“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke Essay

â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† by Theodore Roethke, is an intriguing poem about a memory of a boy and his father waltzing around the house. The ambiguity in this poem can lead to two very different interpretations. It can be seen as a child terrorized by an abusive father or a child having a playful romp with his father before bedtime. In this poem, Roethke uses metaphors, similes, imagery, and structure to make a strong impression on the reader. In the beginning, the speaker shows that he might not be having as much fun with the waltz as he would have thought. â€Å"But I hung on like death: / Such waltzing was not easy.† (line 4). Since the boy must hang on â€Å"like death†, it shows that the waltz is not just â€Å"not easy†. This line is also an example of a simile. The boy is hanging onto his father so hard that he is as inescapable as death. If the waltz in the poem is thought of as an extended metaphor for the relationship between the boy and his fa ther, the son could be writing that his entire relationship with his father wasn’t easy. As the poem goes on, the waltz gradually gets more and more difficult as well as his relationship with his father. In the third stanza, the father keeps missing steps and scratches the boy in the process. This could also be a metaphor for all of the mistakes that the father has made in real life which could hurt the boy in nonphysical ways as well. By using imagery in this poem, Roethke helps the reader to connect with the boy. One use of imagery in the poem is when the boy and the father â€Å"romp† around the kitchen. The word romp means to play roughly or energetically. The reader can see here that not only tha â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† has a simple rhyme scheme of ABAB. Although the rhyme scheme helps with the flow of the poem, there are many slant rhymes that disrupt the flow as well. For example the word â€Å"dizzy† sounds very similar to â€Å"easy† but they are not perfect rhymes. Roethke also writes this poem in an iambic trimeter. Similar to the iambic pentameter which has a classic five beats per line, each line in the poem consists of three beats. Not only is the poem about a waltz, but it is becoming one as well since there are three beats in a waltz. This contributes to how a  person reads the poem as well as the tone of the poem.

Rene Descartes six meditations Distinction of Self from the Body Essay

Rene Descartes was a French Mathematician and a modern Philosopher who developed an original philosophy based on sciences aimed at being stable and likely to last. His method was based upon premises of senses, reason, doubt and belief. Like most philosophers his quest was for Truth and knowledge. However the nature of Truth and knowledge remains debatable among philosophers to this day. It is worth noting that a contemporary modern philosopher said at the beginning of the 21st century, the beginning of ‘ Information Age ‘ , â€Å" Study of philosophy is now reduced to the study of language. We are distinct from our bodies ! Since the advent of human civilization many men have preoccupied themselves with philosophical thoughts of the distinction of self from the body. These metaphysical ideas , sometimes ontological, lie on the borderline of religious theology and philosophy. With discoveries in the field of physical sciences like Einstein’s ‘ Relativity ‘ the human conception of space, matter, time and forces has become clearer. This has further fuelled interest in the field of philosophical investigation of the relationships between mind, matter and the supernatural. This activity is a commonplace past time of the educated and curious. The scientific and methodological study of any branch of knowledge involves the formulation of – Thesis, Hypothesis and Anti – Thesis. Every Thesis has an Anti–Thesis. Is the self distinct from the body ? The senses are deceptive! What we see is spurious. Our memory deceives us. Hence a Truth that can be established is that nothing is certain. Hence it can be assumed for the time being that our senses and bodies are not true. We are probably distinct from our bodies. Rationality is questionable ! Man is known as a ‘ rational animal’. But the idea of rationality and the distinction between a man and an animal are debatable. Man certainly has to face an obvious ‘ identity crisis’ if material knowledge is to be trusted. The idea of a soul distinguishes self from the body ! All phenomena can’t be explained by sense-perception, thinking and physical bodies. They have to be attributed to a super-natural phenomena , ‘ the soul’. If the self is to be distinct from the body it could be in the form of the soul. The power of self-movement, sensation and thought as according to the judgment of Rene Descartes are foreign to the nature of body. These conclusions are based on Descartes philosophical experiments with himself using the faculty of his mind. He uses his mind to probe the co-relation between subjectivity, objectivity and their distinctness from body. This method has been Descartes most powerful tool and which makes him unique in the family of modern philosophers. The awakening during sleep is an experiment. Descartes argues that when asleep he has perceived through senses many things he can’t perceive through senses while awake. These are once again Descartes experiments with himself. Descartes is careful nough to recollect his thoughts and experiences for the object of philosophical study. ‘Thinking’ is separate from ‘being’. Descartes uses his imagination to conclude that he might exist separate from his body as a source of ‘thinking’. In his legendary famous statement he once declared , â€Å" I think therefore I am. â€Å" Human mind and judgment are prone to error . Hence the truth has to be away from the Human mind and body. Descartes reached a conclusion that there does exist a God. God is perfect in his judgment because his mind is infinite. This is obviously not true with human beings. Hence their judgment is subject to errors and faults. There is also a philosophical method of reaching the Truth by elimination of errors. Considering the belief that their does exist a Universal Truth away from the limitations of the human body it is reasonable concluding that we are distinct from our bodies. The existence of God is an irrefutable evidence ! Thesis that there does exist a God strengthens the concept of distinction of self from the body. It would be contradictory associating God to a body; God, Descartes assumed is infinite. Also, the idea of life after death in the form of soul which is the belief of literally every religious heology strengthens the belief that we are distinct from our body. Rene Descartes experimented with the mind ! Descartes claims in ‘ The Fourth Meditation’ that he has trained his mind to separate from his senses and dwell only in the intellect. The result were observations and conclusions that he was totally separate from matter. Descartes uses his ability at philosophical meditations, the popular method of study and research by a philosopher. The Human Will Descartes concludes extends beyond the bodies. With the human will, many philosophers believe it is possible to meditate and separate the consciousness rom the body. Modern Science refutes distinction of body from mind thesis. Descartes himself was once a scientist before he took to philosophical pursuits. A scientist, for example a Doctor would immediately rubbish the claims of the separation of self from the body citing encyclopedias of scientific evidence. Carl Jung’s Experiment nulls the idea of a soul. This famous Psychologist conducted an experiment and concluded that there is no soul ! The distinction between self and body is not recognized by modern psychology books. Philosophical methods might be fallacious. Philosophers employ methods based n speculations and subjectivity. These might be inaccurate and also subject to a difference of opinion even amongst philosophers. Whereas science is based on empirical experiments which no one can challenge once accepted and established. There is a self – concept in the science of Psychology. The self concept has an aura of mysticism associated with it. No one can see, feel or touch the self concept. It is reduced to ‘I’ and ‘me ‘ from the common sense point of view by nearly all domains of knowledge. Popularly the psychologists associate the self concept , the I – Self, with the ndividual and his states of mind – Conscious, subconscious and the unconscious. Body- Ego concept can be an evidence of self and body singularity. The genesis of mental structure advocated by Hartmann, Kris and Loewenstein advocate an ego state known as the Body Ego. They suggest with impressive arguments that the ego and the id should be conceived the result of an undifferentiated state. Conclusion : The embodied self – concept generates a tension. The stream of consciousness can be believed to be located within the boundaries of a creature. The self ( its memories, eliefs and traits ) might not located within the boundaries of the creature. Our intuition equates ourselves with our consciousness. A point to be noted is that there is a dualism not only between mind and body but also between consciousness and mind ! The ancient scholarly philosophical debate ‘ Self is distinct from the body ’ is a challenging interdisciplinary study. However, the philosophy student is best equipped to handle it. The debate seems to have no end. That is what makes a debate an interesting academic field of study. Philosophers and philosophy students have to be cautious that in their xuberance they do not unwittingly clash with scientific evidence or infringe with cherished religious and theological beliefs. The society punished Galileo because he was ahead in time than the people. The times have changed remarkably. These days society is more tolerant to new ideas. Even blasphemy against Jesus doesn’t shock the West anymore. Recent headlines of a popular newspaper says that the church has forgiven Beatles for claiming they were more popular than Jesus. Philosophers and philosophy students can play a timely role in all ages. The clear message is that they need not ostracize themselves from the society.

Advantages of Good Agricultural Practices

Advantages of Good Agricultural Practices SWAGATA SETH Â   Good Agricultural Practices History The U. S in 1998 issued a guidance under which the contamination of fresh fruits and vegetables and how to reduce it was given by Food and Drug Administration was there. (USDA, 2011). In 2002 GAP was established by the agengy which are existed so they donot require any reauthorization. ( National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, 2014) Good agricultural practices have main points of food safety with the points like harvesting, transportation of products and advice the grower to implement the general recommendation of adopted the best management practices( Sudheer & Indria, 2007). Good agricultural practices are the practices which are used for the good economic conditions and also social conditions as well as it encompasses environment al issues for the commercialisation and good market value of horticultural and agricultural products also it tries to give good quality food which is healthier, safer, nutritious to the consum ers( The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia , 2012). Good agricultural practices also includes non-food products as well as processing foods. These practices make the food more safe from consumption point of view(Anonymous, 2008). Farming practices includes a very large scope of good agricultural practices at different at different levels. In these practices sustainable agriculture methods are also included(TNAU, 2015). Rules and regulations for the good agricultural practices includes a huge number of activities which may include from the product which are in the farm at cultivation stage, then it also includes the fields the polyhouses, type of fertilisers, seeds which is used then irrigation facilities, pesticides, composting, then interculture operations and then harvesting and also the process which are done outside the fields, like the processing of the products or the products may go through a long distributing channel which includes the middleman, producer and various agents, retailers upto the consumer that is the consumption point(Watts, 2012). Objectives Good agricultural practices needs to keep a proper record of the production process or the technologies which is required for processing or for harvesting of each crops for the areas which are very much good or important agricultural based and ecological regions, and to collect and then plan and the execute then the final process of distribution the knowledge in that major regions (ANONYMOUS, 2015). Good agricultural practices is required for the following reasons There may be contamination in the products which may be biological like fungi, bacteria, viruses, attack when the products are in the field or they are brought to home, although washing, cleaning and cooking can kill the pathogen but if consumed raw then harm can occur ( Eaton& Watson, 2012 ). Some of the important factors which should be keep in mind for Good agricultural practices. 1. Washing of products :- a)Â   Washing of products are necessary to remove the dust particles, chemicals, soil pathogen, microorganisms with fresh water( Srivastava & Kumar, 2009). b) Clean and fresh water is necessary when tanks are used. Paddle conveyor washers and rotary machines are used for washing(Gupta, 2015). 2. Cleaning: cleaning is a practice where the unwanted materials are removed which may be the green, yellow brown, dead insects soggy parts of fruits or other undesirable items either by hand picking or mechanically( Sharma, 2009).

Choose any company and describe its multinational business aspects Essay

Choose any company and describe its multinational business aspects - Essay Example However, multinational companies face critics of polluting the environment and paying local labor poorly. At the same time, they face critics of exploiting the resources of resident countries and sending the profits to their parent countries. Multinational companies operate on the concepts of multinational business including global context and company strategy. Indeed, globalization plays a major role in the success of a multinational company. The complexity of operating a multinational company is very clear where only about 1% of all American companies had branches outside US by 2004. The strategy of a multinational company may involve merging with parent companies who have established distribution network and customer base. In case of a merger, it becomes hard to balance the two national interests and the interests of the investors. Nevertheless, the aspect of globalization is not ideal in that most companies are more rooted in their parent countries where their customers, investors, suppliers, and employees reside. As such, for them to remain afloat, they adopt a cosmopolitan approach that mandates them to adapt to the different market dynamics in variant countries. This affects the company strategy that reverts to ad aptation than growth. It also affects the organization of the company that has to reduce the external differences and manage the organizational distance (Ghemawat 92-99). They will equally have to pass the cosmopolitan approach to their customers and shareholders. Microsoft, Sony, Starbucks, and Coca cola are successful multinational companies. Microsoft Corporation is the worlds largest software multinational corporation based in Redmond, Washington, United States. Microsoft deals with computing products where it is the largest computer manufacturer, developer, and licensor. The company uses the aspect of globalization in business where it operates in more than more than 135 different

Products Liability Research Paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Products Liability Research - Term Paper Example The case The â€Å"Toyota Motor Corporation† is a Japan-based automobile manufacturing company established in 1937, and continues to specialize in manufacturing of automobile since then. Though the headquarters of the company are in Aichi, Japan, the company operates as a multinational corporation with regional offices across the globe. Throughout the years, Toyota continues to experience growth in different aspects, and as of 2010, the corporation became the chief automobile maker in the world. The company also ranks, ninth internationally, among multinational corporations, in terms of revenue collection. The quality of the vehicles manufactured by Toyota Motor Corporation contributes significantly to the international accolades received by the company. Throughout the years the company continues to supply automobiles, for different purposes, to different consumers internationally. The client base of the corporation ranges from governments to individual consumers. Within the l ast half decade, the company has faced several product liability cases globally following detection of faults in several models of their automobiles. The lawsuits presented sought compensation for numerous consumers including large companies and individuals. The gas peddles and throttle systems in several Toyota models contained faults that led to unintended acceleration. The cases presented against Toyota were either individual or class action lawsuits seeking different forms of compensation from the company. The safety issues surrounding the lawsuits included the capability of the vehicles to accelerate more than desired by drivers. The car accelerators appeared to get trapped by the floor mat leading to the accelerators remaining pressed once an individual releases pressure on the accelerator. Unintended acceleration of these vehicle models had been associated with occurrence of fatal accidents and injuries to consumers using these vehicles. The company rectified the initial faul ts and later other faults were detected in the throttle system, also causing unintended acceleration. The company tried to recall several car models, sparking other lawsuits resulting from economic losses following recalls. The recalled models included automobiles that owners had not detected the defects leading to depreciation of these vehicle models. Owners of these automobile models instigated numerous lawsuits against the corporation for compensation. Following to the continued recalling of vehicles, the lawsuits continued between 2008 and 2010. Arguments The plaintiffs in these cases used two different approaches in seeking compensation for the damages incurred. The plaintiffs presented different lawsuits that could be classified into two categories. Personal injury lawsuits by individuals seeking remedies for injuries or deaths, supposedly incurred from the defects in Toyota automobiles and Class action lawsuits that were brought on behalf numerous groups seeking compensation for economic losses incurred following the recalls ordered by the Toyota Motor Corporation. Within the first year of beginning the lawsuits, an average of 300 lawsuits were presented against the corporation in Japan alone. The numbers of cases continued to rise in other parts of the world as recalls continued throughout the duration. Personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits These cases were

BlackBoard Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

BlackBoard - Assignment Example Such tools include chat rooms, wikis, blogs, peer assessment, groups, and discussion boards. Therefore, the core aim of the research is to dig out into the significance of the virtual blackboard in modern learning. In achieving the objectives, various scholarly sources will be analyzed. Moreover, various case analysis will be conducted on various institutions that have shown adoption to the program, counterchecking the advantages, shortcomings, effectiveness, and the diverse features facilitating its use. The discussion board does enhance communication. All the students can engage in discussions, a tool that leads to creativity and innovation. Forums are different discussion topics students can engage in at a time. Some discussion features enables the instructor to follow up on what the student has done over time, hence perfect evaluation tools. Additionally they empower students, promote exploratory learning, and enhance reflection. Chat rooms lead to generation of ideas arising during and after classwork. Blackboards groups are the foundation of collaborative learning. They contribute to diversity, interpersonal growth, active learning, and opportunity to feedback provision. They come along with other features such as members’ enrolment key, groups’ creation, personalization, and disabling vs. enabling protocol. The peers’ assessment tool promotes the listening, analysis and critique aspects among students and their work. The assessment aids in fairness maintenance during assessments, judgment skills development, and workload reduction for instructors and acts as a learning opportunity. Blogs are online platforms whose role is to facilitate interaction via leaving the comments on the materials provided. Students who may fail to be active in class may divert their attention to blogs. As collaborative tools, they enhance consistent

Leadership & Professional Development Term Paper

Leadership & Professional Development - Term Paper Example Additionally, I am currently pursuing an advance qualification so it really becomes difficult to balance timings between family, friends, business and studies. According to John (2007), life truly becomes hectic if it is not scheduled in an appropriate manner, and from the current proceedings, I believe one point where I am lacking is time management, and this essay aims at my plan for developing my skill set towards overcoming this weakness. Barth (2005) states that time has an ‘irreversible’ aspect or feature associated with it, and at the same time, it cannot be substituted, nor can it be brought back. Leaders are more booked for time than any other individual as they tend to have more concerned parties demanding their respective time. Subsequently, leaders often realize that 24 hours is a very less sum of hours in a day and there is a lot more that is to be done. Subsequently, time management skills gain extreme importance for leaders in scenarios whereby tasks are more and time is less; leaders, like any other individual, cannot stop time nor can they reduce the speed of it, and neither can they enhance the pace of it. Therefore, effective time management is critical in today’s world for leaders. An extreme example of attaining efficacy is that often leaders give more time to ‘time management’ rather than managing the time; they would give more time to creation of priority lists, exc el sheets, coding tasks with various colors and so on. This, though enhances the effectiveness of managing time, but at the same time it also takes a lot of time in developing such documentation; leading to individuals realizing that wasting time without such hassle is better than doing so with it. Leadership gains success by means of aspiration and inspiration as stated by Kousez (2003); if a leader cannot manage the time well, then a similar expectation cannot be laid towards the followers of the same. This inspirational trait,

Deserving graduating senior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Deserving graduating senior - Essay Example This is the major reason as to why I am applying for this particular scholarship program. Throughout my high school education I have worked hard and put all my efforts towards achieving excellent performance. I may not have been naturally smart when it comes to the book but my efforts and encouragement from parents and teachers were influential in the attainment of what I have so far achieved. My hard work, dedication and commitment towards excelling in my studies made me create a very special bond with my teachers which prove extremely beneficial. I am an inquisitive, proactive, and flexible learner; these qualities coupled with my great effort and cordial relations with my tutors perform well. I was thus able to post high GPA results and take college classes as a junior during my senior year of high school. In my college classes at the Pen State-Beaver Campus I posted above average grades as a junior student. I therefore intend to join the Kent University on graduation from college and pursue Aviation Science. It’s my intention to participate in the United State s Air Force ROTC program at college and enlist in the Air Force after graduating from college. Apart from my academic life at school and college, I am also am outgoing person; I actively participate in extracurricular activities. I have served as President for the Ski club, and Treasurer of the Freedom Fortune 500 club. Am an active of the Spanish club, Homecoming Court 2014 and Tech Team. When it comes to track and field events I have always committed myself to athletics and soccer serving as soccer captain for the high school team while at the same time maintaining a high GPA standing in my academics. These I believe are very important for physical, mental and psychological needs of my body which translate into good health as well as performance of the brain. I extend the same to my community where I voluntarily serve as Head Coach for the

Film and Literature Comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Film and Literature Comparison - Essay Example Brent Staples' "A Brother's Murder" first appeared in an edition of New York Time Magazine in 1986 in a column for personal essays called "About Me". Brent writes articles and editorials for the New York Times even at present and even now he deals with life in the streets. However, he is yet to find a solution to the questions he had raised and the other problems he had discussed in "A Brother's Murder".The various themes of the essay include diversity, multiculturalism, family, community, politics, but above all, it focuses on the individual-society interplay. The sense of place is a significant theme of the essay. We can locate more than one definition of place in this essay. We are informed in the fourth paragraph that Brent's brother, Blake, loved the very street which Brent shunned. Brent never found himself at home in the environment in which they grew up. It was Chester, Pa., a threatening, poverty-stricken, industrial slum southwest of Philadelphia. Therefore, he left his hometown after college to join the graduate school and became a journalist later on whereas Blake rejected a decent life and gave in to the violent life in the street. Blake was only 22 years old when he was murdered. Wearing a mask, the murderer fired six times at Blake and then fled in a car. The man who killed him was young too. He was only 24. Perhaps no one would believe that these two used to be the closest of friends. What is most shocking is the reason for the murder. In fact, it was one of the most unreasonable killings. The reason was as trivial as an argument over a girlfriend. One would like to know how a friend can so unnaturally kill another over such a trifling matter! This behavioral disorder is the gift of the society in which these two were brought up.

The changes in Education Essay Example for Free

The changes in Education Essay This week it was announced by ministers that A levels and GCSE`s in secondary schools will be replaced by a Baccalaureate. Baccalaureate exams are already used in France, Germany and the United States of America. The government are hoping to start this system in September 2004. A Levels were first introduced in the 1950`s and GCSE`s were introduced when O levels were phased out in the 1980`s and have caused much discussion and many arguments by Head teachers and Education ministers during the last few years. The education secretary said that A Levels were too narrow and exclusive. If there is going to be an English version of the Baccalaureate it will make things far easier to study at universities abroad because they would understand the qualification that a student in Britain would achieve. Recently AS Levels have been introduced by many schools across the country. This has given a student the opportunity of choosing up to 5 subjects to study for one year and then dropping one or two of these subjects before continuing with the remaining ones. This gives the pupil a much broader education as they are not just studying for the same 3 subjects during the two years of studying. I am not sure if these exams have been a success because everyone moans about them as students have to take continuous examinations. Change at schools must always cause complaints because it is very hard after so many years to adjust to new rules. Heads of schools have to change the way their teachers educate the pupils, and new guidelines have to be carried out nationally. This must be very disruptive during the first couple of years for both students and pupils participating in this scheme, and after the fiasco this year with the marking of them, I do wonder if change is a good thing. Education is changing rapidly, and we will know by the end of the year if the Baccalaureate will definitely be in force. The Baccalaureate will include English, Maths, and Science and then students will be able to choose from a range of academic and practical courses. Work experience will be a must for anyone who takes the exam as will voluntary work. If the baccalaureate is introduced there will be fewer exams and more internal assessment. This will give a student much more of an all round education, and would be more varied on a day to day basis. This would make education much more original and personal, and could be tailor made for each individual pupil. This I am sure would make the normal school day far less boring. I would welcome an opportunity like this. I think every student should participate in voluntary work. This would give everyone a chance to help others and would save money for local councils, as it would have to employ less paid staff. The Baccalaureate will have to be accepted by all the Universities, in England and abroad, especially in Europe, and have the support from future employers, especially those in industry, otherwise this new exam will not work in Britain. It is yet to be decided what it will include. But it will change the way 14 to 19 year olds are taught. Ministers and Headmasters think that this is the most significant way forward and it will be the biggest change education has seen for years. There would be different levels of attainment. As yet they have not decided what these levels will be called but it is likely that they will be along the lines of foundation, intermediate and advanced. Mathematics, English and Science and Information Technology will be compulsory for GCSE and pupils will have to be educated in Sex Education, Physical Education and Religious Education. Pupils will also have to study citizenship. At fourteen years of age pupils will be free to drop many other subjects, which have been compulsory in the National Curriculum, including History, Geography, Art and Music. These subjects will now only be optional. College training will be offered locally on a one or two day a week basis. Day release would also be available to some pupils. With employers so that they could gain skills, which they would never be able to achieve at present at their school. It would also give a pupil the chance to decide if they enjoyed college, wanted to work or pursue a different field all together. I welcome this, and think that the more choices offered the better. If I personally cannot have these choices I hope my younger sister will be able to benefit from the new curriculum. There are big shortages of trained engineers, technicians, hairdressers and plumbers at present and by doing these new regimes of studying, pupils will have a much better chance of future employment. Many students are bored by school education and would welcome the chance to study something more vocational, and maybe this would keep them at school until 19 rather than leaving at 16 with very few qualifications and no prospects of a job. Also if a student enjoys his or her day release, a job might be offered there and then for the participating pupil, and the employer would then be obtaining an apprentice that knew what he was doing. On the other hand employers will only be able to offer a limited number of jobs and this may leave a large percentage of unemployed students with very few qualifications. These work related GCSEs would be renamed and would combine both academic studies and more practical work; they will be tried out across the country in various schools this coming September. Industry will benefit from this as many more students will be trained in the relevant work and not just fresh from a class without any experience. Another change on the way is the way that the league tables for exam results are calculated. It will show the difference between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils at each school. Each school throughout the country will then be awarded a grade from A to E depending on their excellence or their failures. This is meant to be much more understandable and will offer more information to parents choosing schools for their childrens future education. People need to know the correct facts, and by changing the tables slightly, this will offer just that. Before the league tables were started several years ago, it was virtually impossible to obtain information about how well or how badly pupils had faired in their exams at school. So in my opinion the tables have been a great help. Also by printing these tables in all the newspapers, it has been made everyone aware of the academic successes of schools around the country. This also has meant that everyone is aware of the schools that have done very badly academically and this has made the government enforce an improvement during a certain period of time, or they have threatened closure and/or a change of management. This must be good for education in the future. It can only improve schools especially those in disadvantaged areas, where expectations of pupil performance is low. Every student should be aware of poor teaching and academic successes and although it might not always be possible to enter the school of your choice, it will enforce better education at all schools around the country and hopefully the worst offenders will be greatly improved or shut down. All students whether in Independent Education or State Education should be offered the same curriculum with the choice of vocational subjects. Employers must welcome these changes as well. I have enjoyed my education, and am looking forward to furthering it, but would have preferred a much more varied curriculum. I have a job on a Saturday which has given me an insight into retail, and have secured work experience in a large organisation in the summer which will be very interesting for me. But although I know I want to study art I have no idea in which area I would like to continue and if I had been able to study in a more practical manner, maybe I would be more knowledgeable, and more able to progress in the appropriate area.

Supervised Image Classification Techniques

Supervised Image Classification Techniques Introduction In this chapter, a review of Web-Based GIS Technology and Satellite image classification techniques. Section 2.2 presents a review of Web-Based GIS Technology.in section 2.3 Satellite images classification techniques are reviewed.In section 2.4 presents the related work .section 2.5 presents uses of web based GIS applications in real world. Section 2.6 presents available commercial web GIS sites. Section 2.7 reviews the types of Geospatial Web Services (OGC) 2.3 Image Classification Image classification is a procedure to automatically categorize all pixels in an Image of a terrain into land cover classes. Normally, multispectral data are used to Perform the classification of the spectral pattern present within the data for each pixel is used as the numerical basis for categorization. This concept is dealt under the Broad subject, namely, Pattern Recognition. Spectral pattern recognition refers to the Family of classification procedures that utilizes this pixel-by-pixel spectral information as the basis for automated land cover classification. Spatial pattern recognition involves the categorization of image pixels on the basis of the spatial relationship with pixels surrounding them. Image classification techniques are grouped into two types, namely supervised and unsupervised[1]. The classification process may also include features, Such as, land surface elevation and the soil type that are not derived from the image. Two categories of classification are contain ed different types of techniques can be seen in fig Fig. 1 Flow Chart showing Image Classification[1] 2.3 Basic steps to apply Supervised Classification A supervised classification algorithm requires a training sample for each class, that is, a collection of data points known to have come from the class of interest. The classification is thus based on how close a point to be classified is to each training sample. We shall not attempt to define the word close other than to say that both Geometric and statistical distance measures are used in practical pattern recognition algorithms. The training samples are representative of the known classes of interest to the analyst. Classification methods that relay on use of training patterns are called supervised classification methods[1]. The three basic steps (Fig. 2) involved in a typical supervised classification procedure are as follows: Fig. 2. Basic steps supervised classification [1] (i) Training stage: The analyst identifies representative training areas and develops numerical descriptions of the spectral signatures of each land cover type of interest in the scene. (ii) The classification stag(Decision Rule)e: Each pixel in the image data set IS categorized into the land cover class it most closely resembles. If the pixel is insufficiently similar to any training data set it is usually labeled Unknown. (iii) The output stage: The results may be used in a number of different ways. Three typical forms of output products are thematic maps, tables and digital data files which become input data for GIS. The output of image classification becomes input for GIS for spatial analysis of the terrain. Fig. 2 depicts the flow of operations to be performed during image classification of remotely sensed data of an area which ultimately leads to create database as an input for GIS. Plate 6 shows the land use/ land cover color coded image, which is an output of image 2.3.1 Decision Rule in image classiffication After the signatures are defined, the pixels of the image are sorted into classes based on the signatures by use of a classification decision rule. The decision rule is a mathematical algorithm that, using data contained in the signature, performs the actual sorting of pixels into distinct class values[2]. There are a number of powerful supervised classifiers based on the statistics, which are commonly, used for various applications. A few of them are a minimum distance to means method, average distance method, parallelepiped method, maximum likelihood method, modified maximum likelihood method, Baysians method, decision tree classification, and discriminant functions. Decision Rule can be classified into two types: 1- Parametric Decision Rule: A parametric decision rule is trained by the parametric signatures. These signatures are defined by the mean vector and covariance matrix for the data file values of the pixels in the signatures. When a parametric decision rule is used, every pixel is assigned to a class since the parametric decision space is continuous[3] 2-Nonparametric Decision Rule A nonparametric decision rule is not based on statistics; therefore, it is independent of the properties of the data. If a pixel is located within the boundary of a nonparametric signature, then this decision rule assigns the pixel to the signatures class. Basically, a nonparametric decision rule determines whether or not the pixel is located inside of nonparametric signature boundary[3] . 2.3.2 supervised algorithm for image classiffication The principles and working algorithms of all these supervised classifiers are derived as follow : Parallelepiped Classification Parallelepiped classification, sometimes also known as box decision rule, or level-slice procedures, are based on the ranges of values within the training data to define regions within a multidimensional data space. The spectral values of unclassified pixels are projected into data space; those that fall within the regions defined by the training data are assigned to the appropriate categories [1]. In this method a parallelepiped-like (i.e., hyper-rectangle) subspace is defined for each class. Using the training data for each class the limits of the parallelepiped subspace can be defined either by the minimum and maximum pixel values in the given class, or by a certain number of standard deviations on either side of the mean of the training data for the given class . The pixels lying inside the parallelepipeds are tagged to this class. Figure depicts this criterion in cases of two-dimensional feature space[4]. Fig. 3. Implementation of the parallelepiped classification method for three classes using two spectral bands, after[4]. Minimum Distance Classification for supervised classification, these groups are formed by values of pixels within the training fields defined by the analyst.Each cluster can be represented by its centroid, often defined as its mean value. As unassigned pixels are considered for assignment to one of the several classes, the multidimensional distance to each cluster centroid is calculated, and the pixel is then assigned to the closest cluster. Thus the classification proceeds by always using the minimum distance from a given pixel to a cluster centroid defined by the training data as the spectral manifestation of an informational class. Minimum distance classifiers are direct in concept and in implementation but are not widely used in remote sensing work. In its simplest form, minimum distance classification is not always accurate; there is no provision for accommodating differences in variability of classes, and some classes may overlap at their edges. It is possible to devise more sophisticated versions of the basi c approach just outlined by using different distance measures and different methods of defining cluster centroids.[1] Fig. 4. Minimum distance classifier[1] The Euclidean distance is the most common distance metric used in low dimensional data sets. It is also known as the L2 norm. The Euclidean distance is the usual manner in which distance is measured in real world. In this sense, Manhattan distance tends to be more robust to noisy data. Euclidean distance = (1) Where x and y are m-dimensional vectors and denoted by x = (x1, x2, x3 xm) and y = (y1, y2, y3 ym) represent the m attribute values of two classes. [5]. While Euclidean metric is useful in low dimensions, it doesnt work well in high dimensions and for categorical variables. Mahalanobis Distance Mahalanobis Distance is similar to Minimum Distance, except that the covariance matrix is used in the equation. Mahalanobis distance is a well-known statistical distance function. Here, a measure of variability can be incorporated into the distance metric directly. Mahalanobis distance is a distance measure between two points in the space defined by two or more correlated variables. That is to say, Mahalanobis distance takes the correlations within a data set between the variable into consideration. If there are two non-correlated variables, the Mahalanobis distance between the points of the variable in a 2D scatter plot is same as Euclidean distance. In mathematical terms, the Mahalanobis distance is equal to the Euclidean distance when the covariance matrix is the unit matrix. This is exactly the case then if the two columns of the standardized data matrix are orthogonal. The Mahalanobis distance depends on the covariance matrix of the attribute and adequately accounts for the corr elations. Here, the covariance matrix is utilized to correct the effects of cross-covariance between two components of random variable[6, 7]. D=(X-Mc)T (COVc)-1(X-Mc) ( 2) where D = Mahalanobis Distance, c = a particular class, X = measurement vector of the candidate pixel Mc = mean vector of the signature of class c, Covc = covariance matrix of the pixels in the signature of class c, Covc-1 = inverse of Covc, T = transposition function[3]. Maximum Likelihood Classification In nature the classes that we classify exhibit natural variation in their spectral patterns. Further variability is added by the effects of haze, topographic shadowing, system noise, and the effects of mixed pixels. As a result, remote sensing images seldom record spectrally pure classes; more typically, they display a range of brightnesss in each band. The classification strategies considered thus far do not consider variation that may be present within spectral categories and do not address problems that arise when frequency distributions of spectral values from separate categories overlap. The maximum likelihood (ML) procedure is the most common supervised method used with remote sensing. It can be described as a statistical approach to pattern recognition where the probability of a pixel belonging to each of a predefined set of classes is calculated; hence the pixel is assigned to the class with the highest probability [4]MLC is based on the Bayesian probability formula. Bayes Classification: The MLC decision rule is based on a normalized (Gaussian) estimate of the probability density function of each class [8]. Hence, under this assumption and using the mean vector along with the covariance matrix, the distribution of a category response pattern can be completely described [9]. Given these parameters, the statistical probability of a given pixel value can be computed for being a member of a particular class. The pixel would be assigned to the class with highest probability value or be labelled unknown if the probability values are all below a threshold set by the user [10]. Let the spectral classes for an image be represented by à Ã¢â‚¬ °i, i = 1, . . . M Where, M is the total number of classes. In order to determine the class to which a pixel vector x belongs; the conditional probabilities of interest should be followed. P( à Ã¢â‚¬ °i|x), i = 1, . . . M The measurement vector x is a column of Digital Numbers (DN) values for the pixel, where its dimension depends on the number of input bands. This vector describes the pixel as a point in multispectral space with co-ordinates defined by the DNs (Figure 2-20). Fig. 4.Feature space and how a feature vector is plotted in the feature space [9] The probability p(à Ã¢â‚¬ °i |x) gives the likelihood that the correct class is à Ã¢â‚¬ °i for a pixel at position x. Classification is performed according to: x à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  à Ã¢â‚¬ °i if p à Ã¢â‚¬ °i |x > p à Ã¢â‚¬ °j |x) for all j à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   i3 i.e., the pixel at x belongs to class à Ã¢â‚¬ °i if p(à Ã¢â‚¬ °i|x) is the largest. This general approach is called Bayes classification which works as an intuitive decision for the Maximum Likelihood Classifier method [11]. From this discussion one may ask how can the available p(x|à Ã¢â‚¬ °i) can be related from the training data set, to the desired p(à Ã¢â‚¬ °i|x) and the answer is again found in Bayes theorem [12]. From this discussion one may ask how can the available p(x|à Ã¢â‚¬ °i) can be related from the training data set, to the desired p(à Ã¢â‚¬ °i|x) and the answer is again found in Bayes theorem [12]. p (à Ã¢â‚¬ °i|x)= p (x|à Ã¢â‚¬ °i) p (à Ã¢â‚¬ °i )/p(x) 4 Where p(à Ã¢â‚¬ °i ) is the probability that class à Ã¢â‚¬ °i occurs in the image and also called a priori or prior probabilities. And p(x) is the probability of finding a pixel from any class at location x. Maximum Likelihood decision rule is based on the probability that a pixel belongs to a particular class. The basic equation assumes that these probabilities are equal for all classes, and that the input bands have normal distributions as in [13] D = ln(ac)-[0.5ln(|Covc|)]-[0.5(X-Mc)T(Cov-1)(X-Mc)] 6 Where: D = weighted distance (likelihood),c = a particular class,X = measurement vector of the candidate pixel, Mc =mean vector of the sample of class c,ac =percent probability that any candidate pixel is a member ofclass c,(Defaults to 1.0, or is entered from a priori knowledge),Covc = covariance matrix of the pixels in the sample of class c,|Covc| = determinant of Covariance (matrix algebra),Covc-1 = inverse of Covariance (matrix algebra) ln = natural logarithm function = transposition function (matrix algebra). 4- Comparison supervised classification techniques: One of the most important keys to classify land use or land cover using suitable techniques the table showed advantages and disadvantages of each techniques [3] : techniques advantage disadvantage Parallelepiped Fast and simple, calculations are made, thus cutting processing Not dependent on normal distributions. Since parallelepipeds have corners, pixels that are actually quite far, spectrally, from the mean of the signature may be classified Minimum Distance Classification Since every pixel is spectrally closer to either one sample mean or another, there are no unclassified pixels. Fastest decision rule to compute, except for parallelepiped Pixels that should be unclassified,, this problem is alleviated by thresholding out the pixels that are farthest from the means of their classes. Does not consider class variability Mahalanobis Distance Takes the variability of classes into account, unlike Minimum Distance or Parallelepiped Tends to overclassify signatures with relatively large values in the covariance matrix. Slower to compute than Parallelepiped or Minimum Distance Maximum Likelihood Most accurate of the classifiers In classification. Takes the variability of classes into account by using the covariance matrix, as does Mahalanobis Distance An extensive equation that takes a long time to compute Maximum Likelihood is parametric, meaning that it relies heavily on anormal distribution of the data in each input band 5- accuracy assessment No classification is complete until its accuracy has been assessed [10]In this context the accuracy means the level of agreement between labels assigned by the classifier and class allocation on the ground collected by the user as test data. To research valid conclusions about maps accuracy from some samples of the map the sample must be selected without bias. Failure to meet these important criteria affects the validity of any further analysis performed using the data because the resulting error matrix may over- or under- estimate the true accuracy. The sampling schemes well determine the distribution of samples across the land scape which will significantly affect accuracy assessment costs [14] When performing accuracy assessment for the whole classified image, the known reference data should be another set of data. Different from the set that is used for training the classifier .If training samples as the reference data are used then the result of the accuracy assessment only indicates how the training samples are classified, but does not indicate how the classifier performs elsewhere in scene [10]. the following are two methods commonly used to do the accuracy assessment derived from table . 1-the Error matrix Table 1.Error matrix[15] Error matrix (table1 ) is square ,with the same number of information classes that will be assessed as the row and column. Numbers in rows are the classification result and numbers in column are ref-erence data (ground truth ).in this square elements along the main diagonal are pixels that are correctly classified. Error matrix is very effective way to represent map accuracy in that individual accuracies of each category are plainly descried along with both the error of commission and error of omission. Error of commission is defined as including an area into acatogary when it does not belong to that category. Error of omission is defined as excluding that area from the catogary in which it truly does belong. Every error is an omission from correct category and commission to a wrong category. With error matrix error of omission and commission can be shown clearly and also several accuracy indexes such as overall accuracy, users accuracy and producers accuracy can be assessed .the fol lowing is detailed description about the three accuracy indexes and their calculation method overall accuracy Overall accuracy is the portion of all reference pixels, which are classified correctly (in the scene) that assignment of the classifications and of the reference classification agree).it is computed by dividing the total number of correctly classified pixels (the sum of the elements along the main diagonal) by the total number of reference pixels. According to the error matrix above the overall accuracy can be calculated as the following: OA == Overall accuracy is Avery coarse measurement. It gives no information about what classes are classified with good accuracy. producers accuracy producer accuracy estimates the probability that a pixel, which is of class I in the reference classification is correctly classified . It is estimate with the reference pixels of class I divided by the pixels where classification and reference classification agree in class I . Given the error matrix above, the producers accuracy can be calculated using the following equation: PA (class I) = Producer accuracy tells how well the classification agrees with reference classification 2.3 users accuracy Users accuracy is estimated by dividing the number of pixels of the classification results for class I with number of pixels that agree with the reference data in class I.it can be calculated as : UA(class I)= Users accuracy predicts the probability that a pixel classified as class I is actually belonging to class I. 2-kappa statistics The kappa analysis is discrete multivariate techniques used in accuracy assessment for statistically determining if one error matrix is significantly different than another (bishop).the result of performing of kappa analysis is KHAT statistics (actually ,an estimate of kappa),which is an- other measure of agreement or accuracy this measure of agreement is based on the difference between the actual agreement in the error matrix(i.e the agreement between the remotely sensed classification and the reference data as indicated by major diagonal) and the chance agreement, which is indicated by the row and column totals(i.e marginal)[16] A detailed comparison between two data sets, one with near-infrared and three visible and the other with the full 8-bands, was made to emphasize the important role of the new bands for improving the separability measurement and the final classification results [17]

Saratoga Race Course :: essays research papers fc

Saratoga Race course On July 27, 1783, George Washington and his men stood over a bubbling hole, that hole was releasing water that to them was salty and smelled as if it had a high sulfur content. This water would be known as Saratoga mineral water. Saratoga residents baked spring water bread for Washington and his men, with out adding any salt or yeast and yet within a matter of minutes the bread rose. George Washington was considered to be Saratoga’s first visitor or tourist on that day. Almost fifty years before Washington came to this watering hole the Mohawk Indians used the local waters as a cleanser, for medicinal purposes and for drinking (Hotaling 1). George never did buy the land of Saratoga Springs that he had wanted so bad. George was having trouble with real estate deals; he was actually going to buy Saratoga Springs. George had said that Saratoga was the turning point of the revolution. George also new that Saratoga had great mineral water that could lead to industry. George en joyed Saratoga’s environment, people gambling and playing billiard, while women road through on horses (Hotaling, 2-3). Almost one hundred years later the birth of Saratoga racing had begun. In 1863, during the middle of the civil war, the Saratoga association was formed. The Saratoga association was a continuation of Saratoga attractions such as boxing, gambling, and what brought people to famous Saratoga in the first place, its water. In 1863, a racing meet for thoroughbreds marked the beginning of "the oldest race track in America."(Longrigg, 222-223) The race course bears the additional distinction of being the oldest sports facility in the country. With the exception of 1911 and 1912, when the track closed in response to gambling reforms, and 1943-45, when meets were cancelled due to World War II, the track has continued to operate and grow in popularity. Attendance at the famous Travers Day race has been known to double the city's population. Health and Horses are the foundation of Saratoga's History. Without the springs, settlers might easily have passed the region. Mineral water, for drinking and bathing, a European tradition for the health conscious, was the force for the development of the city. The arrival of the railroad in 1831 was a huge boost in tourism. The summer season at Saratoga offered diversions as well: hot air balloon ascensions, hops, balls, Indian encampments, and afternoon carriage rides down Broadway where people and horses were decorated in the latest finery.

Native American Remedies Essay -- Medicine Culture Papers

Native American Remedies "Mike Spring, paralyzed from the waist... down and in constant pain, sailed to the Azores and back. On his return, he confounded his TV interviewer with the statement that the only way he was able to obtain relief from the pain that continually racked his body was to press his back to an oak tree. This simple and cost-free action would then afford him several hours of complete relief and helped him to carry on in life. When asked for a scientific explanation, Mr. Spring replied that he had none-- it simply worked! He had heard of the treatment from an American Indian source and had been using it successfully for years" (Psychology of Healing- Murry Hope 89). How can that possibly be? A tree curing backaches? He must have been taking some aspirin, too, many of us assume. It is not uncommon for a person in Western culture to be thinking this way. We were raised with the belief that our medical society largely based on chemical concoctions is powerful because it has cures for everything from various cancers all the way down the list to the common cold. Don't get me wrong, the medical profession is quite effective, but for several generations, Native Americans have been using herbs to cure aches and pains, and various other illnesses. Many of the herbs used by Native Americans are the ones you can actually find in aspirin and other medications today. In fact, many ingredients used in various modern medications are actually derived from Native American cultures. Herbal medicine is being reintroduced through various forms of alternative medicine. Out on the market we see aromatherapy, acupuncture, herbology, and many more forms of alternative medicine. Herbology is a practice which seeks to heal... ...out injecting chemicals such as morphine, demerol, oxycodone, and hydrocodone into your blood stream? How different is it really to seek cures from artificial hospital rooms than it is to look for cures from nature? Works Cited Allen, Paula Gunn. Grandmothers of the Light. Boston: Beacon Press, 1991. Croft, Prof. Candance, Personal Interview. 9 Feb. 1999. Hope, Murry. The Psychology of Healing. Great Britain: Element Books, 1989. Wolf, Melinda. "Alternative Medicine: A journey to proactive healthcare." CNI Newspapers (Wauwatosa) 25 Feb. 1999. Wolf, Melinda. " Alternative Medicine: Yoga, t'ai chi, aromatherapy keep body healthy." CNI Newspapers (Wauwatosa) 4 Mar. 1999. Workshop on Alternative Medicine. Alternative Medicine: Expanding Medical Horizons. Chantilly, VA: 1992. Zimmerman, Larry J. Native North America. London, England: 1996.

Oscar Wilde Essay -- essays research papers

Oscar Wilde was one of the most prominent Irish born playwrights. He was a major player in the aesthetic movement, which was based on art for art’s sake. Wilde was also a novelist, playwright, poet, and critic. He was born Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wilson Wilde on October 16, 1854, in Dublin, Ireland. Wilde came from a rather large family. William Wilde, his father, had three illegitimate children previous to his marriage. They were Henry Wilson in 1838, Emily in 1847, and Mary in 1849. William provided financially for all of them. Henry studied medicine and later assisted his father at St. Mark’s Hospital. William’s brother raised Emily and Mary but both died in a fire at the ages of 24 and 22. Oscar’s mother had three children, William Charles Kingsbury in 1852, Oscar in 1854, and Isola Emily Franscesca in 1857. Isola died ten years later in 1857 from a sudden fever. Oscar was profoundly affected by this and kept a lock of her hair sealed in a decorated envelope until the day he died. Oscar’s father, William Wilde, graduated as a doctor, completed voyages to North Africa and the Middle East, studied at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, written two books, and been appointed medical advisor to the Irish Census of 1841 all by the time he was 28. He later became Assistant Commissioner to the 1851 Census and was knighted for his work in 1864 at the age of 49. Oscar’s mother, Jane Francesca Elgee, wrote revolutionary poems for an Irish weekly newspaper called The Nation in 18...

Managing Conbini- Case Study Custom Research by Essay Writers

Culturally speaking, Japanese consumers have an interest in utilizing American inventions because of an overall desire to capture the flavor and feel of Western culture, as Japanese citizens experience the joy of having disposable income to purchase goods   that they are seeing for the first time in many cases (Ellington, 1992).   Specifically in the instance of the American convenience store concept, the popularity of it in Japan, beyond the cultural associations, also has a practical element to it, as space in Japan is at a premium, which makes it difficult and impractical for the average Japanese to store lots of consumer goods in their homes.   Therefore, the convenience store allows them to quickly obtain needed items if they cannot be kept on hand at home. Evolution of the Original Concept of the Convenience Store Space is at a premium in Japan, and retail stores are no exception.   Even the Conbini (convenience store) lacks enough shelf space to display all of the goods that are offered.   Because of this, the original concept of the convenience store has evolved through the use of e-commerce; for example, in the Conbini, Internet terminals exist whereby the customer can order products and have the products delivered to their homes.   This allows for the offering of many goods in a limited space environment. Aside from the obvious convenience and product availability that Conbini provides to the Japanese consumer, there is another important aspect of Conbini that the Japanese particularly like, which can be found in the e-commerce element of the stores themselves.   Because many Japanese do not have Internet access in their homes, the possibility of buying online from the terminal at Conbini is very appealing (Bloomberg Business News, 2004). What Other Kinds of New Products/Services Could be Introduced in the Conbini? How Should the New Offerings be Distributed? Conbini represents an excellent opportunity to introduce new products/services.   Because of the space crunch in Japan, there exists a promising opportunity for the provision of the kinds of entertainment (DVDs, videocassettes, etc) that previously required large retail spaces, but can be ordered using the Internet technology that now exists. These new product/services should be distributed via home delivery due to the convenience and practical considerations that are dictated by the space restrictions that exist in Japan itself. Technology can also play a bigger key role.   The Conbini innovations in E-commerce could be adapted to E-tailing in the United States in many ways, and have been to some extent in the past, evidenced by American retailers like Circuit City, which has embraced the Internet as a sales tool and used it to rescue the firm from low profits over the past 5 years or so (Bhatnagar, 2004). To strictly follow the Conbini model, the typical American convenience store could reduce the costs associated with huge retail locations by utilizing Internet technology as Conbini has to make convenience stores smaller and more cost/space efficient.   Given certain concerns in the United States at this time as well, Conbini models can reduce the crime associated with the typical American convenience store and conserve natural resources by disturbing less land and using less utilities and building materials. References (Bhatnagar P 2004 Circuit City-No More Excuses)Bhatnagar, P. (2004). Circuit City-No More Excuses. CNN Money.com, , . Retrieved September 10, 2006, from Money Magazine and CNN Web Site: http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/26/news/fortune500/circuit_city (Bloomberg Business News 200404 Japan's Convenience Stores add E-Commerce to Milk and Management)Bloomberg Business News. (2004, April). Japan's Convenience Stores add E-Commerce to Milk and Management. Retrieved September 10, 2006, from CNET News Web Site: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,13027570,00.htm (Indiana University Clearinghouse For US-Japan Studies 1992 Japanese-U.S. Economic Relations)Indiana University Clearinghouse For U.S.-Japan Studies/Lucien Ellington, author (1992). Japanese-U.S. Economic Relations. Japan Digest, 4(2002), .      

Human Resources and Industrial Relations in the Public Sector Essay

INTRODUCTION Industrial relations is concerned with the relationship between management and workers and the role of the regulatory mechanism in resolving any industrial dispute. It covers areas such as collective bargaining, trade unions and the government. Human resource management (HRM), which has a soft approach (people friendly) and a hard approach (people as a resource to be used as seen fit by the organization), could be summarized as a strategic approach to managing employees. The role of industrial relations has been diminished to some extent in Trinidad and Tobago with the implementation of human resource management practices and policies. However some of the aspects of the traditional public sector model and the environment it was planted in has survived till now, which affects the implementation and success of new public management. LITERATURE REVIEW â€Å"Comparative Industrial Relations: An Introduction to Cross National Perspectives† by Bean 1994 states, Dunlops prescription of the advancement of knowledge in IR is the need to break away from the restrictive and myopic confines of problem solving, institutional studies with individual countries- what has been termed ‘ethno-centric’ bias- in favor of border comparisons over the course of time and across countries. He postulated that the systems theory was applicable to study comparative industrial relations. Haworth 1991 however states that the systems theory fails to explain how the pattern of industrial relations has developed in Third World countries. The industrial relations system responds to social political and economic change  whereby actors (mainly management) usually have a number of responses they can make, therefore there is the existence of discretion in decision making which will in turn affect industrial relations. Kochan et al 1984. Zeitlin 1987 states, industrial relations can best be explained not by the social and economic structure but by historical divergences in institutional development resulting from the strategies and organizations of the state, trade unions and employers. This book basically deals with comparative industrial relations where research is done on similar phenomena taking place in different countries. Poole 1986 highlights four principles for this research to be done, 1. Focus on environmental influences coming from the societal processes and structures. 2. Multi-disciplinary perspectives incorporating social, political and economic aspects. 3. Explanatory variables as opposed to descriptive categories. 4. Utilizing the historical as well as contemporary dimension. Trade unions are institutional representatives of worker interests within the labour market and the society. It is collective rather than individual â€Å"concerted behavior is the essence of modern trade uni onism†, (Ulman 1990) He also spoke of the ‘individualizing’ of industrial relations into human resource management. Industrial Relations and Globalization: Challenges for Employers and their Organizations†, a document prepared by David Macdonald (1997) states that during the period of the 1990’s there were new demands of international competition and dramatic advances in technology. Globalization had also changed the nature and operation of the ‘market place’ and production in many countries across the world. Considerable demands were placed on employers and enterprises thus new structures, processes and strategies were required to be implemented. Within the enterprise, industrial Relations (IR) plays a very strategic role and many changes much be made to the traditional practices and human resource Management (HRM). This new approach attempts to improve flexibility and skills of the workforce which would seek to improve various aspects within the workplace such as trust and communication between managers and workers etc. David’s paper focuses on industrial relations trends and developments in Asia and the Pacific with special attention paid to the challenges organizations and employers are to be faced with. The paper also observes the changing nature of industrial relations and its development as influenced by the forces of globalization, liberalization as  well as the historical and current factors which influence the relations in the region. He defines industrial relations as the means by which various interests in the labour market are accommodated, primarily for the purpose of regulating employment relationships. Industrial relations are therefore concerned with relationships within the workplace and in the organization at all levels. These relationships are expressed through collective bargaining, involvement of workers in decision making etc. Traditionally, industrial relations was to achieve collective outcomes at a national and/or sector/industry levels which are then applied to each enterprise. Human Resource Management is different as it focuses directly at the level of the enterprise seeking to align interests of workers both individually and in groups, managers for the purpose of corporate objectives, seeking to accomplish a competitive advantage in the marketplace. In the book ‘Understanding Work and Employment: Industrial relations in Transition’ looked at the contribution and challenges of human resource management to industrial relations. Due to ‘high commitment management’, human resource management (HRM) is seen to be replacing trade unions. Traditionally, personnel was seen as a subset of IR but in the 1980’s, employee relations evolved to IR being a part of HRM. Eight main issues of HRM to IR were identified as being a change of focus from a sociology perspective to a psychology perspective, a move from pluralism to unitarism, a stress on management as the main actors in the industrial relations system, an emphasis on business strategy and ‘fit’ between policies, the application of the resource based view of the firm to employee relations, the influence of high commitment management and the challenge of the psychological contract view to the understanding of employment contract. Industrial relations had its share of hardship as it journeyed to succession. Historians and novelists acknowledged the drastic changed made in the British society which came about during the industrial revolution. Karl Polanyi described the excruciating changes which took place as feudal societies transformed to an industrialized state. He identified that â€Å"the effects on the lives of people were awful beyond description† (Polanyi 1957, 76). Also stated was: In disposing of a man’s labor power the system would, incidentally, dispose of the physical, psychological, and moral entity â€Å"man† attached to the tag. Robbed of the protective covering of cultural institutions, human beings would perish from the effects of social exposure; they would die as the victims of acute social dislocation through vice, perversion, crime and starvation†¦. No society could stand the effects of such a system of crude fictions even for the shortest stretch of time unless human and natural substances, as well as its business organization, were protected against the ravages of this satanic mill. (Polanyi 1957, 73). Polanyi stated that the negativity that the industrial revolution faces was not much of poor conditions under which individuals live or worked but rather the displacements faced by employees whom are no longer under the protection of cultural institutions. Employment relations and the social sciences by Hills revealed that there is a link between industrial relations and the discipline of social sciences. Steven M. Hills also extended the search of systems analysis by Dunlop where he established a structure to put in order the variety of concepts, of which many never was fully known, which comprise the study of industrial relations. Hills, in his explanation for choosing the employment relationship rather than labor union as his reference point, are because his attention was focused on the controls that govern employer-employee relationships. Understanding these controls is an important aspect in order to express appreciation toward the underlying forces of industrial relations systems according to Hills. He also shows the closeness these controls impose by the government, labor unions and social classes. In Hills analysis, he showed the difficulties faced in all employment relationships, whether they are well-thought-out as pre-industrial, industrial or alleged â€Å"post-industrial† citizens where unions are strong, weak or nonexistent. TRADITIONAL IR SYSTEM INCLUDING DISCUSSION OF THE TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SECTOR MODEL Industrial relations produces and organizes knowledge, it is unique and has its own theories, concepts, techniques, practices and ideological commitments. Industrial relations was born in the United Stated in the 1910’s. It was a reaction to the waste, human suffering, the social injustice as well as the employer- power in the nineteenth and early  twentieth century capitalism. It also arose because it was viewed that relations between bosses and workers could be improved. Industrial relations in terms of academia is the study of labor problems but gave priority to specific areas like a strategy or institution for solving problems for example the trade unions or collective bargaining. The early version of industrial relations emphasized inherent conflict of interest which exist between the employer and employee, that there is superior bargaining power of the employer and the autocratic nature of workplace governance in the traditional firm. With the globalization of industrial relations there was the spread of industrialism, market economics, trade union movements, protection of human rights and political democracy. There was a decline in industrial relations because of the decrease in trade union density, major forma of labour unrest, political power in many countries, the rise in human resource management, the rise in neo-liberalism, national and world politics etc. Industrial relations is centered around fostering stability, efficiency cooperation, peace and positivity. In the 1960’s there began to be a slow decline in industrial relations. There was a narrowing of the intellectual domain and the field was becoming marginalized. Numerous universities in the 1990’s dropped the term ‘Industrial Relations’ and adopted ‘employment relations’ or ‘human resources’. Over the years industrial relations had made attempts to establish itself as a self- contained academic dis cipline but continued to fail (Kaufman 2004). There was the shrinking role of collective bargaining as well. The traditional industrial relations model is concerned with a particular set of phenomena associated with regulating the human activity of employment. It focuses on the implementation of rules within the work place and factors outside of the work place which influences the process. It is concerned with collective bargaining, trade unions, employers, managers and payments. John Dunlop originated the systems approach to industrial relations which is basically an integrative model which seeks to provide tools of analysis to interpret and gain an understanding and how and why particular rules are established in particular Industrial Relations systems and how and why they change in response to changes which affect the system. John Dunlop (1991) applied the systems theory which embodies a set of actors, rules, context and ideology. Flanders (1979) and the Oxford Approach defined industrial relations as the  study of institutions of job regulation. Flanders states that the institution and job regulation can be categorized into the internal and external factors; he insists that collective bargaining is central to the industrial relations system. Flanders agreed with Dunlop (1958) that rules are also essential but continued that rules are only a generic description which can be given to these various instruments of regulation. Heyman (1957) a critic of industrial relations scholars agrees that rules are a mandatory aspect as well. He however, criticizes the Oxford school and Dunlop for not acknowledging the importance of informal rules in the industrial relations system. Heyman (1975) takes the view of the Marxist perspective and views industrial relations as the process of control over work relations, or as the political economy of waged labour. The three perspectives of industrial relations are as follows: the Marxist perspective, the unitary perspective and the pluralist perspective. Fox agrees that industrial relations provided the foundation for Human Resource Management. Concepts and practice of industrial relations are as follows, collective bargaining, trade unions, models of trade unions, the voluntarist tradition, compulsory system and the adversary system. The first four decades of the 1930’s in the English- speaking Caribbean was dominated by political unionism. The shift was largely influenced by globalization. There was rapid expansion of enterprises in almost all aspects. The three phases which affects the Caribbean’s history were, the colonial phase and the colonial administrator, the post- colonial phase and the globalization phase. There was a social division between labour and capital in Trinidad and Tobago. During the 1930’s Trinidad and Tobago suffered the effects of the worldwide depression. There were unjust labour practices and the wages were exceptionally low. The colonial era in Trinidad and Tobago was basically one in where there was unilateralism in rule making by employers, voluntarism and non-involvement of the state and there was the social and economic exploitation of the people. During the post-colonial eras, there was the adversarial system, state control, it was pluralist to a certain extent and was unitary. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS The globalization period brought drastic changes to the public sector and  industrial relations. There were structural adjustment programs, free trade, foreign aid, investment as well as reforms in the labour market. Gray (1998) describes globalization as the worldwide spread of modern technologies of industrial production and communication of all kinds. The consequence was that solutions for the contemporary Caribbean were no longer the same as the ones in the past. There was a missing link and a burning need for a Human resource management approach to step in. It was the approach where â€Å"a human workplace† menaing â€Å"the company looks after their employees and the employees look after their company. The human resource management function was now an integral part of management. It can be said that the role of industrial relations, policies and practices have diminished in comparison to the earlier years under the traditional model after human resource management was introduced. During the 1930’s in Trinidad and Tobago, the industrial relations paradigm was quite dominant. There was a severity in struggle with respect to the working class as the country had experienced periods of enslavement and indentureship, workers had no rights and there was no place for grievances. This period was controlling and dominant and there was the Royal Commission of Lord Moyne (1938) which was to investigate the labour and social conditions in the British West Indian Colonies. In Trinidad and Tobago there was hardly any political representation and all power and responsibility was centered on the governor. Trade unions had to fight for political and social status, industrial politics political unionism and trade unions- based political parties are rooted in the tradition of Caribbean societies. This legacy has continued even until today in the Trinidad and Tobago public sector. However, it is safe to say that the implementation of human resource management policies and practice has reduced the influence and popularity of industrial relations to the public sector and society as a whole. With the implementation of various departments in organizations, including human resource departments, managers are taking are not only reducing the need for certain aspects of industrial relations but also deal with problems. Therefore the connection between employee and the trade union or government organizations are being wiped out. This may be because it fosters an environment that shows the employee that the organization cares, but may also reduce the chance of negative stories or problem leaking outside of the organization, preventing bad  reputations from being created. Human Resource Management includes conducting job analyses, planning personnel needs, recruiting the right people for the job, orienting and training, managing wages and salaries, providing benefits and incentives, evaluating performance, resolving disputes, and communicating with all employees at all levels. Examples of core qualities of HR management are extensive knowledge of the industry, leadership, and effective negotiation skills. Human resource management is formerly called personnel management. Although ‘high commitment’ as stated by some scholars, it reaps the most rewards for the organization itself. CONCLUSION Human resource management is seen as the new way forward. Industrial relations still has a connotation of trade union struggles and equality battles. Industrial relations still play a major role in organizations in Trinidad and Tobago. While human resource management is increasingly dealing with the issues and concerns of employees, there is still a need for government intervention. At the conciliation unit of the Ministry of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development Limited, there are a thousand trade disputes reported on average per year. When management may be the problem, industrial relations and its components are of use. However, HRM is still a developing concept in Trinidad and Tobago. HRM could be seen as a developed country’s take on employee relations and Trinidad and Tobago is still developing. Aspects of the traditional public sector still exist. Since industrial relations still play a major role in Trinidad and Tobago society, it would be wise to adopt a more employee relations approach. In the past, HRM was not entirely successful in Trinidad and Tobago. It is still a relatively new concept and field to the developing world. Due to the circumstances and nature of Trinidad and Tobago, HRM may not be the best policy to implement in society at this time. Human Resource Management can also pose as a challenge for Industrial relations as it can undermine the role of trade unions at enterprise level. Realistically however, human resource management and industrial relations policies and practices can be harmonized to benefit each other. As society changes and more are demanded from employer, employee and the  organization, adopting the more common soft approach to human resource management shows development on the part of the industrial relations system. There is a need for industrial relations in society, but by adding more roles that may have diminished due to human resource manage, it ensures not only survival but the ability to survive in a society where west is viewed as better, and human resource management is the way of the west. References Ackers, Peter, and Adrian Wilkinson. Understanding work and employment: industrial relations in transition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Bean, Ron. Comparative industrial relations: an introduction to cross-national perspectives. 2nd ed. London: International Thomson, 1999. Collings, David G., and Geoffrey T. Wood. Human resource management: a critical approach. London: Routledge, 2009. â€Å"Employment Relations and the Social Sciences.† Google Books. https://encrypted.google.com/books?id=lTIS5L5JbD0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed November 21, 2013). Mac Donald, David. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND GLOBALIZATION: CHALLENGES FOR EMPLOYERS AND THEIR ORGANIZATIONS . Asia-Pacific in the Twenty-First Century Turin, Italy: ILO Workshop on Employers’ Organizations, 1997.

Conventional Elements of Literature Essay

Literature has elements by which we can analyze the piece (book, poem, play, etc. ) written. These elements are; plot, character, setting, theme, structure, point of view, conflict, diction, foreshadowing and symbolism (Scholes, 1991) Three of them will be explained here further. The plot of the literature is the way the story goes, the line of the story, the way it starts, develops and ends. Basically, the plot tells us what happens in the story. The plot can consist of an exposition (setting and characters), conflict (complications that might arise), climax (moment of crisis or the most important part of a story) and a denouement (the resolution, the unraveling). Analyzing the plot and plot changes tell us the whole story and explain the story. Characters make the story; they are the personalities of the story. Characters can be conventional (e. g. human beings, living on earth), science fictional beings (e. g. aliens) or fantastic extra-ordinary beings (e. g. super hero’s or trolls). All these characters can either be fictional (made up) or real. The characters can also be human, supernatural, mythical, animal or divine. Then there is also the ‘depth’ of the character to be considered; characters can be round (developed and complex), flat (no complexity) or stereotypical. They can also be dynamic (changes) or static (they don’t change). Analysis of literature from the characters is an in depth analysis of the whole piece, the characters are one of the most important elements in all literature. Diction, the use of language, is another important element in literature. The dialogues reflect the characters, convey inner thoughts and give meaning to actions. Analysis of the language and the dialogues can give the reader a great insight in the characters and the meaning of the literary piece. A piece of literature can not be analyzed with the use of just one element. To understand literature, you have to analyze at least the plot and the characters to be able to give any meaning to a piece. But soon, there will be other questions as ‘theme’, ‘points of view’ and ‘symbolism’. All these combined will give you an analysis of literature. The main question any analyst has to ask the piece is ‘why’. This will help the analysis and give insight in all the elements. References Scholes, R. (Ed. ), Klaus, C. H. (Ed. ), Comley, N. R. (Ed. ) & Silverman, M. (Ed. ). (1991). Elements of Literature: Essay, Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Film. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Essay

Abstract Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or also called as HCAHPS is a too and gadget for measuring and evaluating the amount of contentment and satisfaction a hospital has given to a patient. The results of these HCAHPS surveys help all hospitals across the country and the world by providing data about the preferences of patients and the quality of healthcare, operations and activities that they prefer. The information taken from these surveys will be made public, thus providing more information to the people and to the hospitals. Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems presents a standard level of hospital care and operation to all of the hospitals in our country and around the world.   Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, also known as HCAHPS, is a consistent, reliable and dependable survey device. It also has data collection methodology for use in objectively measuring and evaluating each of the patients’ perspectives of the hospital care and operation they have experienced. As of today, we know that almost all hospitals gather and collect information and data concerning patient satisfaction and contentment. Nowadays, our country has no nationwide or national standard designed for collecting and gathering this information that will facilitate and pave way for valid comparisons and assessments to be made across all hospitals and healthcare centers in our country or any given region. To be able to make matching and equivalent assessments and comparisons to back up consumer and patient preference and inclination, it is always very much essential to bring in and introduce a new, updated and acceptable standardized measurement approach to these matters. The survey is an intensive compilation of grouped questions that can be and should be integrated with modified and customized hospital items and operations. The integration of this assessment plan will pave way for the creation of a great number and high level information database which will complement and help out all the given data hospitals presently bring together and organize. This is done in order to maintain a high quality internal and in-house customer service and serviceability and quality-related activities and operations. There are three extensive and general goals that have molded and shaped the said survey. First of all, the HCAHPS survey is intended and planned to generate and create comparable data on patients’ perspectives of care. These perspectives permit objective, meaningful and unbiased comparisons between and among hospitals on any given topic, theme and/or subject matter.         Ã‚  These subject matters, topics and themes as we all know is very significant and important to the patient and consumer. Secondly, public reporting of the survey results is always planned out and agreed upon in order to produce incentives and benefits for hospitals that have been surveyed. One of the public reporting’s objectives is to further improve the quality of care that hospitals and healthcare centers give out to their patients. Thirdly, another objective of the public reporting is for it to serve and to develop public and community accountability and responsibility in health care and hospitals. This is done by overly-increasing the amount of transparency with which the quality and amount of hospital care and operations given to a patient or any person is equated in exchange for the public investment. Having all of these different goals, objectives and results in hand, the survey plan took a lot and will take a lot more of extensive, significant and noteworthy ways, .means and differentiated steps to improve, guarantee and assure the survey’s credibility, reliability, usefulness, practicality and most of all functionality. The main survey device and toll is composed of 27 unique and differentiatied items. There are two items which is aimed to sustain and uphold congressionally-mandated reports and information. There are also 18 substantive items that encompasses critical and vital aspects of the hospital experience are given and laid out for the patient to rate and comment about. Lastly there are four items to skip patients to suitable questions and there are three items to adjust and adapt for the combination of patients across hospitals. The HCAHPS is put under the careful patronage of the Hospital Quality Alliance. This group is a private and public partnership that consists of different major hospital associations. Members of these hospital associations range from private to public companies and people. References Forrester, R. B (1986). People, Healthcare and the Government.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   New Jersey. Aurora Publishing. Enyinna, C. O (1998). Healthcare and the Law.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Utah. Victory Books Ltd.

Importance of organisational Values Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Importance of organisational Values - Essay Example The entire above are imperative for effectiveness in both private and the National Health Service organisations. I will discuss all these in depth to demonstrate their usefulness. The effectiveness concept is considered as one of the reform bills’ objectives such as tariff alternatives needed for long-term, non-elective and complex care. Pooled or delegated budgets, pushed payments and capitalized funds are some of these alternatives. Any mechanism of payment that is adopted needs to promote financial rewards. Secondly, system leadership is also essential at a regional level, which should be facilitated by clinically led multi-professional cabinets working together with the NHS commissioning board. Being appointed as the new manager of the patient’s care department, my report will not only be based on the above, but also on quality service that can sustain patient care in line with the above objectives of my care organization, to that proposed in the vision of the new h ealth and care reform bill. Health and social care needs should be done together in order to ensure population health issues are addressed, such as the needs of unregistered patients and health inequalities. G.P commissioning boundaries should as far as possible, be aligned to the local authority boundaries to support the above. In addition to support clinical integration and patient-focused care, anyone providing or commissioning NHS Care should share relevant information with patients. The reforms should also allow the evolution of new approaches such as integrated care partnership. Under this approach, the commissioning function is slip between a strategic commissioner and budget- holding, not-for-profit integrated care partnerships. These integrated care partnerships might include GPS and a relevant health and social care specialist. Organizational performance Organizational performance is essential in order to deliver quality service that is value for money, (which depends on m any factors). There are internal factors and external factors to be considered. Internal factors are organizational culture, performance management, staffing level and finance. External factors that can affect quality service could be cuts, recession and commissioning. Being the new manager, I would propose greater performance requirements and accountability, which are found in every jurisdiction. In certain provinces in Canada for example, regional health systems are required to gather and analyze similar metrics and report them to the provincial government and to the public on a regular basis. In England, the Healthcare Commission monitors standards and efficiency, and publishes performance ratings for indicators such as wait times (Bradford & Burke, 2005). Over the last ten years, the NHS has made a lot of progress in delivering cancer services. Since 2007, we have seen improvements on the number of situation’s patients being treated as day cases. A massive increase in res ources has contributed to these improvements. It was through clear leadership and strong performance management that led us to these achievements. In July 2010, NHS white paper on equity and excellence proposed putting patients at the heart of everything the NHS does, and focusing on continuous improvement of the critical things in healthcare. However,

History Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History Assignment - Essay Example During this period all racial groups including whites, blacks, Indians, Mexicans and others were affected. Between the country’s Civil War and World War II, the US underwent profound racial reorganization with officially recognized group categories expanding and contracting, socially acknowledged boundaries between groups becoming blurred and shifting, and with both citizen and public actors passionately debating on who belonged to which group. The country’s basic components on racial order were revised, revisited and generally altered; however, whites never lost their position at the top of status hierarchy. Q.1 Between 1870 and 1910, USA witnessed the greatest influx of immigrants with more than 20 million immigrants entering the nation in this period partly as a result of the country’s gains in industrial revolution. Initially, new immigrants from northern and western Europe with industrial skills were welcomed; however, other immigrants coming from south and Eastern Europe were unwelcomed by resident Americans. These immigrants lacking skills came at a time when huge arrival of untrained labor caused the Native Americans feel that their lifestyle was under threat by arrival of fresh immigrants having various values and ideas. Some immigrants had an extra burden of the easily noticeable characteristics that made them prone to attacks by anyone seeking justification to carry out such attacks. The onset of hard financial times in 1870s saw immigrants and European-Americans struggle for jobs usually set aside for the Chinese. The hard economic times resulted in dislike and even racial suspicion and hatred, which resulted in anti-Chinese riots in California for exclusion of Chinese immigrants in the USA. Hatred and intolerance toward immigrants resulted in endorsement of immigration laws that greatly hampered immigration. In 1875, the USA passed the page law that prohibited entry of Chinese women and the Chinese exclusion act of 1882 refused entry of all Chinese laborers without making explicit mention of Chinese women; hence, page law continued to regulate their entry. The law prohibited the entry of all Chinese women since immigration officials assumed most of women were prostitutes. Nevertheless, Chinese merchant class was exempt since the law hindered male Chinese laborers from bringing their family to the US, hence limiting their permanent settlement in USA. Later, Japanese immigrants who came three decades later after passage of the page law experienced less harsh policies (Lee 249). Since the exclusion of Chinese from gold mines in California in 1850s, segments of California society consistently opposed the employment of Chinese and the pressure to exclude Chinese increased. The slowdown of 1870s meant the notion that Chinese men and white women were able to share became unpalatable and difficult to maintain. The depression indicated to white women that the Chinese had not only usurped jobs from them but also fo rced the reduction of wages of women who had jobs (Brown and Peter, 64). Convergence toward exclusion relied on the logical racial workings construction and attachment of mediocre status and meaning to immigrant groups via discourse, formal and informal categorization. The convergence relied on racial claims that Japanese were inassimilable and racially undesirable in the same way as the Chinese; hence, early racial claims offered an effective framework for meaningful construction and ultimate exclusion. Gender and race mattered in this period with their meaning constructively interconnected; hence, race was not an objective truth for exclusionists to discover but rather the claims that they had to make to express. Through discursive and symbolic