude to Prof. Robert Spiewak for his guidance and support and the references he provided. K.C. Agrawal, Industrial Power engineering applications handbook, Newnes Power Engineering Series S. Rao, Switchgear Protection and Power systems, Khanna Publications IEEE Std. 141, IEEE Recommended Practice for electrical Power distribution for industrial plants Gautami Bhatt (MEE10) is a M.E.E in Power and Control Engineering from the University of Houston.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Like Water For Chocolate as a Fantasy Love Story :: Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water For Chocolate   as a Fantasy   Love Story    Like Water For Chocolate is a fantasy-type love story. It teaches a lot about family life in Mexico, the country where it took place. The owner of the De la Garza ranch where the family lived was Mama Elena, who raised three daughters on her own because her husband had died. Tita, the youngest daughter and main character, was the youngest of the three and a wonderful cook. Tita was the narrator's great-aunt, so the story took place in the earlier part of the 20th century. Tita spent most of her life in the kitchen putting together amazing recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with the help from Nacha, the cook.      One day, Tita fell in love with a young man named Pedro. Pedro and his father came to the ranch to ask Mama Elena if Pedro could ask for Tita's hand, but the rules in their family were that the youngest daughter could never get married. According to tradition, Tita would have to stay at home and take care of her mother until the day her mother died. This broke Tita and Pedro's hearts. Mama Elena told Pedro he could marry Tita's sister, Rosaura though, and he did just so he could be closer to Tita. He never felt any love for Rosaura.      Meanwhile, Tita stayed at home everyday, cooking and feeling depressed, and Mama Elena did not make things any better. She always yelled at Tita, and made Tita do everything for her. Tita could hardly even talk to Pedro either because Mama Elena was constantly watching, and would yell at them every time they talked. Later, Pedro moved away with Rosaura and her other sister, Gertrudis, had run away with some man, and later became a prostitute. Nacha died, leaving only Mama Elena, Tita, and Chencha, the servant, left on the ranch. One day, Tita went insane because of her overly-strict mother, so her mother sent her with Dr. Brown, so he could take her to a mental institution. He was so in love with Tita that he never took her there. He took care of her in his house and they later planned to get married. Then, when he was gone on a little trip, Tita and Pedro met up, and got back together. When Dr. Brown came back, Tita told him the news about her and Pedro, and he told her to decid e who she wanted.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

If you dont know where you are, you are no where :: Response Essays

Topic: A former president of the National Geographic Society once said, "If you don't know where you are, you are no where." Do you agree or disagree? I agree because I find that this quote is true. People who live day by day doing nothing, whether if it's hanging outside with friends in the street during school hours or late hours of the night, or attending school just for attendance, but sitting in class wasting time, going to work and not even doing a good job or the full work it requires are examples of people who are in comfort zones, a place where you are stuck in denial. I'll explain it for better understanding of what I mean. What if you're someone who doesn't feel much peer pressure and, in fact, doesn't feel much pressure to do anything at all? It can be just as bad, however, to go far in the other direction and become a total slug. You see, we also live in denial when we fail to admit to ourselves that we are not living up to our potential and are not creating something significant for our lives, so it is a bit similar when saying that if you don't know know where you are, you are no where because if you can't see what you are doing, you won't succeed. What I mean is that you stop reaching for a higher level of achievement and accomplishment and pretend that your life is okay. You get up, brush your happy hair, throw on some clothes, drag yourself out of your house, and go through the motions of your day. You think you're comfortable, but you're not as happy as you could be. You're in what I call a "comfort zone" and you pretend that it's okay, so you accomlish nothing to take you to higher goals, to make you go somewhere in life, and you end up going no where, and when you look back at everything you've been doing for so long, you don't feel so good about it as the way you thought you would because you have nothing to show for it, especially if you really don't know where you are going in life because life only rewards action and those who know what they want and have goals to achieve are going to get somewhere. Another point I would like to make about this

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

CSC 1208 – BASIC COMPUTING ASSIGNMENT 2 Technology is evolving from time to time. As time goes by, new technology has come into place replacing the aged technology. However, we realized that without the previous technology, it is impossible for the new generation to enjoy the benefit of the technology we have today. To appreciate the golden aged technology, discuss in your group about an elder technology right from the beginning until how their evolved and improved to the latest technology today in a variety of fields including in education, finance, government, health care, science, publishing, travel, manufacturing, hospitality and media.Marking Scheme This assignment is 10% of coursework. Your assignment must include the following: 1. Assignment Cover Page 2. Assignment Marking Scheme 3. Assignment Question 4. Table of Content 5. List of Figures 6. List of Table 7. Introduction – Synopsis 8. Objectives 9. History 10. Evolution 11. Latest technology 12. Contribution o f the technology 13. Room for Improvement 14. Conclusion 15. References 16. Appendix – Presentation slides . Table of Contents: Acknowledgementvi Technology in Robotics based on Artificial Intelligence Perspective. 1. 1 Objectivesvii 1. Introduction to Robotics based on Artificial Intelligenceviii . Introduction to Roboticsix 3. Introduction to Artificial Intelligencex 4. History of robotics. xii 5. History of Artificial Intelligencexiii 6. History of robotics based on artificial intelligencexiv 7. Evolution in technology in robotics. xvi 8. Evolution of Artificial Intelligencexvii 9. Latest Technology in Roboticsxix 10. Contribution of Robots to the human society. xx 11. Latest Technology in Artificial Intelligencexxi 12. Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology in Artificial Intelligencexxiii 13. Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligencexxv 14. Conclusionxxix 15.Appendixxxx * Acknowledgement We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Mr. NorShahriel f or his guidance and help in carrying out this project. We also wish to thank INTI’s library, Tan Sri Abdul Majid for the resources that was used for this research. We would like to thank the creators of google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin for creating such a wonderful website and helping us save time from having to travel to the library. * Technology in Robotics based on Artificial Intelligence Perspective. 1. 1 Objectives * To understand the computer science branch, ‘Artificial intelligence’ To appreciate the benefits of Artificial Intelligence in Robotics. * To be aware of the growth of Artificial Intelligence in Robotics. * To keep updated with the evolution in the technology in Robotics. * To learn how human’s view on robots have changed according to different times. * To bring attention to the contribution of artificially intelligent robots in the human society. * To understand how Artificial Intelligence came about. Introduction to Robotics based on A rtificial Intelligence In robotics, you can never deny that artificial intelligence is the most exciting field you can find.Despite that, it has it controversial moments as well because as we all know robot can do work as it has been programmed, but can it ever be as intelligent as a human? This question lingers in the mind of researchers and to resolve this particular statement, it will definitely take a long time. Therefore, people should put it aside and continue to improve robots for the sake of a better future. As everyone is aware, robots can only absorb a certain amount of knowledge compared to humans but what humans don’t have is a guaranteed error free day.Robots can be programmed to not make the same mistakes that humans always do. But then again, even if humans are smarter, it is hard to avoid certain habits which lead to repeated mistakes over and over again. To see the ability of robots, recently in Japan, researchers have taught robots how to dance. Dancing used to be a skill only a human was able to do, but now even robots are able to do it. This shows how technology has improved through the years. Robots are able to help in the education field too, as robots can now interact socially with humans.Since the world’s population has limited working educationist/teachers/lectures in this modern world, robots would make a great addition to the educational field. Although this might take a few more years to make it perfect, the base is already in progress now, and as time passes by, robots will get even better. Robots are also key in the manufacturing sector as quantity is important when it comes to gain in profit. A robot can work 24 hours in a day without stopping and this makes everything move faster and therefore increases production.Fewer work forces will be used and thus it will not be time consuming anymore. But the presences of humans are still necessary in the manufacturing sector to keep a watchful eye on these robots to make su re that it is error free. In the future, robots will continue to evolve in line with artificial intelligence itself and will benefit the society in so many ways. There will be a time when people go to a supermarket one day, and see it all operated by robots and not a single human in sight except for the manager in charge.This will be an amazing sight to see but it needs a lot of planning and work. Researchers are currently working on both of these elements to create and modify what people have now into something great. One day, yes. Introduction to Robotics As a generation very dependent on technology, robots have certainly played a major role in the modern day society. Over the years, the definition of robots has varied from person to person. Many may perceive them to be androids, human-like dolls made out of metal with computerized brain that has been instructed to obey everything a human says.Others might identify robots as a device, programmed to do various tasks in places such as factories where human abilities are inadequate and labor cost are high. In anyway, robots have been created and developed to make peoples’ work easier and their lives more comfortable. Robots for many years have been a subject of interest for many sci-fi movies, books and animations while also being one of the most challenging fields in science where scientist have struggled to create the most human-like mechanical doll movies and cartoons have portrayed robots to be. Cool Japan’, one of the programs belonging to the Japanese news channel, NHK world recently discussed on the view of robots around the world and it was proven that the Western side of the world viewed humanoid robots negatively and didn’t encourage the creation of the robots that are able to feel and think like a man, as they have been stereotyped by books and movies that to be life threatening that could cause the human race to be enslaved by them.Meanwhile, the Eastern side of the world (count ries such as Japan, Korea, China, etc) viewed robots in more open minded ways and actually promoted building robots that can act and think like a human. Scientists have still yet to create the a perfect robot that can act and respond to any actions or words out of their programmed instructions but as technology develops in a rapid speed, it might not be long before the robot who can feel and think like humans might be invented. Introduction to Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence is a branch of Science that is embedding human characteristics into the machineries by performing simple tasks by fixing specifically programmed rules. It’s also commonly known to be Computer Science but however it branches out to many more fields such as Mathematics, Psychology, Biology and Philosophy. The fundamental point of Artificial Intelligence is that every programmed set of rules is expressed as an algorithm. There’s no denying that computers are able to process logic but th e ability if a machine can think remains unknown to scientist and researchers.Figure 1 – The four approaches of Artificial Intelligence Figure 1 – The four approaches of Artificial Intelligence As you can see in Figure 1 – It shows Four Approaches of Artificial Intelligence. We can then divide the approaches into ‘human centered approach and rationalist approach’. The first human centered approach would be The Cognitive Modeling Approach where machines are able to think humanly. Basically, this approach relies more on Human Psychology. We would have to analyze how the mind works so then it would be implement and express the theory as a computer program into the machine.If the computer program is able to match the timing and human behaviors then it would be possible to program machines like the operations that are already in humans. Then you have the first rationalist approach of â€Å"Laws of Thought† which is when machines are able to think rationally. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher was the first to attempt to classify â€Å"right thinking†. He basically provided the given argument structures which will always generate the correct conclusions given that it is in right environment.The laws that he laid out for the future, became the operation of the mind which then was categorized as logic. With this as their basis, it allows Logicians to build programs within Artificial Intelligence to create intelligent systems in the future. The second human centered approach is the Turing Test approach when computers are able to act humanly when given a set of questions that were prepared by a human. In order for the computer to pass the test it would have to fulfill these criteria: To enable the computer/machine to communicate successfully in English * To store what the computer/machine what it knows or hears * To use stored information to answer questions and to draw new conclusions * To adapt to new circumstances and to detect and conclude patterns Lastly, you would have the second rationalist approach which is the Rational Agent approach where machines are able to act rationally. An agent is something that acts and computer agents have attributes that differentiate them from the other typical programs.A Computer Agent is able to operate by observing their environment, persistence, adapting to change and capable to take on another goal – like humans do. Rational Agent is when it acts to achieve the best outcome even when the situation is vague it is still able to give the ‘best expected outcome’. History of robotics. The early name for Robots was ‘Automaton’ and was very different from modern day robots. They were merely mechanical (often made out of wood), operating in a limited amount of steps. They were mainly created as toys.However, the origin of robots can be dated all the way back the early civilizations and even in myths and legends. The earliest concept of Automaton recorded in history was in 400 B. C when Archytas of Tarentum, a Greek mathematician (also the inventor of screws and pulley) built a mechanical bird of which he called, â€Å"The Pigeon,† This mechanical bird is also believed to serve as one of the first models for modern airplanes. In the period when building robots was believed to be impossible due to lack of resources and limited knowledge, various individuals had their own description/ idea of how a robot should be.They all had different versions but the basic concept was a piece of man-made doll built to serve mankind. The famous artist, Leonardo DaVinci himself had drawn a design consisting of what resembled an armored knight from the medieval times. During the time when computer was yet to be invented, the earlier form of robots came with the use of simple Physics principles consisting of few processes that were repeated throughout and none of them had a brain like today’s robots. Such forms include t he Flute player which played 12 different songs, invented by a French Inventor, Jacques de Vaucanson in 1738.The 19th century was the peak for most robot creations. The term ‘robot’ was first coined by a Czech author, Karel Capek in 1921, where it was introduced in his play, R. U. R (Rossuum’s Universal Robots). The first invention of modern robots only arrived in the early 1950s by George Charles Devor, who invented the first industrial robots (machine arms used in factories). Robots enjoyed their popularity in the 1970s mainly due to the Hollywood movie, ‘Star Wars’ by George Lucas where the plot was set in a future where human beings lived together with robots.The movie allowed people to visualize themselves in the far future and therefore its fame was celebrated widely all over the world. History of Artificial Intelligence The first time that Artificial Intelligence was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy in the Dartmouth Conference. He is one of the founders of AI research and he defined the field by ‘getting a computer to do things when done by people, are said to involve intelligence’. However, in 1950 it was Alan Turing that introduced the Turing Test which is machine learning, genetic algorithms and reinforcement learning.This discovery was not categorized as Artificial Intelligence but Turing was articulate in his 1950 article â€Å"Computing Machinery and Intelligence† which became the step before Artificial Intelligence was recognized by John McCarthy in 1956. The Dartmouth Conference was a stepping stone as it expanded due to a range of theories and principles by dedicated researchers. The first computer was built back in 1941 – but it was not until 1950’s that scientists realized that the link between human intelligence and machines weren’t too farfetched.The concept of Artificial Intelligence was a slow on-going process as it took nearly a decade for scientists and researchers to re-examine the ideas that were formed in the Dartmouth Conference. Nevertheless, it introduced all the major figures of Artificial Intelligence to each other. Evidently, for the next 20 years Artificial Intelligence was dominated by lecturers, students, and colleagues at MIT, CMU, Stanford and IBM. After the Dartmouth Conference, two researchers from Carnegie Tech Newell and Simon developed the ‘Logic Theorist’. In the eyes of other researchers and scientists it was an ‘overoptimistic vision’ from the two scientists.Logic Theorist was a theory that was based on Even though it was a breakthrough for the newly found Artificial Intelligence branch it led them to a bigger success which was the ‘General Problem Solver’. The two researchers Newell and Simon redeemed themselves with their creation of the ‘GPS’. It is a computer program that imitates the way humans solve problems. History of robotics based on artificial intelligence Ro botics is one of the sub divisions in artificial intelligence and as you might not know, it definitely has a rich history behind it. As we all know, history is very important when it comes to understanding a certain topic.We might know a certain something based on what it is now, but what we usually do not know is where it all started. History is something that will enrich your mind about a certain something and will definitely be a helping factor in understanding certain topics. Since, robotics has a really long and wide history, understanding and doing research about it needs a proper timeline to help us keep track of the progressions of it. In 1932, the first real robot was made in Japan. This specific robot was called ‘Lilliput’. It was just merely 15 cm tall and was made out of tinplate.The Japanese had made a big step in innovation and they have been evolving ever since. In 1950, the great Alan Turing proposed a test to determine a fact that stated if a machine ha d the power to think for itself. In order to determine if the machine could pass the test, it was required to be indistinguishable from a human during conversation. This test was named the ‘Turing test’. During the year 1954, the first robot arm was invented by George Devol and John Engleberger. This creation became the first robot to complete general and tasks including multitasking on a factory assembly line in the company General Motors.In 1957, ‘Sputnik’ was launched by the Soviet Union and was called the first artificial orbiting satellite. This marks the beginning of the space race between them and the American people. In 1964, the first computer started to mass produced by IBM 360. The computers we are using today are all based on this particular computer by IBM. In 1969, the United States finally made themselves on to the moon. Using the latest technology of space and robotics, they sent Neil Armstrong onto the moon. The famous ‘R2D2’ f rom the movie Star Wars is now famous among all of us as the talking robot could interact with humans and also perform certain tasks.In 1986 Honda launched the making of a walking humanoid robot. Based on the images describe in movies, Honda wanted to build a similar object which was real. Although it was tough, Honda tried their best. Also in the same year, LEGO started producing educational products that was done to contribute to younger generation to give them a clearer picture of how robots were like. Until today, we can see LEGO products still on shelves at supermarkets and toy stores. From the small picture of robot, to the real thing, it shows that it all started from an idea to a real one. In 1994, the University of Carnegie invented an eight-legged walking robot.This spectacular robot was used for a historic evolution in robotics. This robot was used to collect volcanic gas samples from Mt spur. The name of this robot was ‘Dante II’. After the successful projec t, it proved that humans were able to build a robot that was heat-resistant. This was important because humans managed to achieve an incredible feat because robots could now be used to go to places that even humans will have a hard time going. On May 11 1997, a world was chess champion was defeated at this own game by an IBM built computer which was called ‘Deep Blue’.This achievement was amazing due to the fact that now a machine built by humans could now challenge a complex human mind. In the same year, Lego launched the first Robotics invention system that used small components that are also educational for kids. This small model was key to the development of robots because humans could experiment future creations. In 1999, Sony released the first version of AIBO which was robotic dog which had the ability to entertain, learn and also communicate with its owner. This invention was a hit in the market and SONY made plenty of profit from t and production was continued with newer and more sophisticated models. The main target market for this product was for children, many of them were amazed by the abilities of this robotic dog, and all of this was made possible by the evolution of robotics itself. In the millennium of 2000, Honda made an improved version of its creation by introducing the robot ASIMO which was a new generation of humanoid robots. Honda which is a car company took a risk of venturing out of their field to robotics and all of it paid off when the robot made an incredible display at many international technology exhibitions worldwide.In 2008, robotics made a grand entrance into the household department by the introduction of the Roomba robotic vacuum which has since sold over 2. 5 million units worldwide. A huge demand was set for this robotic mechanism and is still being produced until today. Lastly, by the timeline explained above, we get to see how robotics has vastly improved in the field of artificial intelligence. It was also beneficial from the olden times until the new era of today. Without the inventions and ideas that were given by inventors of the past, robotics has since developed into a field that humans need in their daily lives.Status is temporary, history is permanent. Evolution in technology in robotics. The birth of robots were mainly celebrated in the West but as time passed, the East had done more for the development and growth in technologies in the robotic field of which Japan is one of the leading countries, contributing to positive opinions among the public regarding humanoid robots. For a form of entertainment for the aristocrats in the 18th century to helping hands in the 19th century, robots have almost taken over job sectors where accurate thinking and high workforce is needed.From Mechanical automatons made partially out of wood that were just invented to awe the public, technology in robots have been developed to act autonomously, which means a robot can do a task without the pres ence of a human. The field of artificial intelligence has given life to modern day robots. Hundred years back, it would have been controversial for a robot to replace a man’s job but robots have been slowly implemented into the contemporary society over the years that it has become a norm to find a factory once filled with people, now with just the presence of the repetitive monotonous sound of machines.Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence as it is today, had taken a lot of improvements and is still improving. All of this was made possible by the evolution of it. Evolution plays an important role in anything. Without evolution a new technology could not be vastly improved. To start if off, in 1941 the first electronic computer was named Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) and was introduced to the world. At this time artificial intelligence was not fully recognized yet but this was where it all started. In 1949, the first computer stored program was created . This program was also made commercial.BINAC was a big success because it made a big leap for technology as a whole. In ran a test program which consisted of 23 instructions. Although, it did not have full working functionality, it was still considered the first commercial stored program. In 1956, the Dartmouth conference was held in Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. This was where artificial intelligence was born. This particular conference gave scientists and idea of the benefits of artificial intelligence to humans around the world. Furthermore, this conference did set some critical goals to be achieved in the future. In 1958, the lisp language was invented.This is a programming language which was created to develop a clear list of programming language. In addition to that, lisp machines were specially designed to run lisp programs. Without the creation of these machines, the lisp language could not used to its fullest potential. Today, lisp language still dominates the artifi cial intelligence category and is still widely used around the world. In 1963, ‘DOD’ started their advanced research projects. Now, ‘DOD’ is called DARPA which stands for Defense Advanced Research Project Agency was created after the launch of ‘SPUTNIK 1’ which was the first artificial satellite to be placed in orbit.This agency first dealt solely on space-related projects. When all the agenda’s were taken over by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, they were almost closed down. But that did not prevent them from continuing their verge into the depths of artificial intelligence; they started to conduct research into stealth technology and continuously branched out step by step. Without this particular agency, research into Artificial Intelligence would have stopped long ago. This agency played a big role into the evolution of artificial intelligence as a whole unit.In 1968, the first Micro world Program was invented. This program was named SHRDLU. This program was created to improve the evolving nature of artificial intelligence. Usually, normal scientist will tend to ignore less relevant details. They want to concentrate more on the important details. In artificial intelligence, this could not be done due to the delicate and in-depth nature of it. With this program, artificial intelligence could ensure that programs were capable of intelligent behavior in such a way that simpler forms of the artificial world can be accessed to micro worlds.In 1970 the first expert system was developed. This system was developed by Edward Feigenbaum and Joshua Ledeberg from the University of Stanford in California. Basically, this program was invented to overcome manpower. This program is able to do tasks that regularly need human expertise to complete. With this creation, manpower was reduced significantly. In the year 1972, Prolog Language was revealed. This programming language became a serious competitor to LISP which was widely used before. Until today, these two programming languages are still competing with each other until present.The new significant difference that Prolog Language brought to the world was its ability to make us give emphasis on logical relations between object and entities that are relevant to a certain problem rather than taking procedural steps to deal with it. This gave people a choice of which programming language they preferred. In the year 1986, a total of 425 million U. S dollars was earned from the sales of artificial intelligence based software. During this time artificial intelligence proved that it had an actual stronghold area in the market which was demanded by the world.In 1991, the Artificial Intelligence system was put to test in a military test system which was called ‘Desert Storm’. This was an effective evolution in artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence system was used in missile systems by the military and also other military advancements. In addition to that, Apple Macintosh and IBM started to use voice recognition systems that make computers more user-friendly. Day by day the demand for the Artificial Intelligence technology has risen more and more day by day.New advancements and technologies have started to become available to us. Artificial Intelligence has become inevitable for us not to use on a daily basis. In the future, the evolution of artificial intelligence will continue to prosper with time. If evolution stops, things will stay stagnant as it is and we would stop improving. Latest Technology in Robotics In recent years, there’s this ideology that ‘Robots could replace Humans in the Future’. It is a debatable subject in Robotics that due to the constant evolution of technology is making it easier for robots to replace Humans.However, there’s still time for scientists to realize the full potential of Robotics with help from technology. This statement might be proven right as there’s already known robots that are able to execute tasks by thinking analytically by using the set of algorithms and rules that are already built into the robots in order to ‘think like a human’. Robots are the most commonly known examples of Artificial Intelligence and scientists are being more and more innovative by creating more sophisticated and user friendly robots to society.Robots are applicable to any kind of field; it’s already used in Healthcare, Entertainment, Business, Communication and Psychology. So far, no machine is able to pass the ‘Turing Test’ but there are a few machines that made a mark in Artificial Intelligence History. Watson – IBM’s supercomputer that was able to defeat two human beings at the trivia game show Jeopardy. Not only that, this supercomputer managed to beat the reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov. There’s still room for improvement but so far Robotics is just able to perform only a fraction of what human is able to do.The latest technology is ECCEROBOT 2 (Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot). It’s basically the first robot to mimic human form with not just the outward form of a human but it also copies the inner structures such as bones, joints, muscles, etc. With this new found breakthrough, researchers are still investigating its human like actions and interactions which has potential and should be built upon for the mere future. The Humanoid robots are finally getting recognition in society and are gaining support from all sci-fi geeks all over the world.Contribution of Robots to the human society. In this modern era, where it has become easier for humans to lose social skills and the ability to take care of others, artificially intelligent robots have taken their place in society; doing the jobs that originally belonged to human. As people’s obligation to take care of their elderly has dissipated in most dev eloped society where individuality mindset have been encouraged, technologies in the robotics fields like nursing robots have filled in the places of nurses and care takers.Robots have not only been created to help the elderly and disabled but has been invented in order to keep children pre-occupied and entertained as the once male-dominated society slowly adapts to the emancipation of woman and the balance in the gender equality. Robots have filled in both the roles of younger caring generation and the elderly watchful eyes. Autonomous robots have been sent as far to space as well where human beings cannot survive due to the condition of it. They have brought back the evidences of outer space, travelling further than human beings and feeding nswers to curious minds. Mankind has created robots in order to serve them but as years have passed, these artificially intelligence machines have surpassed their own masters. Latest Technology in Artificial Intelligence Technology in artificia l intelligence has never stopped developing since we stepped into the millennium due the abundance of technology that is found day by day. With that, latest technology in this field is an important thing to highlight due to the fact that it continues to amaze us by the things artificial intelligence can manage to do.First of all, recently in 2011, an artist and composer by the name of Benjamin Grosser invented an interactive robotic painting machine. This was done after he decided to explore the realms of artificial intelligence and art. Basically, what the robot could do was it could listen to itself with the microphones placed into the machine. After listening to itself, it would paint out an image based on what it interprets after listening to the sounds. Two trays of paint would be placed in between a piece of canvas, and a mechanical arm will perform the painting.Although this technology could not be classified as pass or a fail, it depends on different people. Some would like the fact that a robot can paint, and some would just prefer the old fashioned way. Furthermore, the invention of the SOINN robot by the Japanese has managed to impress us. SOINN which stands for Self Organizing Incremental Neural Network is a revolutionary robot which is able to perform tasks that are related to exploring a new situation and learning how to do it. For example, the robot is able to learn how to pour water into a glass and make it cold by placing ice cubes into the glass.After that, it gives the water to a person. Before the robot starts the task, it tries to acclimatize itself to what is located around it. With this, it performs it tasks better. Moreover, what amazes us even more is when the robot has both of its hands full because it has to decide which item to put down in order to pick up another one. What the researches in Japan have done is create a robot with no specific list of pre-created commands that it has to follow. Therefore the robot is able to think by itself and decide what to do in any given situation.The SOINN robot can also connect itself to the internet and also other robots to help gather information from the web. The researches have provided the robot with power to gain knowledge for it in order to complete any given task that is assigned to it without fail. What we gain for this is a generation of robots that are independent enough to think for itself and complete human related tasks that may seem impossible to complete before the invention of this prime piece of technology. As the research goes on, a new found technology by Toyota has been able to attract many people around the world.Toyota has been able to create a prototype of a smart car which is fitted with voice recognition and also able to detect human motion. This smart car was inspired by video games and mainly the XBOX360. The reason behind this is mainly due to the kinect technology that has been introduced by Microsoft into its game platform. What kinect does i s basically detecting human motion and turning it into a physical action that a human was supposed to perform. But now, with this technology, all a human has to do is just ensure that the machines understand the motions that are made.For example, when a person is walking towards the car, this prototype is able to detect it and will open the car door. All of this was inspired by the revolution of video gaming consoles. This prototype car will be power by a 100 volt AC voltage and is expecting to have many more features. Although this car is still at prototype level, it will take a few more years to make it into reality. With time, more improvements can be made to ensure the car is suitable for everyone in the world. In the health care industry, artificial intelligence has combined with biochemical understanding to help those in needs.For example, recently it was Memorial Day for soldiers in the United States who have served in Iraq. And for one lucky soldier, Lt. Col. Greg Ganson, hi s dreams of walking again came to life when he was gifted a pair of prosthetic legs. These pair of prosthetic legs is called Power Knee2 which will enable amputees the walk again with more safety and confidence combined together. This is no ordinary prosthetic leg because this one users the combination of artificial intelligence and sensors to make the walking process a better one.Furthermore what the inventors did was connect the prosthetic leg via sensors using Bluetooth to a laptop. This was done during the process of walking to make some required adjustments to the legs to ensure comfort. It is also fully customizable and differs from person to person. Moreover it gives everyone a better chance of achieving what they can get out of real legs. So far, this new invention has made some improvement based on the early 2006 model which was called power knee. This new model is able to adapt to situations such as if a person wants to sit down, climb a fleet of stairs or even lie down.Th e inbuilt sensor will detect these situations and adjust the stiffness of the prosthetic legs. All in all, the latest technology in artificial intelligence has surpassed a lot of expectations and will definitely have the capability to expand even more with the sands of time. Regardless in any field, artificial intelligence benefited. Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology in Artificial Intelligence Technology in Artificial Intelligence is quite a controversial topic – the society’s opinions are quite divided but they cannot stop the Future of Technology as it is constantly evolving.The pros and cons are quite straight forward. Based on several articles, there are several advantages that was constantly brought up * Evolving Relationship of Humans with Computation * Increases Job opportunities * Machines complete the task faster than a human The first point to be discussed would be the ‘Evolving Relationship of Humans with Computation’. The newer and old er generation is welcoming this new era of Modern Technology being used in Artificial Intelligence. It’s at the society’s dispense – it will be there whenever users wants to use it.The second point will be the increased job opportunities for humans to be more specialized in a specific field in order to be more innovative in building new and improved versions of Artificial Intelligence theories. The last and final point will be about technology constantly evolving. This would then increase the level of Artificial Intelligence which will make it even harder for humans to execute the tasks. Which means that it doesn’t require much resources as the machine has the ‘best outcomes’ possible built into the program.This becomes less time consuming as it requires less time for the machine to gather information and resources in comparison if a human was handed this task. This is when Artificial Intelligence is at its advantage – they are emotion less, more efficient and lightens the burden on the human when it comes to doing dangerous or far too complex problems. Along with the pros, there will always be cons that go along with it. There are several disadvantages of Technology in Artificial Intelligence that is not really supported by the intelligent educated people that dare question the theories of Artificial Intelligence in Technology in general.These are the several disadvantages that was brought up * Human Feel * Misuse of this technology * Ability to replace a human job The first disadvantage will be the ‘human feel’ – robots inability to feel the emotional understanding for humans. This will cause the machines lacking in the ability to sympathize with the human situation and this would cause them to act irrationally as a consequence. It’s beyond the company’s responsible for the robots – which results to no-one getting the blame for the machine’s faults. The second disa dvantage will be the ‘misuse of this technology’.Countries are always prepared for war, so with countries in the race of getting the best defense systems if this technology gets into the wrong hands it can inevitably cause mass damage. Artificial Intelligence is also getting incorporated into military training – getting autonomous robot troops to get sent first before the human troops. For example, in the US – they are already testing on this theory which cost them almost twenty five million dollars for just a test run. Its quite a huge risk to take if the technology aren’t able to support the specific needs to minimize damage on the humans.Also, with technology evolving – people are able to hack the system of these robotic troops which can backfire the source control. The third and last disadvantage is that with technology constantly evolving humans are feeling threatened in fear of losing their jobs. Technology has different branches of Art ificial Intelligence and robotics has played a major role in this new era of Technology taking over society. This would then lead to mass unemployment in the future if the future of Technology in Artificial Intelligence is progressing forward. Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial IntelligenceIn everything single that you do in this world, no matter in what field, there will always be advantages and disadvantages. It’s how they co-relate with each other in everything that we do. In artificial intelligence, different people have different views about it and because of that this research aims to see what those advantages and disadvantages are and how they relate with us. First of all we will talk about the disadvantages of artificial intelligence to give us a better picture of the bad side to this technology phenomenon. The first one is over dependency.When we feel too reliable towards something, we forget that those machines were made by humans. Therefore, machines are no t perfect in every sense and can malfunction and any given point or time. If we are too reliable on them and they fail on us, we will be stuck at a point without any solutions to deal with the situation at hand. We always need to have some sort of backup plan to ensure that if the machines fail, we can overcome the situation straight away and not make any losses or any sorts. The second disadvantage is the lack of human feel. We humans always have a certain touch towards something and of course we have emotions as well.For machines, they don’t have the emotional values to relate with us humans therefore some decisions made could be fatal to us. The more we try to eliminate the number of manpower in our industries; we lack the human feel day by day. It might be good at a point of time or even fatal at another point of time. To stick on the safe side, we should keep the human feel present at all times to keep rationality present in what we do. Besides that, some people think th at artificial intelligence is unethical in a way. To us, we believe intelligence is a gift from god and should be valued not cloned into something.This form of so called ‘playing god’ is not fancied by many. On the other hand we can look at this in different ways. Some people might want to keep their intelligence to themselves but others might want to share it to the world in different forms. With this, everything goes both ways because if our intelligence is captured by the wrong people, misuse of it can lead to unwanted events. On the other hand, if we keep our knowledge to ourselves, the world will not expand in such a way because if we share it with many, more theories and more development will be present and therefore expand the network on artificial intelligence.This is definitely crucial at this era. If machines are able to do all our jobs, we will definitely lose our jobs at the hands of those machines. When everything task is done by machines, the human workfor ce will definitely have a significant decline. The ones most affected will be the ones at the lower levels of management. The higher ones will act as supervisors and with a click of button, machines can be controlled. With many people not having jobs, the crime rate will definitely go up and people will end up committing suicide just to ease their pain.Although machines are able to perform our daily tasks, we still need a workforce to operate them and ensure that everything is running smoothly. If the machines malfunction and there is no workforce, more money will be spent in fixing the machines rather than the salary of every single person working. Having a machine do something will definitely be less time consuming, but having a person operating it and making sure that it is running at full efficiency is something that will benefit us.Furthermore, if machines keep on doing everything for us, the new generation will be born and labeled as a lazy bunch. The new generation will not k now what doing work feels like because machines are doing everything for them. This will also lead to health issues such as obesity. More and more people will be staying at home instead of going out to work. This health issue poses a serious health risk for every country in the world. More and more people will be unhealthy and soon many problems will occur in this world.We should move forward with time and technology but sometimes we just have to think of the consequences before doing a certain thing to ensure both time and consequence are well taken care of in every aspect possible. All these disadvantages stated should be always lingering in our minds so that we remember what will happen if we fail to deal with it. Although the disadvantages of artificial intelligence sounds bad in a way, but there is always some good in it. Listing the disadvantages first opened us up to the possible bad effects of artificial intelligence.In the following page I will continue on discussing the ad vantages of artificial intelligence. When both of this combines, you will get to see a brighter picture on what artificial intelligence really mean to us. Seeing the disadvantages only might give us a bad impression straight away but when we the see the following advantages I will change our mind on our lives of artificial intelligence. To say it is a bad thing, we would jump to conclusions because we our ourselves are the ones who created artificial intelligence and for us not to see the good part it would be a waste to humanity.We only live once and we must make the most of it every single time. The first advantage of artificial intelligence is dealing with the jobs that require human intelligence. Humans are complex organisms with a huge amount of capabilities. For a machine to clone the human brain is amazing and can be considered a good technology innovation. If machines are able to cope with jobs that are supposed to be done by humans, we will be more productive as now we have two brains working as one. With that, it expands the human knowledge in such a way to keep improving time.Before the invention of these things, humans will have to risk their lives during things that seemed very hard to get done. Now, with machines being able to take over their place, it will be a safer method for humans to get work done and no lives have to be risked in the line of work. Safety is one of the main factors of job application in the working world. When people see that a job that used to be risky now has a new method to reduce it, more people would be interested in joining the workforce and thus eliminates the rater of poverty and also homeless people.With more jobs offered, a country will prosper more in the economic sector due to more people working and will contribute in giving the company more help in combination with the machines. Secondly, machines do not stop and get tired. Machines are strictly powered by electric sources and therefore will keep on going no ma tter what are the odds. Humans on the other hand get tired and have certain hours of work; therefore they can only work for certain period of time. For example, if a company is producing cigarettes and needs to have more production done day by day.If this needs to be done, humans can only do it to a certain extent because they need breaks and need to go home. If machines are there to continue the work left off during the night, by the next day double the production will be present. When machines are at work humans can rest and this makes everyone happier in such a way. Artificial intelligence also reduces the risk of anyone getting sick with illness. If a person has to work overtime and is always at the office, the risk of that person getting ill with be high.And what was just pointed out was only for one person, what if it was a whole group of people? More and more people will be affected by this and increase the health risk posed. When machines are there, humans will not have to p ush to limit in everything they do, machines can do it for them and this will save all the hassle of getting ill and having to be admitted to hospital. If this is eliminated, everyone will be living healthy and happy at the same time due the good relationship between man and machine. Next, artificial intelligence has lead to serve as aids. Mainly it has contributed as health aids.People with disabilities now have a place to turn to and technology to help them get through life which is already tough at hand. Nowadays, more and more health related problems are thrown to us with a big bang without a certain solution. With the help of artificial intelligence and research, now medical treatment for these diseases and even machines have been created to help us get through these tough times. Now not only adults have health problems or disabilities, children are now climbing up the list of people with health problems. The death rate will definitely go down with these new inventions as we al l have something that may help us n a way to cure the pain and the sickness. If we manage to overcome all these health problems with the help of technology, the world would turn into a happier place and not a place which leads us to endure suffering instead of happiness in our lives. Lastly, the power that artificial intelligence holds is limitless in such a way that it has the power to do everything that is thinkable and not thinkable. Humans tend to make errors and by us knowing this fact, we are able to program a certain machine to ensure that the machine does not make the same mistakes.By doing this less mistakes will be made and everything will run smoothly as planned. Rather than us learning from our mistakes, we should program it to a computer because a computer does not make any mistakes. We would then expand the boundaries of everything on this earth because if we stop moving forward we will stop the flow of technology as a whole and thus stop improving on what we have now. At the end of the day, all we can do is look at the future and ensure that we have now will get better in time.We definitely are not able to predict the future and the challenges we are going to face but what we can do is take good care of the resources in technology that we have now and nurture and improve them day by day until we reach the future. All we can do is hope for the best and that everything we have now will be relevant in the upcoming years of our lives. We should ensure that the advantages of artificial intelligence do not turn into disadvantages and the disadvantages should be always remembered and not turn into something far more worst.We strongly believe that artificial intelligence has gave us and is going to give us more good than bad because it was invented by humans for a reason and the main reason is to help other humans. If it was bad, we could have seen far worst consequences. Even though I think of it as a good thing, we should always remember not to let it fall in the wrong hands with crazy minds to protect this world. Conclusion As the world becomes very advanced in technology, it has been hard to keep up with the ever-so growing advancement into the computerized world. The robotic technology has benefited the human kind greatly in various ways.However, as people lose their heads in this advanced society, they have failed to realize that robots are a helping hand and a guide, not a replacement. There are fields robot cannot fill in the position for a human but as robots become more intelligent, people find themselves turning lazier. Half of the population in the developed world has become dependent on robot personals and misuses robots by over-using them. Robots have made people’s lives comfortable and safer. However, at the same time they have caused the world’s employment rate to plummet and some jobs to extinct.As the popular belief goes â€Å"If you suffer now, you will enjoy later- if you enjoy now, you will suff er later†, this is a very true saying that shows that in order to achieve happiness, people have to go through hardship but however, if we are lazy and don’t go through any hardship, there will be a time we pay the price for it which here could be set as an example for a sluggish human being relying on robots to do everything. For people who encourage the full implementation of robots with artificial intelligence into the working sector, they have failed to see beyond their own comfort and at other people’s situation.If the society was one day supposed to be run by robots, then there wouldn’t be any need for human kinds. Therefore, although there is the resource and the knowledge to create robots, while appreciating the tasks they have done for us, we also have to realize our limits and set a bar to how dependant on robots do we really want to be? 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