Perception and/or Reception of the Naked Child and Teenage Body in Art and the Media free essay sample

Introduction and Research Question: The topic, which, we will research, is the perception and/or reception of the naked child and teenage body in art and the media. The hypothesis that we have concluded is that ‘children and teenagers posing nude for art or in the media is seen as the cause for over-sexualization in children and teenagers’. The naked body has been a topic of art and seen in the media as an ongoing issue. cv writing service galway Child and teenage nudity has been featured in art from the 14th and 15th century, as well as in renaissance art, controversially through Bill Henson’s photography and in modern fashion shoots featuring teenage celebrities such as Miley Cyrus. This research proposal will aim to find the viewpoint of University students when shown images of teenage nudity in art and the media. This issue is an important research topic as opinions have varied in society about the impact and appropriateness of teenagers featuring in these public platforms and whether this is a cause of over-sexualisation. We will write a custom essay sample on Perception and/or Reception of the Naked Child and Teenage Body in Art and the Media or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The effect of this issue will rely on the individual opinions in society of the definition of art. The main people being affected by this issue are the teenage population who have access to any media forms and art. The artists, such as Bill Henson are also affected as they are accused of producing inappropriate art even though they are trying to portray youth. This topic interests a large percentage of the population including teenagers, parents, media viewers and media producers. To carry out this research a focus group will be held involving undergraduate Mass Communications and Media students from Murdoch University. The opinions, beliefs and attitudes will be gathered concerning the chosen topic to then be able to compile a research report based on the findings of the focus group. Literature Review: Child and adolescent nudity has taken commonplace in art throughout history, from Renaissance paintings and sculptures to religious masterpieces. As time has gone on and technology has advanced these depictions of child and teen nudity have changed, and are often frowned upon in today’s society; today photographs, artworks and media of teenagers and children naked are often challenged as being sexualized or pornographic and nudity has become a highly controversial area with regards to children. For centuries naked children have been depicted in religious painting and scenes in the forms of cherubs, which are usually naked, posed winged toddlers. In the 14th and 15th centuries these biblical children were not seen as ‘real’ children but as symbolic religious representations of children, and this distinction was very clear. In these depictions, presenting children nude was usually seen as presenting them in the form that God had made them and was done to highlight their purity. But with the development of realism and photography this line has now become blurred. Due to the realism of photography it has lead people to believe that it is ‘real’, and as a result there is confusion between iconic symbolic children, and the general child. Gittins 1998, 119) During the Italian Renaissance era nude boys were often featured in paintings, especially in those with biblical themes. However, centuries later many artists began to depict paintings of nude children that carried no religious reference or context. For instance, Henry Scott Tuke painted nude adolescent boys doing everyday activities and although these paintings were not overly erotic and showed no genitalia they were a step away from the traditional biblical naked children. Johnson 2005, 102-104) Just a century after Tuke started depicting nude children in everyday activities professional photographers presented photographic exhibitions and books of posed naked children and adolescents. When Bill Henson’s exhibition opened on the 22nd of May 2008 many articles were written expressing the controversy and public opinions of the featured child nudity. An article written by David L. Isaacs and Thomas G. Isaacs titled â€Å"Is child nudity in art ever pornographic† was published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. This article discusses the important debate on censorship, which followed Bill Henson’s exhibition. This debate between the two authors resulted in the view that censorship laws regarding the depiction of children in art are needed to stop the exploitation of children. Yet a strong belief was evident that censorship is not needed to protect the public from being corrupted by viewing pornographic material. The knowledge and opinions of a pediatrician enables a professional opinion, which reflects the concern for childrens wellbeing. The opinion of a Fine Arts Honours graduate provides the knowledge of what art is and what role it plays within society. The focus group planned will effectively explore University students views on censorship. This literature provides an interesting debate, which our focus group will aim to further with a sample of students to give a broader opinion than what is present in this journal article. The month following Bill Henson’s controversial exhibition, June 2008, an Australian Government Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts released a report titled Sexualisation of Children in the Contemporary Media. This Government document stated that the inappropriate sexualisation of children in Australia is an increasing concern. It acknowledged the complexity of defining clear boundaries and accepted that it is a significant cultural challenge. The research planned by our team will respond to the lack of research, which was acknowledge in the Government report, on the effect of child sexualisation in the Media by providing a current viewpoint of University students. University students will be able to express the viewpoints, which for ethical reasons cannot be acquired from minors. Since 2008 many photos of Miley Cyrus some intended and some not have surfaced on the Internet. Numerous articles of the Disney star who plays â€Å"Hanna Montanna† have appeared. In the June issue of Vanity Fair 2008 a photo of Miley topless, clutching a silk bed sheet to her chest, with only her bare back exposed featured. Factors of these photos lead to controversy, even though it was an artistic piece and she was predominately covered. The article titled â€Å"Miley Cyrus’ embarrassing photo shoot† written by Courtney Hazlett discusses how It didn’t take long for Miley Cyrus fans (and their parents) to become outraged over racy photos of the 15-year-old that appear in the June issue of Vanity Fair. â€Å" Miley has commented in the article produced by the MSN Entertainment that I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be artistic and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about. There has been an increase with teenagers taking part in these â€Å"artistic† photo shoots but is it really art? Many reviewers argue that this is not, and that the teenagers are being taken advantage of by their parents making these decisions for them. Also stating that later on in life these photos could have a bad effect them. Psychologists are saying that it may bring on the over sexualisation of teenagers, by not giving them the opportunity to go through their teenage years naturally and mature with age not acting older than they are with sexual expectations that they are not ready for. (American Psychological Association). With the availability of the internet other personal photos of Miley were released where she is showing her green bra and also her stomach is out as she is wearing a midriff laying on a boy does this have a link to the Vanity Fair shoot and is it a result of the medias pressure taking a toll on her personal life as her parents where not happy with the nude shot. In Disney’s release of its own statement about the Vanity Fair story, the Disney Channel, which broadcasts Cyruss series Hannah Montana, said: Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines. However in the Vanity Fair issue â€Å"Miley knows best† Miley comments that the pose was Annie Leibovitz’s idea. The topless but demure portrait accompanying this article could be seen as another baby step, toward a more mature profile. â€Å"I think it’s really artsy,† Cyrus says. â€Å"It wasn’t in a skanky wa y. And you can’t say no to Annie. She’s so cute. She gets this puppy-dog look and you’re like, O. K. † Leibowitz has chimed in, too, saying that it was never her intent to portray Cyrus in any negative light. â€Å"I’m sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted,† Leibovitz said in a statement released by Vanity Fair. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful. † (â€Å"Miley Cyrus’ embarrassing photo shoot† The Scoop 2008) Research Method: The research method of focus group interviewing has been assigned. This method entails qualitative research. The aim is to find out the opinions and attitudes of the interviewees, who are selected as a purposive sample of the target market. The focus group interviewees are lead with open-ended questions that will be asked through out the discussion. A focus group includes a role of a moderator and a researcher. The moderator conducts the focus group serving as discussion leader to the other members. The moderator is briefed by the researcher and provided with a moderators â€Å"discussion guide. † The role of the researcher involves many preparatory and other activities including, obtaining ethics and clearance of the project, finding suitable group members, they deal with all booking and hiring of the venues and moderator, they tape all audio/ visual recordings, analysis the data and prepare the summary report of findings. This process of interviewing and gathering research is a valuable way of collecting data, because it is a direct way of finding answers to specific questions, which may not be obtainable through other research methods. A structured interview is especially good when discussing controversial sensitive issues, such as the issue we are focusing on in our research question. From our group interview we are hoping to gain information and people’s views of teenage and child representation in art and the media today, and whether they think children are being sexualized or it is the natural and reasonable extension of art. Each person in our group focused on a specific area of our research question. Chelsea looked at the history of naked children and teens in art and the media. Millie focused on nudity and the sexualisation of children and teenagers in art today, using bill Henson as an example. Whilst Deanna looked at the sexualisation of teenagers in today’s media, focusing on the Miley Cyrus vogue photo shoot. Focus Group Draft Questions: Has society’s view on nudity drastically changed in the last century? Do you think one of the major reasons for these different views are the advances in technology eg mass communication, photography) Is society as a whole more sexualized than it was several centuries ago? Do you think Renaissance art was completely asexual as critics say it is, or do you think that perhaps even then there was a sexual element to the depiction of naked children? Is there any context in which you believe it is appropriate today to depict naked children? What do you define as being art? What do you define as being pornographic material? Showing a Bill Henson photograph of a young nude girl) In your personal reaction do you consider this photograph to be artistic or pornographic? And why? Do you believe parental consent should allow 12-13 year old to participate in nude photography? Do you believe that the children in these photographs will be affected by this experience in the future? Why or why not? Do you think that this photo of Miley is provocative or artistic? As Mi ley Cyrus is a child role model/ celebrity do you think it is a good idea for photos like this to be taking or do you think it sets a bad example for the younger children that admire her so much? When this photo shoot was taken Miley was 15 years of age do you think this photo is age appropriate for her? Do you think that the media has placed pressure on Miley to produce a photo like this at her age? When looking at this photo what age do you think Miley looks and what do you feel that the photo is portraying? References: American Psychological Association, Report of the APA Task Force. Sexualization of Girls, 2007 (accessed August 28, 2010) D, Isaacs, T, Isaacs. 2010. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. Is child nudity in art ever pornographic? Blackwell Publishing Inc. www. scopus. com. prospero. murdoch. edu. au (accessed August 28, 2010) Grittins, Diana. 1998. The Child in Question. London: Macmillan Press LTD Johnson, Geraldine A. 2005. Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts. Sexualisation of children in the contemporary media, Commonwealth of Australia 2008 published June 2008. (accessed August 28, 2010) Annotated Bibliography: American Psychological Association, Report of the APA Task Force. Sexualization of Girls, 2007 This report was written by a task force which was created in the response to journalists, child advocacy organisations, parents and psychologists who have argued that the sexualisation of girls is a broad issue in society and that it is an increasing problem which harms girls. This report gave an overview of psychological theory to assist in the understanding of the psychological harms of the over sexualisation of young girls and teenagers. It defines sexualisation and gives examples of it appearing in society. D, Isaacs, T, Isaacs. 2010. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. Is child nudity in art ever pornographic? Blackwell Publishing Inc. www. scopus. com. prospero. murdoch. edu. au This article written by David L. Isaacs and Thomas G. Isaacs titled â€Å"Is child nudity in art ever pornographic† was published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. This article discusses the important debate on censorship, which followed Bill Henson’s exhibition. This debate between the two authors resulted in the view that censorship laws regarding the depiction of children in art are needed to stop the exploitation of children. Yet a strong belief was evident that censorship is not needed to protect the public from being corrupted by viewing pornographic material. Grittins, Diana. 1998. The Child in Question. London: Macmillan Press LTD This Book Focuses on children and their place in the past and in today’s society. The book focuses on the innocence of children and how that innocence has changed over time. It also explores the rights that adults hold over children and other theories that society has of children. Johnson, Geraldine A. 2005. Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press This Book focuses on Renaissance art and the part it played in European art. It does focus on particular areas of Renaissance art such as the techniques used and how stories were told through the art. The book draws on many famous Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts. Sexualisation of children in the contemporary media, Commonwealth of Australia 2008 published June 2008. The Australian Government Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts developed this report, titled Sexualisation of Children in the Contemporary Media. The report acknowledged the issue of the sexualisation of children in the media and the complexities of defining clear boundaries. This report has enabled us to acquire a Government perspective on the issue. The research carried out in this report outlined professional opinions of psychologists, pediatricians as well as the viewpoint of Australian parents.

Major Idea of Teaching Mathematics

Major Idea of Teaching Mathematics Upon reading the framework, it is evident that the major idea of teaching mathematics in California public schools revolves around the development of a balanced instructional program that not only provides students with an enabling environment to become proficient in basic computational and procedural skills, but also to continuously develop conceptual understanding of the mathematical concepts and become proficient in problem solving.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Major Idea of Teaching Mathematics specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As indicated in the framework, teachers should aim to achieve a balance between these three concepts (proficiency in computational and procedural skills, attainment of conceptual understanding, and proficiency in solving new or perplexing problems) if they expect their students to be competitive in mathematics (California Department of Education, 2006). The concepts are interr elated; hence teachers must strive to come up with methodologies and strategies to deliver them to mathematics students according to the standards of a particular grade level. As indicated in the framework, â€Å"when students apply basic computational and procedural skills and understandings to solve new or perplexing problems, their basic skills are strengthened, the challenging problems they encounter can become routine, and their conceptual understanding deepens† (California Department of Education, 2006 p.5). Consequently, it is suggested that the major idea of teaching mathematics to students in California public schools entails connecting their skills, conceptual understanding, and problem solving capability to develop a network of mutually reinforcing components in the curriculum that are intrinsically aligned with the standards depending on grade level. Examples of Teaching Strategies From the framework, it is clear that no single strategy of instruction is the best or most appropriate in all contexts, and that teachers have a wide choice of instructional strategies including â€Å"direct instruction, investigation, classroom discussion and drill, small groups, individualized formats, and hands-on materials (California Department of Education, 2006 p.5). As one of the approaches to teaching, direct instruction is not only skills-oriented but the teaching practices it adopts are essentially teacher-directed.Advertising Looking for critical writing on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In teaching algebra and functions to grade six students, for example, a teacher can use small-group, face-to-face instruction to demonstrate to students how to solve linear equations and develop algebraic reasoning at each step of the process by breaking down the instructions into small units, sequencing them deliberately, and teaching them in an explicit manner. Although teachers can use t his strategy to ensure that Grade six students are able to use their computational skills and conceptual understanding to solve problems in algebra through explicit, guided instructions, the strategy nevertheless limits student’s creativity and active exploration. The other teaching strategy is investigation, whereby teachers play an active role in guiding students to identify a topic of interest, explore the current knowledge on the topic, frame the topic into manageable questions, gather appropriate information, analyze and synthesis the information, take action on the findings, and reflect on the outcomes found. This strategy could be used to teach geometry to grade six students as it does not only facilitate an explicit understanding of geometric concepts, including raising students’ levels of geometric thinking, but also motivates students by presenting mathematical topics in an enjoyable and interesting manner that challenges their intellectual development. Refle ction Overall, upon reflection, I have learnt that no single method of instruction is the best or most appropriate in all situations, it is important to balance the concepts of computational and procedural skills, conceptual understanding and problem solving capability when teaching mathematics, in mathematics instruction, new skills are developed almost exclusively on previously learned skills, methods of assessing students for mathematics comprehension should be context-specific. These learning outcomes can be implemented in real-life classroom situations by coming up with a well formulated framework that does not necessarily follow a linear order to ensure students benefit from the mathematics lessons taught in class, and also by proactively aligning instruction with assessment. Reference California Department of Education. (2009). Mathematics framework for California public schools: Kindergarten through grade twelve. Retrieved from https://www.cde.ca.gov/Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Major Idea of Teaching Mathematics specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More

Subprime Housing Loans Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Subprime Housing Loans - Case Study Example The data sources will come from six sets of data. The aim of the data is to construct a set of borrower characteristics, loan characteristics, property characteristics, lender characteristics and macroeconomic variables. The first data series is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2000 to 2007. The aim is to obtain individual loan level data (such as whether a loan is being accepted or rejected, loan amount, income, race and gender of the borrower, etc). The HMDA data is also used to derive measures of lender characteristics, the Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index of the Census tract and whether the lender is a bank. The second data set is the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) list of lenders that specialize in the subprime market to code each loan as being subprime or not. The thirda data set is the U.S. Census data to derive Census tract level demographic, property and borrower characteristics. The Census data is matched to HMDA by state, county and Census tract number. The fourth data set is from a major credit bureau for tract median FICO score (MEDFICO) and debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which are widely accepted borrower risk variables used by mortgage bankers and brokers in their lending decision. The credit bureau data is also matched to HMDA data by state, county and Census tract number. ... The first data series is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2000 to 2007. The aim is to obtain individual loan level data (such as whether a loan is being accepted or rejected, loan amount, income, race and gender of the borrower, etc). The HMDA data is also used to derive measures of lender characteristics, the Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index of the Census tract and whether the lender is a bank. The second data set is the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) list of lenders that specialize in the subprime market to code each loan as being subprime or not. The thirda data set is the U.S. Census data to derive Census tract level demographic, property and borrower characteristics. The Census data is matched to HMDA by state, county and Census tract number. The fourth data set is from a major credit bureau for tract median FICO score (MEDFICO) and debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which are widely accepted borrower risk variables used by mortgage bankers and brokers in their lending decision. The credit bureau data is also matched to HMDA data by state, county and Census tract number. Fifth, I match the House Price Index (HPI) data from the Office Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) to HMDA data by year and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). This data is used to construct neighborhood house price appreciation rate, which is used to calculate the loan-to-value ratio (LTV). The sixth data set is the macroeconomic data from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to control for macroeconomic risk.The methodology to be used is the single equation Probit regression.

My Prejudice Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My Prejudice Experience - Essay Example I have come to the United States from Indonesia to study and make a name for myself. Sadly, I am stereotyped by most of my American friends as a studious Asian who goes abroad to study. I do agree that I have the same hard working and professional attitude that most Asians have, and the process of learning interests me a lot. At the same time, I also believe in living the life to the fullest and hence, enjoy attending parties, love to take a night off every now and then, and let myself loose and have a good time. Hence, I feel isolated when some of my friends leave me out when indulging in fun activities. as they misunderstand me as a person who does not love having fun. Many times it has happened that I was not asked out by my friends as either they considered me to be too religious because of me following Christianity faith, or they thought that I am concerned about nothing but my academic work. Sadly, this stereotyped thinking suffocates me as I am quite a fun loving person and my inherent personality is that of an extrovert. Fearing prejudiced treatment, when I first came to the United States and started attending my university, I made friends only with Asian people, thinking that Americans would be too snooty or would not show acceptance due to my nationality. I was under the impression that American people were a little difficult to be friends with, as a popular culture had made my thinking biased. For example, I stereotyped Americans to be racist or having a discriminatory attitude against people belonging to other countries. Furthermore, I was also under the impression that most Americans were not too fond of Asians due to the fact that they were academically smarter, and hence, had more potential in education and more opportunities in a career in the U.S., than the Americans themselves would have. This led me to cut myself off from anyone who was not an Asian and as a result, I wound up making very few friends. This prejudice that I had towards America n people soon changed when I began to let them enter in my life.  

Journalists influence the news Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Journalists influence the news - Assignment Example â€Å"The production, presentation, and consumption of visual messages in all manner of media can be justifiably sliced in separate technological, historical, cultural and critical perspectives. The requirements for theory building at each stage are different† (Elliott & Lester, 2002). And while it is recognized that â€Å"Photography is the only ‘language’ understood in all parts of the world, and bridging all nations and cultures† (Helmut Gernsheim cited in Elliott & Lester, 2002), it is also acknowledged that â€Å"photographs supply information without having a language of their own. Photographs quote rather than translate from reality† (John Berger cited in Elliott & Lester, 2002). The difficulty arises from the variety of social, political and cultural approaches that can be taken in the interpretation of an image. Added to this is the greater ability of photographers and photojournalists to manipulate images in many different ways as a means o f achieving the image sought. In determining the ethics involved in the decisions made by photojournalists and their editors regarding whether or not to print a particular image, then, it is necessary to take into consideration the â€Å"intent of the image creator and the not-so-blank canvas of the image consumer† (Elliott & Lester, 2002) as these various approaches come into play. The question of ethics is often confused with other photographic considerations, such as aesthetics or etiquette. â€Å"A question that is truly ethical deserves a response that addresses the human cost† (Elliott & Lester, 2002). The use of a particular image that is likely to cause a great deal of pain, for example, must be justified not on the concept of its beauty or interest level – an aesthetic concern – but rather on whether or not the display of this image is necessary to present

Context Inference from Social Networks

Context Inference from Social Networks Context Inference from Social Networks: A Tie Strength Based Approach Sneha Kamal Reshmi.S Abstract— All online sharing systems gather data that reflects user’s behavior and their shared activities. Relationship degree between two users is varying continuously. Static friend list in the social network is unable to express it completely. Tie strength is used to quantitatively describe real social relations. It is based on lots of features derived from activities of a user’s in social network. We introduce a model to measure tie strength between users in a given context. Here a novel definition of tie strength is introduced which exploits the existence of multiple online social links between the individuals. The proposed system infer the context from user’s interaction using the applications of Natural language processing methods and clustering techniques. From this context the tie strength between users are found. Then evaluates and analysis the performance of this model. Keywords- Clustering, Natural Language Processing, Social Context, Social Network, Tie Strength I. Introduction A tie is formed between two persons it they are friends or they have interactive behaviors in social network. Strength of a tie represents the degree of relationship between two entities and it can be various. Tie strength in social network depends upon the exchange and transmission of information, and influence between social network users. The friend list of user is incompetent to reflect real social relation of users directly, because all friends are equally treated. Interactive activities such as comment make more sense in maintaining the relationship. So strong tie may have more interactions. Strong ties are peoples which are we really trusted. Although such trusted friendships can provide emotional and economic support. The majority of social media do not incorporate tie strength in the creation and management of relationships, and treat all users the same either friend or stranger. The first attempt to take into consideration is the social role of a friendship was done by Facebook and Google+ by the introduction of the circles. Users can use circles as a technique to organize their contacts, creating different groups for relatives, work colleagues, close friends and so on. But this group of contacts does not provide quantitative information about the real strength of the ties. The most common technique used to measure the tie strength is the closeness of relationship. Thus close friends have strong tie while others have weak ties. Numerous other methods of strengthens have also been proposed. This includes frequency of contacts and mutual acknowledgement of contacts. Other possible indicators of tie strength include extend of multiplicity with a tie, the duration of the contacts, the overlap of membership in an organization between the parties to a tie and the overlap of social circles. However, in our opinion these approaches have some shortcomings. Firstly, the intensity of conversations strongly depends from user to user, making it difficult to understand which of these conversations are dedicated to intimate relationships. Secondly, do not take into account that strong ties must be powered by a form of social grooming that is mainly based on geographical nearness and face-to-face contacts. Our contribution in this paper is assessing the tie strength between two friends on social network. Although distinguishing between strong and weak ties. For that we infer the thematic fields talked about by users with their contacts, is called the social contexts of a user. For this purpose we use the textual information such as photo descriptions, comments, post of users. With users permission we gather such information. NLP techniques are applied to gather such information and find most relevant information is called tag or word. A set of such a tag of a user is called the user’s personomy. The user’s social contexts come out after applying a clustering algorithm over this personomy and classifying the user’s contacts in these clusters. From this clusters find the users with more tie strength. II. Related Works The community can be extracted from social network based on the actions of users in [2]. This method extracts the users that are similar in actions, interests or tastes as a community. Initially a small community will be formed consists of two or more users. Seeing the actions performed by their friends may make users curious. Therefore, similar small communities can be extended to form a larger community. Compared to other method extracted nodes in the communities may not have the best density. In [3] introduce the Virtual Tie Strength (VTS)-scale and their scoring methods appear to provide a valid and reliable measure of tie strength in virtual communities. They developed a model that measures the tie-strength in virtual communities. The VTS-scale is able to distinguishing between two components of tie-strength associates and friendship. But, the content of each component needs more investigation. In [4] observe the communication patterns of millions of mobile phone users. That helps to concurrently study the local and the global structure of a society-wide communication network. Observe the coupling between interaction strengths and the network’s local structure. Then weak ties are removed. In [5] four factors are proposed which depends upon the strength of the tie. They are time closeness intensity and reciprocal service. They argued that degree of overlap between the two individuals friendship network varies depending on the tie strength between the users. Tie strength is depends on the diffusion of influence and information. Most of the network model deals implicitly with strong ties. III. Proposed System The model takes the advantage of users interactions in social networks. It infers the social contexts in which users are involved and which of their contacts belongs to that context. The proposed method consists of 4 modules. They are context data generation, affinity propagation algorithm, context based clustering, tie strength of users. And the output is a community with set of users. Figure 1. Proposed method A. Context Data Generation In this step obtain the interaction of a given user with all other users. In the case of facebook data of a particular user is obtained from the post of the users and comments given to the photos etc. Then apply Natural Language Processing (NLP) to this collected information. It provides a predefined model for sentence splitting, tokenizing and POS tagging. POS tag method in NLP is applied here. B. Tag Cloud Generation Initially from the interaction of users stop words such as ‘and’,’the’,’at’ etc. are removed. This will pass as an input to NLP. NLP will split the given text, using POS tagging. Which identifies each word as part-of-speech category such as Noun, Verb, etc. After keeping the noun and verb all other are removed. The resulting words will consider as a set of tags of a user whose interaction with others. The set of tag of u and v in a social interaction is denoted by T(lu|v), whose tag cloud is denoted by TC(lu|v). Figure 3: Tag Cloud of each user C. Similarity Measurement The main features of the algorithm are Tri-set calculation, similarity computation, seed construction and clustering.Tri set will consist of Cofeature Set (CFS), Unilateral Feature Set (UFS), and Significant Cofeature Set (SCS). Cofeature Set: Consider di and dj, be the two objects in a data set. Suppose that some features of di is also belong to dj. Therefore, construct a new subset consisting of these features and their values in dj. Unilateral Feature Set: Suppose that some features of di, does not belong to dj. Therefore, construct a new subset consisting of these features and their values in di. Significant Cofeature Set: Suppose that some features of di, also belong to the most significant features of dj. So, Therefore, construct a new subset consisting of these features and their values as the most significant features in dj. From this we can calculate the similarity between two points as (1) Where nm ,nq and np are the values of the features with in the set CFS SCS and UFS respectively. And |CFS|,|UFS|, and |SCS|, indicate the number of tuples in CFS(i,j), UFS(i,j), and SCS(i,j)respectively. The set CFS is result of the intersection of the objects. UFS consists of unshared Features. SCS takes into account the most significant features. D. Inferring the Social Context Seed Affinity Propagation Algorithm: Seed Affinity Propagation (SAP) is a semi supervised clustering. The aim is from the initial labeled object we cluster the large number of unlabeled object efficiently. To guarantee accuracy and avoid a blind search for seeds we use Mean Features Selection method. The similarities between tags are passed as input to the algorithm in the form of matrix. The different steps involved in algorithm are: Let D be a data set which consists of set of features of each object and the value associated with these object. Construct the seed from a few labeled object using Mean feature selection Method. Calculate the tri set between the object i and j(CFS(i,j), UFS(i,j), and SCS(i,j)). Similarity calculation between the object using the equation (1). Self similarity computation: Calculate s (l,l) is the mean value of the similarities. These values are referred to as preferences. Initialize the matrixes of messages Message Matrix Computation: Compute availability matrix a (i,j) and responsibility matrix r(i,j). Exemplar selection: By adding the availability and responsibility matrixes we find the exemplar for each object i is the maximum of r(i,j) + a (i,j). Update the matrix using Rt+1 = (1-)Rt+ Rt-1 (2) At+1 = (1-)At+ At-1 (3) Where â‚ ¬ [0,1] is a damping factor. R and A represent the responsibility matrix and availability matrix respectively, and t indicate the iteration times. Iterating steps 6,7and 8 until the exemplar selection result stays constant for a number of iterations. Here the input to the algorithm is is the similarity between the tags mentioned above. It find a number of clusters, but we does not consider all the clusters. We choose K number of clusters base on a threshold value. 2) Other users to social context: After finding the context of a user, we find the other users with the same context. For finding the similarity compare the tag cloud formed during the interaction of u and v (TC(Iu|v)), with the tags in the context of user u TC(cti). ctu|v= (4) Similarity is calculated by using cosine similarity method. Two inputs will consider as vectors. And calculate the angle between these vectors. So the output will be a cluster consists of several users. From this cluster also we find users with strong tie strength. Then the ads will post to this the wall of users who have strong tie strength. Figure 2. Inferring Social context E. Tie Strength Measurements Cluster consists of set of users. They are represented as a graph where nodes are users and edges represent the link between the users. From the given graph we find the tie strength between the users by using similarity and node interaction methods. Output is a weighted graph, where weight in the edge represents the value of tie strength between the two users. Where w represents the intensity of interaction between the nodes, so here we pass the tag weight between the users as w. Td is the set of neighbors of the nodes. If the value of Str(u,v) is greater, indicate that the tie strength between u and v is strong. Figure.5: Graphical Representation of Tie Strength between Users IV. Applications Find the community based on tie strength, so the users in the community may have similar interest. For providing publicity when the ad is posted in the user’s wall, its visibility will be limited to those of his contacts that share a strong tie with the user. So the companies can target the potential customers. V. Conclusion The model takes the advantage of tie strength between the users in the social network to provide publicity to users. Here we applied NLP and data mining techniques. Interaction of users in social network is analyzed using NLP and find Tag cloud of each user. Then calculated the semantic relationship between each tag in the tag cloud. Then apply affinity propagation and obtain the social context of each user. Then associate users in his contacts to the clusters. From this cluster we find the users with strong tie strength. The method will help the companies to find their potential users. Based on the interest of users we can post the corresponding ads to their walls. References Luca Pappalardo, Giulio Rossetti and Dino Pedreschi. â€Å" How well do we know each other? detecting tie strength in multidimensional social networks,† 2012 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining. Seyed Ahmad Moosavi and MehrdadJalali. â€Å"Community Detection in Online Social Networks Using Actions of Users,†978-1-4799-3351-8/14/$31.00  ©2014 IEEE. Andrea Petrà ³czi and Tamà ¡s Nepusz. â€Å"Measuring tie-strength in virtual social networks† http://www.insna.org/Connections-Web/Volume27-2/5.Petrà ³czi.pdf. J.P. Onnela and J. Sarama ¨ ki. â€Å"Structure and tie srength in mobile communication network, † PNAS published online April 24, 2007. Mark S. Granovetter â€Å" The Strength of Weak Ties,† American Journal of Sociology Volume 78 Issue6 (May 1973) 1360-1380. Yaxi He, Chunhong Zhang and Yang Ji. â€Å" Principle Features for Tie Strength Estimation in Micro-blog Social Network † 2012 IEEE 12th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology. Renchu Guan and Xiaohu Shi,† Text Clustering with Seeds Affinity Propagation,† IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, Vol. 23, NO. 4, April 2011. T. Pedersen, S. Patwardhan, and J. Michelizzi â€Å"Wordnet:: Similarity: Measuring the relatedness of concepts,† .Demonstration Papers atHLT-NAACL 2004, 2004, pp. 38–41, Association for Computational Linguistics. FakhriHasanzadeh and MehrdadJalali, â€Å"Detecting Communities in Social Networks by Techniques of Clustering and Analysis of Communications,†978-1-4799-3351-8/14/$31.00  ©2014 IEEE. B. Frey and D. Dueck,†Clustering by passing messages between datapoints,† Science, vol. 315, no. 5814, pp. 972–976, 2007. Sandra Servia-Rodrà ­guez, Ana Fernà ¡ndez-Vilas, Rebeca P. Dà ­az-Redondo, and Josà © J. Pazos-Arias. â€Å"Inferring Contexts From Facebook Interactions: A Social Publicity Scenario,† IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MULTIMEDIA, VOL. 15, NO. 6, OCTOBER 2013.

My life :: essays research papers

Secrets (Free writing) There are a few things in the back of anybody’s memory that have been repressed from childhood, and just emerge onto our consciousness once in the blue moon by accident or triggered by a random event. I have a very vivid memory of my childhood, associated with a particular smell, related to a family secret. I was about 8 years old, the youngest and only boy in a family of four siblings. Our house was always crowded with female cousins and aunts staying over, gossiping around, from which I was kept out of â€Å"Girls talk†. My closest friend was my youngest sister, who was just 2 years older than I. She kept her distance from me in public, because in those days girls and boys where meant to play and stay away from each other. Just in the intimacy of the family’s common bedroom she was tender and comprehensive; she taught me how to pray at night; how to make my bed; how to brush my teeth and to how stay away from the night spittoons. Anytime I felt in trouble, I just looked up to her, and she would tell me silently with a wink or any facial gesture what to do. Leonidas De Los santos 2 One night, I was awakened in the middle of the dark by guardian-sister. There were screams and rumble in the immense density of the night. I was scared and concerned, curious rather than startled. My guardian-sister put her hand on my mouth, and I felt her warm morning breath telling me to hush. For a moment, a minute or so, we stood motionless next to the bed, trying to X Ray the darkness, and to radar with our ears the faintest sound. Then I heard it, a flush of air escaping furiously someone’s nostrils like a bull before it charges, a humming of a cry mufflered, like somebody screaming under tons of dirt. I was reviewing with mental flashes scary bed time stories I ever heard, trying to match the sounds I was hearing with the mythological beasts I had imagined in my mind. Then I heard a splash, and a urine-like liquid soaked my feet. It was warm and sticky; it had a scent like nothing I had ever perceived in my life. It smelled, like, like jackfruit, Clorox and soap togethe r. I do not remember quite right how that night ended, I just remember that smell. My life :: essays research papers Secrets (Free writing) There are a few things in the back of anybody’s memory that have been repressed from childhood, and just emerge onto our consciousness once in the blue moon by accident or triggered by a random event. I have a very vivid memory of my childhood, associated with a particular smell, related to a family secret. I was about 8 years old, the youngest and only boy in a family of four siblings. Our house was always crowded with female cousins and aunts staying over, gossiping around, from which I was kept out of â€Å"Girls talk†. My closest friend was my youngest sister, who was just 2 years older than I. She kept her distance from me in public, because in those days girls and boys where meant to play and stay away from each other. Just in the intimacy of the family’s common bedroom she was tender and comprehensive; she taught me how to pray at night; how to make my bed; how to brush my teeth and to how stay away from the night spittoons. Anytime I felt in trouble, I just looked up to her, and she would tell me silently with a wink or any facial gesture what to do. Leonidas De Los santos 2 One night, I was awakened in the middle of the dark by guardian-sister. There were screams and rumble in the immense density of the night. I was scared and concerned, curious rather than startled. My guardian-sister put her hand on my mouth, and I felt her warm morning breath telling me to hush. For a moment, a minute or so, we stood motionless next to the bed, trying to X Ray the darkness, and to radar with our ears the faintest sound. Then I heard it, a flush of air escaping furiously someone’s nostrils like a bull before it charges, a humming of a cry mufflered, like somebody screaming under tons of dirt. I was reviewing with mental flashes scary bed time stories I ever heard, trying to match the sounds I was hearing with the mythological beasts I had imagined in my mind. Then I heard a splash, and a urine-like liquid soaked my feet. It was warm and sticky; it had a scent like nothing I had ever perceived in my life. It smelled, like, like jackfruit, Clorox and soap togethe r. I do not remember quite right how that night ended, I just remember that smell.

Company overview

British petroleum (BP) is one of the largest energy companies dealing in fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petroleum products. The company’s international headquarters is in London. The company has operations in more than 100 countries and employs over 96,000 people. The company has products under the BP, Castrol, Arco, am/pm, and Wild Bean Cafe brand (BPplc, About Bp, 2009). The company operates under two major business segments; exploration and production, refining and marketing and BP alternative energy.The company basically finds, extract, move oil and gas. The company also makes fuels and products, sells fuels and products as well as generating low carbon energy in a responsible way. The company operates in six continents; South America, North America, Europe, Australasia, Asia and Africa (Vault. com, 2009). BP is also well known for its innovative technology which aims at providing energy to meet the customers demand through efficien t products. Investing in low carbon energy is also another option that the company is exploring (BPplc, About Bp, 2009). Strategic auditThe strategic audit of a corporation is an eight step process that generally encompasses a holistic analysis of the company. The basic aim in strategic audit is to establish the current position which will help the company chart the way forward. A strategic audit helps the company to formulate strategies and select the best strategic alternative(s) for implementation. The first step is the analysis of the current situation. This involves the audit of the current performance and strategic posture. Current performance is evaluated in terms of profitability, market share, and return on investment.Strategic posture looks at the mission, objectives, strategies and policies (BPplc, 2009 Strategy presentation, 2009). The second step is a look at the corporate governance. This means analysis of the board of directors and top management in terms of their str ucture, names and contribution to the company Scanning the external environment for opportunities and threats is the next step of a strategic audit. Under this stage, the company looks at the societal environment, task environment and finally listing all the above factors.The next step is the analysis of the internal environment i. e. strengths and weaknesses. Here, the corporate structure, culture, resources (marketing, finance, research and development, operations and logistics, human resource management and information systems) is looked into. A summary of these factors is then prepared (BPplc, 2009 Strategy presentation, 2009). After looking at the external and internal environments, the company then analyses its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).These are then linked to the company’s mission and objectives to establish any relevance. The next step of the strategic audit is the analysis of the strategic alternatives in order to select the best strate gy (ies) to be recommended. The recommendation should be justified by looking at the potential, changes and impacts of the strategy. After making the recommendations, the next step is the implementation of the proposed strategy (ies). The implementation will include assigning duties on who is to develop these strategies. The financial aspect and operating procedures should be analyzed.The last step of the strategic audit is the evaluation and control. Evaluation and control involves a look at the current information system i. e. whether it can provide sufficient feedback and whether there are enough controls (BPplc, 2009 Strategy presentation, 2009). Strategic Alternatives In formulating the best strategic alternatives, the company has to consider the economic, socio-cultural, political-legal, technological and financial strengths and challenges facing the company. Economic environment This involves looking at the economic environment.The company operates in an industry that has oth er large companies e. g. Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Total and other smaller companies. All these companies have the resources and technical ability to compete at the same level as BP Plc. This is why the company has focused on cost reduction through measures like staff reduction and efficient production. The company has also focused on alternative energy e. g. solar and wind. This is as a result of the challenging operating environment where there has been a growing shift to green energy that has minimal pollution.In an industry faced with rising production costs, the company has been on track by focusing on means and ways of reducing their costs. The focus has been on reducing the number of staff and reducing the number of senior positions in the company by 20%. This strategy has borne fruit with the flattening of the cost curve of the company while those of the competitors keep on rising. The company’s focus on new technologies has resulted into improved production capaci ty. In fact the overall production trend for all the major companies has been declining. BP Plc.has defied this trend by increasing its production in the year 2007-2008. The technology used by the company includes Advanced Gas Injection and Water flood technologies that have enabled the company to push the limits of the reservoirs. The drop in oil prices means declining revenues. In order to increase revenues, the company has focused on reducing the performance gap by restoring revenues in areas like Toledo, improving supply optimization in petrochemical and marketing. The company area of focus for petrochemicals is Asia where there is rising demand. The company has also established value chains for its fuel production.Value chains are those activities that create value from the supply to the final delivery to the consumer. This has been achieved through integrated supply and trading which has lead to more revenues. In a bid to increase its oil reserves, the company has also partner ed with TNK of Russia. The partnership has resulted in 30% increase in production. Socio-cultural The company has tried to endear itself to the community in which it operates. BP achieves this through training and employing local staff at all levels. The aim here is to be a local company by creating partnerships with the local community.BP strategic aim is to reduce the levels of resistance to its operations by avoiding cultural conflicts as well as social effects. The company has entered into partnerships with the local community in terms of education, encouraging enterprise, fostering good governance, partnership in public health, access to energy, giving and volunteering, safeguarding human rights, as well as development through community case studies. All these activities are targeted at enhancing and fostering the relationship between the company and all the community in which it operates thus reducing conflicts between the community and the company.Political-legal Some of the challenges that the company could face are the political/ legal. This is because the company has operations in many countries that may be subject to political instability. To mitigate this, the company has formed partnerships with local companies and thus reduces resistance towards the company consequently the company is able to increase its operations and revenues. Rigid legal regimes concerning the operations of foreign companies may negatively impact the operations of the company. The company has reduced this by engaging in partnerships with local companies.Taxation and licensing may vary from country to country. This may have negative impacts on the company’s operations. Exploration and production rights may not be granted to the company. BP has overcome this challenge by partnering with the governments of respective countries through agreements. Technological In a bid to improve its operations and increase productivity, the company has adopted innovative technologies. So me of these technologies include the Bright water which uses new inter-well polymer treatment which ultimately improves water flood Recovery.The Company has focused on technology to come up with innovative approaches that can increase production as well as solve energy challenges Financial information BP plc has been able to grow its net income by 39% to $26. 2 billion which is the highest growth rate registered by major energy companies. Cash flow from operations also grew 54% to $ 38. 1 billion on a year on year percentage basis. The company was also the only super major to register growth in reported volumes in new reserves. The company registered a growth of 1% on year on year percentage basis. Apart from operations, the company utilizes debt to finance its activities.The debt is at the rate of 20-30%. All these financial data indicates that the company is focused on growth by efficiently using its cash resources to generate more sales and improve on the shareholders wealth by e ngaging in share buy backs. Recommended strategy Based on the analysis of all the above factors, some of the available strategies are; – Cost reduction strategies – Alternative energy by diversification – Focus on growing markets growth – Creating value on existing products – Partnership to grow – Technology leadership – Continuous improvement These strategies can be broadly classified into two directional i.e. growth and retrenchment strategies. The company can utilize the growth strategies in its upstream segment (exploration and production) and retrenchment strategies on its down stream business (refining, convenience, refining) (Wheelen, 2006) Implementation of the strategy Strategy implementation involves all the activities and choices that are required for the execution of a strategy. The implementation process basically deciding who is to carry out the plan what must be done and how are the selected people selected to carry out the strategic plan going to do it (Wheelen, 2006).These strategies are normally executed by various heads of business segments subordinated by other employees within the business segments. This has been done through budget allocations, programs that indicate the time frame in which the various strategies need to be implemented and the use of procedures e. g. the Operating Management System that covers employee capabilities to risk assessment. Some of the programs used by the company are those of closing the performance gap which runs from 2008 to 2011, and the reduction of the number of employees in refining and marketing from mid 2007 to the end of 2009 by 3,500.After deciding on who and what must be done, the company must decide on how the strategy is going to be implemented. How a strategy is to be implemented might involve developing new organizational structure. For BP plc, to implement some of its strategies, the company has decided to eliminate certain senior and junior posi tions. Evaluation and control This is the process by which a company can monitor its corporate activities and performance results in order to compare the actual performance with the desired performance. Evaluation and control provides a feedback mechanism where corrective measures can be taken where necessary (Wheelen, 2006)Evaluation and control can be summarized into the following 5 steps – Determine what to measure – Establish standards of performance – Measure actual performance – Compare actual performance with the standards – Take corrective action The company has set out plans to reduce costs and improve on efficiency on its operations. The company wants to grow its upstream business (exploration and production) while at the same time turning around its downstream business. Upstream business growth is measured by growth in reserves, increased replacement percentage, and getting more out of reservoirs.Downstream business is to be improved thr ough cost reduction by restructuring the company’s operations e. g. by downsizing and recapitalizations Improved bottom-line, high reserve replacement percentages, efficient operations, growth in reserves are some of the standards of performance that the company uses to gauge performance. Actual performance is measured at specified times e. g. for BP plc, restoring revenues from refining performance, improved supply optimization and margin capture in petrochemical and marketing has a time frame of 2008-2011The comparison of actual performance against standard performance has to be done in order to establish the current position for example in 2008; the production grew 1. 5% while the replacement reserve was 136% which was more than the minimum 100% replacement. If the actual performance does not match the expected results, then corrective action needs to be taken. An example is the restoration of capacities in Texas City so as to boost refining and consequently revenues. Refe rences BPplc. (2009, March 3rd). 2009 Strategy presentation. Retrieved April 15th, 2009, from Bp. com: http://www. bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/STAGING/global_assets/downloads/I/IC_bp_strategy_presentation_march_2009_script. pdf BPplc. (2009, March 3rd). About Bp. Retrieved April 15th, 2009, from Bp. com: http://www. bp. com/marketingsection. do? categoryId=2&contentId=7013628 Vault. com. (2009, April 14th). Indusrty Overview. Oil and Gas. Retrieved April 15th, 2009, from Vault. com: http://www. vault. com/nr/main_article_detail. jsp? article_id=22843159&cat_id=0&ht_type=7. Wheelen, J. D. (2006). Essentials of Strategic Mnagement. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. (BPplc, 2009 Strategy presentation, 2009)

Love Themes in Romeo and Juliet

Love Themes in 'Romeo and Juliet' Romeo and Juliet has become forever associated with love. The play has become an iconic story of love and passion, and the name â€Å"Romeo† is still used to describe young lovers. Shakespeare’s treatment of love in the play is complex and multifaceted. He uses love in its many guises to thread together the key relationships in the play. Fickle Love Some characters fall in and out of love very quickly in Romeo and Juliet. For example, Romeo is in love with Rosaline at the start of the play, which is presented as an immature infatuation. Today, we might use the term â€Å"puppy love† to describe this. Romeo’s love for Rosaline is shallow, and nobody really believes that it will last, including Friar Laurence: Romeo. Thou chidst me oft for loving Rosaline.Friar Laurence. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. Similarly, Paris’ love for Juliet is borne out of tradition, not passion. He has identified her as a good candidate for a wife and approaches her father to arrange the marriage. Although this was the tradition at the time, it also says something about Paris’ staid attitude towards love. He even admits to Friar Laurence that in his haste to rush the wedding through he hasn’t discussed it with his bride-to-be: Friar Laurence. On Thursday, sir? the time is very short.Paris. My father Capulet will have it so;And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.Friar Laurence. You say you do not know the ladys mind:Uneven is the course, I like it not.Paris. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalts death,And therefore have I little talked of love; Romantic Love Our classic idea of romantic love is embodied in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare presents this as a force of nature, so strong that it transcends societal conventions. This idea is established in the play’s prologue with the line â€Å"a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.† Perhaps Romeo and Juliets love is fate - there love is given cosmic significance which can, therefore, overturn the social boundaries of â€Å"fair Verona.† Their love is disallowed by the Capulet and Montague households, and Juliet is to marry Paris – Yet, they inevitably find themselves drawn together. Other Types of Love Many of the friendships in the play are as sincere as Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another. The close relationships between Juliet and her Nurse, and between Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio are meaningful and heartfelt. They care deeply for another and protect each others honor – this ultimately costs Mercutio his life. This platonic love is offset by the sexual innuendos made by some characters – particularly Juliet’s Nurse and Mercutio. Their view of love is earthy and purely sexual, creating an effective contrast with Romeo and Juliet’s romanticism.

Explain succinctly how the musical language of the Concerto essays

Explain succinctly how the musical language of the Concerto essays Bartk was born in Hungary in 1881. He was a student of Liszt and Wagner, and influenced by Brahms. He became interested in Folk music during his younger years, and set out on a long expedition of collecting folk songs from the sub cultures of many countries. He did this so he could understand the music and how it arose and how it is transmitted. Modern Hungarian folk music research can be said to have commenced when Kodaly and Bartk set out on their first collecting trips in 1905 and 1906 respectively. From the outset they worked concertedly and systematically. They made a geographical division between them of the territories to cover. Bartk soon noticed that songs usually known as folk songs werent infact true folk, and that much more genuine folk music could be found among the peasantry. He began collecting folk music around 1905 and his collection expanded out to Eastern Europe. Bartk wanted to create modern music that equalled the modern west, so that this were better attitude could be overcome. The Concerto for Orchestra was completed in the autumn of 1943 and has a total of five movements indicating Bartks like of symmetry. The first and forth movements contain specific passages that are very prominent of folk tunes. Both the Harmonic and Melodic elements of the concerto represent a distillation of Bartks maturest style; the tendency to-ward more strongly affirmed tonality, lucid textures, plastic rhythms, is here intensified. But at the same time earlier characteristics become prominent. The parlando rubato of the introductory section as well as the intervallic structure of its melodies is firmly rooted in Hungarian Peasant music. In the opening movement, Bartk begins with a melody theme played by the cellos and basses. This begins at bar 1, ends at bar 6, and is repeated many ti ...

Critically Assess the Proposition that Illegal Downloading is Essay

Critically Assess the Proposition that Illegal Downloading is Destroying the Music Industry - Essay Example Copyright is an important factor in the discussion of the impact of illegal downloads on the music industry. Without copyright, there would be no claim upon which to determine if sharing files is illegal. Marshall (2005, p. 39) writes that one of the first fundamental changes in the relationship of music to commodity occurred when the UK Copyright Act of 1814 when copyright began to be valid throughout the life of the author of a work. The rippling effect was to add the author as part of the value of the work. In the case of illegal downloads, it can be argued that value is being shifted once more into the public ownership of the works and away from the authors of the works. When music becomes more nameless as it is not acknowledge through monetary payment, it can be said that the music is taken from the authors and placed in the hands of masses. Navigating digital download technologies means redefining the nature of music ownership (May 2002, p. 119). It is not clear, however, wheth er or not this will create damage to the music industry to diminish its existence or if it will mean reconfiguring the process of music commodification. Current models are not working and future models have yet to be revealed. It is also relevant to the process to discuss the influence of YouTube on the digital download controversy. On the YouTube site people can search for almost any song they wish to listen to and get the audio content as well as some form of visual content. The files can be shared through other outlets such as Facebook. The issue of copyright has emerged for the site as much of the content has not been purchased and it is not being spread through legal terms (Hilderbrand 2007, p. 48). Often items are deleted over the copyright issue. Other artists allow the use of... This essay approves that scientific discovery leads to consequences that are often unpredictable when put into public use. The changes in social construction are affected by the instrumentalizing of new technologies. The capacity to record the voice and then to hear it outside of a live performance changed the face of human experience. The capacity to disseminate music in a widely diverse number of ways for content and listening has further changed the nature of music as it affects the human condition. the nature of music creation has turned to digitalization, thus placing into context a whole new format for creation and consuming music. Technology has influenced the construction and consumption of music. As music has changed, it should be expected that the consumption of music would change. This report makes a conclusion that the music industry is in jeopardy of being destroyed in its current incarnation, but this will mean that some other format will emerge. The importance of music in culture has been far too deeply established to be completely eradicated by the freedom to download content through file sharing. Where corporate influence has been strong in the development of taste and cultural music appreciations before the internet, listeners now have access to work that would never have been in the public before the wide distribution capacities of the internet. The fear that the music industry more likely has is not the losses incurred by a lack of recording sales, but that they are no longer in control of their consumers, taste and influence in the hands of anyone who can create music, upload a file, and share it with the world.

The Discourse of a learner-centered classroom Essay

The Discourse of a learner-centered classroom - Essay Example CLT was initiated in the 1970's and reflected a trend that dismissed theories which focused on rote learning and the teaching of discrete points of grammar within a decontextualised environment. The CLT approach instead oriented toward meaningful communication as an interactive process, and this approach has been emphasised for inclusion within ELT course-books. This paper will critically review the manner in which reading and writing skills are presented in the ELT course-book Fast Track, Book 5 (Teacher' Book) (EF Education, 2001). Firstly a summary of the content of Fast Track will be presented. Secondly, reading and writing content will be evaluated with regard to group activities, culture, and meaningful communication. Finally, a conclusion shall synthesise the main arguments of the paper. The conclusion will also demonstrate how Fast Track fails to meet the requirements to provide comprehensive and progressive CLT learning experiences for students of English as a second language. The ELT course-book Fast Track, Book 5 (Teacher' Book) is a 195 page soft covered text. The book is divided into 7 Units; Getting to Know You, Going Places; Friendship; The Media; Men and Women; Thinking Outside the Box; and Working World. Included with the text is a Tape for "Listening Exercises," ant an Appendix section provides "Tape Transcripts." Skill focus icons are used for each Exercise; An "Open Mouth" represents exercises that focus on speaking skills An "Open Book" stands for exercises that develop reading comprehension skills and vocabulary. An "Ear" symbolises exercises to develop listening comprehension skills. An "A+B+C+" icon stands for exercises that build vocabulary around a specific lexical group. A "Verb Subject" symbol represents exercises that focus on a grammatical point. A "Pen" stands for exercises that develop writing skills. A "Brain" symbolises exercises that develop learning skills and strategies. "Reading and Writing Exercises" are presented within each Unit. The Teacher is trained using Teachers Notes in the 1" margin of each page. For each Unit Teachers Notes, there is a brief paragraph of about 33 words, to describe the Unit and the Unit goals to the Teacher. With regard to reading and writing skills for the students, the Teacher's Notes provide details about topics such as the point of the reading exercises, as well as about grammar, verbs, adjectives, and present perfect tense. A Unit Summary is provided at the end of each Unit, to explain grammar used in the exercises, to provide points on using articles, or to provide solutions to exercises with puzzles. The Teacher's text has the answers provided for each exercise in orange font. Culture & Reading and Writing Skills The learning requirements of English as a second language students is of critical necessity for students who intend to live, be educated, socialise and work in English speaking countries. Language skills affect learning ability, and subsequently the student's concept of themselves, their formation of interpersonal relationships, and their ability to