A Movie Review

This film has a compelling story that has various characters that come from different races and background whose lives are intertwined with each other and set in the city of Los Angeles.It shows the racial disrespect and contempt in the city as well as the drug culture. It is a contemporary film that characterizes a group of racially diverse individuals where one will see whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics. Each character is portrayed in different racial discrimination situations as an offender at one point in the story and a victim in another.A movie so full of strong racist language and intense confrontations where everyone seems angry and scared of being blatantly discriminated because of their color, yet at the same time each has their own narrow-mindedness that moves them to do the same.The utterances of uncouth words were seemingly done recklessly, inconsiderately or deliberately which somehow leads to violence and crimes.   Anyone, in whichever part of the world, who will watch this movie, can somehow relate to at least one character wherein one shares the same fears, hopes and at times feels impelled to retaliate when pushed to a corner.In one scene, the character named Ria, the Latina detective, had a vehicular mishap with an Asian woman (who mispronounced the word brake as blake) whom she told sarcastically, â€Å"†¦you don’t see my blake lights. See, I stop when I see a long line of cars stopped in front of me. Maybe you see over the steering wheel, you’ll blake too†.   That coming from Ria’s mouth who was also racially discriminated by his own black boyfriend.Several movie reviews has rated this movie with four stars or more.   These movie reviews influence the in some ways help in the success or the failure of a particular movie.   It aids the moviegoers decide whether it is worthy of our time and money to watch or not.   There are reviews that are either made objectively and subjectively.According to Am ber Deggans, who writes for the reel reviews, watching the film is like watching a documentary. The rawness of the emotions of the characters touches us deeply.The portrayal of the abusive and racist cop named Officer John Ryan impels us to hate him for his attitude towards the black community yet seeing him comforting his sick father is so contradictory which just shows us that there is always a good side to people. Film makers usually do their utmost to reach the audience and impart to them that there is a need to stop the anger among us but not many were successful in doing this except for this movie.The characterization of each role was ultimately conveyed to the audience.   The performance of the actors was exceptionally done resulting for the film’s message to be thoroughly communicated. Scenes were sometimes so poignant that it becomes hard for the viewer not to be moved especially if at some point in our lives, we may have encountered a relatively similar if not the exact situation as shown in the movie.  Roger Ebert, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic and screen writer rated this movie with four stars. As conclusion to his review, Ebert mentioned, â€Å"I don't expect â€Å"Crash† to work any miracles, but I believe anyone seeing it is likely to be moved to have a little more sympathy for people not like themselves. The movie contains hurt, coldness and cruelty, but is it without hope? Not at all.†Some scenes from this movie give us surprisingly unexpected but realistic glimpses of certain inequities that real people also come across. For a movie that didn’t have ample budget for its production, parts of the movie were quite represented realistically and naturally. Crash strongly depicts a reality that none of us can refute and forces us to face the truth, that each of us carry our own prejudice regardless of which race we belong to.   The social impact of this movie would hopefully lead to a realiza tion of a racist-free community.WORKS CITEDCrash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Perfs. Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito,Brendan Fraser, Thandie Newton, Terence Howard, Ryan Philippe. DVD. Lions Gate Production. 2005.Deggans, Amber. â€Å"MovieReview†. Frank’s Reel Reviews. 2005.4 December 2007.

Howard Hughes

Legend of the Aviator Howard Hughes is a man of many mysteries, very few actual facts are known about him. Historians constantly argue to decipher which of their theories are correct and which are Just over glorified rumors. The fact is Hughes liked to keep to himself. This man left behind not only the â€Å"Legend of the Aviator† but also one of the biggest gaps in the world of film and aviation. â€Å"Hughes was the ambassador who ushered in a new era of living and a new way of life† (Hack 5). He introduced new ideas and accomplished things that people had deemed impossible.He believed that with his oney nothing was impossible, he made that very apparent through his invention's. He designed planes and made some of the most revolutionary movies that captivated the minds of millions. Howard lived his life behind closed doors, hiding all of his true ambitions and how he achieved them. He also hid the world from not only his crazed ideas but also his mental illness, perha ps because he himself did not know that he was mentally ill. Howard Hughes related every aspect of his life to modernism. Not only did he relate to modernism but he himself was a modernist.His ingenious ideas ere thought to be radical for his time but at the same time they were somewhat inspirational. He was an idealistic man who looked beyond the possible and did not take no for an answer. Because of this, he broke world records and raised the bar for the upcoming 20th century. In order to truly understand this man, his actions, and how the â€Å"Legend of the Aviator† started one has to look into early life. If there ever was a more crucial part of anyones life it was Howard Hughes' upbringing. Hughes birth place and date are not precisely known and are still a major controversy.What ou need to know is that he was born somewhere in Texas in the year 1905. He was born to a very fortunate family. At the time Hughes father Robert was the sole owner ofa crucial piece of equipme nt that was used to drill oil. His father made it rich selling land that contained massive oil deposits and by designing and selling the only drill bit that was strong enough to penetrate hard layers of granite. This drill bit was also the only one that could actually drill deep enough to tap into large oil reserves. In later years Hughes took over the family company after the death of his father in 1924.He inherited 75 percent of Hughes Tool Co. and later bought out the other 25 percent from the rest of his family (Hack 43). He was inspired to be like his father, a businessman. At heart, Hughes was not a businessman but his positive â€Å"go get 'em† attitude helped him seem like one. Hughes' company was once accused of being a monopoly, his response was simply â€Å"We don't have an monopoly. Anyone who wants to dig a well without a Hughes bit can always use a pick and shovel† (Howard 1). Howard Hughes was one of the most iconic fgures of the earlier half of the 20th century.He revolutionized the airline industry, presenting ideas that made flights smother and took less time from takeoff to landing. He single handedly defeated the social norms of his time and was known for setting a certain standard of class. Modernism by broad definition is, â€Å"a style or movement in the arts that aims to break that his individual attitude and matches that of modernism. In 1927 the film industry was booming, and Hollywood was at its highest peak in setting new standards. Out of now where a 23 year old millionaire came from Texas and dropped millions of dollars nto one single film.People were skeptical and thought of this producer as a crazed Texan with money that Just wanted to find a way to spend it, but as proven by Howard Hughes they were wrong. Three years later Hughes' movie was release. He had successfully raised the bar for film industry. The movie Hell's Angels had broken the record for the highest budget spent, most time ever spent on a film and t he highest yield (Hell's 1). The critics withdrew their previous remarks and Howard Hughes' name in the film industry was established. Now the man not only owned a great share of the oil arket but now had his foot in the film industry.He produced films, directed movies, and threw around his money around as if it would never leave his side. Some would call it a gamble, and it was but he never did lose that money. Many people that tried to follow in his footsteps ended up broke, and with nothing left in their pockets. For Hughes it was never the case, he was an invincible man. He could do anything he wanted and have any thing he desired. His bank account kept on growing despite his vast expenditures on his little projects. After working on Hell's Angels he got more nvolved in aviation. Howard Hughes, the man who is known as the Aviator. After production on Hell's Angels was wrapped up, Hughes became more involved in aviation and started designing his own planes† (Hack 103). He c reated some of the fastest planes and thought up ideas that seemed impossible or even pointless. For example, the Hughes H-1 Racer. He designed this plane to be fast, his goal was to take off everything on the plane that it did not need and by doing so he made it light and aerodynamic, thus giving the plane greater speed. He sunk the screws into the aluminum exterior educing wind resistance and made many other small advancements that gave his plane a design that was superior to others.Because of this fascination with planes he always had work. Aviation design opened the door for government contracts designing and creating prototypes of spy planes. Once this door was opened, it shaped Hughes future for years to come. His government contracts were the basis of most of the rumors about Hughes. In his later life scams arose about Howard Hughes, himself trying to plot ways to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro, along with CIA operations that were claimed to be associated with Hughes. These c laims were later discovered to be coverups for a CIA reconnaissance mission of a Soviet Union Nuclear Submarine.To allude the attention of the public to their massive ships trolling international waters, the CIA claimed that it was simply a drilling rig operation owned by Howard Hughes (Central 2). It was later discovered that he had absolutely nothing to do with this government reconnaissance mission and had no knowledge of it. This man didn't always have the best of luck. On two occasions he came close to death. He dodged death and survived two deadly plane crashes. In his first plane crash he was one of the two survivors, out of the four XF-11, â€Å"a military plane that was designed with a counter rotating double propeller system† (History 1).It was the first of its kind and in early experimental stages. Hughes took the XF-11 for its first test flight. Upon his return to the Air Force base after a very successful first flight, he lost oil pressure in one of the right eng ines. Rapidly losing altitude he attempted to crash land in a Beverly Hills mansion. Upon impact the plane's fuel tank ruptured and ignited. Hughes barely managed to escape eath, sustaining third degree burns on most of his body and this left him with a severe case of â€Å"Complex Regional Pain Syndrome† (Hughes's 1).The Aviator died on April 4, 1976 (Hack 215). At this point in his life he was dependent on opiates and codeine and had a hygiene issues. He would only cut his hair once a year and was supposedly seen with long grown out fingernails. He became so mentally ill that he believed that the germs did not come from him but came from the world which is ironic because his health was in very poor condition. He died of malnutrition and kidney damage. X-rays later revealed hat he had five broken off hypodermic needles in his arm.

Black Working Poor vs. Black Middle Class

The article examines the relationships between the black working poor and the black middle class. The black middle class is defined as being fragmented, comprised of an array of incomes, professions, and educational levels. The article also states that black middle class experiences economic shifts that move back and forth between blue-collar and white-collar income levels and occupations. (Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) The black middle class experienced dramatic growth in the post civil-rights era.This growth raised questions about how social and cultural capital among the black middle class has helped the conditions of the black working poor. The author demonstrates through materialist and culturalist frames of the community how black middle class members of a small organization frame community failed to address the needs of the working poor. Materialist frames are rooted in day-to-day material conditions. They are informed by the lived reality of low wages, high rents, and or poor qual ity schools and focus on immediate change of concrete conditions. (Shawn A.Ginwright 2002) Culturalist frames challenge ideas and values, rather than power and people. Through a shared set of ideas and values, culturalist frames focus on symbolic meaning and abstract theories of the social world and attempt to change social meaning and personal identity. They promote specialized ideas about community and social issues and encourage expert-based social change through highly skilled, educated professionals. (Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) His argument is that the middle class use their skills, and other forms of human capitol to define community issues, while overlooking the interests of the working poor.Then Ginwright used a case study to affirm his theory. The case study was of a middle class community’s use Afrocentric ideology to ameliorate a working class neighborhood high school; the middle class misdiagnosed an obvious problem through culturalist framing resulting in no signif icant improvement in the high school. Afrocentric ideology is a modern concept in response to racist and attitudes about black people. It is a black inspired ideology that affirms blacks in a white dominated society.In the efforts to improve McClymonds High School in Oakland California a group of community advocates, The Black Front For Educational Reform (BUFFER), started coalition with working class parents and concerned citizens to transform the high school. Then BUFFER grew in size from roughly 30 local community individuals to 125 individuals from professors to attorneys. With the original BUFFERS the plan was simple, improve specific issues related to the day-to-day experiences of students, what the school lacked, but also what students at the school needed to survive.First, although many of its members shared the same ideology about the need to improve the conditions for black students at McClymonds High School, there was conflict about which strategy would best serve the nee ds of the students. (Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) The original working class members of BUFFER wanted to address the material issues such as textbook, facility structure, college prep courses, etc†¦ The new BUFFERS convinced that the problem was from lack of positive ethnic identity and racial pride. They wanted to address educational inequality by implementing an Afrocentric curriculum. This gave the idea of self-esteem issues.The Afrocentric curriculum did get approved and was implemented in the curriculum. For many students the new subject was not understood and Afrocentrism did not have any relevance to their day to day life experiences. The emphasis they placed on Afrocentric education diverted valuable resources to what could have been an effort to redress the pervasive inequality at the High. (Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) In reading the article it disclosed a serious gap in understanding of society needs between the middle class and the working poor class. Since the article was based on one case study, the results were skewed in favor of the author’s theory.The reading does not provide the benefits obtained by the high school from incorporating an Afrocentric curriculum or another case study that shows similar results. The author made an argument and used only one case study to verify his theory. The reading did provide some insight into the relationship between the two but it only provides inferred reasoning as to why there is a difference between the two. With two different social classes within the same organization, communication was really the necessity that was lacking to have a better outcome in the transformation of the high school. I would definitely recommend this read to a classmate

Summary Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Summary Report - Essay Example Guidance and Counseling plays an important role in an educational institution. "It is a concept that institutions, especially schools, should promote the efficient and happy lives of individuals by helping them adjust to social realities." (Columbia Encyclopedia) During the internship in an educational institution under the Guidance and Counseling, I was tasked to assist the counselors and staffs of the said department. I was exposed to testing and Psychometrics including its administration and interpretation, counseling sessions and seminar programs that is in response to the collective difficulties of the students. The best activity that I have observed and experienced is to assist in a seminar program organized by the department. The program aimed to help students in coping with stress that they encounter in school, with emphasis on how to react and deal with bullies in school. As part of the program organizer, the first step that we have considered before holding the event is to assess the current needs of the students through a survey done to every student. It was embedded to the counseling sessions wherein the students were asked some personal questions related to the problems that they encounter in school, family and other matters. Fr om the survey, the collective experiences and problems encountered by most students is stress related to bullying. After identifying the top most problems, the guidance counselors have designed a program to help address the common problems of students through information dissemination and seminars. Indeed, the program was very helpful to students and I believe that one way of solving a dilemma is through knowing and learning how to solve it. On the other hand, Even though I consider all the tasks relevant to the guidance programs but there are some tasks that I feel less productive. Particularly, I feel less productive whenever I do administration tasks such as photocopying, collating seminar materials, and checking of test papers. I am aware that administration tasks are very important in order to function well as a department. If I will be employed in an institution as a Guidance Director, I would gladly implement specific programs that are certainly useful and beneficial to all. Guidance and Counseling department will aim to serve as the helping hand of each student, parents and school administrators in addressing problems pertaining to the student's welfare. As stated in allaboutcounseling.com, "counseling is any relationship in which one person is helping another person to better understand and solve some problem." Indeed, the department should maintain good professional and personal relationship up to some extent with each client. In order to carry out the goals of the department, as a director, the welfare of the counselors are also given attention. There should be a program wellness that is intended to address the counselors' needs, burnout problems and others. They should also be assessed from time to time in order to check whether they need training for improvements. The programs will have to be congruent with the goals of the Guidance and Counseling center. It will be called "Community Wellness and Enhancement Program" aims to equip students, parents, and school administrators in facing current and future difficulties to encounter. It is going to be more of a

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

Written appeal - Essay Example This allows employees to quit employment anytime they wish and allows the employer to terminate employment at any time within the agreement. Ideally, employment at will is a concept under labor laws that define a contractual relationship where an employer has a leeway to terminate employment without giving any justified cause and without warning. As such, employers can terminate employment at any time without accruing any legal liability. Indeed, the law denies the employee any claim for loss resulting from such employment termination. The same law allows employees to leave their employment without a justified cause or warning. In fact, under employment at will, an employee can choose when and how often they want to work without attracting any adverse legal liabilities (â€Å"General Counsel† 1). Moreover, the employer and employees can agree for the termination and dismissal conditions they choose. These conditions may include allowing employees to choose when and how often they want to work. Notably, after realizing that they have limited legal rights to fight for their termination, employees may choose when and how often they want to work before the dismissal comes. Indeed, the employee is aware that they do not have job security under employment at will and hence they can choose when and how often they want to wor k as they search for secured

Xerxes The Great, 'Ahasuerus' Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Xerxes The Great, 'Ahasuerus' - Essay Example It is often presented as a truism that the winners write the history books. But when the subject is a figure of controversy, with both dark and light sides, it is often difficult to really see what happened in a way that highlights veracity. Looking at Xerxes I of Persia, one faces such a situation. On the one hand, Xerxes’ invasion of Greece was massive in scale, represented ingenious engineering, and resulted in the fruition of the goal of its general: a victory at Thermopylae, and the capture of Athens. On the other hand, taking Athens was essentially Xerxes’ last successful move: he faced nothing but a series of embarrassing defeats afterwards, and after the withdrawal of forces from Greece, was treated very harshly by Greek historians. The basic assumption of the current research investigation is that Xerxes, leading the Persian army after Thermopylae, represents a different and more unstable sort of commander than Xerxes before this seminal battle: after burning A thens, Xerxes seems to make nothing but poor strategic decisions. Up until his eventual murder in a court intrigue, when he was essentially disgraced as a general, and was focusing mainly on building projects, Xerxes showed a slippage of rationality and good judgment, along with an increasing inability to take counsel from his advisors and military planners.

Global Perspectives Mid-term Memo Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global Perspectives Mid-term Memo - Assignment Example 1) The rising Human Development Index (UNDP Report, 2010) a) A recent UNDP report published in 2010 has identified a rise in the index of human development for Belarus. i) Human Development Index (HDI) is an internationally accepted measure of national development. It assesses health, income, education and some other trends for a country. ii) The recent rise is not sudden and the country is steady moving up in the ladder.HDI has risen from 0.619 to 0.624 in 2010. iii) The country is categorized as a country with High Human Development in this report which means a developed country. b) We can assume following from the HDI rise; i) Higher buying power at consumer level. ii) Higher level service expectations from the consumers. iii) Belarus social indicators are satisfactory and if these trends continue to flourish there are bright chance of business in this country. iv) Encouraging business environment. 2) Belarus’s Economic Environment a) A Highly industrialized state with many features of planned economy. i) A country with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of US$ 1,590. ii) A decline in Belarus GDP was observed in 2009 as it dropped to US$ 48.984007391 billion from US$ 60.7634483146 billion of 2008 and was ranked 70th in the world. iii) A net inflow of foreign direct investment was declared to be US$ 1.8844 billion. (World Bank, 2011) b) A strict control government over the prices and private enterprises makes the business environment difficult for foreign investors. i) Rigorous government inspections to ensure policy compliance. ii) A higher frequency of policy and business regulation changes. iii) An overall restrictive business environment. iv) A strict control government over the prices and private enterprises makes the business environment difficult for foreign investors. (Economy Watch, 2011) c) Our recommendation from business point of view are as follows; i) Government should move towards market driven economy ii) State control over privat e enterprises should be reviewed and removed iii) Competitive business environment should be provided to business community iv) Tax free and investment friendly policies should be introduced to support direct foreign investment. 3) Belarus’s Political Environment a) Belarus had declared its independence in 1994. It is presidential republic, governed by the President Alexander Lukashenko, the National Assembly and a Council of the Republic. The President is ruling the country for last sixteen years and has got legitimacy through controversial referendum process. Most of the Western powers have termed the rule of Lukashenko as a dictatorship. i) Human rights violations are witnessed commonly. ii) Several opposition parties exist but are strictly suppressed in the country. iii) However, government controlled Belarusian telegraph agency declared the political situation in the country as ‘calm’ in a recent survey. (Belta, 2010). b) We suggest following political steps in Belarus; i) Restoration of true democracy ii) More political freedom to the masses, particularly suppressed opposition parties iii) Respect of human right at all level of the society iv) Frees press and media policies Under these circumstances business operations in Belarus does not suits

Nursing Informatics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nursing Informatics - Research Paper Example With regard to informatics, the article makes a brief overview of the some of the information technology devices that are used in health care settings. Among the information technology devices mentioned by the authors are computers, internet and network systems, patient monitoring systems, decision support systems, and data capture tools. However, the authors did not give elaborate details regarding the informatics, such as specific examples of information technology devices and how they are used. Regarding nursing practice, the article concentrates on how installing information technology in health care centers and educating health care providers how to use them can help in improving the outcomes of health care. A brief history of the application of informatics in nursing is also given. For instance, the article explains that integrating information technology with nursing practice was first regarded as a specialization in 1984 (Darvish et al., 2014). Significantly, the main theme i n the article is how the delivery of competent, evidence-based care for a nursing profession can be attained and healthcare facilities improved. For instance, the article explains how advanced systems such as computers, patient monitoring systems, and patient monitoring tools can help in reducing errors in making and maintaining patients’ records. Despite this, the authors did not make elaborate explanations of the impact of informatics in enhancing competent, evidence-based nursing practice, it supported my position.

Net neutrality Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Net neutrality - Research Paper Example In 2010, the FCC imposed network neutrality regulations on both wireless and wired broadband-access providers (Hazlett 1). The agency claims that the design of the internet was such that there would be no â€Å"gatekeepers†. Despite there being disputes, the FCC has moved ahead to vote in new rules that will affect the regulation of broadband internet in the U.S. (Kovach). The FCC’s proposal is bad because exercising of unfettered control over people’s use of the internet creates risks to economic and technological growth, and it poses a real threat to freedom of speech and the future of the United States’ democracy (Hazlett 1). Kovach argues that we have two sides in dispute concerning net neutrality. Providers aim at regulating their broad band so that they can utilize it to pursue their own interests to favor their own internet service provision. On the other side, there are the proponents of â€Å"internet neutrality† who believe that in order to foster economic growth and innovation; the government should regulate the internet. The FCC chair’s proposal says that companies which stream content, if they wish, they should be able to pay internet providers for direct access to customers. This will result in increased streaming speeds. The proposal goes ahead to protect companies that cannot or do not want to pay for the direct access to customers. This means that internet service providers (ISPs) will be prohibited from slowing down the streaming speed for those who eat up more bandwidth and treat those services like any other data. This is not the right solution because it gives huge compani es with a lot of money an advantage over the start up companies, which cannot be able to afford paying for direct access to internet users. According to Gustin, the young firms must rely on the certainty of rules that do not discriminate for them to grow, build new technologies and create jobs. In addition, the consumer will also suffer

Growth Rate - Consumer Price Index for Qatar Assignment

Growth Rate - Consumer Price Index for Qatar - Assignment Example with prev. year (a) Prev. year (b) (a / b)100 2001 1.2 82.7 1.45% inflation 2002 0.2 83.9 0.24% inflation 2003 1.9 84.1 2.26% inflation 2004 5.9 86.0 6.86% inflation 2005 8.1 91.9 8.81% inflation 2006 11.8 100.0 11.8% inflation 2007 15.4 111.8 13.77% inflation 2008 19.2 127.2 15.09% inflation 2009 -7.1 146.4 4.85% deflation 2010 -3.4 139.3 2.44% deflation 2011 2.6 135.9 1.91% inflation ( The World Bank, 2012) Qatar’s economic progress was impressive from 2005 to 2009 in spite of the global recession in the later part of the period. There was a 9 percent real overall GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth. In the year 2008, GDP growth was 16 percent. This was because of increase in the production level of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and condensates. Also, there was a good development in the nonhydrocarbon sector. All these factors led to continuous price inflation from 2005 to 2009 (IMF Executive Board Concludes 2009 Article IV Consultation with Qatar, 2010). Inflation reached the peak in 2008 with 15 percent. This was the highest inflation rate among all the GCC countries and Qatar which is the wealthiest Arab nation experience such a huge jump in inflation rate because of weakening US dollar. The inflation was also due to other factors like increase in domestic rents, rise in food prices and heavy domestic demand of oil. According to a study conducted by Qatari National Bank (QNB), there was a three-fold increase in consumer prices in Qatar during the years between 2005 and 2009 resulting in average of 8.9 percent. This figure is very high compared to the average during 2000-2004 which was 2.5 percent. The consistent rise of housing costs was the main reason behind the growing inflation from 2005 till 2008 (Kawach, 2010). However, in 2009 Qatar’s economy witnessed a sharp deflation of 4.85 percent. This was due to a sharp decline in the domestic house rents. This decline in domestic house rent occurred in all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries , but Qatar witnessed the maximum decline. Economic growth was mostly encouraged by the fiscal policy through consistent spending in development sector. However, for this few projects of government were given greater priority. Because of the increase in prices of oil and gas the external current account was approximated a large surplus with almost 15.7 percent of GDP. The gross reserve of central bank was further strengthened to around 5 months of imports of goods and services (IMF Executive Board Concludes 2009 Article IV Consultation with Qatar, 2010). Qatar which is the leading LNG exported in the world faced deflation for the second consecutive year in 2010 with rents declining more than the previous year. According to Saudi American Bank Group (SAMBA) Qatar was deeply entrenched in deflation for two fiscal years although there was speculation of heavy growth in the economy due to increasing LNG exports, rising oil prices and large scale public spending. During the last quarter of 2010, oil and non-oil sectors were speculated for upward trends while construction and real estate industries remained unchanged. SAMBA said â€Å"excess supply in the real estate sector continues to put pressure on rents which is being reflected in

Social Issue Essay Example for Free

Social Issue Essay â€Å"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. † As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, the world must go far beyond than our differences and we must love each other for what we are. And Afghanistan religion is not an exception. Amir is the son of Baba, a wealthy businessman and a Pashtun Muslim, he also goes to school, owns books and wears fancy outfits. Hassan, on the other side of the coin, is the son of Ali, a member of the Hazaras and Amir’s personal servant. He does not attend school and is analphabetic and wears pitiable clothes. And despite the fact they live in the same property, Amir’s dwelling is the most beautiful and opulent house in town, meanwhile the servant child lives in a humble cabin down by their garden. The Kite Runner clearly exposes the social inequality of Amir and Hassan upon the different lifestyles of the characters, the education they are given and of course the discrimination upon the ethnic groups they each belong to. The three main points already mentioned, clearly exemplify the immense social gap inside the Afghanistan culture. To begin with, the ethnic conflict and the discrimination issue in Afghanistan have been around from years in such culture. The Hazaras on one side, are the minority group among the society, they belong to the peasant class and throughout centuries, they have been persecuted and exterminated by the members of the nation’s ruling class: The Pashtuns. â€Å"Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans† (Hosseini, K. (The Kite Runner), 2003 p. 22). Nevertheless, Amir and his father Baba are members of this religious sector; in fact, they are one of the wealthiest families in North Kabul. Hassan and Ali, on the other side, were part of the Hazaras and due to their Mongol features and cultural status, they constantly tend to receive social and physical discrimination. And although these two Islamic branches tend to live together assorted inside the same land, their social disparities are enormous. And which better example to portrayed this idea, than Hassan and Amir themselves. They both live in the same location and nearly eat the same food, but the society’s views about them are completely dissimilar. The Pashtun boy is seen as a fruitful and pure soul; however, Hassan is perceived as a filthy and foolish fellow with no certain future. Second of all, the education received by Amir is completely unlike the one given to Hassan. This Pashtun lad attends an upright school in Kabul, where he is taught how to write and read. At home, he frequently enjoys reading several sorts of tales and even writes his own short stories. Hassan’s education, however, was exactly the opposite: he doesnt know how to write or to read. He works most part of the day and attends no school at all. The only kind of â€Å"education† this poor Hazara child will ever obtain, is the one given by Amir from time to time, when he teaches him the definition of a few words from the books he reads to him. Just for the fact he belongs to a social minority, Hassan will never in his life do anything but to cook or clean before others. And no matter how hard he struggles, he will never be given the chance to attend any school, will never be given the chance to read and will never be given the chance to write. â€Å"After all, what use did a servant have for the written words? † (Hosseini, K. (The Kite Runner), 2003 p. 37). Pursuing this further, the Afghans kids’ lifestyles are completely unlike. When both lads get up in the morning they follow a very similar routine, however lived from utterly different perspectives. When Amir wakes up in the morning, he comfortably eats his breakfast. When Hassan wakes up, he prepares Amir’s breakfast. While Hassan makes his bed, polish his school shoes and ironed his uniform, Amir complains about homework and how tough is school. â€Å"When the sun dropped low behind the hills and we were done playing for the day, Hassan and I parted ways. I went past the rosebushes to Baba’s mansion and Hassan to the mud shack where he had been born, where he’d lived his entire life. † (Hosseini, K. (The Kite Runner), 2003 p. 24). This is one of the greatest example of the social disparity in Afghanistan, where the younger generation’s future is strictly related to the their religious group. Amir, for instance will have a successful life, crowded of opportunities and joyful moments, meanwhile Hassan will grow old enough to become dust in the wind. However, Amir and Hassan both grew under the same roof and spent the first twelve years of their lives playing together. They learned how to crawl together, they even taught each other how to ride a bicycle with no hands. They spent entire winters flying kites, running kites, watching westerns at the cinema and chasing each other between tangles of trees in Baba’s house. Never mind any of those things. Because history isn’t easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, Amir was a Pashtun and Hassan was a Hazara, he was rich and he was poor, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing. Given these points, we can conclude the differences upon Amir’s and Hassan’s education, their unlike lifestyle and the discrimination throughout The Kite Runner’s main characters are undoubtedly originated upon their ethnical position. Just for the fact Hassan is not a Pashtun Muslim, just for the fact he belongs to social minority, just for the fact he is different, he is destined to live this rotten life eternally. However, Amir will be given the chance to live his own life. He will study hard and become one of the many wealthy men in Kabul. He will drive his opulent family in an opulent car to his opulent house, where Hassan and his child will be waiting for them inside their mud shack. The same mud shack where they have live their entire miserable life. It is incredible how the religious distinctions between them, greatly affect their existence. But it is a fact. The Pashtuns and the Hazaras discrimination in Afghanistan is happening. And no matter how hard they struggle, Amir and Hassan can not escape from this reality where each of these two innocent boys stands as an example of the social inequality in Afghanistan. Reference List: -Hosseini, K. (2003). The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead.

Increasingly multicultural Essay Example for Free

Increasingly multicultural Essay Montreal is a vibrant cosmopolitan city that is becoming increasingly multicultural. although this is the case Quebecs language laws have made it all but impossible to post outdoor signs in languages other than French. Other disadvantageous do not point just to those who do not speak French. Since Bill 101 was passed in 1977 many were skeptical over the change in the school system when it urged Quebec to change a law that requires most immigrant children to get their schooling in French. The law that now keeps most immigrant children out of English schools, Bill 101, was enacted 22 years ago under the authority of our good old friend Rene Levesque in response to nationalist fears that a pronounced tendency among Quebec allophones to choose an English education for their children together with a low francophone birth rate posed a long-term threat to the future of the French language, especially here in Montreal. Why couldnt the city be left the way it was, the needless threat of all of Quebecs language laws have posed a menace to society. The more laws that have been passed the more the French Majority have become involved resulting in a greater vigor to stay free from English. There have been in the past many riots and angered separatists willing to give their lives for the right to keep the French language intact. If the Government hadnt been so enthusiastic over efforts to change the face of the province maybe the majority of the population would have left the issue of language alone and accepted the English for what they are. Many have grown through the upbringing of their parents to treat everybody the same, and also by the old saying. Dont judge a book by its cover. It is a complete outrage for the Government to witness crimes of hate and to ignored them by making the problem worse by going ahead with their proposed we hate the English lets get them out of here law. That has definitely been the way that allophones have felt and they were never given a fair share of anything, not even a vote. After the referendum this had become the talk of the nation when rumors suggested that die-hard separatists had tampered with the votes after the 1994 referendum when Quebec narrowly escaped separation from Canada by just a hairs breadth. But the havoc hadnt only just begun, there were incidents in the past when Prime Minister Trudeau was in charge that literally tested the lives of allophones, closer to home over here in Westmount. Alleged obstinate separatists preformed acts of hate on Montreals well-known English community. Bombs were neatly placed in to mailboxes that were, appallingly, set to detonate once opened. This spelled danger to Montreals allophone community who flocked elsewhere to get away from the unbearable tensions that were built amongst them by these alleged terrorists. That is exactly why I disagree with Mordecai Richlers opinion over Montreals status. He once said. We Havent Lost our heads only our apostrophes. Montreal however diminished is still to my mind the most agreeable city in Canada. And this is because the two cultures not only confront eachother but also continue to enrich eachother. How could such a knowledgeable man ignore all the violence and the lack of equality. It has to be said that there has never been a time when it was liberated to say that we have grown to enrich each other because it quite simply isnt true. Problems between the two vibrant cultures have not caused astronomical damage, but enough damage to believe that allophones are not wanted. Tensions for a while remained calm, but more recently the bombings that plagued some second Cup coffee shops, in a furious scuffle just to change the name to Deuxieme Tasse. Similar incidents include Jacques Villneuves opening of his bar called new town the translation of his last name. The successful Formula 1 hero was the target of many unpleased individuals over the name of his bar. Villneuve was later asked to reply and give his opinion to the miserable reaction over the name and quite simply stated that people in this city must become more open minded. Cant really disagree there. It comes to show that times havent changed and that tensions are still sky high. That is exactly why I disagree with Mordecai Richlers opinion over the Montreals status. He once said. We Havent Lost our heads only our apostrophes. Montreal however diminished is still to my mind the most agreeable city in Canada. And this is because the two cultures not only confront eachother but also continue to enrich eachother.

What Makes People Commit Benefit Fraud?

What Makes People Commit Benefit Fraud? Introduction Benefit fraud is, according to some members of the government and some media sources, committed by dishonest people and is a blight on our nation which sucks up huge amount of money that could otherwise be used for the improvement of public services. Another perspective might argue that benefit fraud is a symptom and reflection of our unequal society. The first view tends to place the blame on the individual while the latter tends to place the blame on society. The attitude that a textual source adopts towards this questions can provide some insight into the way in which they construct the issue. Social psychology has analysed the way in which we make decisions about why something happens in terms of attributions. Hogg Vaughan (2002) explain that attributions in social psychology describe how people make decisions about the actions of other people specifically what is it that motivates their actions? One of the most well-known of these models of attributions was put forward by Kelley (1967, 1973). Within this model, peoples behaviour is either attributed to external causes or to internal causes on the basis of how their behaviour varies with the following factors: its distinctiveness, its consistency and the consensus. Attribution theory has been further extended by the work of Weiner (1986) which breaks down how attributions are made into three categories. The first is the locus of control this refers to the boundary between internal and external causes. The second is stability this refers to the extent to which the cause is capable of change. The third is the controllability this refers to how much control a person is perceived to have over their future performance. The way in which the examined texts make attributions about peoples behaviour, in this case benefit fraud, should show their attitudes towards those types of people. For this study, four extracts from The Guardian newspaper were used. The Guardian is traditionally a politically left-leaning publication. The hypothesis for this study was that The Guardian newspaper, in its implicit explanations of the reasons people commit benefit fraud, would tend to emphasise those reasons that focussed on the effects that society has on individuals rather than on individual factors such as personal deviance. In terms of attribution theory, then, the attributions made for benefit fraud would tend to be external to people, would tend to be permanent and beyond peoples control. Method Content analysis is a type of qualitative research method that involves counting the instances of words and then making inferences from these figures. Thematic analysis, however, is a related procedure that involves looking at a text in order to discover the themes that emerge from it, but it does not have the same emphasis on word frequencies. From this difference it can be seen that a thematic analysis aims to understand the data rather than know it. The procedure used for this thematic analysis was to read the extracts relating to benefit fraud and to make notes in the margin as themes arose in the coding. The themes that arose from all the extracts were then examined in total and any potential connections between the themes were analysed in terms of social psychological theories. In carrying out this analysis, one of the most important factors was maintaining a state of reflexivity. Marks Yardley (2004) point to two important components of reflexivity in this type of study. The first is a social critique this means examining how the themes relate to power structures in society. The second is the researcher considering their own attitudes towards the subject being investigated. Results From the analyses of four excerpts from The Guardian, the following three themes emerged. Theme 1: The Catch 22 Administrative Complexity The first theme emphasises the idea that there are often high levels of administrative load involved in applying for benefits. Davies (2005) for example emphasised the amount of form-filling involved for people and how complicated the process is: Many (†¦) fear endless form-filling while moving off benefits, into tax credits and then, heaven forbid, reapplying for benefits if work falls through hoping that between the Inland Revenue, job centre and the housing office, no one misplaces their form. (Davies, 2005) This focus on the complications of the process can also be seen in Tickles (2006) article which focuses on the difficulties of the system. In particular for one 19-year old trying to put himself through the education system in order to gain A-levels so that he can get a degree, the benefits system seems to be working against him. Not only that but the administrative system has him caught in a Catch 22: According to the benefit rules, if you turn 19 and are homeless, the education game changes. You are no longer eligible for income support, which in turn entitles you to housing benefit. This benefit requires claimants to have an income. Instead, you must claim jobseekers allowance (JSA), which means declaring yourself available for work, and eventually attending government-approved New Deal training. This will very likely have nothing to do with your studies, or those you might like to begin. (Tickle, 2006) According to this account, the man in this article has clearly been caught in the administrative complexities of the situation, something for which he cannot be personally blamed. Theme 2: Social Hardship A strong theme throughout these articles emphasises the difficulty of the circumstances of many of the people that may be involved in benefit fraud. The young man described by Tickle (2006) had been forced to move out from the family home because of problems there and had moved into homeless accommodation. These points are further highlighted in the letters page of The Guardian which points to some of the social circumstances of those who might be claiming benefits fraudulently. Serwotka (2005) points out that: We also see from estimates reported to the public accounts committee that while benefit fraud is declining, errors in payments are on the increase. As the union representing the workers who have to implement these tough conditions, PCS does not believe that getting tough is the best way of helping some of the most vulnerable in society to obtain and keep jobs. (Serwotka, 2005) This places benefit questions within a wider context of lowering rates of fraudulent behaviour and the implicit persecution of those who are the most vulnerable. Theme 3: Fraud Despite Labelling A consistent way in which the writers in The Guardian talked about benefit fraud was in reference to the negative effects of labelling. The implication of this was that while reasons for benefit fraud might include social circumstances and administrative complexity, as discussed above, fraud was carried out despite the strong negative connotations attached to it by the government and others. Davies (2005), for example, points out that many people: †¦feel targeted and blamed for anti-social behaviour, benefit fraud, scrounging on incapacity benefit. They fear being punished for their childrens school attendance, accused of bad parenting and having their children put into care. (Davies, 2005). A culture of fear is emphasised by Beresford (2005) in that vulnerable people are consistently bombarded by messages that fraud should be avoided. Reporting on a Department of Health study it was found that: One of the strongest messages from the study is the real commitment of many people who have been written off as dependent to make a contribution to their community. But this is hindered by official talk of benefit cheats; of getting a million people off incapacity benefit; a preoccupation with paid employment; and an often inflexible and unsupportive labour market. (Beresford, 2005) Implicit within this analysis is the idea that people who do commit benefit fraud must have a good reason for doing so because the social pressure created by the government not to carry out fraud is so great. Discussion The themes found in this textual analysis of why people commit benefit fraud points to the involvement of a number of established social psychological theories. Each of the themes examined clearly shows how social and systemic reasons were seen, by these articles in The Guardian, to be at the root of why people commit benefit fraud. The first theme of administrative complexity tended to attribute the causes for fraudulent benefit claims to administrative dilemmas and catch-22 problems. This clearly places the reasons for behaviour outside a persons locus of control and implicitly places the cause for the behaviour onto the system. As the system is being blamed this will tend to be a relatively stable factor that will continue into the future. Finally, administrative factors are largely beyond the control of the individual as they are decisions made by the state. The second theme of social hardship is not quite as clear-cut as the first but there are similar tendencies in the analysed attributions. Here social hardship is seen to act as an external force but the decision of the man discussed in this case to commit benefit fraud is seen, to some extent, to be internal. The reasons given for this, however, are external in that it is the system, again, and its complexities and apparent loopholes, that has forced him to take this decision. The final theme did not fit easily into the ideas provided by attribution theory, but, is better suited to those of conformity. Asch (1952) posited that people tend to form the norms for their own behaviour by looking at those around them and come to a conclusion about how they should act based on this. What was clear from Aschs (1952) experiments is that people are highly affected by other peoples behaviour. The third theme, therefore, tends to emphasise the stigma attached to benefit fraud. It follows that people who do commit benefit fraud must have very good reasons for doing so as they are fighting against the normalising pressure of what is generally considered right. Taking a step up in level of analysis, the way that The Guardian makes attributions about people committing benefit fraud can be examined in terms of in-group and out-group attributions. Researchers have found that when making in-group attributions, people tend to display a self-serving bias (Hewstone, 1989). It is assumed that The Guardian newspaper, as it has been traditionally considered a politically left-wing newspaper, is likely to view itself as at least sympathetic to those committing benefit fraud. This would be explained in the ideas of intergroup attribution theory as a self-serving in-group bias. In general then, the hypothesis that textual extracts from The Guardian would tend to defend those committing benefit fraud was supported. This was analysed in terms of attributions with the results showing that they tended to be outside a persons locus of control, tended to be ongoing and permanent. Through these attributions the causes, or even blame, for peoples actions tended to be situated externally. From the perspective of power structures, the idea that The Guardian should defend those who are most vulnerable in society was also consistently supported. References Asch, S. (1952) Social psychology. New York: Prentice Hall. Beresford, P. (2005) No-win situation. Guardian [online] 19 October. Available from: http://society.guardian.co.uk/secondopinion/story/0,,1594942,00.html [Accessed 29 March 2006] Davies, M. (2005) Stop blaming the poor. Guardian [online] 4 April. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1451473,00.html [Accessed 29 March 2006] Hewstone, M. (1989) Causal Attribution: From Cognitive Processes to Cognitive Beliefs, Oxford: Blackwell. Hogg, M. A., Vaughan, G. M. (2002) Social Psychology, Third Edition, London: Prentice Hall Kelley, H. H. (1967) Attribution in social psychology. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 15, 192-238. Kelley, H. H. (1973) The processes of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107-128. Marks, D., Yardley, L., (2004) Research methods for clinical and health psychology. Sage, London. Serwotka, M. (2005) Blunketts branding of benefit claimants (Letters to the editor). Guardian [online] 13 October. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1590682,00.html [Accessed 29 March 2006] Tickle, L. (2006) Between a rock and a hard place. Guardian [online] 10 January. Available from: http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1682421,00.html [Accessed 29 March 2006] Weiner, B. (1986) An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Abortion is a Choice Essays -- Papers Argumentative Pro-choice Life Es

Abortion is a Choice Abortion is a very controversial issue that has been continually argued over the past few years and will continue for years to come. Before I get into the sides of abortion we must first define abortion. Abortion is the destruction of the fetus, or unborn child while the child is still in the mother's womb. There are two sides to this abortion topic. The Pro-life which is those who are against abortion altogether and the Pro-choice those who believe it is the women's right to choose if she wants to have an abortion. Personally, I am Pro-choice and I believe there are many clear-cut reasons to why I take this stand. In my paper I will support my position with facts about abortion, and areas where Pro-life imply that those in support of a woman's right to choose abortion are killers--meaning "anti-life," which is altogether untrue. First off I want to state that for a quarter of a century millions of women have grown up under the protection of "Roe vs. Wade," secure in the knowledge that freedom to choose is a fundamental American value, and a constitutionally protected right. Although some oppose abortion, it may be due to either lack of knowledge, or that opponents of abortion rights claim that over 90% of all abortions are used as a substitute for a contraceptive (Quick Facts). Abortionists exclude from this definition that only some of those performed are because of a woman's life in danger, there is severe fatal deformity, or because the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. Implying women in general are irresponsible and those who would choose abortion do so, with out carefully considering the impact of their decisions upon themselves and their families. A reason to why I am Pro-choice... ...he bible. Well what about other religions? What if a person doesn't even know of GOD, or believe in them? Does this mean that they are going to go to heaven and hell, when they don't even know what heaven and hell are? I feel that the decision of abortion must remain within the individual, and should be made on the basis of values and personal religious principles, whether they choose to include religion or not, and should remain free from political interference. In conclusion, the issue of abortion continues to be discussed, debated, and even unfortunately, blow out of proportion. In hopes of settling this controversial issue, I've given my knowledge and beliefs on the matter. Getting across my main points, that it is the women's right to choose if she wants to have an abortion, and that Pro-life imply a lot of misimpressions to society which are untrue.

Truman’s Policy of Containment: As related to the Individual and Socie

Truman’s Policy of Containment: As related to the Individual and Society Containment in foreign policy is known as the strategy suggested by George Kennan to prevent Soviet expansionism by exerting counter pressure along Soviet borders. The Truman Doctrine was the name given to a speech President Truman delivered to a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947, in which he proclaimed a new policy and role for the United States in global affairs. Specifically, the president sought $400 million in economic and military assistance for Greece and Turkey, two strategic Mediterranean countries threatened by subversive forces supported by the Soviet Union, after the British said a month earlier that they could no longer provide the needed support. To justify aid for Greece and Turkey to a skeptical Congress, Truman placed the situation in the context of broader changes that he saw taking place in global politics. Truman felt that the peoples of a number of countries had totalitarian regimes forced upon them against their will. At the time the United States had made frequent protests against coercion and intimidation, in violation of the Yalta agreement, in Poland, Rumania, and Bulgaria, but those protests proved insufficient. Truman declared that the United States must now be willing â€Å"to help free peoples to maintain their free institutions and their national integrity against aggressive movements that seek to impose upon them totalitarian regimes.† The sweeping language of the speech and the worldwide commitment to assist any state threatened by totalitarianism gained it the status of a â€Å"doctrine† and a lasting policy for the United States. The speech became a declaration of Cold War. The i ssue was begin... ...hat they wanted to unlike the way it under a communist regime. As related to the humanities based theme of the individual and society Truman and his policy of containment helped improve the way we look at life and the status of the world at the time and now. Bibliography: - A Report to the National Security Council, April 14, 1950, p. 5. - Congressional Record, vol. 93, pt. 2, March 12, 1947, pp. 1980-81. - The Parenthetical Passages from Mr. X [George Kennan], â€Å"The Sources of Soviet Conduct,† Foreign Affairs (July 1947), pp. 566-82. - Kagan, Donald. The Western Heritage, 6th edition. pp. 1075-77. - Mansbach, Richard. The Global Puzzle. pp. 112-13. - 5 Apr. 1999. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photos/av-photo.htm (20 Apr. 1999). - 31 Mar. 1999. http://www.earthstation1.com/Miscellaneous_wwII_pictures.html (20 Apr. 1999).

Terry Kays To Dance With the White Dog :: To Dance With the White Dog

The Power of Love in Terry Kay's To Dance With the White Dog Terry Kay said there was a grand romance of life between his parents. (179). Kay captures his parent’s undying love and celebrates his family in his novel To Dance With the White Dog. Kay believes that his parent’s love still carried on, even after their death. Sam and Cora Peek’s love is portrayed through the white dog that Sam saw licking up grease on his back porch. Strangely, the white dog looked just like a dog that Sam and his wife had when they first were married. Another factor that makes the occurrence of the white dog even stranger is that it did not show up at Sam’s house until after Cora died. Kay said that his parents had an undying love; he uses his novel to express his parent’s love. Kay also notes that true love does not recognize the concept of time and can possibly carry on lasting for eternity. Whenever Sam Peek needed anyone, the white dog was there for him. The White dog would only show herself when she felt necessary. One night Sam Peek’s hip was bothering him very bad. Sam got out of his chair to get a pain pill but hit the floor soon after. The white dog strangely opened the door and was running around the yard. Kate, one of Sam’s daughters, saw the white dog. The white dog was trying to protect Sam and was only there for him in times of crisis. The white dog was possibly Cora’s undying love extending from heaven. Cora wanted to be there for Sam regardless of the boundaries and she was able to through the white dog. Later on in the book, Sam died from cancer. Sam’s youngest child, James, went to his parent’s grave. â€Å"James walked into the plot, between the grave mounds of his mother and father, and he knelt. Then he saw them: across the chest of sand on the grave of Robert Samuel Peek, he saw the paw prints, prints so light they could have been made by air.† (178). Cora did not have to worry about Sam since he was finally with her in heaven. So as soon as Sam died, the white dog disappeared. Terry Kay believed that there was an undying love between his parents. That was evident in the short time the white dog was with Sam.

Andrew Linklater & cosmopolitanism Essay

Andrew Linklater, an eloquent exponent of the promise of this type of cosmopolitanism, says that he is interested in ‘the social bonds which join and separate associate and disassociate’ (Linklater 1998a: 2). He points out that, ‘with the rise of the nation-state, one identity was chosen and made central to contemporary political life. Shared national identity was deemed to be the decisive social bond which links citizens together in the ideal political community’ (Linklater 1998a: 179), and he wants to resist the actually ineluctable linking of ‘political community’ with the state. Thus: ‘Regard for the interests of outsiders can expand in one epoch and wane in another: hence the significance of a cosmopolitan ethic which questions the exact moral significance of national boundaries’ (Linklater 1998a: 2). Linklater offers us two types of social bond beyond the state. The first kind of glue that might embrace people together, he says, is a ‘commitment to open dialogue’: ‘the bond which unites them [members of a society] can be obliged as much to the ethical commitment to open dialogue as to logic of primordial attachments’ (Linklater 1998a: 7). The political undertaking of the cosmopolitan, then, is to ‘create institutional frameworks which broaden the boundaries of the dialogic community’ (Linklater 1998a: 7). The most common condemnation of this kind of thing is that it needs too much of a suspension of disbelief; that obligation to open dialogue’ is a desperately weak candidate for social glue-dom in contrast with the ‘primordial attachments’ of family, history, and culture. The question is: what will ‘open dialogue’ tell us that we do not already know? Dialogic cosmopolitanism’s sustain for open and un-coerced dialogue is obviously aimed at listening to what Linklater and others call ‘subaltern voices’—the voices of the dispossessed, the marginalized, the barred. The cosmopolitan call for more dialogue is so essential to its programme that one could be forgiven for thinking that the expelled, the marginalized, and the debarred were totally silent. Yet they are not. Positively cosmopolitan, as articulated by Linklater and others, shares its non-territoriality with post-cosmopolitan nationality. Both of them are also getting on on ‘the expedition for a new language of politics which challenges the belief that the individual’s inner political obligations are to the nation state’ (Linklater 2002: 317). But on the other hand we have comment cosmopolitanism’s unwillingness to entertain care and compassion as potential citizenship virtues, and this is a key feature of post-cosmopolitan citizenship. in the same way, cosmopolitanism’s non-territoriality seems to be accompanied by the belief that citizenship is carried out completely in the public sphere, a view that is again challenged by post-cosmopolitan citizenship. Yet it is perhaps in considered to the feature that they seem most obviously to have in common that they churn out to differ most—non-territoriality. In this context, Kimberly Hutchings considerately points to two types of conception of non-territoriality, and argues for a citizenship that ‘rather than . . . being incorporated in an ethical universalism which is dormant in concepts of liberal-democratic citizenship . . . becomes located in the actual interrelation and interaction of both individuals and collectives’ (1996: 127). By suggesting that there is no right place to stand, it can take several of the moralists out of our politics. Better still, by doing so it can set free us to pursue a long term procedure of trans-local connecting that is both political and educational at once. And in the middle of the short-term politico-educational crisis where we now get ourselves, it can assign a teaching of culture competent of rallying the energy and enthusiasm of a broad front of people who are not all or even mostly leftists, whatever the right may think. As a practice of contrast, a range of tolerances and secularisms, an international proficiency or mode of citizenship that is the control of no one class or civilization, it answers the charges of â€Å"particularize† and â€Å"loss of standards. † As a constructive ideal of interconnected knowledge and pedagogy, it elevates rather than lowers existing educational standards. It presents multiculturalism as both a common program and a decisive program. Cosmopolitanism would seem to mimic capital in seizing for itself the privilege (to paraphrase Wall Street) of â€Å"knowing no boundaries. † Which is also the gendered privilege of knowing no bodies: of being, in Donna Haraway’s words, â€Å"a conquering gazes from nowhere,† a gaze that claims â€Å"the power to see and not be seen, to represent while escaping representation. † (1990, p. 188) Though, Cosmopolitanism has long been a freedom in international politics, only accessible to elite—those who have the resources essential to travel, learn other languages, and take up other cultures. For the majority of the population, living their lives within the cultural space of their own state, cosmopolitanism has not been an alternative (hence perhaps the popular suspicion of cosmopolitanism). Though, in the contemporary world of international politics, cultural and linguistic diversity is all-pervading, and the capability to communicate with others and to recognize their cultures is available to everybody. Too often, circumstances are not favorable to this. Members of other cultural groups are considered of as threats, undermining recognized ways of life and competing for all too inadequate employment prospects and welfare resources. In these circumstances, the enticement towards closure might be overwhelming: to assert one’s own cultural identity aligned with the real or imagined threat of the other. In a framework of uncertainty, barriers and defenses might well appear to be the simple way to protect one’s own identity. Yet it is also the route towards cultural stagnation. It influences international politics in a means that Cosmopolitanism is the hard won and hard to sustain virtue of living with and understanding diversity. It is perhaps the prime virtue necessary if some appearance of communal social life is to be maintained in the late contemporary world. Cosmopolitanism in this sense is not contrary with the moral cosmopolitan’s persistence on the basic equality of all, nor with the legal cosmopolitan’s project of creating institutional and organizational structures through which this parity can be recognized and protected. It is, though, a significant corrective to the austere universalism to which philosophical cosmopolitans are often drawn, where particular attachments and kinships are regarded as impediments to, rather than essentials of, a global moral order. It is only if the virtue of cosmopolitanism is extensive in the relevant communities that there will be any probability of realizing cosmopolitan ideals. If cultural diversity is the needed outcome of it influence an approach to international politics, then cosmopolitanism is the asset of this necessity. Work Cited Beck, Ulrich (1994), ‘The Reinvention of Politics: Towards a Theory of Reflexive Modernization’, in Beck, Giddens and Lash (1994): 1–55. Beck, Ulrich, Anthony Giddens and Scott Lash (1994), Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order.Cambridge: Polity Press. Daniele Archibugi, â€Å"Cosmopolitical Democracy,† New Left Review, 4, July-August 2000: 144. Donna Haraway, â€Å"Situated Knowledges: The Science Questionin Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,† in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,† Simians, Cyborgs, and Women (London: Free Association Books, 1990), p. 188. Epictetus. 1920. The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments. Translated by G. Long. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. Also Available At: http://etext. library. adelaide. edu. au/e/epictetus/e65d/part9. html

Bullet Boy: Scene Analysis Essay

Bullet Boy, a 2004 British Social Realism film, directed by Saul Dibb has narrative that portrays a distressing an emotional tale of race, gangs and gun crime London. The film follows the life of a young man named Ricky, who has recently been released from prison, and portrays effect he has on the lives of those around him. The scene I will discuss is a montage between the main character named Ricky, and his friend Wisdom. The scene is about Ricky, planning an escape from his reputation along with his girlfriend Shea, while skating with his little brother Curtis, whom idolizes Ricky. Although, Wisdom is alone in a corner shop, unaware that Godfrey and another of his rivals are destroying his car. One of the most important elements of this scene is the use of crosscutting between both Ricky and Wisdoms narratives. This scene exaggerates the contrasts of their lives and is cut in order to create an underlying foreboding and tension. By adding short clips of Wisdoms tense plot, within Ricky’s longer, more upbeat shots, it drags out and intensifies the audiences’ anticipation as to how Godfrey will take his revenge after he is shown with weapons and an accomplice. The sound throughout this scene is mostly non-diegetic, a soundtrack piece, however diegetic sound can be heard in a discussion between Ricky and Shea. Ambient/diegetic sound is noted during the vandalism of Wisdom’s car, as well as laughter and skates from Ricky’s shots. An upbeat track is used to establish a sense of pace to the scene, while keeping up with the action of the sequence. The music that begins in Ricky’s first shot continues throughout each of Wisdom’s, also known as a sound bridge, thus creating a smoother transaction between both narratives. By using a sound bridge to keep continuity in regards to sound, it makes the action seem uninterrupted helping the audience follow. The scene begins with a close up Ricky conversing with his girlfriend. Over the shoulder and close up shots are used to increase audience involvement with the characters. Seeing the characters close up gives the viewers a greater understanding of their emotions, while also helps to establish the position of each character, and give the feel of looking at one character from the other’s point of view. After their discussion a pan shot of Curtis is shown as he skates towards the glass. This keeps up with the speed that Curtis is going, consequently keeping him in the centre of the frame, making him the main focus of this cut. The scene then cuts to a medium-long handheld camera shot of Ricky and Shea entering the ice rink, and this is where the non-diegetic music starts to play. Many medium and long shots of the couple are used throughout the scene, through this the viewers gain a better understanding of how strong their relationship is by seeing the majority of their body language, e. g. holding hands and laughing. Handheld camera shots also express a certain kind of realism, and can make the audience feel as though they are part of the scene, rather than viewing it from a frozen position. After a few cuts shown of the three on the ice, the scene cuts to the first shot of Wisdom. The lighting and scenery change dramatically and also Wisdom’s body language in the way he is walking, giving a sense of uneasiness. The medium shot also reinforces the tension as it suggests the intensity of the drama. Subsequent to this, another few handheld camera shots of the ice rink are played, which then cuts to a short clip of Wisdom in a corner shop. As Wisdom picks up the Pot Noodle a focus pull is used, focusing from the Pot Noodle onto Wisdom himself. This is done to subtly direct the viewers’ attention to a specific part of the screen. Further medium and long handheld camera shots are taken of Ricky, Shea and Curtis before it again fast cuts to Wisdoms narrative, this being Wisdoms final and longest shot in this sequence. A two shot of Godfrey and an associate come into frame, the use of a medium shot on the first character, then cuts to the second, intensifies their stern emotions, making the audience aware something potentially grave is going to happen to Winston. Cut to a medium-long handheld camera shot of Godfrey, and it is now very clear that they are holding baseball bats and are about to destroy the car. The clip fast cuts between both characters adding to the action, while changing the viewer’s perspective and seeing the event unfolding from all angles. The scene cuts to a long shot of Wisdom in the store, confirming that Wisdom is still unaware, while adding to the suspense. Shots of Godfrey and his partner again follow, fast cutting between the two on either side of the car. Fast cutting in this energetic clip gives the scene a sense disarray and urgency. Both characters then exit the scene. The soundtrack music then ends indicating the climax of action has passed as it cuts to Ricky and Shea laughing on the ice. While this scene clearly ends on a high note for the couple as they embrace each other, the same can’t be said for Wisdom as it cuts back to him finding his car vandalised. Through his choice of editing, camera angles and sound, Dibb makes this sequence a pivotal scene in the film. Its underlying tension and contrast to both Ricky’s and Wisdom’s lives suggest that Ricky and Shea’s plans will not be followed through.

Parental Sensitivity and Attachment in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Essay

The article that I chose is â€Å"Parental Sensitivity and Attachment in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Comparison With Children With Mental Retardation, With Language Delays, and With Typical Development†. I am certain that the article I chose is scholarly for several reasons. The most obvious is that the advanced search tool in the Kaplan library offers the option to exclude all results that are not scholarly work that has been checked through the peer-review process. More proof that this article is scholarly is that it is based on academic study and research and it has the methods, manner and appearance of a scholar (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2010). Scholarly articles such as this one also make frequent use of charts and graphs and reference secondary sources accurately using citations and a bibliography. In contrast, articles written for the general population that intend to arouse curiosity are called â€Å"sensational or popular† and can be found in magazines that appeal to the masses such as â€Å"People† or â€Å"US Weekly† as opposed to the more serious journals used in academia to report research and experimentation. The article that I chose was checked through the process of peer-review which is when other scholars or experts in the same field review scholarly work in order to make sure it meets necessary standards before it is published or accepted (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2010) . Parental sensitivity is frequently documented as a key determinant of attachment. Bowlby’s attachment theory describes the importance of the early relationship that develops between the infant and the primary caregiver to be the foundation for the child’s later social, emotional and even cognitive development (Bowlby, 1982). The article I chose to study supports the possibility that Autism challenges this theory of attachment. This issue has evolved dramatically since the scrutiny that mothers of Autistic children were facing in previous decades as a result of the lack of knowledge and research available regarding Autism Spectrum Disorders. Leo Kanner once used the term â€Å"Refrigerator Mothers†, or cold and uncaring mothers, to be the cause of the lack of attachment in children with what we now know to be Autism Spectrum Disorder. This scholarly study is intended to provide insight as to whether or not and to what degree parental sensitivity plays a role in the development of attachment in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder as compared to that of nonclinical children and those with other developmental disorders such as mental retardation (Rutgers et al. , 2004). The study also attempts to address whether children with Autism display less involvement with their parents and less attachment security and more disorganization of attachment? This study included 55 toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), mental retardation, language delay, and typical development and their parents. At 2 years of age attachment was assessed with the Strange Situation procedure, and parental sensitivity and child involvement during free play were assessed with the Emotional Availability Scale (Rutgers et al. , 2004). Parents of children with ASD were equally sensitive as the parents of children without ASD, but their children showed more attachment disorganization and less child involvement. More sensitive parents had more secure children, but only in the group without ASD. Less severe social autistic symptoms predicted more attachment security. Overall this study supports the idea that Autism challenges the validity of attachment theory. This study fails to address whether or not and in what ways attachment behaviors in children with ASD differ from those seen in other children in the study. More research is needed to determine how to best measure attachment in children with ASD as the indication may differ from children without Autism. Seemingly as important, a child with ASD may be able to develop a better sense of attachment with parents and caretakers if given more physical cues rather than psychological which is measured in this study by the level of sensitivity from the parent. Another helpful measure might be to compare the parent-child attachment for siblings of the children in this study at various points in time. Reference http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=6D46A9381C4560FE3E2565C7FDBD8A83?contentType=Article&contentId=1674221

Psychology Lab Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy screamed in horrible pain and pleaded his innocence as he was killed by the electric chair. He was so evil that he tried to use one of his victims to try to stop the killing. This plan failed and we all saw how evil he truly was. The government considers Ted Bundy a serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophilia. He assaulted and murdered many women and young girls through the says.Some people believe Ted Bundy may have started sooner. Ted Bundy spent almost a decade declining that he killed people. After a long period of time Ted confessed to thirty homicides. These thirty deaths spread over seven states in the United States. Since Bundy s death the total number of casualties has risen to thirty-five. Ted Bundy personality is believed to be affected by his life as a child. Ted Bundy was raised with the belief that his grand parents were his parents. He was also told his mother was his older sister. Because of this Bundy was known as awkward or weird around girls in scho ol.He always said he had trouble building long-term relationships. As a child he was very intrigued in the idea of sex and violence. Because of his good looks Bundy succeeded in college. He became obsessed with a girl named Stephanie Brooks. Brooks did not feel the same way back this resulted in her and Bundy breaking up. This affected Bundy greatly, he dropped out of college by the break up. With bad anxiety and anger toward women this is what drove him to madness. I believe this is what became the fuel that made Bundy kill. This feeling of rejection is what Bundy never forgot.For the Essence model I believe Ted Bundy fits the role of a Melancholic person. He was very quite and for the most part very unsociable. He was reserved most of the time. To add to this he also showed crazy mood swings and signs that he was very anxious. What is crazy about Ted Bundy is that he fits in to of the categories in the Essence model. He also fits the category as a Phlegmatic person. When he was tr ying to get women. He was passive and very peaceful. He seemed like a calm and great guy. He would later become very thoughtful with his planning in capturing women.He would also control them and manipulate them to the end. Ted Bundy I believe featured two of the five personality traits. I believe he has Openness, Conscientiousness. Ted Bundy had openness because openness involves sensitivity and attentiveness to inner feelings as well as intellectual curiosity. Believe Ted Bundy was a very closed and to him self- person. On the flip side he was very open and caring person when around women. He falls into the Conscientiousness category because he had a good eye at being careful and seemed like he always wanted to do a task well.Ted Bundy always showed this trait throughout his entire life. He found a way to cover up multiple murders for long periods of time. To do this you need to be very crazy but also very cleaver. From doing the classroom assignments before this paper I believe T ed Bundy has Bipolar Disorder or better described as Manic Depression. Ted Bundy could go from very happy and open to very closed and quit in seconds. Being able to do this so easily and so often believe he has Bipolar Disorder. To add to the Bipolar I also believe he was Manic Depressed.I believe cause of his young life and how his childhood happened I think this is why he went down this path. These disorders are what lead Ted Bundy from a candidate for a Governor position to one of the greatest killers in United States History. I believe multiple Situational influences affected Ted Bundy. Being lied to all of his childhood greatly affected him. His sister being later revealed to be his mother Was also a major blow in Ted Bundy s life. What think really pushed him off the edge was his break up with his girlfriend Stephanie Brooks. Brooks was the love of his life.Bundy was so obsessed with her that he grossly exaggerated his own accomplishments. By 1968 she broke up with him because she believed he was not good husband material. This broke Bunny's heart and this obsession drove his life for years. If I could plan a therapy for Ted Bundy I would have him locked up in a Psychiatric ward for six months so we can observe and diagnose him. After we diagnose him we will have a therapist talk to him six times a week to work on his past problems. The problems we will be focusing on his you childhood life and the reality that his mother is his older sister.Another place of concern is the break up of his high school sweetheart Stephanie Brooks. These are the points would focus on so we can tackle the real reason why Ted Bundy became one of the greatest killers in the history of the United States. To help rehabilitate Ted Bundy he will be placed in a Half way house for multiple years. The meetings with the therapist will decrease to five times a week. In Tee's spare time he will be writing and explaining why he thinks he killed multiple women. After this confession Ted w ill be given mood stabilizers to work on his bipolar behavior.To add to the stabilizers he will also be given multiple anti depressants to work on tackling his huge depression problem. The odds of Ted Bundy healing fully are slim to none. I believe that his time in a horrible state of mind will be to hard to fix with medication and work with a therapist. Do believe he will show signs of growth but he will revert back to his old mindset. I do believe that Ted Bundy can become a man who understands what he did was wrong and he needs to change. But I don't believe he will ever become good enough to live in the real world among normal people.

Application Of Driver State Monitoring Systems (Dms)

Application Of Driver State Monitoring Systems (Dms) The term ‘driver state’ has no specific universal definition and is loosely used in the fields of Psychology and Engineering. In general, driver state refers to a set of conditions that affect the driver in a specific instance. Drivers in an optimal state do not suffer from any condition. Vehicle control transition is very important for the success of Highly Automated Driving (HAD). In an ideal scenario, human driver will be attentive to the Driving scene during Take Over Request (TOR). Recent advancements, along with higher levels of automation has made it possible for the driver to be in distracted, inattentive, or even fatigued state. Under similar driving scenario and automation behavior, a driver with some sort of impairment will have poorer performance tackling the situation than when in ideal state. Researches showed that distracted drivers had higher difficulty to adjust speed to a critical event than attentive drivers. Driver State Monitoring Systems (DMS) monitors and collects observable information on the driver, which can be used to determine his/her driving state. It is used, among other things, for active safety, adaptive Human Machine Interface (HMI), and annoyance reduction for false positive notifications in HAD. Electrodermal Activity Electrodermal activity (EDA) is the autonomous changes in electrical properties of the skin, of which, skin conductance is the most widely used property. To measure skin conductance, an electrical potential is applied between two points on the skin, and the resulting current flow between them is measured. This includes both background tonic (Skin Conductance Level or SCL) and rapid phasic components (Skin Conductance Responses or SCRs) that result from sympathetic neuronal activity. It is useful in measuring sympathetic arousal that are tractable to emotional and cognitive states. It is associated with autonomic emotional and cognitive processing. Autonomous nervous system (ANS) generally controls the body’s unconscious actions. Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) prepares body for intense physical activity and is responsible for fight or flight responses whereas parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) is generally associated with homeostasis and when the body is at rest, while being responsible for rest and digest functions. Some emotional responses may occur without conscious awareness or cognitive intend. EDA can be used to examine such responses (i.e., threat, anticipation, salience, novelty). Recent research has shown that EDA is also a useful indicator of attentional processing per-se, where salient stimuli and resource demanding tasks evoke increased EDA responses. There are two main components to EDA. The slower acting components the overall level, slow climbing, slow declinations over time) are known as general tonic EDA. Skin Conductance Level (SCL) is the most common measure for this and changes in the SCL are thought to reflect general changes in autonomic arousal. The faster changing elements of the signal correspond to the Phasic component, also known as Skin Conductance Response (SCR). SCRs are generally associated with startle reflex or startle response. Recent evidence suggests that both components are important and may rely on different neural mechanisms. Empatica E4 wrist band is the common device used in ITS Leeds for psychophysiological data collection, giving EDA.csv files with Unix timestamp and sampling frequency of 4 Hz. Post processing of the same is done using MATLAB R2016a and Ledalab v3.4.9. For the first study, no pre-filtering was implemented. Although it can be done to smoothen the raw signal, using EDA explorer or a low bypass filter like Butterworth filter. In EDA signal, there is generally a latency of 1-3 seconds (i.e. a delay of around 1-3 seconds from when the event occurs to when you see the change in SC levels). Continuous decomposition analysis (CDA) is generally used instead of Discrete Decomposition analysis. This method extracts the phasic (driver) information underlying EDA and aims at retrieving the signal characteristics of the underlying sudomotor nerve activity (SNA). SC data is deconvolved by the general response shape which results in a large increase of temporal precision. Then data is decomposed into continuous phasic and tonic components. It is the method generally recommended for the analysis of skin conductance data. It features the computation of several standard measures of phasic EDA. Moreover, straightforward measures such as the average (or integrated) phasic driver activity are provided. To find Event Related SCR (ER-SCR) and separate it from Non-Specific SCR (NS-SCR), the event files are loaded in and the Ev ent related SCR activity is exported. The most common minimum threshold amplitude is 0.01  µS. Peaks with amplitude below this value is not considered significant. Another key factor is to standardize the values so that it can be compared across participants. For SCL the standardization is done using the formula: ((SCL ã€â€" SCLã€â€"_min) )/((ã€â€"SCLã€â€"_max –ã€â€" SCLã€â€"_min)) equation 2.2 Where ã€â€" SCLã€â€"_min is the baseline SCL which is to be measured while keeping the participant at rest doing nothing for at least 10-15 mins and ã€â€"SCLã€â€"_max is the maximum value computed when the participant is aroused using loud noise/music for a short period of time. This is done to get the SCL range of the given participant. Since this was not done for the SM study, it can’t be implemented. This can be circumnavigated by finding the minimum non-zero SCL score and the max SCL score during the study for each participant and use this as a baseline. Some studies recommend transforming SCRs into Z-scores. This requires the mean and standard-deviation to be used instead of a hypothetical maximum (from the other methods above). This navigates around the problems associated with determining the maximum SCR response from range-corrected methods / maximal correction methods. Here each raw SCR, a mean SCR value and standard deviation of SCRs, are used to compute the Z-score which is normally distributed, has an average of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. From here one can transform these Z-scores into T-scores, which have a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 (thus removing minus scores). The advantage to this approach here is that the resultant z-scores are based on unambiguous mathematical factors that represent the participants typical response level and not on unwarranted assumptions about maximum SCRs. Researchers further suggested that another useful transformation might be to divide each raw SCR, by the participants mean SCR thus providing a kind of standardized ratio. Final output is to obtain the ER-SCR activity window’s average SCR in T-score format, so that it can be compared across all the participants. From this, it might be possible to deduce suggestions/reasons for certain behavior during failure. Shimomura, et al. (2008) showed in his study that frequency domain analysis enabled detection of small differences in mental workload that could not be detected by traditional amplitude domain analysis. Here the signal is transformed from amplitude domain to frequency domain using techniques such as Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT). This technique enables real-time automatic analysis. Motion artifacts can cause the EDA signal to be quite noisy. If 90% of EDA value is zero or close to zero within a 5s window (a lower bound threshold of 0.001 µS can be used, it is probably caused by the sensors losing contact with the skin during that period and they can be removed. Generally, EDA levels are found to be not changing by more than 20% while increasing and 10% while decreasing, within a 1 second time window. A moving one second median filter can be used for initial interpolation to even out the signal. The resultant acceleration from accelerometer sensor can be used to find points/periods of high movements, and the EDA signal during that same period can be checked for motion artifacts, which can be removed if necessary. A bi-cubic interpolation of the signal can be done after the filtering to account for missing data points from the removal of motion artifacts. To summarize, skin conductance generally increases with arousal, stress, salience, mental workload, anticipation and overall increase in body temperature or physical activity. But measurements from palm of the hand or feet are generally highly sensitive emotional responses and can be distinguished from skin conductance spikes due to body temperature or physical activity. Heart rate variability Heart rate (HR) is the number of times the heart beats in a minute or â€Å"bpm†, and resting heart rate is the heart rate measured while being relaxed, but awake. Amongst the general population a resting heart rate of 60-80bpm is considered pretty good. But heartbeat intervals are irregular and there is variation in time between each heartbeat. Heart rate variability (HRV) is simply the measurement of variation between heartbeats. In general, a healthy functioning body will display a greater variability between beats than a poorly functioning one. Heart period is the time interval between two successive heart beats. The Sinoatrial node (SAN) can be seen on the top left side of the figure and the Atrioventricular node (AVN) to the right of SAN. The depolarization of SAN and AVN provides the electrical driving force that triggers the contraction of the heart. SAN’s spontaneous depolarization speed is typically faster than that of AVN, which is why it’s called natural pacemaker. Electrical impulses generated by SAN stimulates each beat of the heart, thereby dictating its rhythm. Sympathetic (SNS) and Parasympathetic (PSNS) branches of the autonomic nervous system are what mainly influence SAN. Hormone and immunity can have a role as well. According to Berntson, et al. (1997) â€Å"sympathetic activity tends to increase HR and decrease HRV, whereas parasympathetic activities tends to decrease HR and increase HRV†. HRV is closely related to emotional arousal. In HRV spectrum, there are both high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) signals. HF activity generally decreases under pressure, stress, strain, focused attention etc. High stress can cause reduction in LF values as well. Individuals who worry more have shown reduction in HRV. In PTSD patients, HRV and its HF component is reduced whilst the low-frequency (LF) component is elevated. Decrease in PSNS activity or increase in SNS activity results in reduced HRV. HF activity (0.15 to 0.40 Hz), especially, has been linked to PSNS activity. LF activity (0.04 to 0.15 Hz), which is generally associated with a mixture of both SNS and PSNS. So, it’s safe to summarize that during rest periods, HF HRV tends to be higher than when the driver is engaged, stressed, focused or strained/tired. To analyze HRV, either time domain or frequency domain analysis can be implemented. Time domain methods include â€Å"measures of the variance among heart period, the variance of the differences among heart periods, and geometric methods based on the shape characteristics of heart period distributions†. The most common method used to compute heart rate variability amongst time domain methods is the square root of the mean squared successive heart period differences or the RMSSD (Root Mean Square Successive Difference) statistic. It is based on the differences between adjacent heart periods and is nominally independent of basal heart period, although heart period level and heart period variability are themselves physiologically correlated. Because of the differences between adjacent heart periods sample HRV over relatively short periods of time (the duration of a heart period), the RMSSD resolves the total variance by filtering out LF signals. Consequently, the RMSSD has been a pplied as a measure of HF based HRV. The properties of RMSSD, including its cut-off frequency and its frequency-dependent transfer function vary as a function of basal heart period. A more systematic parsing of heart period variance into specific frequency components can be achieved by frequency domain methods. There are mainly two ways to measure HRV and HR. They are Electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings and Photoplethysmogram (PPG) recordings. ECG recordings are collected by placing electrodes on the chest (near the heart), which measure electrical impulses for each cardiac cycle. QRS complex is the defining feature of ECG signal. QRS complex is the three graphical deflections seen on a typical ECG, which is Q wave (downward deflection right after P wave, which is IV.), R wave (upward deflection after Q wave) and S wave (downward deflection after R wave) which is represented by I., II. The heart’s electrical activation is measured directly by ECG recordings. It also generally shows a strong QRS complex presence in the resulting signal. Motion artifacts caused by sensor displacement due to participant movement is a common source of noise in ECG signals. These tend to fall in the same frequency range as the QRS-complexes, which can make it difficult to filter them without deforming the QRS complex. Photoplethysmogram (PPG) recordings are a less invasive method to study cardiac cycle. They generally measure the discoloration of the skin as blood perfuses through the arteries and capillaries with each heartbeat, using optical sensors. PPG is typically measured at the fingertip or at the wrist. The PPG Heart Rate Analysis generally consists of a systolic peak, a dicrotic notch, and a secondary peak called a diastolic peak (2.5b-III). In recordings with very low amplitude the diastolic peak may be absent. The main advantages of PPG over ECG are low cost, ease of setting up and non-invasive methods. Ways of obtaining the PPG signal contactless through cameras have been proposed, further reducing intrusiveness. There is generally more amplitude variation over short time-intervals, more variation in waveform morphology, as well as more noise from various sources as opposed to ECG measurements. This makes analysis of PPG more difficult. The heart signal is often split into heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measures. The distance between the detected heart beats (the RR-intervals, named because in the ECG, the largest amplitude peak is called the R-wave) are used to calculate them. The heart beats are represented by the peaks in both signals. Even though the measurement technique vary quite considerably between ECG and PPG, a high correlation (median 0.97) between RR-intervals extracted from ECG and PPG signals has been reported. This makes the PPG a valid alternative for human factors studies that require non-intrusive heart rate measurements, and hence will be the focus of this research. Researchers talked on how to remove motion artifacts and filter it out of EDA signal. This is explained in the last paragraph of the previous section. The same methodology can be applied to remove motion artifacts from the HR/HRV signal as well.