Monday, December 23, 2019

Othello, By William Shakespeare - 1264 Words

â€Å"Honest† Iago In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, Iago manipulates other characters in an iniquitous way causing commotion and destruction in all of their lives. He uses malicious tactics to negatively affect faultless characters who have done nothing to intentionally harm him. In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is a character shaped by jealousy and hunger for power. He is ruthless and immoral, and manipulates nearly all the characters in the play in order to get what he wants. Throughout the play, Iago is motivated by his deep hatred of Othello, and will do whatever he can to undermine Othello and destroy his marriage and reputation. Iago knows that Venetians are mistrustful of Moors, and uses general racism towards Moors to attack Othello in any way he can. He knows that Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, is racist towards Moors and would not approve of Othello’s marriage to his daughter. He tells Brabantio, who does not know of the marriage: â€Å"You have lost half y our soul. Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise!† (1.1.96-98). Iago wants revenge on Othello, and he is willing to stoop to the lowest possible level to get that revenge. He knows that by highlighting Othello’s race, he can provoke Brabantio to hate Othello, so he reveals Othello and Desdemona’s secret in this context, and Brabantio immediately vows to kill Othello. He also evokes images that are sexual and animalistic in nature by referring to Othello as a ramShow MoreRelatedOthello, By William Shakespeare957 Words   |  4 Pagesinnocent person kills himself while not knowing the truth. The best example of that would be the play Othello by the great William Shakespeare. As little as a handkerchief could make a difference if it is a symbol for something. In the play Othello by Shakespeare, handkerchief is first introduced by Othello to his beautiful mistress, Desdemona, as a sign of their love. At the end of the pla y what gets Othello to take extreme measures by the location of the handkerchief. As the symbol of the handkerchiefRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1599 Words   |  7 Pages William Shakespeare’s 16th century play Othello is a duplicitous and fraudulent tale set alternatingly between Venice in act 1, and the island of Cyprus thereafter. The play follows the scandalous marriage between protagonist Othello, a Christian moore and the general of the army of Venice, and Desdemona, a respected and intelligent woman who also happens to be the daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio. Shakespeare undoubtedly positions the marriage to be viewed as heroic and noble, despiteRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1218 Words   |  5 PagesIn a historical time period where emphasis was shifting from religion to race and ethnicity, key indicators of differences that perpetuated into racial prejudice and racial ideologies are evident in Othello by William Shakespeare. Although racism was not fully formed at this moment in history, Othello can be interpreted as a representation and an exploration of this shift in ideology. In the past, before this change to ward racial differences, religion was the major segretory factor in signifyingRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare894 Words   |  4 Pagesthose that which occurred in Othello written by William Shakespeare. Throughout the play Othello, we see the struggles of a marriage that is not accepted by their society. Othello is a extremely cherished black general living in a primarily white community. The play begins with Othello secretly becoming married to a white woman named Desdemona. This reasons others who are white to become angry and excuse to dislike this black man further more than they already do. Othello is a downward spiral from loveRead MoreOthello by William Shakespeare790 Words   |  3 PagesThroughout Othello by William Shakespeare, Othello makes numerous poor decisions due to his jealousy. Hitting Desdemona, trusting Iago, and killing Desdemona are among a few of the poor decisions that he makes. The word jealous can be defined as feeling or showing suspicion of som eones unfaithfulness in a relationship. Othello feels suspicious of Desdemona’s and Cassio’s relationship because of the lies that Iago tells him. Many people try to tell Othello the truth but he only believes the wordsRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1923 Words   |  8 Pagesdissatisfaction or complication is shown. Firstly in Othello love is presented as ephemeral and transient while atonement love is presented as unrequited and finally in cat on a hot tin roof love is presented as painful and troublesome due to unreciprocated feelings. The tragic plot of Othello hinges on the potential of the villain, Iago, to deceive other characters, above all Roderigo and Othello, through encouraging them to misinterpret what they see. Othello is prone to Iago s ploys seeing that he himselfRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare941 Words   |  4 Pageswas Williams Shakespeare’s play Othello which depicts the tragedy of Othello, a Morris Captain. What is different about Shakespeare play is that the tragic hero is the black Othello and the villain a white Iago. Therefore, Shakespeare depiction of Othello as a tragic character and Iago as a villain, challenges Elizabethan’s stereotypes regarding individuals of African descent. Shakespeare challenges the stereotypical â€Å"type –casting of the black man† in Elizabethan society by depicting Othello asRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1152 Words   |  5 Pages‘Othello’ was a tragedy of incomprehension at the deepest level of human dealings as no one in the play came to an understanding of himself or any of the surrounding characters. The play ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare focused on tragedy through the anguish of the main character ‘Othello’ which lead to the suffering and death of numerous characters including himself. Appearance Vs. Reality challenged human dealings within the play ‘Othello’ as no-one came to see anyone’s true self and no-one seesRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1178 Words   |  5 Pagesprofitable in condition of good and immorality. Othello is presented as good and Iago as evil, but Iago and Othello’s relationship also shares a distrust of their wives. The overall logical argument is based on love, jealousy and betrayal between two lovers that ultimately leads to their separation because of Iago’s evil plan. I am using this article to agree with Berry s view on how Iago separates two lovers just so he can take retaliation on Othello by manipulating everyone to unmasking their trueRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1825 Words   |  8 PagesWilliam Shakespeare’s plays transcends time and is renowned for their captivating plots and complex characters. Othello by William Shakespeare is a tragedy play that portrays major themes such as racism, manipulation, and jealousy just to name a few. Throughout the whole play, these themes are represented through the conniving character from the play, Iago. Out of all the plays Shakespeare has written, Iago is believed to be the most complex villain of all times. During the play, Othello, a black

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Cloud Based IT Solutions Free Essays

For effective team communication, data on cloud is greatly appreciated as it lessens the number of mail threads and attachments. The members are given edit permissions to simultaneously update the file and the administrator can manage the application and the users.Cost Effective and ScalableBuying software and deploying in individual systems involves a lot of money and hardware space. We will write a custom essay sample on Cloud Based IT Solutions or any similar topic only for you Order Now Hence Small Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) prefer using cloud applications to minimize cost. Other benefits include automatic updates and periodical maintenance, unlimited storage capacity and easy access from any geographical location. Pay-as-you-go model is common on all cloud applications or rather it’s one-time payment and above all the services are scalable according to the end user’s requirement without any impact on the performance. To ensure security measures have been implemented the service provider issues service level agreements (SLAs) to the legitimate users.DisadvantagesAlthough there are lots of pros in cloud computing, one has to accept the fact there can always be an outage or some technical problems. There’s a high risk involved in transferring confidential data to cloud and hence the company’s are expected to make sure their data is secured with their service provider. Hackers steal data from a physical machine through side-channel attack by monitoring the cached data from a virtual machine. Side-channel attacks are a class of attacks where an attacker attempts to assess the state of a cryptographic device and its contents. Botnet attack is yet another crucial issue when malicious codes are injected where the authentic users are denied access. Kourik states â€Å"new vulnerabilities inherent to Cloud computing include breaches from one virtual computing space to another, misappropriation of session security from web protocols, and limited encryption capabilities in many protocols.†(2011) Due to resource pooling, the data entered by the previous user may be retrieved through data recovery and accessed by the current allocated user.The other issues include failure to access data during internet downtime (typically during natural calamities) and flexibility to swap other cloud applications and delayed or no prompt customer support. Although the SLAs are produced by the service provider, the user is bound to do the due diligence periodically as there are possibilities of having difference administrative laws throughout the world. References: ADDIN EN.REFLIST Ali, M., Khan, S. U., Vasilakos, A. V. (2015). Security in cloud computing: Opportunities and challenges. Information Sciences, 305, 357. Anca, A., Florina, P., Geanina, U., George, S., Gyorgy, T. (2014). New Classes of Applications in the Cloud. Evaluating Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing for Telemetry Applications. Database Systems Journal(1), 3-14. Choo, K.-K. R. (2010). Cloud computing: challenges and future directions.(Trends amp; issues)(Report). Trends amp; Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, 1. How to cite Cloud Based IT Solutions, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart free essay sample

A critical review of this post-colonial novel. This paper analyzes the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. It shows how the novel offers an inside view of a post-colonial society and of how the colonial era continues to affect that society at every level. We will write a custom essay sample on Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It looks at how Achebe creates a parallel between the personal tragedy of his village and the way colonialism destroys native African cultures. The paper concludes by proposing that the heart of this story describes Nigerias colonial experience. `The era of European imperialism brought together the cultures of Europe with those of many regions considered backward and in need of guidance, and countries like Britain imposed their political, social, and sometimes moral views on different peoples around the world. This process created tension, dissension, and resentment in different groups in these countries. A writer like Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart offers an inside view of a post-colonial society and of how the colonial era continues to affect that society at every level. He structures the novel first to provide a picture of village under its own control, as it were, and then introduces the European powers that are actually ruling the village and the rest of the country from afar. By introducing the story of Okonkwo first, Achebe creates a parallel between the personal tragedy of him and his village and the way colonialism destroys native African cultures.`

Saturday, November 30, 2019

The Motive Of Imposters Essays - Italian Films, British Films

The Motive of Imposters William Shakespeare attained literary immortality through his exposition of the many qualities of human nature in his works. One such work, The Merchant of Venice, revolves around the very human trait of deception. Fakes and frauds have been persistent throughout history, even to this day. Evidence of deception is all around us, whether it is in the products we purchase or the sales clerks' false smile as one debates the purchase of the illusory merchandise. We are engulfed by phonies, pretenders, and cheaters. Although most often associated with a heart of malice, imposture varies in its motives as much as it's practitioners, demonstrated in The Merchant of Venice by the obdurate characters of Shylock and Portia. We frequently see the intent of greed and selfishness covered up by the words and face of virtue. Such exploit is displayed by the exceptionally stingy Shylock, an unpopular Jew who makes his living through the practice of usury. When confronted about his unsympathetic trade, he resorts to citing scripture, thus comparing his selfish trade with the actions of holy men (I, iii, 73-87). Antonio, a well respected and honorable merchant, sees right through the falsehood of the justification and asks Shylock, "Was this inserted to make interest good? Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams?" (I, iii, 91-92). The response from Shylock to the question reveals a glimpse of his true meaning. "I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast" (I, iii, 93-94) is a rather boastful reply of his wealth than a righteous rationalization. To which Antonio can only turn to his friend and say "The devil can site Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling chee k" (I, iii, 95-97). Words alone are not the only means by which imposters operate. A far more effective mode is one that fools the eye for it cannot pierce through the surface. Portia, the new wife of Antonio's friend, dresses as a lawyer in order to deceive the court. However, unlike Shylock's motive, Portia's intent is far more noble and selfless. She manipulates the law in such a way to save Antonio from certain death by the hand of Shylock. Through the eyes of the law, the imposture of a lawyer, especially by a woman at that time, was seen as extremely illicit. But Portia saw impersonation as the only means by which to save a man's life. The action more than warranted the cause. Unquestionably a motive of honorable ethical values. The distinction between the intentions of Shylock and Portia is clear. Even though Portia did save the life of a noble man, she did use deception in order to do so. Nevertheless, one may argue that imposture of any form is dishonesty and the motive behind it cannot change that. The only way to preserve absolute truth would be with steadfast integrity. -Stan Szubiak, 9/22/99

Monday, November 25, 2019

44 Landlocked Countries That Dont Touch an Ocean

44 Landlocked Countries That Don't Touch an Ocean Approximately one-fifth of the worlds countries are landlocked, meaning they have no access to the oceans. There are 44 landlocked countries that do not have direct access to an ocean or ocean-accessible sea (such as the Mediterranean Sea). Why Is Being Landlocked an Issue? While a country such as Switzerland has thrived despite its lack of access to the worlds oceans, being landlocked has many disadvantages. Some landlocked countries rank among the poorest in the world. Some of the issues of being landlocked include: Lack of access to fishing and oceanic food sourcesHigh transportation and transit costs because of a lack of access to ports and world shipping operationsGeopolitical vulnerabilities from dependence on neighboring countries for access to world markets and natural resourcesMilitary limitations because of the lack of naval options What Continents Have No Landlocked-Countries? North America has no landlocked countries, and Australia is rather obviously not landlocked. Within the United States, over half of the 50 states are landlocked with no direct access to the worlds oceans. Many states, however, do have water access to the oceans via the Hudson Bay, Chesapeake Bay, or Mississippi River. Landlocked Countries in South America South America has just two landlocked countries: Bolivia and Paraguay. Landlocked Countries in Europe Europe has 14 landlocked countries: Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Vatican City. Landlocked Countries in Africa Africa has 16 landlocked countries: Botswana, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Lesotho is unusual in that it is landlocked by just one country (South Africa). Landlocked Countries in Asia Asia has 12 landlocked countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Note that several of the countries in western Asia border the landlocked Caspian Sea, a feature that does open some transit and trade opportunities. Disputed Regions that Are Landlocked Four regions that are not fully recognized as independent countries are landlocked: Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Transnistria. What Are the Two Doubly-Landlocked Countries? There are two, special, landlocked countries that are known as doubly-landlocked countries, completely surrounded by other landlocked countries. The two doubly-landlocked countries are Uzbekistan (surrounded by Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) and Liechtenstein (surrounded by Austria and Switzerland). What Is the Largest Landlocked Country? Kazakhstan is the worlds ninth largest country but is the worlds largest landlocked country. Its 1.03 million square miles (2.67 million km2) and is bordered by Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the landlocked Caspian Sea. What Are the Most Recently Added Landlocked Countries? The most recent addition to the list of landlocked countries is South Sudan which gained independence in 2011. Serbia is also a recent addition to the list of landlocked countries. The country formerly had access to the Adriatic Sea, but when Montenegro became an independent country in 2006, Serbia lost its ocean access. Edited by Allen Grove.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Analyzing Pilgrims From The Orient Form A Literature Perspective

Analyzing Pilgrims From The Orient Form A Literature Perspective Literary Analysis of Pilgrims from the Orient Comprehension: Pilgrims from the Orient is about Jade Snow Wongs youthful years with her parents. Wong was expected to be a perfect girl. She was taught the finest manners that her parents could teach. Wongs father is an entrepreneur and he tried to make a living by having his own business. This man is described as strict, but not talkative. Among his number of attempts of opening new businesses, his most successful business is mass producing denim garments. Wongs mother was dutiful in her tasks. When she was done with one thing, she would start on another. She would waste no time. She lived by the moral of working and saving. Wongs family had to work hard to keep their business alive and this was no exception to Wong herself. Not only did Wong have to work, but she was also expected to learn the English language and her native tongue. Being a girl, Wong didnt have the same privileges as her eldest brother, but Wong was taught that his privileges were his birthright. Knowing this, Wong didnt think much of it and accepted it as it is. Wongs parents had a strong bond with Chinese heritage. None is allowed to show physical affection, talk back, argue, or show gratitude for service. During the Depression, Wongs parents needed more hours of work from everybody, including Jade Wong. Because her father didnt have enough time to buy groceries and her mother had no time to waste on cooking, Wong was assumed both duties. Even with all of the tasks Wong was pitted against, she still managed to finish junior high school. As Wong advanced to high school, she had to work in part-time jobs to earn money to support her own self. During her high school years, Wong was introduced to non-Chinese customs. During these introductions, Wong compared her Chinese life with her American life. She compared the teachers and the ideals of both cultures. By the time Wong had finished high school, she had moved away to work for room and board. Her father, who is conservative about money, had Wong pay for h er own college education. During her college years, Wong took a sociology class. This class Wong had taken deeply impacted her mind. Wong was taught the rights of a human being. Wong was released for a week by her employer which gave Wong some free time. During this period of relaxation, Wong was asked out for a movie date by a Chinese-American boy. While dressing up, Wongs father questioned her dashing preparations. Wong refused to answer while think of her rights. With a thunderous voice, Wongs father forbade Wong from leaving, but she ignored her fathers command. This marks the beginning of Jade Snow Wongs rebellion. Rhetoric: Pilgrims from the Orient is a well picked title for this personal essay. Jade Snow Wongs family is exactly what the title is. The main idea of this personal essay is the fact that customs cant remain stable in a persons mind after many generations of evolution. Although this is not exactly stated, it is inferred. Wong questions her eldest brothers birthright and thinks about what is right and wrong. She disobeys her father in the end signifying that times are changing and people have rights. In the beginning of the essay, Wong capitalizes the D in Daddy. The word daddy derives from the word father. If Wongs father is devoted to Chinese customs, why would he like to be called the informal word of father? Such irony shows that even Wongs father is changing. Wong compares her American life with her Chinese life with various examples. One fine example is the comparison of her teachers. Chinese teachers are strict and non-forgiving. American teachers, however, are kind. This confuses Wong because she was taught to not show physical affection. In the end of the essay, Wong is in a quarrel with her father. The scene is flowing with fire as Wong and her father argue. This shows that Wong will break away from traditional Chinese customs. The customs of China are present throughout the whole essay, but conflict is also present. This makes the thesis of this personal essay is the fact that customs change over a long period of time no matter what. Synthesis: Wong, at first, sees herself as a slave to men. She is to do nothing but serve dutifully to her husband and work hard. Later as she grows up, she learns about her rights as an American citizen. Todays American society doesnt have many restrictions on either gender thus making it equal (to a certain extent). During Wongs college years, she learns about human rights and what is to be a model human. This puts a large question mark on Wongs Chinese customs. Wong doesnt mention which system of culture is best, but she does put down Chinese customs and raise the status of American culture. Although she does this, it is evident that she still has Chinese customs and culture within her and that will never change. Although she did rebel against her parents in the end of the essay, Wong does not hate her parents. Wong is proving that everything cant remain the same. Wong will always be Chinese because thats what she is. This can all be tied together by saying that culture will always be presen t, but not the same.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Knowledge Management And Organizational Learning Essay

Knowledge Management And Organizational Learning - Essay Example As Noe (2002, p. 168) noted, knowledge management is a management process that the performance of a business can be enhanced by designing, implementing and strategically aligning various tools, processes, systems, structure and cultures with a view to create and share knowledge among its people and to use for overall business purpose. The very basic three elements included in Knowledge management are 1) creation of the knowledge through some effective strategies, 2) sharing of the created knowledge among people and 3) making it available and useful for any business purpose.   Knowledge Management has been found to be useful for the organization as it helps it get the products to the target market quicker, develop innovative ideas, serve the customer well in order to maintain customer loyalty and retention and achieve sustainable competitive advantages. As Boxall and Macky (2009, p. 10) emphasized, knowledge management helps a business achieve high performance working through variou s strategic processes and organizational development programs.   Knowledge Management has emerged to be a management tool that focuses on data, information and knowledge among the employees in an organization (Awad and Ghaziri, 2007, p. 26) and encompasses the processes by which experience, skills, expertise, knowledge and abilities are gathered, then shared among the people and utilized so that these can be converted to collective organizational learning process (Foster, 2005, p. 397).  

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Mitigating Toxic Leadership Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mitigating Toxic Leadership - Case Study Example Risk avoidance and risk reduction are the possible strategies that should be considered in helping the SVP, his employees, and the organization. Risk avoidance, according to Baker (2009) involves application of an alternative approach that eliminates a problem or its effects. Conflicting attitude from employees and clients identifies situational leadership approach that is yielding returns, though with employee turnover as a consequence. Introducing a management level between the SVP and his staff, while retaining the SVP’s direct contact with clients, is likely to eliminate the employees’ negative attitude, risk of high turnover, and its effects. Cost of employing the supervisor will be less than the long-term cost of recruiting and training employees and the negative image that the employees’ experience can have on the organization. Risk reduction, according to Boehm, Lane, Koolmanojwong, and Tuner (2014), involves lowering probability of risk occurrence and un derstanding the SVP’s expectations from his employees and training employees to meet the expectation is an example. This is better than recruitment and training of new employees but is relatively costly. The SVP’s strengths identify need for his retention in the organization. Risk avoidance and risk reduction are the possible mitigation strategies but relative cost effectiveness of risk avoidance, through changing structure, is the best option for managing the situation. Boehm, B., Lane, J., Koolmanojwong, S., and Tuner, R. (2014). The incremental commitment spiral model: Principles and practices for successful systems and software. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley

Saturday, November 16, 2019

The Black Cat Essay Example for Free

The Black Cat Essay Short Story Analysis: The Black Cat The Black Cat by Edgar Alan Poe is a short story told in a first person narrative, from the point of view of an incarcerated murderer. There are several ways to interpret this story; the reader can also gain insight on the narrator’s state of mind. What I am going to talk about today is how the narrator uses a lot of symbolism and descriptive elements in his story, and in turn, how the reader will interpret the narrator as a person. A few characteristics that will be highlighted are death, psychosis/state of mind of the narrator, and alcoholism. The narrator admits an alcohol dependency right from the start. â€Å"One night, returning home , much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (2). This gives the reader the impression that it is in the narrator’s normal character to be under the influence. The narrator used alcohol as his reasoning for cutting the black cat’s eye out. He then drinks away his guilt and sins with alcohol, â€Å"I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed† (3). From these statements, the reader can assume that the narrator is an alcoholic and uses that to blur the reality of his decisions. Madness is defined as the state of being mentally ill or extremely foolish behavior. In this story it is apparent that the narrator could very well be mentally unstable. He immediately expressed his fondness for animals, he thought of animals as a â€Å"principal sources of pleasure† (2). He later gets pleasure from abusing one of his animals, the black cat, by cutting the cat’s eye out with a knife. All because he felt the cat was avoiding him. He later hangs the cat, and then constantly feels haunted by his acts. In a way, the narrator seems enticed by his evil actions. â€Å"Evil thoughts became my sole intimates-the darkest and most evil of thoughts† (5). The narrator’s last act of evil is the murder of his wife, when he hits her in the head with an axe. He then immediately thinks of ways to cover up the murder. He talks about cutting his wife up into pieces, but later decides that he will hide her body in the brick wall in the cellar of their home. From this the reader has gone from believing the narrator is just some troubled alcoholic, to believing the narrator is suffering some serious psychosis. There are many faces of death in this story. The first starts with the abuse of the black cat. The narrator comes home drunk and believes the cat is being disobedient so he cuts the cat’s eye out. Later, when his guilt builds up and he can no longer take it, the narrator hangs the cat. He becomes paranoid and believes the cat is haunting him from the grave. Although I thus readily accounted to my reason, if not altogether to my conscience, for the startling fact just detailed, it did not the less fail to make a deep impression upon my fancy†¦among the vile haunts which I now habitually frequented† (4). The next face of death is the cruel and unexpected murder of the narrator’s wife. It becomes apparent that the narrator has a disturbing fascination when carrying out the acts of murder. These actions tie into the narrator’s mental stability. It is one thing to have thoughts of harming one’s self or others, but it is another thing when those thoughts are acted upon. â€Å"My happiness was supreme! The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little† (6). From this the reader can assume that the narrator is a mentally unstable alcoholic murderer. The three main descriptive characteristics that I wanted to highlight about the narrator and the story of The Black Cat are alcoholism, psychosis, and death. With these three elements the reader can pass judgment on the narrator and create an overall opinion of him as a person. The reader can become first enticed by the story with the narrator talking about his love for animals and then later his cruelty towards them. Next the reader begins to wonder if the narrator is imagining these things, â€Å"Upon its head†¦sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman† (7). Finally the reader can confidently asses their overall impression of the narrator. â€Å"Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. But to-morrow I die and to-day I would unburden my soul† (1).

Thursday, November 14, 2019

The Thought-experiments in Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse Five or the C

The Thought-experiments in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death In 1945 Kurt Vonnegut witnessed a horrific series of bombings that led to the destruction of the German city of Dresden, where he was taken as a prisoner of war. The controversial fire-storm raid, carried out by bombers of the Royal Air Force and US Air Force, took casualties of up to a quarter million people (Klinkowitz x-xi). As a prisoner of war, Vonnegut was forced to participate as a corpse miner in the city's cleanup process. Upon his return from the Second World War, Vonnegut decided to write a book describing his traumatic war experiences. After twenty years of struggling with research, failing to recall personal experiences, and publishing two novels and countless short stories, Kurt Vonnegut finally published-as what he frequently refers to as-the "book about Dresden." It was titled Slaughterhouse Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death, or more simply: Slaughterhouse Five. The result of twenty years of work is a biography that has been bizarrely fictionali zed by Vonnegut's incorporation of anecdotes about alien abduction and time travel. Prior to the publication of Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut invented the terminology "Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum," defined as a phenomenon in the universe where matter scatters through space and time, resulting in their simultaneous existence in multiple places and times. Consequently multiple notions-often contradicting each other-can exist and consume the same space. While this strange yet imaginative "space" was conceived in a previous novel, The Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut crafted the structure and progression of Slaughterhouse Five with ... ... Ed. Harold Bloom. Jones, Peter G. "The End of the Road: Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade" Modern Critical Interpretations Slaughterhouse-Five Ed. Harold Bloom. Klinkowitz, Jerome. Slaughterhouse-Give Reforming the Novel and the World. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990. Lundquist, James. Kurt Vonnegut. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1977. Marvin, Thomas F. Kurt Vonnegut A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002. Sholes, Robert. "Slaughterhouse-Five." New York Times Book Review 6 April 1969, 1, 23. Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Delacorte Press, 1994. Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. The Sirens of Titan. New York: Dell, 1974. 1[1] For a technical treatment, please refer to http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/relativity.html, under the section discussing relativistic properties of the speed of light.

Monday, November 11, 2019

An Investigation of the impact of staff motivation on organizational performance: A case study of comparing Primark retail store, Tesco Plc and ASDA Group Ltd.

Aim of Study The study aims to determine employee motivation levels and its effect on organizational performance at the three retail stores. The specific related objectives are: To evaluate the extent to which the organizations provide different motivating factors for its employees To test the relationship between employee motivation and organizational performance Rationale of study Managers have the responsibility of attaining organizational success and competitive advantage through human capital. They can do this by improving the motivation levels of their employees (Wagner & Hollenbeck, 2010). The proposed study will seek to establish whether the management at the selected organizations has put in place measures for increasing employee motivation to influence organizational performance. Background to the Research Topic/Literature Review Motivation Motivation is a concept that is defined differently in literature. Some authors defined motivation as the processes where individuals focus on satisfy their perceived needs, personal goals, and basic goals and this activates human behavior (Guest & Conway, 2004). Another definition is motivation is a portrayal of the physiological processes that lead to stimulation and persistence of a voluntary action that directed toward specific goals (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008). Employees who are motivated can be easily spotted based on their dedication, enthusiasm, performance, and their contribution to the objectives and goals of an organization. Other authors observed that a motivated individual has awareness of the particular goals that have to be attained in particular ways and focus their efforts on attainment of these goals (Nel et al., 2004). Motivation theories Various theories have been proposed to explain the motivation of employees in organizations. These include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Herzberg’s hygiene theory, the expectancy theory, goal theory, and fair process concept theory. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs assumes that the motivation of individuals is based on achieving a hierarchy of needs (Griffin & Moorhead, 2009). Specifically, individuals have physiological, safety, social, self –esteem, and self actualization needs that have to be met in the work setting. Physiological needs include shelter, clothing, food, and water and are at the bottom of the hierarchy of needs. Safety needs involve protecting individuals from injuries in the work setting and providing work conditions that are stress free. Social needs entail meaningful interpersonal interactions in the workplace. Esteem needs are related to a person’s desire for competency, achievement, recognition, prestige, and status. Finally, self actualization entails an individual’s desire in reaching the highest potential. Maslow suggested that higher needs can only be fulfilled after those at the bottom have been met. Therefore, after employees have attained their physiological n eeds, they want their safety, social, self-esteem and self actualization to be satisfied in that order. Managers can offer job security, fringe benefits, and pay to meet the security and physiological needs of their employees. To meet social needs, managers should promote team work in the organization. Concerning esteem needs, these can be met by the rewarding employees for high performance with recognition and establishing linkages between performance attainment and pay. Finally, self actualization needs can be met through challenging work, promotion opportunities, training, and autonomy in job performance. Herzberg’s hygiene theory contends those individuals are motivated because of job satisfaction in their work environment. This theory views that individuals are motivated when specific motivators are found in the work environment (Griffin & Moorhead, 2009). These motivators include advancement, challenging work, recognition, growth, responsibility and achievement. In addition, the theory delineates needs related to the job context or environment. These factors comprise of interpersonal relations, security, status, continuous learning opportunities, organizational culture, working conditions, and organizational policies. However, these factors do not result in motivation among employees but when they are absent in the organization, employees become dissatisfied with the work setting. Based on this theory, a manager can motivate employees by ensuring that both hygiene factors and motivators are available in the organization. The expectancy theory argues that the behavior of an individual is determined by outcomes based on the concepts ofexpectancy, instrumentality and Valence (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008). Valence describes the strength of an individual’s preference for a reward or outcome for performing a specific behavior. Expectancy is an individual’s belief that a particular action will lead to a specific reward or outcome. Instrumentality explains the extent to which a person believes that specific performance levels will result in the achievement of desired outcomes. Therefore, individuals are motivated to carry out specific assignments when they value the rewards associated with the accomplishment of the assignment. In this regard, if the outcome or reward of performance is very high, an individual will be more motivated to execute the required tasks to achieve the outcomes. This theory indicates that managers can employ various strategies to enhance motivation among employees includ ing setting achievable performance standards and offering the required support such as training to increase perceptions that employees’ effort will result in performance. In addition, managers should link rewards given to employees to performance standards and the employee’s personal goals. The goal theory postulates that individuals are motivated to achieve challenging goals (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008). The theory contends that goals are vital in guiding the actions and responses of individuals. This theory places goal acceptance, specificity, and difficulty. Goal difficulty describes the degree to which a specific goal demands a lot of effort. Thus, assigning goals with more difficulty leads to higher performance levels. Goal specificity is associated with an adequately defined target for directing performance. Goal acceptance is associated with the extent to which goals are accepted as legitimate by individuals. Therefore, goal setting results in higher motivation as it allows individuals to focus their efforts in the required direction (Daft & Marcic, 2009). Managers can influence the motivation of employees through goal setting by providing feedback about the employee’s progress in achieving the goals and by linking incentives to the achievement of the goals (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008). Finally, the fair process concept theory deals with the degree to which organizational members perceive that the organization treatments them in a fair manner (Greenberg, 1993). This theory focuses on procedural and distributive justice. Distributive justice is related to perceptions of fairness in allocating rewards among employees. Procedural justice is about perceptions of fairness in the procedures used in deciding reward allocations. Therefore, employee’s perceptions about the equity dimensions in allocation of rewards influences their motivation levels (Greenberg, 1993). Therefore, employees can be motivated by rewarding them based on performance, using a performance appraisal system for accurately measuring the performance of employees, consistently using similar standards for all the employees, and openly sharing information on the organization’s reward programs (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2007). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Motivation of employees depends on both extrinsic and intrinsic factors working together to improve the commitment of employees to task performance (Danish & Usman, 2010). Extrinsic motivation emphasizes external rewards including procedures and policy, awards, supervision, salary and fringe benefits. Extrinsic motivation has a great and immediate effect on the level of motivation but it cannot be sustained for a longer period. However, intrinsic motivation places emphasis on internal rewards and deals with quality of the work setting. Therefore, intrinsic motivation is about rewarding employees for what they actually enjoy doing and has a lasting effect on motivation levels. An organization can achieve intrinsic motivation by providing employees with challenging work and autonomy to enable employees to derive competence, achievement, and accomplishment from performing such tasks. The effect of motivation on performance An organization with a highly motivated workforce is able to achieve its goals through the performance of work tasks by employees. It is suggested that motivated employees are highly inclined to be highly productive compared to those individuals who are not motivated (Chaudhary, Javed & Sabir, 2012). Khan (2012) established a positive association between the performance of employees and their training and motivation and stated that organizations that want to enhance their employees’ performance should concentrate on training as this motivates the workforce to attain higher performance levels. Frimpong and Fan (2009) observed that motivation among employees has a significant effect on productivity and that managers should focus on channeling motivation toward the achievement of both organizational and personal goals. The researchers concluded that motivational factors and motivation have a positive effect on the performance of teams (Frimpong & Fan, 2009). Another researcher argued that motivation is one of the main factors in the productivity of employees (Mullins, 2006). The author suggested that providing employees with understandable job goals, a supportive work setting, and the adequate skills are inadequate in themselves for ensuring that the job is performed and that employees should have adequate levels of motivation to exert the required efforts levels to the realization of the specific work objectives (Mullins, 2006). Other researchers discovered that employee motivation through recognition, benefits, promotion and payment leads to higher productivity (Khan et al., 2010). Indeed, Gana and Bababe (2011) established that adequate motivation of employees using appropriate incentives enhances their performance and in turn this ensures the achievement of organizational performance goals. In summary, this section has explored relevant literature on employee motivation and its effect on performance. Based on this, the proposed study will examine whether the case study organizations use different motivating factors to influence the motivation of their workforce and achieve higher performance. Research Questions and Methodology The research questions for this study will include: Which motivational factors are used in the selected organizations What is the effect of motivational factors on the motivation of employees in the selected organizations What is the impact of employee motivation on organizational performance To answer these questions, this study will combine both interpretivism and positivism research philosophies. Interpretivism is concerned with understanding the research participants’ subjective reality in relation to the study topic (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2007). Therefore, to acquire knowledge about the motivating factors of employees at the selected organizations will involve collecting qualitative data from the employees. On the other hand, positivism involves considering social reality as autonomous from actors and quantitative methods are used in collecting data. Therefore, quantitative data in terms of a survey with managers will be collected and analyzed to determine the relationship between employee motivation and organizational performance. Therefore, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research methods will enable a more comprehensive and holistic approach to be used in investigating the study topic. Relevant Data required and Data collection methods Both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected in this study. The qualitative data will involve interviewing 5 employees in the selected organizations to understand the motivating factors offered by senior management in a way that is not influenced and controlled by the researcher (Patton, 2002). The interviews will be conducted using an interview guide with relevant open ended questions. Thus, interviewing the employees will ensure that important insights on motivation from the perspective of employees are acquired. On the other hand, quantitative data will be gathered using a survey questionnaire administered to senior managers at the organizations. The survey questionnaire will have questions related to the motivating factors available in the organization and the extent to which managers perceive these factors as influencing different organizational outcomes. Accessibility, reliability, and validity and ethics The participants for the study will be accessed by contacting senior management of the selected organizations via email to obtain their permission to conduct the study. The senior managers will then ask the sampled employees to be part of the study. The confidentiality and anonymity of the participants will be maintained by not revealing any identifying information in the data analysis. The results of this study will be valid and reliable as accurate measures of motivation and organizational performance will be used to collect quantitative data. The validity of qualitative data will be achieved by capturing the actual meanings of the participants during transcription and analysis of data. Furthermore, the use of suitable data analysis procedures to acquire findings indicating the relationship between employee motivation and organizational performance will further establish the validity and reliability of this study. References Chaudhry, A., Javed, H., andSabir, M. (2012) `The impact of transformational and transactional leadership styles on the motivation of employees in Pakistan’, Pakistan Economic and Social Review. Vol.50, No.2, pp. 223 – 231. Daft, R., & Marcic, D. (2009) Understanding management. USA: Thompson South Western. Danish, R., and Usman, A. (2010) `Impact of reward and recognition on job satisfaction and motivation: an empirical study from Pakistan’, International Journal of Business and Management, pp. 159-167 Frimpong, S., and Fan, L. (2009) `Comparative study on the relationship between employee motivation and team performance of the Banks in Ghana and China’, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management, Wuhan: Wuhan University of Technology Press, 2009 Gana, A., and Bababe, F.B. (2011) `The effects of motivation on workers performance (A case study of Maiduguri Flour Mill Ltd, Borno State, Nigeria)’, Continental Journal of Social Sciences. Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 8 – 13. Greenberg, J. (1993) `The social side of fairness: Interpersonal and informational classes of organizational justice’, In R. Cropanzano (Ed.), Justice in the workplace: Approaching fairness in human resource management (pp. 79–103). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Griffin, W., & Moorhead, G. (2009) Organizational behavior: managing people and organizations. USA: Thompson South Western Guest, D., and Conway, N. (2004) Employee wellbeing and the psychological construct. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J.(2007) Organizational behavior. USA: Thompson South-Western Khan, I., (2012) `The impact of training and motivation on performance of employees’, Business Review. Vol.7 No. 2, pp. 84 – 95. Khan, K., Farooq, S., and Khan, Z. (2010) `The Relationship between rewards and employee motivation in commercial banks of Pakistan’, Research Journal of International Studies. Available at (Accessed on December 1, 2014) Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A.(2008), Organizational behavior. Boston: McGraw-hill Mullins, L. J. (2006) Essentials of organizational behavior. USA: Prentice Hall Nel, p., van Dyk, P. , Haasbroek, G., Schultz, H., Sono, T., & Werner, a.(2004) Human resources management. USA: Oxford University Press Patton, M.(2002) Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2007) Research methods for business students. USA: Pearson Education Ltd Wagner, J. and Hollenbeck, J. (2010) Organizational Behavior: Securing Competitive Advantage. 1st edition. New York: Routledge

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Marks of an Educated Person Essay

Holmes describes a liberal arts education as providing â€Å"an opportunity to steward life more effectively by becoming more fully a human person in the image of God.† (The Idea of a Christian College, Pg. 36.) The liberal arts that include subjects such as language, history, speech, philosophy etc. help in making the student a more complete person. Every student approaches learning with a subjective view based on his or her background, beliefs and opinions. A Christian liberal arts education teaches the Christian how to â€Å"be in this world but not of this world† (II Cor. 10:3) It not only addresses the practical aspects of educating for the purpose of career and employment, but it also offers Biblical concepts that help develop the spirit filled and spirit lead life. This adds depth to the liberal arts student that can be applied to the Christian’s witness to the world. The liberal arts education must encompass a broad range of subject matter regardless of the career field. Holmes offer examples such as the healthcare field. Because wellness involves physical as well as mental and emotional and is influenced by such factors as environment and the human spirit, the physician would, according to Holmes benefit from such studies as psychology, sociology in addition to the medical studies. A student’s depth of understanding is dependent on their concepts of communication and speech. For the student to fully integrate their knowledge base they must have basic communication skills. What does the word mean? The Christian liberal arts college incorporates all of these areas into a comprehensive education plan that not only helps to prepare the student to make positive career choices but it also enables the student to broaden his or her spiritual experience as his life witnesses to the world around him. In a world whose values vacillate with whatever is the popular ideology of the day, a Christian liberal arts program helps the student to build on a foundation anchored by God’s Word. As previously stated, we are able to be in this world but not â€Å"of this world.†

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Francis Bacons Classic Essay, Of Truth

Francis Bacon's Classic Essay, Of Truth Of Truth is the opening essay in the final edition of the philosopher, statesman and jurist  Francis Bacons Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral (1625). In this essay, as associate professor of philosophy Svetozar Minkov points out, Bacon addresses the question of whether it is worse to lie to others or to oneselfto possess truth (and lie, when necessary, to others) or to think one possesses the truth but be mistaken and hence unintentionally convey falsehoods to both oneself and to others (Francis Bacons Inquiry Touching Human Nature, 2010). In Of Truth, Bacon argues that people have a natural inclination to lie to others: a natural though corrupt love, of the lie itself. Of Truth What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly, there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief, affecting free-will in thinking as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor which men take in finding out of truth, nor again that when it is found it imposeth upon mens thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor, but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lies sake. But I cannot tell: this same truth is a naked and open daylight that doth not show the masques a nd mummeries and triumphs of the world half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt that if there were taken out of mens minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum daemonum [the wine of devils] because it filleth the imagination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in mens depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-ma king or wooing of it; the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it; and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God in the works of the days was the light of the sense; the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbath work ever since is the illumination of his spirit. First he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos; then he breathed light into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well, It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors and wanderings and mists and tempests in the vale below*; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a mans mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. To pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business: it will be acknowledged, even by those that practice it not, that clear and round dealing is the honor of mans nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent, which goeth basely upon the belly and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious; and therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace and such an odious charge. Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as to say that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards man. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men: it being foretold that when Christ cometh, He shall not find faith upon the earth. *Bacons paraphrase of the opening lines of Book II of On the Nature of Things by Roman poet Titus Lucretius Carus.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Exam Question Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Exam Question - Coursework Example However, the complexities of the case arose with the inability to tamper with the provisions over a private contract specifically because consumer rights are private and not linked to state regulations. The legal relations for consumer protection were then one of the main considerations with the case. The proceedings that were created from the main debates were based on consumer rights that could follow under the law. The first proceeding stated that a credit agreement should not affect the rights of the consumer against the purchase of services or goods. The consumer enters an agreement with the contractor, specifically with the understanding that the services or goods will be supplied. This makes it a legal obligation for the supplier to carry forward with all contractual agreements, specifically which is made under the assumption of the agreement through a pre-existing agreement. The right to pursue credit or to be granted a difference in the contract occurs only in the instance w hen the consumer is not satisfied with the services delivered or when there is a failure to meet the demands through the services and products that are expected through the pre-agreement of a given contract. However, it was noted that the consumer may pursue the justification of lack of fulfilment of a contract. This does not entitle the legal proceedings to match this, specifically which is created according to the direct effect that this has on the consumer. The conditions and the remedies then have to be looked into with the contractual agreement and potential breach of contracts that are created. The case that was created not only referred to the consumer protection and the need to fulfil contracts for consumer protection. The court also found that the Treaty of the EU, Article 3s, 129a, created different levels of contribution to consumer rights. The community was responsible only for contributing to consumer protection, specifically with political and legal integration through the internal market. The duty of consumer protection created an effect where consumers had the right to have the fulfilment of products and services within the internal market. The horizontal direct effect then had a direct bearing on the consumer protection, specifically with the need to create and define consumer protection and credit. b. The legal issue that was associated with the case was based on the need to have consumer protection. Private entities are regarded as having freedom of offering services and products while having the right to refuse service or to terminate contracts with consumers. There is also the ability to allow the service or product providers to refuse fulfilment of consumer credit under given circumstances. The question which arose was based on how much consumer protection should be granted if there is a contract that is unfulfilled by those who are offering product or services. The level of interference from a political and legal entity was questioned, s pecifically with how much this could move into consumer rights and protection among those that were looking at the private contracts that were expected to be fulfilled. The rulings of the case were based on the horizontal direct effect. The effect was one which stated that the services or products provided with a contractual agreement were required to be fulfilled. If the services or products harmed or affected the consumer, then it was considered an illegal breach

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Long-Term Investment Decisions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Long-Term Investment Decisions - Essay Example The consumer will have to consume the commodity as normal even if the prices are increased. The managers thus should consider the reactions from the competitors before raising prices. Since consumption of the food is maintained, increasing prices may lead to rival firms to sell more units than the firm. This will reduce its sales and market share and hence loses a lot to the competitors. Consumers usually have believed that high prices are associated with high quality. If the firm wants to attract more sales, they should consider increasing quality or rebrand the product as this would change the consumer’s perception of the product in a positive way. They would thus increase their purchasing power making the firms to have high sales. Managers should also have a good timing as to when to increase the prices. During low seasons of the business, they can keep the prices low so that they keep with the increased customers demand however little it may be. These losses can then be recovered in off seasons through producing more units at high prices. For example, during festive seasons and holidays, consumers spend more than expected. The government usually enters into the production process majorly by providing incentives and changes in taxation. Providing subsidies lowers the production cost of the company. The company is able to produce more and increase the market supply (Tisdell & Hartley, 2008). To increase production, they will hire extra labor leading to employment in the economy. As supply increases, demand is relatively constant leading to low prices to the consumers. However, if the government does not provide subsidies, the company operations cost will be high and hence reduce output and will lay off workers leading to unemployment in the economy. This decreases supply and since demand is high, prices will increase leading to inflations in the economy. The government can decide to use tax

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Research Methodology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research Methodology - Assignment Example The ultimate goal is to bring the reader up to date with current literature on a topic and forms the basis for another goal, such as the justification for future research in the area. Therefore the encyclopedia argues that a good literature review is characterized by: a logical flow of ideas; current and relevant references with consistent, appropriate referencing style; proper use of terminology; and an unbiased and comprehensive view of the previous research on the topic. According to Cooper (Guide For Literature Reviewy,1988) "a literature review uses as its database reports of primary or original scholarship, and does not report new primary scholarship itself. The primary reports used in the literature may be verbal, but in the vast majority of cases reports are written documents. The types of scholarship may be empirical, theoretical, critical/analytic, or methodological in nature. Second a literature review seeks to describe summaries, evaluate, clarify and/or integrate the content of primary reports". Introduction: The common idea regarding my dissertation compilation is the collection of data, their comparative study, rationality of the forwarded arguments, and a broader analysis of the facts in empirical evidences via the scientific investigation. This Research Methodology also refers to the hypothetical assumptions that underlie a particular study in the area of respiratory care with a special reference to teenagers presented in APA style within generally acceptable epistemological views. The project work, apart from stylistic and evident aspects it would be methodologically diverse using exclusively qualitative methods. An attempt will seriously follow to match the methods and the approach in finding out the solutions while addressing the issues. Validity: In order to answer the research questions keeping the purpose of the study intact, a serious attempt has been designated for a methodical approach considering the validity of the derived information. Only up to date findings are under consideration that is relevant to current practices and are active in clinical decision making. All the findings in the intensive reading avoid every kind of plagiarism. History: Despite the fact there could be new guidelines there would be no chance of alteration of research groundings. My study will find out both medical approach and other value base prevention of asthma among the adolescents in managing the adherence. Adequate empirical evidences will be collected so that no conclusion any threat to the validity of their publication. Target Population: Being my proposed work a literature review it involves extensive reading to compare, collate and reach into solid conclusion. My project would be structured as the following step by step presentation while finding out facts of the adolescents that are victimized of asthmatic ailment from the minute reading of factual reports. Generalisability: The objective of my research would be to find out the situations that lead the sufferings and their possible remedies recommended by the experts in

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

The Slumdog Millionaire is a novel that is extremely close to reality Essay

The Slumdog Millionaire is a novel that is extremely close to reality as it represents many aspects of the real Indian society w - Essay Example No one could have imagined that this poor waiter would actually be able to correctly answer all the questions on the show and become the rightful winner of the amount of one billion. Ram answers all the twelve questions and this comes as a surprise to the producers of the show as Ram comes from an uneducated and underprivileged class with no access to materials that could provide him with such skills to answer these knowledgeable questions. The producers of the show are shocked and they are unwilling to accept this surprise owing to the unavailability of money. They resort to wrong means and hand over Ram to the police claiming that he has cheated and won the show. A lawyer comes to the rescue of Ram and helps proving the fact that Ram had not opted for wrong means to win the show. It is to the lawyer that Ram narrates the story of his life and the happenings in the slums where he lived. He told her of how he gained the knowledge to answer the questions that were put up in the show ( Swarup 2008). The author utilizes the occurrences of the life of Ram to present a very close picture to the readers of the Indian society. The novel is a shadow of the happenings and injustices that prevail in India. The novel is close to reality and explains the high poverty levels that persist in the country along with child abuse and beggary that is still a part of the Indian society. ... He explains the life in the slum in the following words when he is being arrested and taken by the police, â€Å"My departure from Asia’s biggest slum would make no difference to their lives. There would be the same queue for water in the morning, the same daily struggle to make it to the seven-thirty local in time.† His words are very true to reality as this slum has been marked to be an area which has stayed at its place for about 4 decades. The slum is home to 6.5 million people who live in a ratio of approximately 18000 people per acre. This indicates the cramming and lack of space for the people to live. The area does not have proper provision of electricity and it also lacks proper water supply. Slumdog Millionaire tries to indicate these conditions of despair that still persist in India in an era of the twenty first century when man has moved ahead to acquire technological breakthroughs that were beyond human consideration. It has been seen that there has been a great surge in the people residing in slums from the period of 1981 to 2001 in India. The number of people in slums has increased from 27.9 million to 61.8 million. This clearly highlights the rising poverty in the country and the novel presents this with the accounts provided by Ram about his life in the slum (Jacobson 2007; Page 2007; Vikas 2008). Child abuse and abduction of children is also a major issue in India. Children are kidnapped by beggar mafias that persist in India and work in an organized fashion to keep their business working. Ram presents with his account of falling into the hands of these abductors who try to force him into this profession. He explains the brutalities that

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Digital modulation and demodulation

Digital modulation and demodulation Chapter 1 Digital Communications 1.0 Digital Communication 1.1 Introduction Communication Process: When we think of communication, we usually think of people talking or listening to each other. This may happen face to face, or it may occur through the assistance of a telephone, radio, or television. Basically, communication is the transfer of information. Life In our modern, complex world depends more and more on the transfer of information. The increasing dependency on the transfer of information has stimulated the growth of more and more communication systems. This surge in communication and communication systems has been referred to as a technological revolution. This shows understand the transfer of information in a communication system The communication system will consist of at least the three parts shown. The channel can be as simple as the air that carries the sound of your voice, or as complex as the satellite network required to carry a television program around the world. The most common problem encountered by the communication process is interference. Interference is any force that disrupts or distorts the information or message while it is being channeled. It could be noise, as in the case of normal conversation, or atmospheric weather changes, as In the case of radio or television The biggest cause of interference, however, is a simple misinterpretation of the intended message. Cultural, economic, and political diversities allow people to receive the same message but interpret it differently. Communication Systems: Communication system is a combination of processes and hardware used to accomplish the transfer of Information (communication). A system is a group of interrelated parts. We find that there are systems all around us. In nature, we can also find examples of systems that have been created by people. An automobile, a washing machine, and an electric drill are examples. 1.2 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION: Based on the requirements, the communications can be of different types: Point-to-point communication: In this type, communication takes place between two end points. For instance, in the case of voice communication using telephones, there is one calling party and one called party. Hence the communication is point-to-point. Point-to-multipoint communication: In this type of communication, there is one sender and multiple recipients. For example, in voice conferencing, one person will be talking but many others can listen. The message from the sender has to be multicast to many others. Broadcasting: In a broadcasting system, there is a central location from which information is sent to many recipients, as in the case of audio or video broadcasting. In a broadcasting system, the listeners are passive, and there is no reverse communication path. In simplex communication, the communication is one-way only. In half-duplex communication, communication is both ways, but only in one direction at a time. In full-duplex communication, communication is in both directions simultaneously. Simplex communication: In simplex communication, communication is possible only in one direction. There is one sender and one receiver; the sender and receiver cannot change roles. Half-duplex communication: Half-duplex communication is possible in both directions between two entities (computers or persons), but one at a time. A walkie-talkie uses this approach. The person who wants to talk presses a talk button on his handset to start talking, and the other persons handset will be in receiving mode. When the sender finishes, he terminates it with an over message. The other person can press the talk button and start talking. These types of systems require limited channel bandwidth, so they are low cost systems. Full-duplex communication: In a full-duplex communication system, the two parties-the caller and the called-can communicate simultaneously, as in a telephone system. However, note that the communication system allows simultaneous transmission of data, but when two persons talk simultaneously, there is no effective communication! The ability of the communication system to transport data in both directions defines the system as full-duplex. 1.3 ANALOG VERSUS DIGITAL TRANSMISSION: In analog communication, the signal, whose amplitude varies continuously, is transmitted over the medium. Reproducing the analog signal at the receiving end is very difficult due to transmission impairments. Hence, analog communication systems are badly affected by noise. In a digital communication system, 1s and 0s are transmitted as voltage pulses. So, even if the pulse is distorted due to noise, it is not very difficult to detect the pulses at the receiving end. Hence, digital communication is much more immune to noise as compared to analog communication. 1.4 Digital Modulation: Firstly, what do we mean by digital modulation? Typically the objective of a digital communication system is to transport digital data between two or more nodes. In radio communications this is usually achieved by adjusting a physical characteristic of a sinusoidal carrier, the frequency, phase, amplitude or a combination thereof. This is performed in real systems with a modulator at the transmitting end to impose the physical change to the carrier and a demodulator at the receiving end to detect the resultant modulation on reception. * Modulation is the process of varying some characteristic of a periodic wave with an external signal. * Modulation is utilized to send an information bearing signal over long distances. * Radio communication superimposes this information bearing signal onto a carrier signal. * These high frequency carrier signals can be transmitted over the air easily and are capable of traveling long distances. * The characteristics (amplitude, frequency, or phase) of the carrier signal are varied in accordance with the information bearing signal. * In the field of communication engineering, the information bearing signal is also known as the modulating signal. * The modulating signal is a slowly varying signal as opposed to the rapidly varying carrier frequency. The principal of a digital communication system is that during a finite interval of time, it sends a waveform from a finite set of possible waveforms, in contrast to an analog communication system, which sends a waveform from an infinite variety of waveform shapes, with theoretically infinite resolution. In a DCS (digital communication system), the objective of the receiver is not to reproduce a transmitted waveform with precision. The objective is to determine from a noise-perturbed signal which waveform from the finite set of waveforms was sent by the transmitter. Why Digital?  · The primary advantage is the ease with which digital signals, compared with analog signals, is regenerated. The shape of the waveform is affected by two basic mechanisms. As all transmission lines and circuits have some non-ideal frequency transfer function, there is a distorting effect on the ideal pulse. Unwanted electrical noise or other interference further distorts the pulse waveform. Both of these mechanisms cause the pulse shape to degrade. * With digital techniques, extremely low error rates producing high signal fidelity are possible through error detection and correction but similar procedures are not available with analog. * Digital circuits are more reliable and can be reproduced at a lower cost than analog circuits. * Digital hardware lends itself to more flexible implementation than analog circuits. * The combination of digital signals using Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) is simpler than combining analog signals using Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). Metrics for Digital Modulation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Power Efficiency Ability of a modulation technique to preserve the fidelity of the digital message at low power levels Designer can increase noise immunity by increasing signal power Power efficiency is a measure of how much signal power should be increased to achieve a particular BER for a given modulation scheme Signal energy per bit / noise power spectral density: Eb / N0 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Bandwidth Efficiency Ability to accommodate data within a limited bandwidth Tradeoff between data rate and pulse width Throughput data rate per hertz: R/B bps per Hz à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Shannon Limit: Channel capacity / bandwidth C/B = log2(1 + S/N) Disadvantages of Digital Systems * Digital systems tend to be very signal processing intensive compared with analog. * Digital systems need to allocate a significant share of their resources to the task of synchronization at various levels. With analog signals synchronization is accomplished more easily. * One disadvantage of digital communication system is non-graceful degradation. When the SNR drops below a certain threshold, the quality of service can change form very good to very poor. Most analog systems degrade more gracefully. Formatting The goal of the first essential processing step, formatting is to ensure that the source signal is compatible with digital processing. Transmit formatting is a transformation from source information to digital symbols. When data compression in addition to formatting is employed, the process is termed source coding. The digital messages are considered to be in the logical format of binary 1s and 0s until they are transformed by pulse modulation into base band (pulse) waveforms. Such waveforms are then transmitted over a cable. No channel can be used for the transmission of binary digits without first transforming the digits to waveforms that are compatible with the channel. For base band channels, compatible waveforms are pulses. The conversion from a bit of streams to a sequence of pulse waveforms takes place in the block labeled, modulator. The output of a modulator is typically a sequence of pulses with characteristics that correspond to the digits being sent. After transmission through the channel the pulse waveforms are recovered (demodulated) and detected to produce an estimate of the transmitted digits. Formatting in a digital Communication System Symbols When digitally transmitted, the characters are first encoded into a sequence of bits, called a bit stream or base band signal. Group of K bits can then be combined to form new digits, or symbols, from a finite or alphabet of M = 2^K such symbols. A system using a symbol set size of M is referred to as M-array system. Waveform Representation of Binary Digits Digits are just abstractions way to describe the message information. Thus we need something physical that will represent or carry the digits. Thus binary digits are represented with electrical pulses in order to transmit them through a base band channel. At the receiver, a determination must be made regarding the shape of pulse. The likelihood of correctly detecting the pulse is a function of the received signal energy (or area under the pulse). PCM Waveform Types When pulse modulation is applied to a binary symbol, the resulting binary waveform is called a PCM waveform. There are several types of PCM waveforms. These waveforms are often called line codes. When pulse modulation is applied to non-binary symbol, the resulting waveform is called an M-ary pulse modulation waveform. The PCM waveforms fall into the following four groups. 1) Non return to zero (NRZ) 2) Return to zero (RZ) 3) Phase encoded ) Multilevel binary The NRZ group is probably the most commonly used PCM waveform. In choosing a waveform for a particular application, some of the parameters worth examining are 1) DC component 2) Self clocking 3) Error detection ) Bandwidth compression 5) Differential encoding 6) Noise immunity The most common criteria used for comparing PCM waveforms and for selecting one waveform type from many available are 1) Spectral characteristics 2) Bit synchronization capabilities 3) Error detection capabilities ) Interference 5) Noise immunity 6) Cost and complexity of implementation Bits per PCM Word and Bits per Symbol Each analog sample is transformed into a PCM word up to group of bits. The number of quantization levels allowed for each sample can describe the PCM word size; this is identical to the number of values that the PCM word can assume. We use L=2^l Where L is the number of quantization levels in PCM word, l is the number of bits needed to represent those levels. M-ARY Pulse Modulation Waveforms There are three basic ways to modulate information onto a sequence of pulses; we can vary the pulses amplitude, position, or duration. This leads to the names 1) PAM (pulse amplitude modulation) 2) PPM (pulse position modulation) 3) PDM/PWM (pulse duration modulation/ pulse width modulation) When information samples without any quantization are modulated on to the pulses, the resulting pulse modulation can be called analog pulse modulation. When the information samples are first quantized, yielding symbols from an M-ary alphabet set, and the modulation on to pulses, the resulting pulse modulation is digital and we refer to it as M-ary pulse modulation. Base-band modulation with pulses has analogous counterparts in the area of band-pass modulation. PAM is similar to amplitude modulation, while PPM and PDM are similar to phase and frequency modulation respectively. Spectral Density The spectral density of a signal characterizes the distribution of the signals energy or power in the frequency domain. Energy Spectral Density We can relate the energy of a signal expressed in time domain to the energy expressed in frequency domain as: à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ Ex = à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‚ « x ²(t) dt -à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ = à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‚ « |X (f) | ² df -à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ Where X (f) is the Fourier transform of the non periodic signal x (t). Let à Ã‹â€  (t) = |X (f) | ² à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ Ex = 2 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‚ « à Ã‹â€ x (f) df -à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ Power Spectral Density The power spectral density function Gx (t) of the periodic signal x (t) is real, even and nonnegative function of frequency that gives the distribution of the power of x (t) in the frequency domain. à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ Gx (t) = à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ |Cn| ² à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‚ «(f-nfo) n =-à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ PSD of a periodic signal is a discrete function of frequency. à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ Px = à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‚ « Gx (t) df -à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ = 2 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‚ «Gx (F) df 0 If x (t) is a non-periodic signal it cannot be expressed by a Fourier series, and if it is a non-periodic power signal (having infinite energy) it may not have a Fourier transform. However we still express the PSD of such signals in a limiting sense. Chapter 2 Modulation and Demodulation 2.0 Modulation and Demodulation Since the early days of electronics, as advances in technology were taking place, the boundaries of both local and global communication began eroding, resulting in a world that is smaller and hence more easily accessible for the sharing of knowledge and information. The pioneering work by Bell and Marconi formed the cornerstone of the information age that exists today and paved the way for the future of telecommunications. Traditionally, local communication was done over wires, as this presented a cost-effective way of ensuring a reliable transfer of information. For long-distance communications, transmission of information over radio waves was needed. Although this was convenient from a hardware standpoint, radio-waves transmission raised doubts over the corruption of the information and was often dependent on high-power transmitters to overcome weather conditions, large buildings, and interference from other sources of electromagnetic. The various modulation techniques offered different solutions in terms of cost-effectiveness and quality of received signals but until recently were still largely analog. Frequency modulation and phase modulation presented certain immunity to noise, whereas amplitude modulation was simpler to demodulate. However, more recently with the advent of low-cost microcontrollers and the introduction of domestic mobile telephones and satellite communications, digital modulation has gained in popularity. With digital modulation techniques come all the advantages that traditional microprocessor circuits have over their analog counterparts. Any shortfalls in the communications link can be eradicated using software. Information can now be encrypted, error correction can ensure more confidence in received data, and the use of DSP can reduce the limited bandwidth allocated to each service. As with traditional analog systems, digital modulation can use amplitude, frequency, or phase modulation with different advantages. As frequency and phase modulation techniques offer more immunity to noise, they are the preferred scheme for the majority of services in use today and will be discussed in detail below 2.1 Digital Frequency Modulation: A simple variation from traditional analog frequency modulation can be implemented by applying a digital signal to the modulation input. Thus, the output takes the form of a sine wave at two distinct frequencies. To demodulate this waveform, it is a simple matter of passing the signal through two filters and translating the resultant back into logic levels. Traditionally, this form of modulation has been called frequency-shift keying (FSK). 2.2 Digital Phase Modulation: Spectrally, digital phase modulation, or phase-shift keying, is very similar to frequency modulation. It involves changing the phase of the transmitted waveform instead of the frequency, these finite phase changes representing digital data. In its simplest form, a phase-modulated waveform can be generated by using the digital data to switch between two signals of equal frequency but opposing phase. If the resultant waveform is multiplied by a sine wave of equal frequency, two components are generated: one cosine waveform of double the received frequency and one frequency-independent term whose amplitude is proportional to the cosine of the phase shift. Thus, filtering out the higher-frequency term yields the original modulating data prior to transmission. * Modulate and demodulate/detect blocks together are called a modem. * The frequency down conversion is performed in the front end of the demodulator. * Only formatting, modulation, demodulation/detection and synchronization are essential for a digital communication system. * FORMATTING transforms the source information into bits. * From this point up to pulse modulation block, the information remains in the form of a bit stream. * Modulation is the process by which message symbols or channel symbols are converted to waveforms that are compatible with the requirements imposed by transmission channel. Pulse modulation is an essential step because each symbol to be transmitted must first be transformed from a binary representation to a base band waveform. * When pulse modulation is applied to binary symbols, the resulting binary waveform is called a PCM waveform. When pulse modulation is applied to non-binary symbols, the resulting waveform is called an M-ary pulse modulation waveform. * Band pass modulation is required whenever the transmission medium will not support the propagation of pulse like waveforms. * The term band pass is used to indicate that the base band waveform gi (t) is frequency translated by a carrier wave to a frequency that is much larger than the spectral content of gi (t). * Equalization can be described as a filtering option that is used in or after the demodulator to reserve any degrading effects on the signal that were caused by the channel. An equalizer is implemented to compensate for any signal distortion caused by a no ideal hi(t) * Demodulation is defined as a recovery of a waveform (band pass pulse) and detection is defined as decision-making regarding the digital meaning of that waveform. 2.3 Linear Modulation Techniques * Digital modulation techniques may be broadly classified as linear and non-linear. In linear modulation techniques, the amplitude to the modulation signal S (t) varies linearly with the modulating digital signal m (t). * Linear modulation techniques are bandwidth efficient. * In a linear modulation technique, the transmitted signal S (t) can be expressed as: S (t) = Re [Am (t) exp (j2pfct)] = A [mr(t)cos(2pfct) mI(t)sin(2pfct)] Where A is the amplitude fc is the carrier frequency m (t) = mr(t) + mI(t) is a complex envelope representation of the modulated signal which is in general complex form. * From the equations above, it is clear that the amplitude of the carrier varies linearly with the modulating signal. * Linear modulation schemes, in general do not have a constant envelope. Linear modulation schemes have very good spectral efficiency. Normalized Radian Frequency Sinusoidal waveforms are of the form: X (t) =Acos (wt+f) - (1) If we sample this waveform, we obtain X[n] =x (nTs) =Acos (wnTs+f) =Acos (wn+f) (2) Where we have defined w to be Normalized Radian Frequency: w=wTs The Signal in (2) is a discrete time cosine signal, and w is the discrete time radian frequency. w has been normalized by the sampling period. w has the units of radians/second, w=wTs has the units of radians; i.e. wis a dimensionless quantity. This is entirely consistent with the fact that the index n in x[n] is a dimensionless. Once the samples are taken from x (t), the time scale information is lost. The discrete time signal is just a sequence of numbers, and these numbers carry no information about the sampling period, which is the information required to reconstruct the time scale. Thus an infinite number of continuous time sinusoidal signals can be transformed into the same discrete time sinusoid by sampling. All we need to is to change the sampling period with changes in frequency of the continuous time sinusoid. 2.4 Baseband Transmission Baseband Demodulation/Detection  · The filtering at the transmitter and the channel typically cause the received pulse sequence to suffer from ISI (Inter Symbol Interference), thus the signal is not quiet ready for sampling and detection.  · The goal of the demodulator is to recover the pulse with best possible signal to noise ratio (SNR), free of any ISI.  · Equalization is a technique used to help accomplish this goal. Every type of communication channel does not require the equalization process. However equalization process embodies a sophisticated set of signal processing techniques, making it possible to compensate for channel induced interference.  · A received band pass waveform is first transformed to a base band waveform before the final detection step takes place.  · For liner systems, the mathematics of detection is unaffected by a shift in frequency. * According to the equivalence theorem, all linear signal-processing simulations can take place at base band (which is preferred for simplicity) with the same result as at band pass. Thus the performance of most digital communication systems will often be described and analyzed as if the transmission channel is a base band channel. Chapter 3 p/4 Quadrature 3.0 p/4 Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (p/4 QPSK) 3.1 Linear Modulation Techniques * Digital modulation techniques may be broadly classified as linear and non-linear. In linear modulation techniques, the amplitude to the modulation signal S (t) varies linearly with the modulating digital signal m (t). * Linear modulation techniques are bandwidth efficient. * In a linear modulation technique, the transmitted signal S (t) can be expressed as: S (t) = Re [Am (t) exp (j2pfct)] = A [mr(t)cos(2pfct) mI(t)sin(2pfct)] Where A is the amplitude fc is the carrier frequency m (t) = mr(t) + mI(t) is a complex envelope representation of the modulated signal which is in general complex form. * From the equations above, it is clear that the amplitude of the carrier varies linearly with the modulating signal. * Linear modulation schemes, in general do not have a constant envelope. Linear modulation schemes have very good spectral efficiency. There are three major classes of digital modulation techniques used for transmission of digitally represented data: * Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) * Frequency-shift keying (FSK) * Phase-shift keying (PSK) All convey data by changing some aspect of a base signal, the carrier wave, (usually a sinusoid) in response to a data signal. In the case of PSK, the phase is changed to represent the data signal. There are two fundamental ways of utilizing the phase of a signal in this way: * By viewing the phase itself as conveying the information, in which case the demodulator must have a reference signal to compare the received signals phase against; or * By viewing the change in the phase as conveying information differential schemes, some of which do not need a reference carrier (to a certain extent). A convenient way to represent PSK schemes is on a constellation diagram. This shows the points in the Argand plane where, in this context, the real and imaginary axes are termed the in-phase and quadrature axes respectively due to their 90 ° separation. Such a representation on perpendicular axes lends itself to straightforward implementation. The amplitude of each point along the in-phase axis is used to modulate a cosine (or sine) wave and the amplitude along the quadrature axis to modulate a sine (or cosine) wave. In PSK, the constellation points chosen are usually positioned with uniform angular spacing around a circle. This gives maximum phase-separation between adjacent points and thus the best immunity to corruption. They are positioned on a circle so that they can all be transmitted with the same energy. In this way, the moduli of the complex numbers they represent will be the same and thus so will the amplitudes needed for the cosine and sine waves. Two common examples are binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) which uses two phases, and quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) which uses four phases, although any number of phases may be used. Since the data to be conveyed are usually binary, the PSK scheme is usually designed with the number of constellation points being a power of 2. 3.2 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) Amplitude shift keying ASK in the context of digital communications is a modulation process, which imparts to a sinusoid two or more discrete amplitude levels. These are related to the number of levels adopted by the digital message. For a binary message sequence there are two levels, one of which is typically zero. Thus the modulated waveform consists of bursts of a sinusoid. In Amplitude Shift Keying the Amplitude varies whereas the phase and frequency remains the same as shown in following . One of the disadvantages of ASK, compared with FSK and PSK, for example, is that it has not got a constant envelope. This makes its processing (eg, power amplification) more difficult, since linearity becomes an important factor. However, it does make for ease of demodulation with an envelope detector. Thus demodulation is a two-stage process: à ¥ Recovery of the band limited bit stream à ¥ Regeneration of the binary bit stream 3.3 Frequency-shift keying (FSK) Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a method of transmitting digital signals. The two binary states, logic 0 (low) and 1 (high), are each represented by an analog waveform. Logic 0 is represented by a wave at a specific frequency, and logic 1 is represented by a wave at a different frequency. In frequency Shift Keying the frequency varies whereas the phase and amplitude remains the same. Phase shift keying (PSK) Phase Shift Keying (PSK) was developed during the early days of the deep-space program. PSK is now widely used in both military and commercial communication systems. In phase shift Keying the phase of the transmitted signal varies whereas the amplitude and frequency remains the same. The general expression for the PSK is as Where, ji(t) = the phase term will have M discrete values, given by, ji(t) = 2pi /M 3.4 Binary PSK In binary phase shift keying we have two bits represented by the following waveforms; S0(t) = A cos (wt) represents binary 0 S1(t) = A cos (wt + p) represents binary 1 For M-array PSK, M different phases are required, and every n (where M=2n) bits of the binary bit stream are coded as one signal that is transmitted as A sin (wt + qj) where j=1,.., M 3.5 Quadra phase-Shift Modulation Taking the above concept of PSK a stage further, it can be assumed that the number of phase shifts is not limited to only two states. The transmitted carrier can undergo any number of phase changes and, by multiplying the received signal by a sine wave of equal frequency, will demodulate the phase shifts into frequency-independent voltage levels. This is indeed the case in quadraphase-shift keying (QPSK). With QPSK, the carrier undergoes four changes in phase (four symbols) and can thus represent 2 binary bits of data per symbol. Although this may seem insignificant initially, a modulation scheme has now been supposed that enables a carrier to transmit 2 bits of information instead of 1, thus effectively doubling the bandwidth of the carrier Eulers relations state the following: Now consider multiplying two sine waves together, thus From Equation 1, it can be seen that multiplying two sine waves together (one sine being the incoming signal, the other being the local oscillator at the receiver mixer) results in an output frequency double that of the input (at half the amplitude) superimposed on a dc offset of half the input amplitude. Similarly, multiplying by gives which gives an output frequency double that of the input, with no dc offset. It is now fair to make the assumption that multiplying by any phase-shifted sine wave yields a demodulated waveform with an output frequency double that of the input frequency, wh