Psychological Approach on Black Swan Essays - Psychiatry

Psychological Approach on Black Swan October 19, 2017 For this paper we were asked to watch a movie and look at it from a psychological stand point. The movie Black Swan could be classified as a psychological thriller featuring a ballerina by the name of Nina Sayers. Nina works for a prestigious New York City ballet company, as one of their many young dancers who have the dream of becoming a prima donna. The ballet company decides to open the new season "Swan Lake" by Pyotr Ilyich Teahikovsky. Though Nina is very talented, she is also very reserved. This leaves the other's in the company to call her a "shy, frigid little girl." And when s he gets the leading roll it requires her to be both the black and white swan. While her reserved, child-like personality makes it very easy almost perfect for her to perform the side of the white swan. It also makes it very troubling for her to get into the character of the black swan. The black swan's character was seductive, and this made it very hard for Nina to get into character during this part. The film shows her slow fall into the pressures of the role and how they weigh her down. During the film you see Nina's madness progress. She ends up showing many differ symptoms of schizophrenia. This is a psychotic disorder where the individual suffering loses touch with reality and sometimes has trouble separating the two. The DSM and our books states the criteria for schizophrenia are: having at least two or more of the symptoms of the disorder, hallucinations and delusions, experiencing significant impairment in the ability to work or to perform everyday tasks, and they must show these symptoms for at least six months. Nina's show signs of hallucinations and delusions very often, one seen shows her in the bath tub and while she goes under water and appears to be releasing the stress from the day she opens her eyes under water and a woman is over her in the bathtub and the water showing traces of blood. In reality she was harming herself by scratching her back to the point of bleeding. Nina could be said to have paranoid schizophrenia, this is characteri zed by delusions and hallucinations according to our books and the DSM. There is no known cause for schizophrenia there are things that factor in that put you at risk of developing it. Stressful circumstances can be a cause of this. As the film shows Nina is under a lot of stress trying to keep and maintain the roll of both the black and white swan. The pressures she faces at work, home, and amongst the others in the company puts her in a more vulnerable state to these symptoms. Though Nina may have shown signs of paranoid schizophrenia, notably having may delusions and hallucinations that seemed to have gotten worse as the film went on. Her first psychotic episode didn't appear until Lily, another girl from the company, showed up at Nina's house to apologize for telling the director that she was crying and upset, and he needed to take it easier on her. While Lily may have had the good intensions on going over to Nina's, it ended up being a night of partying and drugs given by Lily. Nina has hallucinations in which she sleeps with Lily, but the next day when Nina confronts Lily thinking they has slept together she was shocked to find out that she did not sleep with Lily but with a man that Lily had left her with. This only furthered the delusions involving Lily, she later states that Lily is out to harm her and wants to steal the lead role from her. Nina then starts to see her face on Lily and others around her. Nina's second major psychotic epi sode happens during opening night when she finds Lily in her dressing room, after the first act of the white swan did not go as planned. Lily is dressed as the black swan and is claiming that she wants to take over performance. This ends up Nina and Lily having a violent show down that resulted

Free Essays on A Comparison Of Animal Farm And The Russian Revolution

George Orwell’s controversial novel â€Å"Animal Farm† has often been thought of as Orwell’s opinions, or interpretations of historical events that happened around the time it was written. The historical event that it is most often compared to is the Russian Revolution. â€Å"Animal Farm† and the Russian Revolution have many similarities and ideas. The characters, settings, and the plots are close if not exactly the same. In addition â€Å"Animal Farm† is a satire and allegory of the Russian Revolution , and it seems that George Orwell meant for it to be that way. Karl Marx was a German scholar who lived in the nineteenth century, he was an idealist who spent most of his life studying and writing about history and economics. Marx wrote books that stated that the only way to establish justice was for the workers to overthrow the capitalists by means of violent revolution. He urged workers around the world to revolt against their rulers. â€Å"Workers of the world unite† he wrote. â€Å"You have nothing to lose but your chains†. During the Russian Revolution Marx’s ideas were used by a man named Lenin who had overthrown Russia's irresponsible leader â€Å" Nicholas the Second† Lenin had better ways to keep Russia alive and happy for the workers of Russia had been living in poverty for quite a few years. Later in the Revolution the noble Lenin was also over thrown by one of his communist comrades Joseph Stalin. Stalin was a quieter simpler sort of man and while he was in rule the communist party took many privileges. A lso Stalin used many of Lenin’s ideas that he had earlier opposed. It seemed to be most important to Stalin that he stay in power and I order to do this he used many brutal tactics. Chief among his creations were highly effective political weapons such as an effective propaganda spreading machine that more and more promoted that Stalin was a nearly god like creature, and also he had a secret police force which kept the ... Free Essays on A Comparison Of Animal Farm And The Russian Revolution Free Essays on A Comparison Of Animal Farm And The Russian Revolution George Orwell’s controversial novel â€Å"Animal Farm† has often been thought of as Orwell’s opinions, or interpretations of historical events that happened around the time it was written. The historical event that it is most often compared to is the Russian Revolution. â€Å"Animal Farm† and the Russian Revolution have many similarities and ideas. The characters, settings, and the plots are close if not exactly the same. In addition â€Å"Animal Farm† is a satire and allegory of the Russian Revolution , and it seems that George Orwell meant for it to be that way. Karl Marx was a German scholar who lived in the nineteenth century, he was an idealist who spent most of his life studying and writing about history and economics. Marx wrote books that stated that the only way to establish justice was for the workers to overthrow the capitalists by means of violent revolution. He urged workers around the world to revolt against their rulers. â€Å"Workers of the world unite† he wrote. â€Å"You have nothing to lose but your chains†. During the Russian Revolution Marx’s ideas were used by a man named Lenin who had overthrown Russia's irresponsible leader â€Å" Nicholas the Second† Lenin had better ways to keep Russia alive and happy for the workers of Russia had been living in poverty for quite a few years. Later in the Revolution the noble Lenin was also over thrown by one of his communist comrades Joseph Stalin. Stalin was a quieter simpler sort of man and while he was in rule the communist party took many privileges. A lso Stalin used many of Lenin’s ideas that he had earlier opposed. It seemed to be most important to Stalin that he stay in power and I order to do this he used many brutal tactics. Chief among his creations were highly effective political weapons such as an effective propaganda spreading machine that more and more promoted that Stalin was a nearly god like creature, and also he had a secret police force which kept the ...

Green IT Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Green IT - Literature review Example Secondly a brief history on the progress of green IT and where it was first implemented, how it affects the environment and general policies about green Information Technology. Green IT starts from the designing, disposing, and manufacturing and also during usage of a computer, it is expected that during all these processes the concept of green information technology policy is applied or used (Friedman and Thomas, 2008). The main goals of green information technology is to reduce usage of harmful or hazardous material while manufacturing computers, maximize on the energy used during products lifetime and most importantly promote recycling of defunct products and waste from factories. Most of today’s corporate world and industries have encouraged green computing in their respective Information Technology department; through this they minimize the negative impact on the environment in their Information Technology operations (Webber, Larry and Wallace, 2009). To promote green com puting some basic approaches are employed to make it easier to understand. These approaches include; green use, green disposal, green design and green manufacturing. Green use concept is using minimal electricity consumption in computers and its devices in an environmental friendly manner. Likewise, green disposal is the re-making or recycling of computers and its devices, and if not possible, disposing them appropriately (Wilcox and Charlotte, 2009). Green design is encouraged in computer designing where it is necessary to design an energy efficient computer or other peripherals. Lastly green manufacturing is employed during manufacturing of computer to reduce the negative impact of these activities. Some of the features that have been programmed into computers that impose Green Information Technology is like the hibernate mode when one is not using the computer for a period of time, using of liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors instead of cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors because C RT monitors uses more power then LCD monitors or using power management features to minimize the amount of power. The Green Information Technology computing initiative is designed to cater for all areas; this is because modern Information Technology system relies on different type of people who operate in different ways. A computer contains different kinds of chemical toxins that are harmful to the environment. A single computer can contain up to 1 kilogram of lead that is combine with other chemicals like boron, phosphor and hydrofluoric acid just to mention a few (Maus and Rex, 2010). Due to this it was necessary to come up with a system that would ensure these harmful materials don’t negatively affect the environment or at the least minimize the negative effect. However, careless disposal of these electronics is not the only way that it affects the environment negatively; lack of using energy efficient methods while using computers or generally electronic affects the envir onment. This is done by ensuring that a computer used or a related technology reduce the amount of electricity that it uses but instead use it more efficiently. Through this the amount of carbon (IV) oxide produced during energy production is reduced hence environment degradation is minimized. It was first

How have cell phones changed the human race socially on a global scale Research Paper

How have cell phones changed the human race socially on a global scale - Research Paper Example It analyses the changes in communication, the society, technology and foreign relations as a result of the widespread technology, giving appropriate recommendations. Introduction Referred to as cell phones by Americans, mobile phones in Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe and in many other ways globally, cell phones have been commercially available for about two and a half decades, enjoying staggering adoption rate as noted by Goggin (1). This has led to the existence of about 5 billion cell phones in the world as at end of 2010 with developing countries having more cell phones than developed countries (Hakoama and Hakoyama 2). China has been noted to be the largest wireless network in the world followed by India and America respectively. According to Prasad (38), the cell phone market in Africa is the fastest in growth globally, perhaps due to the sunset in the industry in the European market as observed by O’Brien. Klemens (2) evaluates the components that make up a cell phon e. Of course, cell phones are basically telephones, but they also serve as transmitters and radio receivers, which brings into perspective the understanding of antennas, radio waves and history of radio. The functions of a cell phone would be undertaken by microscopic circuits; the user’s interface would be provided by the liquid crystal display and a battery would be needed to power it. Whereas the distribution of cell phones could reveal much concentration and variation, it would be safe to appreciate that in merely two and half decades since its commercialization, cell phones have grown to be more than mere voice call devices. According to Goggin (2), cell phones have become a central cultural technology in their own right. Pros of Cell Phone Usage Just like many other technologies, cell phones come with its pros and cons. They help people keep in touch without the barrier of location as its mobility allows people to communicate no matter their location. The extra features that come with cell phones such as radio, free communication applications and even TVs save the user money that would have otherwise been used to acquire or subscribe to such services (Eapen, Kumar, and Bhat 138). Cell phones increase the feeling of safety as with the gadget in whatever place, one would feel closer to emergency services in case need be (Prasad 42). Cons of Cell Phone Usage On the other hand, being reachable anytime anywhere could serve as a disadvantage. It could cause one the inconveniences of for example being called back to work when its vacation time with family. Owning this gadget increases one’s expenses due to the cost involved in not only its acquisition but also subscription to the accompanying services such as voice calls and text messages. On safety, Banjo, Hu, and Sundar (128) cite the National Safety Council which estimates car accidents resulting from cell phone distractions at 28% of the total accidents. The associated radiation emission has b een linked to health risks including cancer, depression and high blood pressure (Eapen, Kumar, and Bhat 139; Kaplan 3). In schools, cell phones have been noted to propagate cheating and lack of concentration and distractions in classes. The materials making up cell phone printed circuit boards, liquid crystal displays, batteries and plastic casings contain toxic substances which

Jean-Antoine Watteaus Foursome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Jean-Antoine Watteaus Foursome - Essay Example "The image ÃŽ ¿f cadavers being carried by an angry and frustrated crowd, with which I began this essay, is not far from the one that I have just finished analyzing. Both Barbier and Watteau are symbolically recreating felt, palpable social change in the first two decades ÃŽ ¿f the eighteenth century. They are also, on a second level ÃŽ ¿f symbolization, trying to understand the metaphorization ÃŽ ¿f power and influence. The riots over paper money that had suddenly become worthless and the commodification ÃŽ ¿f art itself, ÃŽ ¿f placing a monetary value on the most aesthetic ÃŽ ¿f man's activities, are significant issues, important to describe. The palpable weakening ÃŽ ¿f a heretofore seemingly invincible central government, objectified in these two scenes by the closed doors ÃŽ ¿f the Palais-Royal and the disappearing portrait ÃŽ ¿f Louis XIV, had been underlined by the relative openness that Philippe d'Orleans had brought to his Court; but, his candor was too little and too late. Power had hemorrhaged into the streets. Classes were being redefined, and with them a new ethics, exemplified in the young man's father's awkward attempts at warning his son about mercurial Parisians. Merit will count more than it did, but appearances and the superficial will skill reign, only no longer to be systematically defined by the court. The Regency period (1715-1723) was one ÃŽ ¿f remarkable narrative energy. Writers such as Challe, Prevost, Marivaux, Montesquieu.... To do a painting, especially when one is dying from tuberculosis, that depicts a moment in a shop's existence, a painting that is meant to attract connoisseurs and speculators, underlines how compelling was the statement that Watteau wanted to make. The transient and its valuation are connected brilliantly in L'Enseigne de Gersaint (a title that offers no profundity f meaning either), because they are connected aesthetically. Thus, Watteau pushes us to surrender to art what it demands: the recognition that only through imaginative effort can an equitable ethics f urbanity be derived. This painting is about the power f art to transcend even the most powerful social and personal impediments to happiness, because they are indeed transient. The sign Watteau painted signals a new social context, bent on possessing, evaluating, and judging according to appearance and by anyone. It is indeed a "photograph" f the Regency.1 L'Enseigne de Gersaint introduces, without the aesthetic and emotional distancing that defines the fetes galantes, the body as the site for the working out f desire, and society as the space in which bodies define and adapt themselves. Fiction and art should draw the connections among desire, the body and society. And this work does just that: it shows potential connections that can narrate the place f desire in an emergent cultural realignment. The painting is so well balanced thematically that one may forget that it is a quite sophisticated commentary on the function f art in society. Its self-consciousness, its theatricality, and its extraordinary use f color all tend us away from its intellectualism. Watteau was asking fundamental questions about the role f the spectator in the production and

Increasing Pedestrian Safety

Increasing Pedestrian Safety 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Introduction Intersection is the most critical place for pedestrian as they come directly into contact with the ongoing traffic. Both signalized and un-signalized intersection pose a safety concern and different measures have been taken to safely and effectively accommodate pedestrian and traffic in the intersections. To accommodate pedestrians, two common types of pedestrian phasing have been used at signalized intersections -concurrent phasing and exclusive phasing (or scramble phasing). Concurrent pedestrian phasing is the most common and used all over the world, but there are so many places where exclusive pedestrian phasing has also been used. A concurrent phasing allows pedestrian to cross parallelly with the motor vehicle traffic on any approach having green indication. Both pedestrians and vehicles share the same green phase of traffic signal which allows longer flow of traffic and pedestrians. The interaction of traffic come with the pedestrian due to right turning and left turning movements across the pedestrian crosswalk. There may be another interaction from the vehicles of right turns on red from the approach perpendicular to the crosswalk. Alternatively, an exclusive pedestrian phase is only for pedestrian crossing which stops all the vehicular movement and pedestrian can cross any direction including diagonally. This increases the overall cycle length of the signal, but ensures no interaction of pedestrian with the traffic. 2.2 Academic Research To address pedestrian safety huge amount of research has been done, but there is still much work to do and there is still scope to look from a different new perspective and analyze the safety measures. There are various factors responsible for pedestrian safety at an intersection and different studies have been done to analyze those factors and measure the importance. But, surprisingly, there have been relatively few studies performed comparing concurrent and exclusive pedestrian phase form the viewpoint of the safety benefits, number of illegal crossings, crash number and change in LOS of the intersections. After the implementation of an exclusive pedestrian phase, it is very essential to understand how users are accepting this. Any facility can be a failure if the people cannot use the way it should be used. Positive and accepting perspective is crucial for the success of an exclusive pedestrian phase as non-compliance will lead to illegal crossing which will undue the ultimate goal of exclusive pedestrian signal. McKernan et al. (2016) investigated pedestrian compliance of concurrent and exclusive pedestrian crossing at 42 signalized intersections to find whether there are differences between pedestrian compliance with exclusive pedestrian phasing and concurrent pedestrian phasing. They used binary regression model to estimate pedestrian compliance and they considered pedestrian phasing type, intersection characteristics such as vehicular and pedestrian volume, crossing distance and speed limit. They found significantly higher pedestrian compliance with concurrent pedestrian phasing t hen exclusive pedestrian phasing. But the difference was not significant when they considered exclusive pedestrian phase intersections as if it had concurrent phasing and they concluded that pedestrian treat exclusive pedestrian phase as a concurrent pedestrian phase. (McKernan, 2016). Few other researchers observed and collected data regarding pedestrian compliance with exclusive pedestrian phase. According to Lina Kattan, public showed a positive attitude toward exclusive pedestrian phase and they understood the change in the way the intersection used to work and accepted it. (Lina Kattan 2009). To get the benefits of an exclusive pedestrian phasing, it is necessary to understand pedestrian crossing behavior in such an unconventional facility. Few studies investigated the changes in pedestrian crossing behavior following the implementation of an exclusive pedestrian phase. Hediyeh et al. (2015) investigate the changed behavior using spatiotemporal gait parameters (step length and step frequency). They found both average step length and walking speed were significantly higher for diagonally crossing pedestrians compared with pedestrians crossing on the conventional crosswalks. They found pedestrians to have the tendency to increase their step length more than their step frequency to increase walking speed. They also found that, compared with men, women generally increase their walking speed by increasing their step frequency more than step length. However, when in non-compliance with signal indications, women increase their walking speed by increasing their step length more t han step frequency. (H. Hediyeh, 2015). Medina et al. also emphasized on better understanding of pedestrian behavior at locations with exclusive pedestrian phases. To do that they collected field data from a college campus at busy intersection and analyzed the individual and group crossing data. From the analysis, they found 15th percentile speeds for the diagonal and the parallel crossings were respectively 4.37ft/s and 4.49 ft./s which are higher than the 3.5 ft./s as recommended by the MUTCD. They also found, 15th percentile speeds of pedestrians traveling individually and those in free flow were significantly higher than those traveling in groups and in non-free-flowing conditions. In addition, they observed fewer pedestrian to cross diagonally than parallelly. (J. C. Medina, 2014). Hediyeh et al. (2014) has also investigated changes in pedestrian speed behavior following the implementation of an exclusive pedestrian phase. They studied pedestrian speed variations with respect t o design changes to intersection crossings. The results showed that the average crossing speed is higher after the implementation of the exclusive pedestrian phase. They found higher average crossing speed for diagonal crossing than side crosswalk crossing. They also observed pedestrians to have higher speed through the first half of the crosswalk. (Houman Hediyeh, 2014) Marsh et al. conducted a survey and an analysis of existing pedestrian and vehicle movements to find the change in patterns that would result from the inclusion of an exclusive pedestrian phase in the existing signalized intersections. He considered convenience, comfort and safety as three main requirements for pedestrian crossing and the improvement of these criteria due to the change of crossing facility. The investigation showed that the three criteria are not enhanced by the change to exclusive pedestrian control. He also found vehicular traffic is to be disadvantaged with an increase in delays, stops and longer queues at traffic signals. Again, he found an increase in pedestrian delay by varying degrees, though it reduces the distance pedestrians must travel. Using a computerized simulation, he found that exclusive pedestrian phasing would have resulted in a 5% to 7% reduction in distance traveled by pedestrians at several intersections in New Zealand. (Marsh, 1982) The main purpose of implementing an exclusive pedestrian phase is to reduce the interaction of pedestrian with the traffic. Though it is designed to meet the purpose but the filed condition is not always favorable. Various reasons may be responsible for this including illegal pedestrian crossing, red light running etc. The interaction may not always lead to a safety hazard but definitely this is crucial for the success of exclusive pedestrian phase. Zhanga et al. (2015) compared exclusive and concurrent pedestrian phasing from the perspective of severity of interaction with motor vehicles where they observed and classified pedestrian crossing and severity of interaction. From their research, they found that, pedestrian experience lower interaction severity with motor vehicles with exclusive pedestrian phase compared to crossing on the green light with concurrent pedestrian phase. They also found lower crash number in case of exclusive pedestrian phase but crash severity was high than crashes of concurrent pedestrian phase. (Yaohua Zhanga, 2015) Reducing interaction is supposed to lead in reduction of pedestrian crash number. As pedestrian phase is implemented only to accommodate pedestrian safely it was thought to reduce pedestrian crash number significantly. Different study shows different results regarding the reduction of crash frequency. Zegeer et al. (1982) studied 1296 traffic signalized intersection to determine significance of pedestrian signal indications and signal timing strategies to pedestrian accidents. From their analysis using different statistical tests, they found no significant difference in pedestrian accidents between intersections that had concurrent walk pedestrian signals compared with intersections that had no pedestrian signal indications. For exclusive pedestrian crossing, they found lower number of pedestrian crashes with moderate to high pedestrian volume. (Charles V. Zegeer, 1982). Again, Garder et al. (1989) tested the safety benefit of exclusive pedestrian crossing at three sites and found to be beneficial in small town but not in city. He found that exclusive pedestrian signal may not be effective in city due to high number of red walker in the city traffic signal intersection. He suggested that shorter waiting time will decreases the number of red walking. (Garder, 1989). As the sample size was not very large, detailed study is required to say where exclusive pedestrian phase is beneficial, in the city or in the small town. Zaidel et al. (1987) also tested the relationship between pedestrian crossing types and average number of accidents including both pedestrian and vehicle accidents. From their analyzed 5-year data from 320 signalized intersections they concluded that, pedestrian crossing type has no effect on vehicular accident and very less effect on pedestrian accident. They identified vehicle volume, pedestrian activity, and intersection complexity as the reasons behind pedestrian and vehicular accidents. But they indicated that, exclusive and concurrent pedestr ian phases may provide different degrees of pedestrian protection for different combination of vehicle and pedestrian volume. (D. M. Zaidel, 1987). Fleig and Duffy found no significant reduction in the proportion of unsafe acts or pedestrian accidents after the installation of exclusive pedestrian signals at 11 locations. Their accident data were limited to 27 accidents in the before period and 25 accidents in the after period, with each of these periods only one year in duration. The authors of the study concluded that pedestrian signals are not effective in reducing pedestrian accidents (P. Fleig, 1967). But the limited data used raise questions about the statistical validity of this conclusion. Chen et al. evaluated relative effectiveness of four signal related pedestrian countermeasures in New York City and found exclusive pedestrian phase as the second most effective countermeasure to reduce pedestrian crashes but they described it to insignificantly increase vehicle crashes. ( Li Chen, 2012). The few published evaluations of scramble signals have generally found that in cases in which vehicle volumes are high, scramble phasing has reduced crashes and traffic conflicts. Moreover, in cases with high pedestrian volume conflicting with turning vehicles, scramble phasing has been shown to be especially effective. Abrams et al. conducted a research to compare safety of pedestrians and delay of both pedestrian and vehicles for four different types of phasing facility of an intersection. The results of the study indicated that the combined pedestrian-vehicle interval will almost always minimize overall pedestrian and vehicle delay. The only exception occurs for the case in which a pedestrian-vehicle conflict causes long queues of vehicles to form in a right-turning lane (or left-turning lane on a one-way street). They suggested that, exclusive pedestrian phasing is capable of increasing pedestrian safety by completely separating pedestrian and vehicular movements; however, this benefit is canceled if pedestrian compliance is low. They emphasized that, if violations are frequent, the use of exclusive pedestrian phasing may be a safety hazard. (C. M. Abrams, 1977) Very few researchers tried to model exclusive pedestrian phase and evaluate the delay. Nash et al. carried out a modelling work to assess the efficiency of exclusive pedestrian phases at traffic signals. They examined one cross intersection and one T-intersection in the Melbourne CBD and used SIDRA software package to model the existing two-phase operation and the three-phase exclusive pedestrian crossing arrangement. They found a slight increase in pedestrian delay and significant increase in vehicular delay. (D. Nash, 2010) The main reason behind insignificant reduction of pedestrian crash number is number of illegal crossing. Since, traffic is stopped on all directions, exclusive pedestrian phasing results in longer delays for motor vehicles and pedestrians. The illegal crossing is intrigued by this long waiting time which can make pedestrian frustrated. In such case, pedestrians often do not wait for the pedestrian phase, potentially resulting in unexpected interactions between pedestrians and motor vehicles. The requested pedestrian phase may then go unused, but the drives have to wait for the phase to run its course. It also impacts them negatively and red light running may increase. Pedestrian phase is an additional phase. Few studies showed that crash frequency in a signalized intersection may change due to increase of the number of signal phases. Agbelie et al. investigated crash data of seven years from 381 intersections and concluded that, a unit increase in the number of signal phases would in crease crash frequency by 0.4. (Bismark R. D. K. Agbelie, 2014) Some researcher has got opportunity to conduct study right after the implantation of an exclusive pedestrian signal like Kattan et al. (2009), who conducted a study to evaluate the pedestrian safety of an exclusive pedestrian phase at an intersection of Canada. They collected pedestrian conflicts on that intersection for six weeks and developed poison regression model to model the number of conflicts and violations. Their findings showed decreased pedestrian-vehicle conflicts but increased pedestrian signal violations. They found 13% of the violation was safe as it was concurrent with the vehicle movement and 2% crossings were unsafe. (Lina Kattan, 2009). They continued the study to determine the longer-term effect of this operation on pedestrian safety. To do that, they collected data again one year after the implementation of exclusive pedestrian signal and developed four poison regression model to model the number of conflicts and violations. They found some changes in the results from the previous study conducted at the same location. Their results showed that the number of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts and pedestrian violations decreased significantly on weekdays but both pedestrian violations and conflicts increased significantly on weekends after implementation of the scramble operation. (Manoj Shah, 2010). Bechtel et al. (2004) conducted a similar study in the city of Oakland, California to determine the safety impacts of an exclusive pedestrian signal. They found statistically significant decrease in the number of conflicts between pedestrian and vehicle but significant increase in the number of illegal crossing. They concluded that exclusive pedestrian phase improved pedestrian safety despite the increased number of illegal crossing as those illegal crossings are concurrent to traffic flow which makes the crossing somehow safe. (Allyson K. Bechtel K. E., 2003). Several other researchers tried to measure the pedestrian- vehicle conflict level for exclus ive pedestrian signal. Yang et al. (2005) found that exclusive pedestrian phases are effective measures to reduce conflicts between pedestrians and motor vehicles at signalized intersections. (X. Yang, 2005). The main issue with implementing exclusive pedestrian phase is not having specific guidelines. For traffic signal or number of phasing there are developed guidelines to follow. But no specific guidelines for implementing exclusive pedestrian phase was found in MUTCD or similar sources. Few researchers suggested few cases when to install an exclusive pedestrian phase. According to Li Chan, exclusive pedestrian phase should be installed at intersections with many pedestrians and a modest amount of traffic. But no range was developed to follow or work on. Again, in downtown area where pedestrian accumulation is rapid, an exclusive pedestrian phase may be beneficial. Compared crash data has not covered long range of time. Previous few studies compared crash data for one to three years before and after the implementation. More detailed analysis is needed to come to the conclusion if the pedestrian safety has been improved or not. Implementation of a type of pedestrian signal is also related to the characteristics of the location and the problem that the intersection is facing. For example, increasing cycle length may not be effective in a university area, but may be needed in an area with high number of elderly people. The above-mentioned studies focused on the compliance issue, before and after crash analysis to some extent, and safety benefit, none of the studied examined the change of LOS in the intersection for different types of pedestrian facility. Again, pedestrian vehicle interaction and conflict count may be used to predict crashes. References Allyson K. Bechtel, K. E. (2003). Oakland Chinatown Pedestrian Scramble: An Evaluation. Safe Transportation Research Education Center . Allyson K. Bechtel, K. E. (2004). Pedestrian Scramble Signal in Chinatown Neighborhood of Oakland, California. Transportation Research Record , 19-26. Bismark R. D. K. Agbelie, A. M. (2014). Impacts of Signal-Related Characteristics on Crash Frequency at Urban Signalized Intersections. Journal of Transportation Safety Security, 7, 199-207. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19439962.2014.943867 C. M. Abrams, S. A. (1977). Selection of Pedestrian Signal Phasing. 56th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board. Charles V. Zegeer, K. S. (1982). Effect of Pedestrian Signals and Signal Timing on Pedestrian Accidents. Transportation Research Board, 62-72. D. M. Zaidel, I. H. (1987). Safety of Pedestrian Crossings at Signalized Intersections. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1141, 1-6. D. Nash, . W. (2010). The efficiency of scramble crossings. Transport Research International Documentation. Garder, P. (1989). Pedestrian Safety at Traffic Signals: A Study Carried Out with the Help of a Traffic Conflicts Technique. Accident Analysis Prevention, 21, 435-444. H. Hediyeh, T. S. (2015). The use of gait parameters to evaluate pedestrian behavior at scramble phase signalized intersections. Journal of Advanced Transportation, 49, 523-534. doi:doi: 10.1002/atr.1284. Houman Hediyeh, T. S. (2014). Automated Analysis of Pedestrian Crossing Speed Behavior at Scramble-phase Signalized Intersections Using Computer Vision Techniques. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 8(5), 382-397. doi:10.1080/15568318.2012.708098 J. C. Medina, E. G. (2014). Analyzing Pedestrian Behavior during Exclusive Pedestrian Phases for Improved Intersection Signal Timing. TDI Congress 2014: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles . Li Chen, C. C. (2012). The relative effectiveness of signal related pedestrian countermeasures at urban intersections-Lessons from a New York City case study. Transportation Research Record. Lina Kattan, S. A. (2009). Pedestrian Scramble Operations: Pilot Study in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2140, 79-84. Manoj Shah, L. K. (2010). Follow-up Study on Pedestrian Scramble Operations in Calgary, Canada. Transportation Research Board. Marsh, D. R. (1982). Exclusive Pedestrian Control for Dunedins Cnetral Business District. Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, Transportation and Traffic Engineering Group Technical Session, 8. McKernan, K. R. (2016). A Study of Pedestrian Compliance with Traffic Signals Exclusive and Concurrent Phasing. Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. P. Fleig, D. D. (1967). A Study of pedestrian Safety Behavior Using Activity Sampling. Traffic Safety,. X. Yang, W. M. (2005). Criterion of setting exclusive pedestrian phases at two-phase signalized intersections. Highway and Transportation Research and Development, 127-131. Yaohua Zhanga, S. A. (2015). Safety effects of exclusive and concurrent signal phasing for pedestrian crossing. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 26-36.

Michael Jordan :: essays research papers

“Michael Jordan is the best ever. There shouldn’t be any question in anyone’s mind. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. He broke the mold. There is no one remotely close to him, Nate Thurmond says. Look at all the finals, he always carried his team. He willed them to another title each year. His greatness was well shown off and off the court. He follows up by saying it’s his mental approach more so than his physical talent. He’s been on top so long and he still goes out and does it every night (Thurmond, 61).'; He was the best player in the league for years and everyone respected his talent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “There’s no next Michael Jordan, says Magic Johnson. He continues saying, you can’t compare anyone to him, what he has done for the game can never be matched. Michael Jordan will always be Michael Jordan and no one better (Johnson, 61). He’s the greatest that ever played, in terms of doing things that Larry Bird and I never dreamed about.'; (62) Doug Collins says that, “Practice is what made him go. Every day he had this need to show who was the best. It’s like `I’m the best today and I’m going to show you and tomorrow I’m going to show you and the next day I’m going to show you again.’ That was how he competed. All the great geniuses of the world were like that. We’re talking about Einstein, Edison, and Roosevelt. These people came across something and worked to perfect it (Collins, 61).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “Michael Jordan is the most competitive human being I’ve ever met. I’ve met many CEO’s from fortune 500 companies. Michael is more competitive then all of them, David Faulk'; (Faulk, 62) He continues saying, “Michael Jordan would cheat to win, if he wasn’t winning, he would do anything to do so.';(63) Fread Lynch tells, “More than anything else, he was a sore loser. Just playing pick-up games, he’d get on his teammates all the time. He hasn’t changed that. What he always expected was everybody play the game as hard as he played it.'; (Lynch, 63)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Michael Jordan’s father once said, “I think Michael got so good because Larry (his older brother) used to beat him all the time. He always took losing hard. He only began beating Larry once he started really to grow. It was almost like as if he willed himself to grow. Michael Jordan :: essays research papers “Michael Jordan is the best ever. There shouldn’t be any question in anyone’s mind. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. He broke the mold. There is no one remotely close to him, Nate Thurmond says. Look at all the finals, he always carried his team. He willed them to another title each year. His greatness was well shown off and off the court. He follows up by saying it’s his mental approach more so than his physical talent. He’s been on top so long and he still goes out and does it every night (Thurmond, 61).'; He was the best player in the league for years and everyone respected his talent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “There’s no next Michael Jordan, says Magic Johnson. He continues saying, you can’t compare anyone to him, what he has done for the game can never be matched. Michael Jordan will always be Michael Jordan and no one better (Johnson, 61). He’s the greatest that ever played, in terms of doing things that Larry Bird and I never dreamed about.'; (62) Doug Collins says that, “Practice is what made him go. Every day he had this need to show who was the best. It’s like `I’m the best today and I’m going to show you and tomorrow I’m going to show you and the next day I’m going to show you again.’ That was how he competed. All the great geniuses of the world were like that. We’re talking about Einstein, Edison, and Roosevelt. These people came across something and worked to perfect it (Collins, 61).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “Michael Jordan is the most competitive human being I’ve ever met. I’ve met many CEO’s from fortune 500 companies. Michael is more competitive then all of them, David Faulk'; (Faulk, 62) He continues saying, “Michael Jordan would cheat to win, if he wasn’t winning, he would do anything to do so.';(63) Fread Lynch tells, “More than anything else, he was a sore loser. Just playing pick-up games, he’d get on his teammates all the time. He hasn’t changed that. What he always expected was everybody play the game as hard as he played it.'; (Lynch, 63)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Michael Jordan’s father once said, “I think Michael got so good because Larry (his older brother) used to beat him all the time. He always took losing hard. He only began beating Larry once he started really to grow. It was almost like as if he willed himself to grow.

Al Barzakh – Life after Death in Islam

Death is eternal. It is the biggest truth, the ultimate reality that we are born to face. According to the Holy Quran â€Å"Every soul shall have a taste of death. Hence, death is inevitable and its time and place is determined even before we are born.The following verse from the Holy Quran proves that there is life after death: â€Å"And do not speak of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead; nay, (they are) alive, but you do not perceive† (2:154).Al Barzakh is an Arabic term which means barrier or veil. The word barrier implies the intermediary stage between death and the day of resurrection. As the Holy Quran mentions: â€Å"Between them is a Barzakh (Barrier) which they do not transgress† (Ar-Rahman: 20).Those who are alive cannot communicate with those who are in their graves. In return, the deceased cannot hear or see what happens in this world. To ask them for forgiveness is a sin since Allah alone has the power to forgive us. Life in this world and life in the grave are separate and the wall between them cannot be crossed (Islam, 2008).LifeHuman beings are curious and the mysteries of life and death have always fascinated them. Unlike death, life can be scientifically proven. Life for all human beings begins in his mother’s womb. After forty days of conception, life exists in the womb, and after another eighty days, life is blown into the piece of flesh and blood. At this time, the person’s deeds, destiny, religion and time of death are determined. Since Allah gives us our lives, He has the sole right to take it away as and when He pleases.DeathDespite being the greatest truth of our lives, death remains one of the biggest mysteries. Belief in life after death is crucial to being a true believer. The recent demise of my father intrigued me to answer certain questions about death. Life after death exists in a metaphysical world. It is questioned by people because it cannot be scientifically proven. However, there is suffi cient proof of it in the Holy Quran and in the sayings of the Holy Prophet (al-Jibaly, 2006).When a Muslim dies, he is bathed and wrapped in a clean white cloth, after which he is buried. Prayers are offered at a person’s death for his forgiveness. According to an interview conducted with a Muslim scholar, death is a transition that takes us from life that is temporary to life that is eternal. Life in the world is just there to prepare us for the life in the hereafter. It is then that actual and meaningful life begins. For those who did good in their lives, they will be rewarded with a life in paradise beyond their imagination (al-Jibaly, 2006).According to the Muslim scholar interviewed, when a person dies, he does not take his wealth with him into the grave. The only things he takes with him are his deeds. And it is his deeds that determine his final destination, that is, heaven or hell.

My cousin vinny & criminal law in california

In 1992, the Jonathan Lynn directed movie My Cousin Vinny, made a perfect blend of courtroom drama with commercial comedy. Though the elements of criminal law and courtroom procedures distinctly deviated from reality, the movie stirred constructive debate for years to come. Joe Pesci played the role of funny New York lawyer Vincent Gambini or Vinny, Marisa Tomei played his girlfriend Monalisa or Lisa. Vinnys’s cousin Bill, along with his friend Stan, gets implicated in a murder case for which the trial takes place in an Alabama court. Vinny comes from New York to defend his cousin as a favor towards family. The case is about a utility store clerk’s murder and incidentally most of the clues point to Bill and Stan. Right after their visit to the store, the actual assailants, who drove an almost identical car, executed the crime. Ironically, Vinny had taken more than six years to clear his bar exam and had to win at least one case to get an approval for marrying Lisa. Completely devoid of judicial procedures and naà ¯ve about professional etiquette, Vinny finds it hard to plead the case. His incompetence makes an instant impression on the Judge who struggles to control his temper during the proceedings. The courtroom drama gets alive with witty remarks of struggling-to-be-lawyer. Judge Chamberlain Haller, played by Fred Gwynne, has tough time to instill discipline in the case proceedings. There is also an evident clash of cultures between a New Yorkers visiting Alabama. With the start of the case, the movie seemingly portrays many aspects of the US legal system including the courtroom procedures, rights of defendants, judicial arraignment and errors that can be construed as contempt of court. Vinny, a complete novice, finds it hard to understand the basics of pleading the case. After hearing the charges the judge expects him to plead guilty or not guilty. Vinny repeatedly labels the charges to be â€Å"bullshit†, earning him the ire of Judge Haller. In reality such impudence might have resulted in stripping of his bar license. Astonishingly, he did not even have the license to practice law. Another fictional turn is that the judge does not make any significant effort to check Vinny’s license as a member of the bar apart from a phone call. While doing so, Vinny violated the California Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 1-300: Unauthorized Practice of Law, under sub-part (B) which states â€Å"A member shall not practice law in a jurisdiction where to do so would be in violation of regulations of the profession in that jurisdiction.† However, Vinny is obviously a street-smart New Yorker and arranges his acquaintance to prove his eligibility. In real life such a lax of interest in checking a lawyer’s credentials may result in criminals defending other criminals in courts. Obviously, he had to lie about his identity to the Judge and lying to the Judge is violation of California Business and Professions Code sections 6076 and 6077 under Rules of Professional Conduct. The formal procedures of the court seemed superficial in the light of hard reality. The first moral dilemma that is encountered by the law bodies in such cases is the ability of the defendants to select a paid lawyer for them. Under California law, the defendant has the right to choose the lawyer of his choice but the guarantee of such a lawyer’s competence is not measured till the case hearing begins. If the defendant ends up hiring a cousin as incompetent as Vinny and loses the case, should the law authority intervene? Thorough incompetence in practice has also been dealt by those who framed the law for California. Vinny personified the efficacy of the Rule 3-110; â€Å"Failing to Act Competently†. The subsection (A) states that, â€Å"A member shall not intentionally, recklessly, or repeatedly fail to perform legal services with competence.† As for Vinny, two innocents could get punished because he added his stupidity to Bill’s bad luck. Bill and Stan get quite apprehensive about Vinnys ability and rightly so, as murder is a serious charge to be handled by a rookie. Even when Bill tries to express his doubt, Vinny snubs him by making a simple point that its Bill’s life that is at stake. At least twice in the case, Vinny is charged with contempt of court and sent to lock-up. In reality, either such situation doesn’t arise in the first place or the judge takes a disciplinary action against the erring Lawyer. (California Business and Professions Code sections 6076 and 6077) As the case proceeds, Bill realizes that Vinny is his best chance to get saved. The state recommended lawyer got so nervous, when he was tried, that couldn’t even make a single statement without stuttering. The well polished prosecution team reveals brilliant witness testimonies which further scare Bill and his friend. Quite often the state prosecution teams do a good homework in homicide cases. Law of the land owes a moral responsibility to the public in dealing with such heinous crimes, though the defendant was innocent in this case. Vinny and Lisa are and genuinely do look, out of the place in the rural background of Alabama. The ensuing conflicts with locals and constant bickering with the conditions took a toll on poor Vinny. But as the case proceeds he is able to demonstrate his prowess in using simple logic while cross-questioning the witnesses. He exhibits incredible intuitiveness to prove that even an eye witness account cannot be taken as unchallengeable. With the mud on the window pane and power of glasses that needed a recheck, the eyewitness’s testimony on recognizing Bill and Stan, was ripped apart by Vinny. His girlfriend Lisa that looked a beautiful but dumb proves to be a genuine expert on automobiles. Ironically, she felt helpless in helping out Vinny in the case, her expert observation on the skid marks made by the assailants’ car, simply turned the case on its head. She proved her efficacy of being an expert when the prosecution tried to hogwash her with a flawed question on ignition temperature about a particular engine. The engine described by the prosecution did not even exist in the year that he asked. Vinny and Lisa end up in a heated argument while he tries to question her as a witness, though expert witness’s opinion should already to be known to the lawyer who calls the witness. Adding to Vinny’s errors, a lawyer should already have the information of the answer that he wants the witness to render. This rule is widely accepted in legal circles as the â€Å"Eleventh Commandment† of Trial Advocacy by Professor Mark Dobson. Through hook and crook and going through hoops as well, Vinny manages to win the case, rescuing his cousin from a likely indictment. As a reward for winning, he also won the right to marry his sweetheart, Lisa. In real life however, Vinny might have been booked for fraud and impersonation. References and Citations â€Å"Rules of professional Conduct of the State Bar of California.†: The Rules of Professional Conduct are rules of the Supreme Court of California regulating attorney conduct in this state. See In re Attorney Discipline System (1998) 19 Cal. 4th 582, 593-597 [79 Cal Rptr.2d 836]; Howard v. Babcock (1993) 6 Cal. 4th 409, 418 [25 Cal Rptr.3d 80]. The rules have been adopted by the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California and approved by the Supreme Court pursuant to California Business and Professions Code sections 6076 and 6077. Mark Dobson, Professor of Trial Advocacy, Nova Southeastern University (Feb. 2, 1999).   See also BERGMAN & ASIMOW, supra note 5, at 105–06.      

The Graduate Essay

The Graduate Essay The Graduate Essay The Graduate The Graduate is 1967 film that was based on a 1963 novel, The Graduate. I have viewed both the screenplay and the trailer of this film. The trailer took important scenes and presented them in such ways that could actually change the plot of the movie in some ways. The trailer combined so many key shots of the film that gives you just enough to engage you emotionally and spark your curiosity. As the trailer begins you immediately hear an asynchronous sound (Sikov, 79) of background music. The song playing is The song of Silence by Simon Garfunkel (wikipedia.com). The trailer opens up with a long shot of a young man sitting outside in front of a fountain and there’s a flag waving right above him. The camera then cuts to an extreme long high shot to capture the entire landscape of the university and students walking around the campus behind the young man. The next few shots are various close-up shots complied together that shows several people coming up to Ben rubbing his head a nd hugging him congratulating him on his graduation. You hear a one lady ask him â€Å"what are you going to do now?† And his reply was â€Å"I was going to go upstairs for a minute†. This showed that he was definitely clueless that the question pertained to his future career. In the first thirty seconds of the trailer you are already aware that the movie is based on a guy named Ben who just graduated college and with only a few spoken words you can derive to the conclusion that he is undecided about his future. The trailer then shoots to a close-up shot of Ben sitting in front of an aquarium with a very depressed look on his face. From this shot you can assume that Ben is troubled or in some sort of way. A nervous looking Ben is seen sitting with a drink in his hand staring at something or someone. You then see a women who he refers to as â€Å"Mrs. Robinson† sitting on a chair with a cigarette in her hand giggling as she lifts her leg onto a chair. This is an eyeline match shot due to the fact that you see Ben staring at someone but you don’t actually see the person and in the very next shot you see Mrs. Robinson staring back at Ben, but you don’t see physically see Ben in this shot. In the next shot Ben is now standing up in front of Mrs. Robinson, but you only see her leg that she has raised up on a chair next to her. The framing of the camera is shooting Ben through the opening under Mrs. Robinson’s leg. You hear him say â€Å"You’re trying to seduce me† and she giggles and then he ask â€Å"aren’t you†. This to me implies he was confused but yet curious as well when he asked for confirmation. Also, from this shot you can assume that â€Å"Mrs. Robinson, is married. It’s never shown in this clip whether or not Mrs. Robinson confirmed or denied Ben’s allegations. The trailer then immediately takes you to another scene where Ben and Mrs. Robinson are sitting at a table in an establishment. They exchange a few words regarding if Ben had gotten a room. So this leads you to believe that they are in a hotel and Ben’s allegations may have been true but it also tells you that he may have taken her up on the offer. In the next scene you see the both Ben and Mrs. Robinson in a low key lit room and she’s is trying to remove her clothing and states that she’s about to get undressed as a nervous he watches as the scene ends. This leads viewers to assume that believe that they have had sexual intercourse but it is not shown. In the film they do engage in sexual intercourse for the first time, not realizing that this would be a full on affair. In the next scene you see Ben and a younger women sitting in what looks like a car, due to part of the steering wheel that you see in the corner of the shot. With a concerning look on her face she asks Ben â€Å"Are you having an affair with someone?† This raises eyebrows as it makes you wonder what made her ask that question and also who is this young woman. She calls him Benjamin which makes me think she close to him, maybe a

ART Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

ART - Essay Example As a group we invite others in the community to be health conscious and, more often than not, we get positive results. This group does not only help each of us to be physically fit but also to be more at peace with each other and be united for a common good. 23. Political Ideology is a coherent set of values and beliefs about the purpose and scope of a government held by groups and individuals. The Conservatives believe that the government is best that governs least; big government can only infringe on individual, personal and economic rights; the Liberals, on the other hand, favor extensive governmental involvement in the economy and the provision of social services and take an activist role in protecting rights of women, elderly, minorities, and the environment; while the Libertarians favor a free-market economy and no governmental interference in personal liberties. 24. Civil Society is a society where citizens are allowed to organize and express their views publicly as they engage in open debate about public policy. This concept has taken on special importance in recent years in places like Iran and Afghanistan who have been ravaged by war and are in the status of rising again as nations freed from tyranny and dictatorship of their former leaders. 25.

Oracle Database 11g Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Oracle Database 11g - Assignment Example In case there are numerous databases that exists on the very same server, then there is a distinct and separate database instance for every database. It is not possible or recommendable to share a database instance. Connection in a database instance is the communication that occurs between the instance and the user process. Session in a database instance, on the other hand, is the specific connection of a database user to an instance through the database user process that it stands for in the current user login to the instance. Whenever an Oracle Database user runs the process for the first time, it calls for a specific piece of data. The Oracle searches for the data from the database buffer cache. The search process can either find the data or not find it. If the data is found, it is referred to as a cache hit, and when it misses the data it is called a cache miss. When it is a cache hit, the data is read from the memory directly. If it is a cache miss, the data must be copied from a data file on the disk then into a buffer in the cache before the data is accessed freshly. To accommodate several users and to maximize performance, an Oracle Database multi-process system uses some extra Oracle Database process named background processes. There are numerous background processes in an Oracle Database instance. The Database Writer Process, abbreviated as DBWn, writes the buffer contents to the data files. The DBWn are tasked with writing the modified buffers in the database buffer to the system disk. Even through a single database is sufficient for most systems (DBW0), additional processes can be configured to enhance write performance if the system heavily modifies the data ((DBW1, DBW9, DBWa and through to DBWz). The control files constitute the database data (physical database information). The files are very important to the database, without them, the data files cannot be opened. The information can also contain the