The American Dream - 1729 Words

INTRODUCTION For decades, the idea of homeownership has become synonymous with that of the American Dream. In order to encourage Americans to pursue this dream, the United States federal government has created a bevy of programs that subsidize homeownership, including mortgage loan insurance provided through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), government sponsored enterprises such as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) that increase the money available for lending, and the home mortgage interest deduction. When Congress re-introduced the federal income tax in 1913, the home mortgage interest deduction was included along with a number of other deductions as a concession for making citizens pay federal income tax. The deduction works as follows: if homeowners meet certain prerequisites (i.e. filing a Form 1040 and itemizing deductions on Schedule A, personal liability for the loan amount, and the payment is being made on a qualified home) they can deduct their mortgage interest payments from their adjusted gross income. Over time, this has become the most popular deduction for millions of Americans. As with many government programs, there are additional stipulations and elements to the mortgage interest deduction. There are two types of debt that can be considered for the deduction: (1) acquisition debt, or the amount taken out to purchase, build, or improve your home, and (2) equity debt,Show MoreRelatedImmigrants And The American Dream1362 Words   |  6 PagesImmigrants and the American Dream In the article â€Å"The American Dream†, by James Truslow Adams in The Sundance Reader book, he stated that the American dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and highRead MoreThe American Dream By Kimberly Amadeo1637 Words   |  7 PagesNowadays, a large number of people migrate to the United States to work and achieve the American Dream. According to the Article â€Å"What is the American Dream?† by Kimberly Amadeo, â€Å"The American Dream was first publicly defined in 1931 by James Truslow Adams in Epic of America. Adam’s often-repeated quote is, ‘The American Dream is that dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyon e, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.’† There are many peopleRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie The American Dream 754 Words   |  4 Pages Nyreel Powell Ms. Jones American Literature 1 June 2015 The American dream in A Raisin in the Sun Have you ever had a dream and it didn’t come how you wanted it to be? Have you ever had accomplishments that you wanted to achieve but people were getting in the way of them? The four main characters in this book all have good dreams but there are people in the way of getting to those dreams or their dream is too high to accomplish. A Raisin in the Sun a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, andRead MoreSister Carrie and the American Dream1618 Words   |  7 PagesThe American Dream is surely based on the concept of â€Å"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness† but it is above all, a matter of ambition. James Truslow Adams, an American writer and historian, in 1931 states: life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement†, which not only points towards a better standard of living for Americans but also denounces a degree of greed in the US society. Ambition not only â€Å"killed the catâ₠¬  butRead MoreGrapes Of Wrath And The American Dream1644 Words   |  7 PagesThe idea of the American Dream is ever changing depending on the person and the time of life that person is in. Although the main ideas of the American Dream remain the same to be educated, economically sound, healthy, to have a family, and equal rights. Many great films and works of literature were created to show case all the different ideas people have for their American Dream. The film â€Å"Grapes of Wrath† directed by John Ford and the poem â€Å"I Will Fight No More Forever† by Chief Joseph, both depictRead More Destruction of the American Dream Essay2145 Words   |  9 PagesDestruction of the American Dream I’ve talked about it in the past, the destruction of the American Dream. Always, there have been papers, writings, and thoughts that quantify a particular section of its ultimate demise, be it due to money, education, or sexuality. Maybe the destruction cannot be viewed as a singular event or cause. Perhaps instead it must be examined as a whole process, the decay and ultimate elimination of a dream. Self destruction, if you will†¦ Mr. Self Destruct Read MoreSuccess As One Of The American Dream1137 Words   |  5 PagesApril 2015 Success as One of The American Dream When we hear the word â€Å"success†, we often think of wealth and money. To some people, the embodiment of being success is earning a lot of money. In fact, the concept of success is primarily based on how much money a person earns. However, each person views the definition of success differently. One way to define success is something that has more to do with flash than it does with substance. John Wooden, an American basketball player and coach viewRead MoreJim Cullen And The American Dream2081 Words   |  9 Pages The American Dream, as defined by Cullen, is starting your goal off with a little and ending with more; it s like a business, you invest in it in order to gain more money. Usually, people will define the American Dream as being able to achieve your goal because everyone is offered opportunities. Cullen does acknowledge that people are born with different opportunities, so he talks about the good life. The good life describes different factors that determine your opportunities. Throughout the otherRead MoreFactors Influencing The American Dream1834 Words   |  8 Pagesindividual to succumb or to not succumb to the seductions of crime. These three factors are brilliantly portrayed in the television show, Breaking Bad and the novel, The Stick Up Kids. The American Dream is what many American citizens strive for. However, not all of those citizens are able to achieve the American Dream through a legal pathway. The reason an indivudal may not being able to do so is because of his or her background factors. It is important to note that background factors are a fractionRead MoreShark Tank And The American Dream1755 Words   |  8 PagesShark Tank and The American Dream The TV show Shark tank embodies everything the American dream represents. The show obtains successful Entrepreneurs ready to invest their own money into other Americans wanting to be just like them, reaching the American dream and become a successful entrepreneur. The show presents entrepreneurs working towards the goal of creating a business to not only gain wealth but also change the way we live today. The show is to keep the American dream alive and well while

Descriptive Essay The Beach Free Essays

The first thing I notice is the sky, a bright blue color without a single cloud in the sky. Then, the water which is as crystal clear and shimmering in the sun like a diamond. And the smell, it is nothing like you could ever imagine. We will write a custom essay sample on Descriptive Essay The Beach or any similar topic only for you Order Now The salty aroma fills the air and seeps into my nostrils producing shivers and chills throughout my body. I can hear the ocean waves crashing and sense the mass amounts of sunscreen floating through the air. Can hear children screaming and laughing and they run for their lives when the icy water touches their toes. Seeing girls laying out and taking in the heat waves which produces a dark sun kissed tan on their skin. I throw my hair up into a messy bun and off go sprinting in the burning hot sand, with my surf board tucked under my arm. I leap into the chilly ocean and instantly my heart skips a beat. Begin to paddle out and can feel the water droplets evaporating of my skin under the blistering sun. As I begin to stand up on my board, the wave’s crash over my body pulling me into the water. Then continue this pattern until my legs are weak and my arms can paddle no more. It is just then hear my ether call my name, â€Å"Hannah time for lunch! † scramble out of the water and head up to the jeep. We down our lunch at a rapid pace and my little sister runs back to the edge of the water to build a sand castle. I listen to her play and giggle in the California heat. Her little hands constantly working to build her masterpiece. I decide it is time to relax, so I grab my favorite novel and lay out on my beach towel. With the waves crashing and the birds flying in the distance I am in my safe haven. My toes grasp the sand between them and a jolt of warmth travels through my entire body. It is at this moment all of my stresses seem to disappear and I am in a wonderland of warmth and happiness. During my tip to the beach time does not exist. Six hours could go by, but in my mind it seems as if it has been a short 30 minutes. It is not clear to me the time until I notice the sun slowly setting beyond the horizon and a cool breeze causing goose bumps on my sun kissed arms and legs. My father comes down from the jeep with a sweat shirt for both me and my sister. He hands me a cool glass of lemonade and the water droplets condensate on the outside of the bright red cup. All three of us sit on a blanket and watch the sun as it sets over the ocean. The beautiful colors of pink and orange are breathe taking. A brilliant ball of fire, millions of miles away, but so apparent and bright here on the sandy shore. The sky contains the most peaceful colors as it fades off on the horizon leaving the sky dark without its presence. At that moment I know what this means. The setting of the sun symbolizes my time here in my safe haven is over and I must depart from my happy place. Gather up my novel, surfboard, ND towel and make my way back to the jeep. My little sister complains and fusses about how she does not want to leave her castle. As her castle is washed away by the incoming tide, so is her innocence. My father carries her on his shoulders as she is passed out snoring. That scene causes me to go back in time just a few years past when was the same age and I can remember myself sleeping upon my father’s muscular shoulders. As we drive away I think to myself†¦ So long until next year. And watch my safe haven slowly diminish the further and further we drive away. How to cite Descriptive Essay The Beach, Essays

Creative Development free essay sample

Describe why creative development is important to children’s learning. Playing is how children have fun, but it is also how they learn. Creative development is important to a child’s learning as it helps them to find out about the world and how to get on with others, it also helps them express themselves, develop their abstract thinking. It can allow them to make choices, solve problems and develop their social and communication skills. Creative development: * Builds self-esteem: providing children creative resources, confirming their right to play and encourages individuality. * It increases self-awareness: Feel free to express by themselves, a characteristic that stimulates and is stimulated by the creative process, is a prerequisite for success in different areas. In a positive environment, children can express their feelings and be themselves. * Develop communication: Children who are denied the opportunity to express themselves, tend to express their feelings directly and inadequate, for example, stealing, damaging or breaking objects. We will write a custom essay sample on Creative Development or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page * It promotes socialization: Children who know how to express a range of feelings have a clear advantage in social relationships. Become more aware of the feelings of others and also more receptive. 1. Describe how creative development links to other areas of learning and development within the framework related to own work setting. Creative development can link many other areas of development, for example: In my workplace I use the ocean as a topic to make jellyfishes; this activity links most of the areas of EYFS: * Communication and language development: I discuss with the children about the animals and plants that live in the ocean, they all manage to name some which they already known. Personal, social and emotional development: this activity teaches them to share and take turns with utensils and respect each other. Using imagination and sharing their feelings via the jellyfish, * Physical development: gain confidence using scissor through cutting paper plates and tissue paper to make jellyfishes. * Mathematics: To encourage the children to count the tentacles on the jellyfish and figure out how many they have.

Leading The World Steve Forbes Essays - Communist States

Leading The World: Steve Forbes Leading the World Steve Forbes is a conservative Republican. As President, Steve will advance the United States back to its undisputed world leader status. The Forbes Administration will pursue three objectives in obtaining this status. The first and foremost objective is to protect American sovereignty and security. The second objective is advancing individual liberty and human rights. The last is opening new markets and expanding existing markets throughout Asia. Steve Forbes believes the next President must begin a major rebuilding of our military. Our armed forced are now hollowed out. The United States military personnel are not being adequately paid. As President, Forbes will pay American military personnel a competitive wage and reduce the time they are away from their families. We must also use the United States high-tech advantage to deploy a state-of-the-art ballistic missile defense system. Communist China has missiles that can now reach California and North Korea will soon have missiles that can reach Hawaii and Alaska. Iran is rapidly developing both nuclear weapons and the means to deliver those weapons by missile. United States officials confirmed they are monitoring Chinese construction of a missile launching facility near Taiwan. The U.S. said it has made clear to the Chinese government our concerns regarding Chinese missile development and its influence on the situation between them and Taiwan. China considers Taiwan a renegad e province and has threatened to invade if the island regime declares independence. This new missile facility reportedly would be capable of handling 100 of China's newest missiles, which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.(USA Today Wed. 11/25/99) The United States can not afford to wait any longer. One of the goals of this strengthened military will be to protect American friends and interest around the world. The United States must defend Taiwan from communist China, we must deal with North Korea nuclear threats and protect South Korea and other American friends in Asia and we must contain Iranian expansionist ambitions. The Forbes Administration will work closely with pro-American countries in the Middle East, especially Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey. With their population and their communist government's constant human rights abuses and military adventures, we must change the United States-China policy for the 21st century. The rise of China as a new power is one of the greatest challenges we face as a nation as we enter the 21st century. Our failure to properly handle the rise of Germany and Japan earlier in the 20th century cost the world and us dearly. We dare not make the same mistake with China.(No More Business As Usual speech by Steve Forbes at Nixon Library 11/12/99) Steve Forbes is calling for the American Government to confront the Chinese human rights abuses. There been reports out of China that Buddhist and Christians are being tortured because of their religion. Methods of torture reported include the crushing of Christians feet and ankles as they are forced to kneel, tormenting with electric cattle prongs and the execution of prisoners to obtain their organs for sale.(Freedomhouse.com) They also exploit these religious prisoners for profit, often using them for slave labor to produce export goods. For example, China's slave labor camps operate 140 export enterprises, selling products to over 70 countries, including the U.S. But in 1997, Congressman Chris Smith, introduced a bill to keep China's slave labor products out of our country. Steve Forbes supported the bill at the time, and as President, Steve Forbes will vigorously enforce it and fight slave labor practices around the world.([emailprotected]) Steve Forbes also believes that we must step up our weapons research to reopen the technological gap between us and the countries that threaten. We must not let China's growing nuclear arsenal threaten the United States any longer. Forbes states, China must understand the security umbrella America provides in the Pacific promotes stability and serves the long-term interest of all powers.(No More Business as Usual, Forbes) As President, Steve Forbes will also open new markets and expand existing markets around the world. Forbes states, we must first put an immediate halt to all dangerous trade practices. He will ban the sales of all technology to China that can be used for military purposes. He will

Free Essays on Greece And Rome

Rome and Greece both had similarities in the way they were built. Both were formed on the edges of a body of water. Both relied on the land and surrounding area for hunting and agriculture. In Greece, the first city was built on the palatine hill. They proceeded to build other structures in the same area; mostly this is the hill in which homes were built on. The built their capitol on Capital hill. Also on the same hill they built temples to worship in. Cliffs that were hard to reach surrounded Capitol Hill. They had many stages in the development in Greece. The Cycladic stage was first; here they relied on metalworking and developing trade routes. The Cycladic stage ended around 1550 BC. The Minoans came next. In this stage they formed the first stages of writing and law. This stage came to an end in 1220 BC. The Dark Ages were from 1200 to 800 BC. In this period they formed a military, had a population problem, and were constantly at war with one an other. In Archaic Greece they expanded on writing and literature. The religion they followed was based on gods and goddesses. From 500 to 100 BC they went through major changes. They had an ever-changing leadership, took a more appealing look at art, gave women more of a public life, and fought with the Peloponnesian wars. Rome has a very small history compared to Greece. They built on the banks of the Tiber River. They also had Capitoline hill and Palatine hill. They also had a Forum; this is where all their trade was done. The Romans had their own alphabet, language, laws and government. Between 509-146 BC they changed from a city to empire. They carried the language of Latin. The Romans also fought wars. The First and Second Punic Wars took a tremendous toll on Rome. The similarities between the two are numerous. The two governments both had rule over the people. They also had high taxes in both. The two were different in respects to the type of gove... Free Essays on Greece And Rome Free Essays on Greece And Rome Rome and Greece both had similarities in the way they were built. Both were formed on the edges of a body of water. Both relied on the land and surrounding area for hunting and agriculture. In Greece, the first city was built on the palatine hill. They proceeded to build other structures in the same area; mostly this is the hill in which homes were built on. The built their capitol on Capital hill. Also on the same hill they built temples to worship in. Cliffs that were hard to reach surrounded Capitol Hill. They had many stages in the development in Greece. The Cycladic stage was first; here they relied on metalworking and developing trade routes. The Cycladic stage ended around 1550 BC. The Minoans came next. In this stage they formed the first stages of writing and law. This stage came to an end in 1220 BC. The Dark Ages were from 1200 to 800 BC. In this period they formed a military, had a population problem, and were constantly at war with one an other. In Archaic Greece they expanded on writing and literature. The religion they followed was based on gods and goddesses. From 500 to 100 BC they went through major changes. They had an ever-changing leadership, took a more appealing look at art, gave women more of a public life, and fought with the Peloponnesian wars. Rome has a very small history compared to Greece. They built on the banks of the Tiber River. They also had Capitoline hill and Palatine hill. They also had a Forum; this is where all their trade was done. The Romans had their own alphabet, language, laws and government. Between 509-146 BC they changed from a city to empire. They carried the language of Latin. The Romans also fought wars. The First and Second Punic Wars took a tremendous toll on Rome. The similarities between the two are numerous. The two governments both had rule over the people. They also had high taxes in both. The two were different in respects to the type of gove...

Benefits and challenges of labour migration

The countries in question can be classified according to their status as sending or receiving country in correspondence to their level of social and economic development. Workers move between them, cascading from poorer to richer countries. In each of the countries, they mainly take jobs in labour-intensive sectors with low skill requirements and low pay. These are most of all construction, agriculture, hotel and catering as well as domestic services. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Migrants defines a migrant worker as a â€Å"person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a state of which he or she is not a resident†. But there is considerable conceptual difficulty in defining a migrant. Migration of labourer takes different forms. In one end, the place of working and residence of the labourer may be different, and the distance covered by daily commuting. At the other end, the worker’s may move permanently from their places of birth or usual place of residence, maintaining little or no contact with their places of origin. Between these two ends, people move away for differing periods of time. Based on how long they are away from their place of origin, the migrants are distinguished as ‘permanent’, ‘semi-permanent’ and ‘temporary’. Labour migration belongs to temporary migration, which is likely to stay away from their places of origin for more than a few months in a year. The temporary migrants are also known as ‘short duration’ migrants, ‘seasonal’ migrants or ‘circulatory’ migrants. The decision to migrate for economic reasons can have both positive and negative consequences. Migrants may secure a better income, have access to better social services, and be able to provide a better education for their children or benefit from the enrichment of becoming a member of a transnational community at ease in different cultures. However, migration may also cause family disruption when family members have to stay behind, and may involve sacrificing a familiar lifestyle and becoming a â€Å"stranger† in a new country. The complexity of the present day migration stream has intensified with distinctions between migrant workers, trainees, tourists, refugees and displaced persons becoming increasingly blurred. The term â€Å"migrants† appears to be broader than the term ‘migrant workers’ and is increasingly used in international discussions of human rights. The traditional explanation of migration as a movement from poor to rich nations is too simplified. There are both economic and non-economic factors affecting these flows. International migration has contributed to growth and prosperity in both host and source countries. Migrant worker remittances represent the second largest international monetary trade flow, exceeded only by petroleum. Migrants also provide a valuable source of semi-skilled and unskilled labour to many industrialising countries and provide a source of highly skilled labour to advanced countries, thereby assisting the latter in maintaining economic competitiveness. Labour migration policies differ from other migration policies directed at migration flows that may also have an impact on labour markets, for example refugee and family reunification, in the sense that they do not have humanitarian objectives but apply economic criteria with a view to responding to labour market needs. Governments at all points on the migration spectrum increasingly recognize the potential of regulatory mechanisms to maximize the positive impact of labour migration. Many sending and receiving countries are developing their regulatory capacities to manage labour mobility by considering the interests of respective governments, societies, and the migrant. Positive tensions for receiving countries: raise total output and incomes in the rich, host countries; increase efficiency in the use of the world’s resources all around, in rich and poor countries; increase the supply of entrepreneurship and stimulate the creation of small business; increase savings, investment, and human capital formation in the rich countries; accelerate the pace of innovation; increase the flow of remittances to poor countries; alleviate the economic problems associated with the aging population in rich countries. Globalization is a major driving force of international labour migration. Globalization has made migration much easier through better communications, dissemination of information through mass media and improved transport. Countries are at different stages of demographic transition, with developing countries typically having younger populations than developed countries. One of the most frequently cited costs of migration is so-called ‘brain drain’ — the loss of educated workers with valuable skills, which can impose large losses on governments that bear the costs of education and training. Brain drain is potentially a concern for all economies, both developing and developed, with some developed economies experiencing significant rates of skilled emigration. The greatest global concern in the area of international labour migration is the unprecedented rise in irregular forms of migration that has occurred in recent years. The numbers of unauthorized migrant workers are increasing in virtually every part of the world. A large proportion of labour migration occurs illegally, aided and abetted by a clandestine and often criminal industry. Increasingly, governments of both sending and receiving countries are developing regulatory mechanisms to manage labour migration. These include selective recruitment policies by countries needing labour, and strong marketing and overseas employment strategies by countries supplying labour. Migrant workers benefit host countries in a number of ways. The overall economic impact of all migrant workers to the UK for example suggests that they make a positive net contribution of around  £2.5 billion to the public accounts. There are huge implications for sending countries as a result of out-migration, the most crucial of which are the loss of expertise and skills. This brain drain is particularly acute in developing countries, especially where the move abroad is permanent. Public services, such as health, education and social services, are losing large numbers of skilled workers to migration. Structural changes and decreasing investment in the public sector has increased the pressure on public sector workers to migrate, as shown by trends in the health and education sectors. Although many economic migrants work in relatively low-paid jobs they regularly send money home to their families and relatives. However, it is difficult to estimate the scale of these remittances to sending countries because of the often informal manner in which they are returned, but there is little doubt that they contribute to the national income of the countries involved, and act as a stimulus to longer-term economic growth. Migrant workers who return home bring experience and knowledge from working in another country. This benefits the home country as a whole by adding to its pool of talented workers, particularly where the skills are relevant to the needs of the home economy and the migrant workers are willing to use them upon return. It also benefits the individual worker who will have developed through contact with people possessing a range of human, intellectual and professional skills. Access to educational and language courses in the host country should open up opportunities for career promotion at home and assist the personal development of each worker. Bibliography International Organisation for Migration. 2005. World Migration 2005. Costs and Benefits of International Migration. Kothari, U. (2002). Migration and chronic poverty. Chronic Poverty Research Centre. Institute for Development Policy and Management. University of Manchester. Working Paper No. 16. Linard, Andre. (1998). Migration and globalization: The new slaves. Brussels: ICFTU, July. Stalker, Peter. (2000). Workers without frontiers: The impact of globalization on international migration. International Labour Office, Geneva. World Economic and Social Survey. (2004). International migration trends Chapter11. World Health Organisation. Health and Human Rights Publications Series. Issue No.4 (December 2003). International Migration, Health and Human Rights. Benefits and challenges of labour migration The countries in question can be classified according to their status as sending or receiving country in correspondence to their level of social and economic development. Workers move between them, cascading from poorer to richer countries. In each of the countries, they mainly take jobs in labour-intensive sectors with low skill requirements and low pay. These are most of all construction, agriculture, hotel and catering as well as domestic services. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Migrants defines a migrant worker as a â€Å"person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a state of which he or she is not a resident†. But there is considerable conceptual difficulty in defining a migrant. Migration of labourer takes different forms. In one end, the place of working and residence of the labourer may be different, and the distance covered by daily commuting. At the other end, the worker’s may move permanently from their places of birth or usual place of residence, maintaining little or no contact with their places of origin. Between these two ends, people move away for differing periods of time. Based on how long they are away from their place of origin, the migrants are distinguished as ‘permanent’, ‘semi-permanent’ and ‘temporary’. Labour migration belongs to temporary migration, which is likely to stay away from their places of origin for more than a few months in a year. The temporary migrants are also known as ‘short duration’ migrants, ‘seasonal’ migrants or ‘circulatory’ migrants. The decision to migrate for economic reasons can have both positive and negative consequences. Migrants may secure a better income, have access to better social services, and be able to provide a better education for their children or benefit from the enrichment of becoming a member of a transnational community at ease in different cultures. However, migration may also cause family disruption when family members have to stay behind, and may involve sacrificing a familiar lifestyle and becoming a â€Å"stranger† in a new country. The complexity of the present day migration stream has intensified with distinctions between migrant workers, trainees, tourists, refugees and displaced persons becoming increasingly blurred. The term â€Å"migrants† appears to be broader than the term ‘migrant workers’ and is increasingly used in international discussions of human rights. The traditional explanation of migration as a movement from poor to rich nations is too simplified. There are both economic and non-economic factors affecting these flows. International migration has contributed to growth and prosperity in both host and source countries. Migrant worker remittances represent the second largest international monetary trade flow, exceeded only by petroleum. Migrants also provide a valuable source of semi-skilled and unskilled labour to many industrialising countries and provide a source of highly skilled labour to advanced countries, thereby assisting the latter in maintaining economic competitiveness. Labour migration policies differ from other migration policies directed at migration flows that may also have an impact on labour markets, for example refugee and family reunification, in the sense that they do not have humanitarian objectives but apply economic criteria with a view to responding to labour market needs. Governments at all points on the migration spectrum increasingly recognize the potential of regulatory mechanisms to maximize the positive impact of labour migration. Many sending and receiving countries are developing their regulatory capacities to manage labour mobility by considering the interests of respective governments, societies, and the migrant. Positive tensions for receiving countries: raise total output and incomes in the rich, host countries; increase efficiency in the use of the world’s resources all around, in rich and poor countries; increase the supply of entrepreneurship and stimulate the creation of small business; increase savings, investment, and human capital formation in the rich countries; accelerate the pace of innovation; increase the flow of remittances to poor countries; alleviate the economic problems associated with the aging population in rich countries. Globalization is a major driving force of international labour migration. Globalization has made migration much easier through better communications, dissemination of information through mass media and improved transport. Countries are at different stages of demographic transition, with developing countries typically having younger populations than developed countries. One of the most frequently cited costs of migration is so-called ‘brain drain’ — the loss of educated workers with valuable skills, which can impose large losses on governments that bear the costs of education and training. Brain drain is potentially a concern for all economies, both developing and developed, with some developed economies experiencing significant rates of skilled emigration. The greatest global concern in the area of international labour migration is the unprecedented rise in irregular forms of migration that has occurred in recent years. The numbers of unauthorized migrant workers are increasing in virtually every part of the world. A large proportion of labour migration occurs illegally, aided and abetted by a clandestine and often criminal industry. Increasingly, governments of both sending and receiving countries are developing regulatory mechanisms to manage labour migration. These include selective recruitment policies by countries needing labour, and strong marketing and overseas employment strategies by countries supplying labour. Migrant workers benefit host countries in a number of ways. The overall economic impact of all migrant workers to the UK for example suggests that they make a positive net contribution of around  £2.5 billion to the public accounts. There are huge implications for sending countries as a result of out-migration, the most crucial of which are the loss of expertise and skills. This brain drain is particularly acute in developing countries, especially where the move abroad is permanent. Public services, such as health, education and social services, are losing large numbers of skilled workers to migration. Structural changes and decreasing investment in the public sector has increased the pressure on public sector workers to migrate, as shown by trends in the health and education sectors. Although many economic migrants work in relatively low-paid jobs they regularly send money home to their families and relatives. However, it is difficult to estimate the scale of these remittances to sending countries because of the often informal manner in which they are returned, but there is little doubt that they contribute to the national income of the countries involved, and act as a stimulus to longer-term economic growth. Migrant workers who return home bring experience and knowledge from working in another country. This benefits the home country as a whole by adding to its pool of talented workers, particularly where the skills are relevant to the needs of the home economy and the migrant workers are willing to use them upon return. It also benefits the individual worker who will have developed through contact with people possessing a range of human, intellectual and professional skills. Access to educational and language courses in the host country should open up opportunities for career promotion at home and assist the personal development of each worker. Bibliography International Organisation for Migration. 2005. World Migration 2005. Costs and Benefits of International Migration. Kothari, U. (2002). Migration and chronic poverty. Chronic Poverty Research Centre. Institute for Development Policy and Management. University of Manchester. Working Paper No. 16. Linard, Andre. (1998). Migration and globalization: The new slaves. Brussels: ICFTU, July. Stalker, Peter. (2000). Workers without frontiers: The impact of globalization on international migration. International Labour Office, Geneva. World Economic and Social Survey. (2004). International migration trends Chapter11. World Health Organisation. Health and Human Rights Publications Series. Issue No.4 (December 2003). International Migration, Health and Human Rights.

The role of entrepenurship in the 1860-1900 and the role of technolgy Essay

The role of entrepenurship in the 1860-1900 and the role of technolgy in railroads and government influence and tariff policys a - Essay Example The demand for steel and oil hit an all time high. This industry had very renowned personalities (Link and Susannah 34). These included John D. Rockefeller who dealt in oil and Andrew Carnegie, who dealt in steel. These individuals went by the name of robber barons because people believed that they got their wealth through unscrupulous business deals. It is Gilded Age because of the notable fortunes realized in the period and people’s improved level of affordability. It is during Gilded Age that the United States shifted from an agricultural society to an urban industrial society. This was as a result of massive movement of people to cities after the Civil War. In 1860, only twenty percent of people in the U.S.A lived in cities. This number grew to forty percent in 1900. Cities provided a place of adventure for young people who left the countryside to go to towns and cities. This heightened modernization in the U.S.A as more skyscrapers came up department stores emerged and, t elephone and electric lamps installed. Consumerism and middle classes emerged as a result of industrialization and immigration into cities (Meyer 61). Technology and expansion of railroad Railroad was perhaps the single most important factor that transformed industrial cities in the West in the 1800s. The advanced technology of the time enabled the building of railroads that helped ease transportation around the U.S.A and made travelling safe and cheap. Transcontinental lines helped move grain, people, ore, cattle, and equipment to and from across the Midwest. Railroad passed through Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada and the fertile areas of California and Oregon (Link and Susannah 35). The building of railroads transport transformed the landscape of the West. Bison travelled across the Great Plains to provide food and clothing to Native American tribes. Railroads destroyed Bison’s habitat and brought sport hunters to their environment. Americans killed many Bison and by 1885, o nly 1,000 Bison survived. There were other things that contributed to the expansion of railroads in the U.S.A. One important factor was the Civil War. The Civil War caused an increase in U.S.A’s industrial production leaving it among the world’s leading industrial producers in the 1890. The war also accelerated the growth of corporations as it demanded more consumer goods and services. The growth and popularity of money capital also contributed greatly to the expansion of railroads as it attracted foreign investors into American economy. Consequently, more people increased their investment in capitalist ventures. Government support of business also had an impact on the growth of railroads in America (Meyer 62). The government donated enormous land to railroad companies for the expansion of railroad transport. Pullman sleeper car complemented the development of railroad transport by increasing railroad passengers’ comfort. Double sets of tracks took the place of a single set track system. This enabled two-way rail traffic with snarl-up. Iron rails gave way to steel rails that could handle heavy weight loads. The development of locomotive tenders enabled the use of coal to power trains. Coal took the place of wood as it was more efficient than wood. Coal power cut on the number of times trains had to stop and refuel (Link and Susannah 36). After Westinghouse got patent rights for air brakes, mechanical brakes paved the way for air brakes. Air brakes allowed for

Write a letter to a friend what it was like being a 19th century Essay

Write a letter to a friend what it was like being a 19th century worker. involving karl max and Robert Owen odeas - Essay Example As many factories began to emerge, people started to work at factories instead of at farms as it was before industrialization. Children started working for many of factories, Mines, and shops that needed help, and there were not enough men or women to meet the increasing labor demands. Children were seen as cheap, plentiful, and easy to control labor. Orphanages and even parents would give up their children to the cotton mills owners and other operators in exchange for sustenance. As young Children, we had to do the most dangerous and difficult jobs like coal mining, and fixing broken machinery. The coal mines were the worst because young children had to travel through the mines with poor lighting, and often carrying loads. Working from six in the morning to nine at night with no meals and a long distance from home the children suffered. If late for work, the children were often beaten, and if we worked slowly, or fell asleep at the machines, the supervisors could hit us using a strap. Women and children offered cheap labor and could work for less than a man would accept. Spending so many hours a day over factory machines often left us with bowed legs and poorly developed limbs and muscles. If one of us not "lucky" enough to be employed in these mines, he had the unpleasant option of living on the streets, which was accompanied with raw sewage, rotting animals, vegetable wastes, rats, disease, and putrid water. They also had to find food and a place to stay in when it is rainy and cold. Karl Marx was an idealist. He envisaged the cruelties and injustices that children, endured during the period of the industrial revolution. It was from the events that Marx developed the communist idea. Karl Marx was one of those reformers proposing and arguing for the reforms through the Communist Manifesto. His goals of the communist party were to end the exploitation of the working class and create a society with equality and no social classes. Marx has helped

Tobacco Mosaic Virus Essay Example for Free

Tobacco Mosaic Virus Essay Hosts for Tomatoe Mosaic Virus include tobacco, tomato, and other solanaceous plants. TMV enters the plant cell through minor wounds. The virus can also contaminate seed coats, and the plants germinating from these seeds can become infected. Once TMV enters the cell, the virus particles disassemble in an organized manner to expose the TMV RNA. The virus RNA is positive-sense, or + sense, and serves directly as a messenger RNA (mRNA) that is translated using host ribosomes. Translation of the replicase-associated proteins (RP) than begins. As soon as these proteins have been synthesized, the replicase associates with the 3 end of the + sense TMV RNA for the production of a negative sense RNA. The sense RNA is the template to produce both full-length genomic + sense RNA as well as the + sense subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs). The sgRNAs are translated by the host ribosomes to produce the movement protein (MP) (30 kDa) and the coat protein (CP). These virus particles are very stable and, at some point when the cells are broken or the leaf dries up, they are released to infect new plants. Alternatively, the + sense TMV RNA is wrapped in a movement protein, and this can infect adjacent cells. TMV uses its movement protein to spread from cell-to-cell through plasmodesmata, which connect plant cells. Normally, the plasmodesmata are too small for passage of intact TMV particles. The movement protein (probably with some unknown assistance) enlarges the plasmodesmatal openings so that TMV RNA can move to the adjacent cells, release the movement protein and host proteins, and initiate a new round of infection. As the virus moves from cell to cell, it eventually reaches the plants vascular system (veins) for rapid systemic spread through the phloem to the roots and tips of the growing plant.

Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, K.Wojtyla on Person and Ego Essay example

Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, K.Wojtyla on Person and Ego ABSTRACT: Today the connection between "person" and the "I" is acknowledged in many respects but not always analyzed. The need to relate it to the reality of the human being has sparked the present investigation of the philosophical anthropology of four thinkers from the late ancient, medieval, and contemporary periods. Although it may seem that the question of the role of the "I" with respect to the human being hinges on the larger problem of objectivity v. subjectivity, this does not seem to be the case. Many topics, however, are necessarily entailed in this investigation such as individuality and universality, soul and body, consciousness and action, substance and history, the self and the other, the metaphysical and the phenomenological, and experience and the ethical. At the end of this study we arrive at more than a grammatical use of the "I." From reflection on the contributions of Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, and Wojtyla, the ontological role of the "I" is identified. In doi ng so, one realizes that the ontological does not forsake the concrete, but penetrates it more deeply. Indeed, that was what Plotinian philosophy claimed to be doing: recognizing the richness of human reality. A common interpretation of Plato's theory of human reality is to identify it with "soul." It has been for some a problem as to whether or not Plotinus adhered to his master's position on this point. H. J. Blumenthal initiated much discussion when he asked: "Did Plotinus believe in Ideas of Individuals?" (1) Supported by apparently contradictory texts Blumenthal concluded that Plotinus did believe at times in such ideas, and at other times did not. One way that commentators take in s... ..., De Genesi ad litteram VII.27.38. (10) Augustine, De anima et ejus origine IV.2.3. (11) Augustine, De Trinitate XII.4.4; VII.6.11. (12) Augustine, De Trinitate XV.5.7; Epistula 137.3.11; De civitate Dei V.11. (13) Augustine, De civitate Dei XXI.7. (14) Thomas Aquinas, St. Summa Theologiae I,29,3,c. (15) Thomas Aquinas, St. op.cit. I.29, ad 2. (16) F.D. Wilhelmensen, "The "I" and Aquinas" Proceedings ACPA, v. 51, 1977, p. 51 (17) Thomas Aquinas, St. Summa contra Gentiles I.65. (18) Augustine, De Trinitate X.11; Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I.87,3,c. (19) Wilhelmsen, op. cit. p. 55. (20) K. Wojtyla, "The Personal Structure of Self-Determination," Tommaso D'Aquino nel suo VII Centenano, Roma, l974, 379-390. (21) K. Wais, Metafizyka, 1924. (22) M.T. Clark, "An Inquiry into Personhood," Review of Metaphysics, 46, 1, 1992,3-28.

Case Study in Baguio

INTRODUCTIONSocio-cultural can be easily understood by anyone because it only defines  the interaction of people and different kinds of culture and tourism is one of the reasons there have been a generation of socio-cultural impacts. Socio-cultural impacts of tourism are described as the effects on the host communities of direct and indirect interaction with the tourists and the relation with the tourism industry. The impacts arise when tourism brings about changes in value systems and behavior and thereby threatens indigenous identity.Furthermore, changes often occur in community structure, family relationships, collective traditional life styles, ceremonies and morality. But tourism can also generate positive impacts as it can serve as a supportive force for peace, foster pride in cultural traditions and help avoid urban relocation by creating local jobs. As often happens when different cultures meet, socio-cultural impacts are ambiguous: the same objectively described impacts ar e seen as beneficial by some groups, and are perceived as negative – or as having negative aspects – by other stakeholders.OBJECTIVEThis case study aims to address the socio-cultural impacts of Tourism on researcher’s chosen host community which is Baguio by going on the place, doing observation, information gathering and interviewing indigenous people. Another reason is to generate or create possible strategies in giving solution to the negative impacts and to strengthen the positive impacts that has been observe in the area. This case study also aims to explain this issue with our fellow Tourism Students that will help in giving better understanding with the subject.OBSERVATIONFrom the long span of time that we have spent in observing the changes happened to the â€Å"summer capital of the Philippines†, we have determined positive and negative impacts of tourism in the socio-cultural aspects of Baguio. These are the results:POSITIVE NEGATIVE Cultural Pr eservation Congestion of Residential Construction and Overpopulation Preservation of Man-Made Attractions Prostitution Strengthening Communities Production of Prohibited Drugs Generating Work for Local Communities Pollution and Waste Development of Facilities Traffic Peace Undergoing Transportation infrastructure Increasing Crime Rate Cultural Diversity Figure 1. Positive and Negative Impacts of Tourism in Socio-CulturalANALYZATIONBy going personally at Baguio city, we’ve been capable of analyzing positive and negative impacts of tourism in socio-cultural aspects and to fully understand the identified impacts. Here are the explanations: On the positive impacts:Cultural preservation – Tourism helped boost the preservation and transmission of cultural and historical traditions, which often contributes to the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, the protection of local heritage, and a renaissance of indigenous cultures, cultural arts and crafts. P reservation of Man-made attraction – Aside from preservation of cultural arts, they also become aware of making different places in Baguio beautiful and well preserved for a long time because these are one of their ways in facing the demands of the tourists Strengthening communities – Tourism can helped in adding vitality in the city of Baguio in many ways.One example is that events and festivals of which local residents have been the primary participants and spectators are often rejuvenated and developed in response to tourist interest. Generating work for local communities – To fulfill the needs of the tourists, tourism created jobs for the local residents that gave answer also to the needs of the community and the economy. Local residents also don’t need to be away from their families  to look for a job. Development of facilities – the development of the tourism in the city of Baguio gave benefit to the local residents because tourism helped i n the improvement of infrastructures, health, and transportation facilities. Also, new sport and recreational facilities, restaurants, and public spaces as well as an influx of better-quality commodities and food bringing Baguio to a higher and better standard of living.On the negative impacts:Congestion of Residential construction and Overpopulation – Baguio is very blessed in natural resources specially the weather and because of these one of a kind asset that can’t be found in other places, a lot of people wished and moved to Baguio to experience and enjoy the gifts of God to Baguio but because of that interest. A lot of people are already congested in the mountains of Baguio and they are the reason why some of the natural resources are already destroyed. They keep on building housing infrastructure in Baguio that we can’t even find an open space. Prostitution – we can’t change the fact that in most of the famous destinations in the Philippines that had been fully affected by the changes of this generation and influenced by the liberation of other culture became prone to prostitution. This kind of impact lowers the morality of the community which is not good for the residents of Baguio.Production of Prohibited drugs – from what we have heard, drug dealers can produce good quality of prohibited drugs because of the convenient weather and to think of it, it has also the same impact of prostitution. It lowers the morality and drives the younger residents of Baguio to this unlikely nature. And it also brings criminal rate of the city to a higher scale. Pollution and waste – there are ton of people visiting and living in Baguio and that gives a ton of waste to land and air. Hotels and other establishments assessing the needs of the tourists is the primary contributor of these waste but it can be solve with the participation of the residents and tourists in Baguio.Traffic – it doesn’t really concern i n the cultural aspects that Baguio have but it does concern in the society. The primary mode of transportation going to Baguio is by car and since there are hundreds of people with cars are going to Baguio, it causes traffic and congestion that also results to the inconvenience of  everyone. Undergoing transportation infrastructure – In relation to the traffic, we have observe as we travel going to Baguio, there are a lot of roads that are either wrecked or under construction making the travel time a lot longer. Baguio is a famous destination and it is much better if the roads are fixed and there are lights on the side of the roads that can give safety to the visitors travelling to Baguio.Cultural Diversity – Cultural diversity has a different case, it has both the positive and negative impacts in the socio-cultural aspects. Baguio always faces different kinds of culture for a long period of time already and as everything is improving, Baguio also improves with it. L ocal residents learned how to make their lifestyles much better and try to be in with the current trends today but because of that, some of the cultures in Benguet are already fading and almost forgotten which is the bad side of the improving society. Some of the local residents are already socialized and the number of pure natives is decreasing fast due to the time and the influence of tourists that has different cultures. Increasing Crime Rate – with a lot of tourist, we can’t really be sure that all of them have good intentions and some of them became snatcher and holdapers. With these incidents, it became a threat to some tourist and this gives them the reason not to go to Baguio. It lessens their security and safetyCONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONWe concluded on the end of our observation that Baguio still has rich cultural arts that should be seen by more future generations and the local residents of Baguio are very good at preserving their cultural heritage. Even t he society is being more into the current trend, it is nice that they still treasure their culture and they are also proud of it. It terms of finding solution and suggestions to the problems and to improve their strengths, the only possible answers we can get are these: More support from the Government in implementing further rules and regulations Participation and Discipline of both Local Residents and Tourists Cooperation of the Hotels, restaurants and other service facilities in Baguio Awareness of everyone to the environmental issues

Narrative Observation of a Child Essay

Mother enters the room with takeaway from KFC and places it on the dining table. Subhaan (3:5) is the first child to approach the table and sit down on the seat. While aunt takes out food from the carrier bags, she asks Subhaan, â€Å"Is that your plate?† Subhaan replies â€Å"Yeah† and right before the aunt is about to put the food on his plate he immediately says†No, is that mine?. Aunt replies, â€Å"Yes† and places his meal on the plate. Subhaan sat on his knees and started bouncing on them as he picked two french fries to eat. While the aunt is emptying the bags, Subhaan stands on his knees and peeks into the carrier bags then sits back down to eat his food. Aunt ignores him as she continues talking to Subhaan’s mother. Subhaan attempts to pull out a paper cup from the stack and then hold it in both his hands. Ayesha (5:0) asks Subhaan, â€Å"Do you want water?† to which Subhaan holds up his empty paper cup and replies, â€Å"No, this is mine†. He starts playing with his cup as he tries to hold it to his mouth and then placed it on his eye, pretending it was a telescope, Subhaan started scanning the room from side to side. Subhaan puts his empty cup down and grabs another bite. He then makes a cranky high pitched noise that grabbed his aunt’s attention who noticed he was pointing at his empty cup. The aunt poured the drink half full in the cup. He takes a sip and watches Ayesha eat her meal happily. Subhaan continues his meal bouncing while sitting on his knees and then swaying from side to side as he eats. Subhaan notices a sealed straw on the table, picks it and points it at his mother loudly saying, † Mama.. mama, please open†. During the period the mother and aunt are continuously involved in a table conversation. His mother takes the straw and starts unwrapping when Ayesha asks, â€Å"Mama, what does he need that for?†. Mother ignores Ayesha as she continues the conversation with the aunt. Subhaan starts chewing his food slowly and sits back in a lazy manner. He then sits up and starts reading the children’s meal box in front of him. He sits up on his knees again to be able to drink directly from the straw fixed in his cup to his mouth using just the index finger and thumb of his dominant hand (right-hand). He sits back down, shakes his head a few times then starts looking under the table. He sits back up and starts slapping the wall on his left. He pauses to look at everyone else at the table still busy with their conversation, then returns back to his meal box and peaks inside it. He pushes away the meal box and looks at his mother to see if she noticed. However the mother is still occupied socially with his aunt. Subhaan makes a random loud noise, â€Å"Tadaaaaaa!† which made his aunt notice him and puts his meal box infront of him again saying, â€Å"Subhaan, you haven’t finished†. Subhaan does not reply instead he sinks back in his chair. After a few seconds he sits back up and drinks directly from the straw without using his hands or fingers to touch the cup. Subhaan rotates on the chair turning his back towards the table and facing towards the tv lounge. Soon he starts to rock the chair slightly from side to side. He turns back around and get off his seat to approach his mother and say,† Mama, mama† Mother replied,† Yes, son?† Subhaan answered shyly, â€Å"Toilet† and ran off towards the door and takes a glance back to see if his mother is following him or not. Meanwhile everyone has finished their dinner and settle down in the tv lounge. Subhaan enters the room followed by his mother. He quickly runs up to the sofa to join Ayesha who is running up and down the two joined sofas while singing, â€Å"I like you- I like you- I love you-I like you†. Subhaan follows Ayesha jumping behind her while repeating what Ayesha is singing. Ayesha comes down from the sofa and starts dancing and singing on the floor. Subhaan stands on the sofa leaning slightly on the wall behind to watch what ayesha was doing next and then runs off to his mother sitting on the chair. Mother looks up at ayesha and says, † Ayesha take him up and change, I’m coming†. Subhaan walks towards the door and waits there for Ayesha but notices ayesha avoid her mothers orders, instead shows off a paper sailboat to her aunt. Aunt smiles and replies, â€Å"Thats nice! come on lets go upstairs now.† Subhaan watches as ayesha ends her play by bowing down t o the audience and says, † Thank you for listening to my song†. Subhaan grabs their attention by walking up to his aunt and saying, † I want something from upstairs, come†. He then open the door and runs off towards the stairs as his Aunt and Ayesha followed him. Subhaan stopped at the entrance of the room to look upto the light switch but Ayesha pushes him gently to push the button on herself. At the same moment he says, â€Å"Put the lights on† and when the light switches on he expresses by saying, â€Å"Ahhhh, yes†. He then walks towards the end of his bed while Ayesha invites their aunt in bowing down once again to say, † Happy†¦..umm happy gentlemen and, and ladies. Subhaan stands in the corner and looks at her carefully. At this time the observation came to its end at 8:25 pm. Evaluation: During the 25 minute observation Subhaan (3:6) showed almost continuous play activity demonstrating his physical development and fine motor skills like a typical child of his age. For the most part Subhaan was happy playing by himself showing both physical and imaginative skills in solitary play. According to Parten ‘Solitary Play’ (Hughes, 1991) is when a child plays by himself. Often in this form of play children develop play and activities generating from their imagination as children in the pre-operational stage have vast imagination that helps them revise, repeat or practise their knowledge and skills into a playful activity (Sheridan, 1997). As I observe Subhaan invest time and energy in play I can see him learn and develop concepts about movement, noises and skills. Most of the time Subhaan was involved in ‘Locomotor Play’, including exercise play (e.g bouncing, running, etc) (Hughes, 1991). His ability to be engaged in continous exercise play supports the muscular and motor development of children his age as they are able to move freely with pleasure and confidence in a range of ways ( L.Dryden et al, 2007).For example, Subhaan sits with his feet up on the seat and elevates himself by sitting on his knees and bouncing up and down and moving from side to side during his meal. â€Å"The rocking, bouncing, hanging upside-down, skipping and hopping with which young children often express their excitement and enthusiasm- stimulates the brain and has a role to play in its development† ( Elliot(1991) in L.Dryden, 2007). For children 2 to 4 years of age, Field (1994) reports physical activity play accounting for 10% of all day-care behaviour. Children his age also run skilfully and negotiate space successfully adjusting their speed or direction to avoid obstacles (L.Dryden et al, 2007). This was identified when in later part of the observation Subhaan followed his sister running up and down the sofa. He was seen carefully balancing himself and slowing down while negotiating space to pass by when he would face an intersection from his sister coming from the opposite direction in a narrow space to cross. At an another occasion I observed Subhaan’s the moving and handling skills similar to children his age when he jumps of the chair and land appropriately balanced on his two feet. Subhaan attempts to sit on the chair with his back towards the dining table folding his legs against the back of the chair. At this time he attempts to rock the chair and succeeds to balance the chair while sitting backwards. Once he has attempted and achieved the action two to three times,he no longer felt the need or urge to perform it again. Bateson’s (1976) view of such play is â€Å"scaffolding†: Play functions in skill assembly, and then is disassembled when the skill is mastered. This could also be relevant to the observation. In the initial part of the meal Subhaan used his right hand fingers to stabilise the straw so that he could put it in his mouth; however towards the end of the meal he manages to place the straw in his mouth and drink without using his hand and fingers to touch the cup or straw. Therefore the initial play helped Subhaan gain more control of his activity and action once its assembled. I also observed exercise play affect Subhaan’s cognitive performance as it lead to heightened arousal and hyper-activity as he experiments with different ways of moving. Without a break Subhaan was rocking, bouncing, looking under the table, peeking into the boxes. According to the â€Å"In-verted-U hypothesis (Easterbrook, 1959) moderate levels of arousal lead to better performance than highly increased arousals that may lead to narrowing of attention to the core tasks. In Subhaan’s case this can be eating and finishing his meal. However I observed that by breaking up cognitive tasks while exercise play, Subhaan found the specifically playfully nature of the break to be considered more important than the meal, table conversation or any other activity that was taking place around him. The effects on his cognitive behaviour mediated by breaks and enhanced attention seemed to depend on enhanced feelings of mastery, well-being, after exercise play. This was noticed when every time Subhaan would master a movement he would return to his meal and find satisfaction and interest in eating once again. On the other hand Subhaan also showed interest in play with sounds as he slaps the walls beside him a few times to register the noise/sound it made (L.Dryden, 2007). There was some evidence of ‘Symbolic Play’ (Piaget in Macleod-Brudenell & Kay, 2008) when Subhaan uses the paper cup as a microphone when he puts it over his mouth and then later as a pretend telescope when he places it on on of his eyes and scans the room around him from left to right. Apart from these observation I also noticed another very common attribute in Subhaan of children his age. He likes to get attention and often he made a loud sound or noise to attract an adult’s attention when he feels neglected. For example when he shouts, â€Å"Tadaaaa† or at other occasion he would resort to calling his mother a few times until she listens or approach an adult physically to grab their attention by touch; such as Subhaan approaching his aunt to convince her to go upstairs by saying, â€Å"I want something from upstairs†.However in a different time and setting , for example at the dining table during the meal, Subhaan showed the ability to distract himself when neglected or upset by engaing in new play activity (Lindon, 1996) I would conclude by saying that Subhaan is showing typical normative motor skills and level of play even if some behaviour towards the adults can be interruptive, it might be a way to seek attention or an attempt to engage in interactive form of play.

Cultural Festivals in Thailand essays

Cultural Festivals in Thailand essays Thailands festivals are plentiful, but perhaps one of the most widely celebrated is the Loy Krathong Festival. The basis of this project is to learn the reasons behind this celebration, how it has changed over the years, and why. Although I have lived in Thailand for almost 9 years, a Western environment always surrounded me; therefore I had a lack of chance to satisfy my curiosities of the many Thai celebrations. I joined a visiting Thai friend in his celebration of Loy Krathong with his relatives and friends, where we dressed up in national Thai costume and floated the krathongs we made in Lake Mendota. The ceremony took place on October 31st, also known to the Thais as the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month. The people I celebrated with varied in age, gender, and experience. Some of these people live in Thailand but happened to come to Madison for vacation during Loy Krathong holidays. Some of them was born in the States and have never been back to Thailand before, whilst others were born in Thailand but are currently residing in the States. In order to maximize my understanding of this festival, I believed that it was important, despite how strange I felt, that I performed the same ritual tasks as is traditionally done. This included dressing in Thai national costume, making a krathong, and even learning how to dance traditional Thai dances. Informing people of my lack of knowledge of Loy Krathong aided me in their eagerness to tell me what the ceremony is all about and how it is traditionally done. During this celebration, I assumed the role of an observer, an interviewer, and a participant. This allowed me to view the ceremony with an etic perspective, as well as an emic one, which in turn, is significant in my understanding of the festival as well as its changes over time. As with many anthropologists, I didnt perform this fieldwork without encountering any difficulties. These problems mainly revolv...

Steering Commitee Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Steering Commitee - Essay Example . The steering committee is composed of the "critical stakeholder groups (those most impacted by the objectives of the project) in the overall governance of the project" ("Forming a Project Steering Committee"). Once the steering committee had identified the problems, groups and sub-committees can be formed to address the individual issues that face Red Wine. A working group that can address the overall requirements of the system can design an integrated functional and communicative arrangement. One of the problems facing Red Wine is the fact that there are several departments all competing for scarce resources. This has mandated that they take independent actions and have reduced the possibility of maximizing computer resources or the ability to communicate from department to department. It would be the responsibility of the steering committee to alleviate this lack of communication. Once the system is designed as a workable solution, other workgroups can be assigned to take care of the installation and implementation. One consideration is the programming. A workgroup, working under the steering committee, would be responsible for the coding and debugging of the system. In addition, this workgroup would need to make arrangements to see that the implementation was workable from the standpoint of programming. Anoth

Criticism on the play Proof by David Auburn Essay

Criticism on the play Proof by David Auburn - Essay Example Criticism on the play Proof by David Auburn As Robert’s funeral preparations get ready, his other daughter Claire returns from New York. Meanwhile, Catherine gets connected with one of her Father’s former student called Hal. Catherine is a college drop out and is depressed and seemingly also susceptible to mental illness. Catherine is shown to be in dilemma as towards her future after the death of her beloved father. The plot of the movie takes an interesting dimension when Hal discovers in Robert’s notebook a proof of a mathematical theory which was thought to be an unsolvable mystery. It is a captivating discovery. But Hal get astonished when he understands that Catherine is the person who wrote the proof. But did really Catherine write it? However the hand writing of the proof matches with Robert and the story continues to untangle the mysterious nature of connection between genius and madness and it’s inheritance. The story reveals how the appearance of the Mathematical proof creates havoc in th e life of the three characters living. Review Proof is a wonderful drama, which explicitly describes the mathematical world and the mystery attached to it. It is a family drama which is mathematical and human relationship centered and the three characters Catherine, Claire and Hal revolve around it. The primary fact that is noticeable about the play is the similarity which its hold against some other plays like â€Å"Arcadia†. ... The character of Catherine also brings about lots of questions and arguments towards her capability of formulate brilliant mathematical formulas and theories. Because, in the play, Catherine demands that the mysterious mathematical theorem is written by her and not by her father .Here the focus is on the fact whether women have this potential element to bring about mathematical works and achievement like man. â€Å"Catherine in the play has been trained (up to a certain point) as a mathematician, so a question is raised and tackled in the play — can a woman really do highly original work?†(Weber).The movie displays Catherine to be suffering manic depression and shown to be susceptible to her father’s disease. However the mental illness of her father, Robert is not clearly mentioned in the play. The question as to the relevance of Robert’s illness to his mathematical geniuses is also left in dark by Auburn. Catherine here is depicted to be uncertain with re gard to her chances of succumbing to the mental illness as her father. The central focus of the play is whether Catherine has inherited the illness of Robert and the heightened tension surrounding a home with recent death. Catherine’s mood swings and sarcastic nature and exclusive intelligence are the possible warning that she could be a victim to her father’s illness. Catherine shared an intricate relationship with her father, and withdrew from outside world just to take care of him. They grow closer despite the illness, and the love that the father and daughter have for each other comes through, even beyond his death (Auburn, 25). There is no question about the great amount of love and compassion between the father

History of American Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

History of American Economics - Essay Example The US economy has overthrown all other economies since then and is ever-growing with the passage of time. A brief chart is given below for further understanding. Table 1: RAILROAD MILEAGE INCREASE BY GROUPS OF STATES 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 New England 2,507 3,660 4,494 5,982 6,831 Middle States 3,202 6,705 10,964 15,872 21,536 Southern States 2,036 8,838 11,192 14,778 29,209 Western States and Territories 1,276 11,400 24,587 52,589 62,394 Pacific States and Territories 23 1,677 4,080 9,804 TOTAL USA 9,021 30,626 52,914 93,301 129,774 SOURCE: Chauncey M. Depew (ed.), One Hundred Years of American Commerce 1795-1895 p 111 (Source Wikipedia) The independent yeoman farmer continued to exist, particularly in New England and the middle colonies, but most settled land in North America by 1750 was devoted to the cultivation of a cash crop. New England turned its land over to the raising of meat products for export. The middle colonies were the principal producers of grains. By 1700 Philadelphia exported more than 350,000 bushels of wheat and more than 18,000 tons of flour annually. The Southern colonies were, of course, even more closely tied to the cash crop system. South Carolina, aided by British incentives, turned to the production of rice and indigo. North Carolina, although less oriented toward the market economy than South Carolina, was nevertheless one of the principal suppliers of naval stores. Virginia and Maryland steadily increased their economic dependence on tobacco and on the London merchants who purchased that tobacco; and for the most part they ignored those who recommended that they diversify their economie s by turning part of their land over to the cultivation of wheat. Their near-total dependence upon the world tobacco price would ultimately prove disastrous, but for most of the 18th century Virginia and Maryland soil remained productive enough to make a single-crop system reasonably useful. As America evolved from subsistence to commercial agriculture, an influential commercial class increased its power in nearly every colony. Boston was the centre of the merchant elite of New England, who not only dominated economic life but also wielded social and political power as well.. And it is clear that the commercial importance of the colonies was increasing. During the years 1700-10, approximately 265,000 sterling was exported annually to Great Britain from the colonies, with roughly the same amount being imported by the Americans from Great Britain. By the decade 1760-70, that figure had risen to more than 1,000,000 sterling of goods exported annually to Great Britain and 1,760,000 annually imported from Great Britain. (Source Britannica encyclopedia) Situation now days The United States of America holds the honor of world's greatest economic power in terms of gross national product (GNP) and is among the greatest powers in terms of GNP per capita. The nation's wealth is partly a reflection of its rich natural resources. With only 5 percent of the world's population, the United States produces nearly one-fifth of the world's output of coal, copper, and crude petroleum. The agricultural sector produces nearly one-half of the world's corn (maize); nearly one-fifth of its beef, pork, mutton, and lamb; and more than one-tenth of its wheat.

Structure and Agency in Revolutionary Theory Essay

Structure and Agency in Revolutionary Theory - Essay Example The school of culture and agency is based on the premise that repeated conditioning of individuals through their culture patterns human behaviour. Agency forwards the notion that human behaviour is determined by free will that charts the way for independent action and free will in making choices. Revolutions are occurrences in governance that result to a change in leadership, which is achieved through various means. Numerous schools of thought have been forwarded in an attempt to explain and the understanding of the making and the instigators of revolutions. This paper seeks to highlight the debate between structural theorists and the culture and agency school to the 1906 constitutional revolution in Iran. The 1906 constitutional revolution in Iran was instigated by the Shah’s extravagance, which led to the exploitation and destruction of the nation’s economy (Poulson 104). Teheran was the seat of Persian power and majority of the population was composed of merchants, noble classes, religious authorities and the educated elite who felt and understood the consequences of the Shah’s extravagance (Poulson 106). They were the main instigators of the revolution that called for the removal of the chancellor who was to blame for the dire economic situation. After the removal of the chancellor the Shah did not change his extravagant ways and the same group campaigned and advocated for the establishment of an institution would rule by law instead of royal and foreign influence. In the context of this discussion, the 1906 revolution in Iran can be viewed from both perspectives that are presented by structural theorists and the culture and agency school of thought. This is b ecause according to Skocpol, there are always structural forces that underlie the uprising of a revolution. Persia was facing an economic meltdown under the leadership of the Shah, which means the societal structure was under threat (Geels 32). This is in the

Automated Diabetic Retinopathy Detection System

Automated Diabetic Retinopathy Detection System ABSTRACT DETECTION OF EXUDATES USING GUI Automated diabetic retinopathy detection system is an essential requirement due to developing diabetic retinopathy patients around the globe. The primary intention of the research is to detect exudates in digital fundus image for diabetic retinopathy. In this particular study, we provide an efficient method for identifying and classifying the exudates as soft exudates and hard exudates. Apart from these, this study compares three methods namely Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization, Histogram Equalization and Mahalanobis Distance for enhancing a digital fundus image to detect and choose the best one to classify exudates in Retinal images by adopting graphical user interface with the help of MATLAB. From the findings of the study, in the image enhancement application of blood vessels, Mahalanobis distance is recognized as the best algorithm. It was evident from the analysis that the monitoring and detecting exudates in the fundus of the eye are essential for diabetic patien ts. Moreover, it shows that hard and soft exudates are a primary tool of diabetic retinopathy that can be quantified automatically. In addition to these, it appears that drawbacks must be resolved to predict an appropriate detection method for exudates in digital fundus images. From the findings, it was evident that suitable algorithm has to be selected and verified on several images which provide likely and excellent outcomes. LIST OF TABLES Comparison of Histogram Equalization (HE), Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) and Mahalanobis Distance(MD)14 LIST OF FIGURE Image before enhancement Histogram before enhancement Image after histogram equalization Histogram after HE Image after CLAHE Histogram after CLAHE Image after Mahalanobis distance enhancement Histogram after Mahalanobis distance enhancement Flow chart of the method CIELab color space Input image K-means clustered image Morphological image Dilated image Eroded image Optic disc detection Exudates image   Hard and soft exudates Input DFI   Enhancement methods of DFI Step-1 of exudate detection Step-2 by giving input image Step-3 enhancing input image Step-4 exudates image of abnormal eye Normal eye output displaying no exudates LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AHE Adaptive Histogram Equalization CIE Commission Internationale de lEclairage CLAHE Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization CMYK Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key DRD iabetic Retinopathy DFI Digital Fundus Image HE Histogram Equalization MD Mahalanobis Distance MM Mathematical Morphology RGB Red, Green, Blue RRGS Recursive Region Growing Segmentation Chapter 1 Introduction Research Background: Diabetic retinopathy is a common disease nowadays that can prevail in anyone having type 1 or type-2 diabetes. The opportunity of being influenced by this disease relies on the time duration of a person having diabetes. Long-term diabetes leads to greater blood sugar level that causes harm by changing the flow of blood in retinal blood vessels. It is similar that in the previous stage DR shows no symptoms and hence without facing medical investigation it is not feasible to predict the existence of the disease. Exudative retinopathy is a condition referred by the occurrence of yellow or white mass that exists due to leakage of proteins and fats along with water from vessels of blood in the retina. It is important to predict the exudates occurrence in fundus oculi because the collection of these exudates may lead to complete loss of vision (Manpreetkaur, 2015). Walter et al. (2001) has mentioned that the disease of DR evolved exudates in eye fundus. The physicians regard exudates as on e of the primary indicators of DR severity. Exudates are yellow spot resided in fundus. This disease of diabetes causes leakage of fluid from vessels of blood. For a long time, uncontrolled diabetes may evolve as exudates in eye fundus. The exudates initiate to develop in little number and size. If the diabetes is not monitored or controlled for a long time the number and size of exudates will grow. The exudates growth in eye fundus may cause blindness. Tasman and Jaeger (2001) have stated that exudates seem as bright deposits of yellow-white on the retina due to lipid leakage from abnormal vessels. Their size and shape differ with various stages of retinopathy. These lesions are related to many diseases of retinal vascular involving DME (diabetic macular edema), DR (diabetic retinopathy), retinal venous obstruction, hypertensive retinopathy, radiation retinopathy and retinal arterial microaneurysms, capillary hemangioma of retina and disease of the coat. Welfera et al. (2010) have stated that exudation is a hazardous case because it can lead to a loss of vision when existing in the central macular area. Thus such lesions must be predicted, and appropriate medical intervention must be acquired to avoid damages to visual acuity of the patient. Automatic exudates detection in DR patients retinas could enhance early prediction of DR and could support doctors track the treatment progress over time. Thus it can be inferred that exudates detection by computer could provide a precise and rapid diagnosis to specialist examination and support the clinician to acquire timely decision to take proper treatment. Problem Statement: Diabetes is a rapidly developing common disease among people globally which causes various organs dysfunction. Diabetic retinopathy is the primary blindness cause in adults. Sometimes, due to long-term diabetes, the retinal blood vessels are harmed, this eye disease is known as diabetic retinopathy. It is essential to automatically predict the lesions of diabetic retinopathy at an early stage to hinder further loss of vision. Exudates are significant diabetic retinopathy symptoms. Exudates are bright lesions that are an important sign of this disease. It is the major signs of DR a major vision loss cause in diabetic patients. Primary concern of the research Aim: The primary goal of the study is to analyze an automated way for exudates in eyes. Objectives: To examine the causes of exudates in diabetic retinopathy patients. To analyze the types of exudates used in digital fund images. To evaluate the different enhancement methods used to predict the exudates in fundus images. To determine the drawbacks of enhancement methods of exudates in digital fundus images. To propose a promising algorithm to detect the exudates in digital fundus images. Limitations of the study: This study is limited to diabetic retinopathy patients. This study is restricted to exudates detection only. This study evaluates an automated way for exudates in eyes. The structure of the thesis This argument is made up of the following five chapters: Chapter 1: This is the introduction section that gives the necessary research background andconcepts related to the research. Chapter 2: This chapter is the review of literature that analyzes several existing worksrelated to finding an automated way for exudates in eyes. Chapter 3: This chapter describes the design of the system that explains in detailabout the enhancement methods applied in digital fundus image for detection of diabetic retinopathy. Chapter 4: This chapter discusses the implementation plan of digital fundus images and compares different researches done by authors and depicts the results of the proposed system. Chapter 5: This is the conclusion section that gives the outcome of the research byanswering the research questions and recommendations for future improvement. In addition to that, this thesis has bibliography containing the sources used in collecting secondary data in the study and an appendix that has tools like questionnaires are utilized in the gathering primary data for the research. Chapter-2 Literature Review Introduction: This chapter provides an overview on the detection of exudates in digital fundus image for diabetic retinopathy. This chapter discusses in detail about the digital fundus image. In addition to these, this chapter discusses in detail about the classification of exudates in retinal images. Apart from these, this study provides the comparison of Histogram equalization (HE), contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) and Mahalanobis distance (MD) methods to enhance the digital fundus image for detection. Literature on Digital fundus images The benefits of digital imaging are rate of access to information (images), quick and accurate duplication, chronicling and transmission, and prompt access to the outcomes. The imaging technique can be rehashed if the nature of the underlying result is deficient. Despite the fact that film-based images can be digitized (to register macular color thickness conveyance from two different wavelength-based pictures or to evaluate the status of the optic nerve), quick access to the images is unrealistic, as it is important to build up the film first. This deferral keeps the picture from checking the outcomes and in this manner redressing any issue in the procurement procedure, which can be efficiently accomplished in digital imaging at no extra cost. The digitization of fundus photos was tended to by (Cideciyan et al., 1991) who proposed a nonlinear rebuilding model fusing four parts: the eye, the fundus camera, the film and the scanner. Scholl et al. (2004) observed digitized images to be valuable for evaluating age-connected maculopathy and age-connected macular degeneration. Comparison Table 1: Comparison of Histogram Equalization (HE), Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) and Mahalanobis Distance (MD) Histogram equalization Contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization Mahalanobis distance This technique is based on the specification of the histogram. CLAHE is considered as the necessary preprocessing step, and it has the tendency to generate the images for extracting the features of a pixel in the classification process. This method has carried out by identifying the pixels of the background images only by leaving the foreground images. HE is relatively straightforward technique and an invertible operator. Indiscrimination is one of the biggest disadvantages of this method. CLAHE is also denoted as the automatic and efficient method to detect the exudates effectively. The selective enhancement of MD has created the fewer artifacts for further processing than HE and CLAHE. HE has used the neighborhood-based approach on the pixels, and it has the tendency to operate based on the modification of histogram to obtain the new images efficiently. The technique of CLAHE has the capability to provide the green channel image enhancement with high quality. This method can produce the similar curve to the Gaussian-shaped curve ideally. HE has uniformly distributed the output histogram by using the cumulated histogram like the mapping function. CLAHE has limited the process of amplification by clipping the histogram at the predefined value. MD algorithm has given better histogram result when compared to HE and CLAHE Research gap: This study examines about the detection of exudates in digital fundus image for diabetic retinopathy. The research gap predicted in this study is that there are many studies on the detection of exudates in digital fundus image for diabetic retinopathy. But no studies have clearly determined the successful approaches towards the detection of diabetic retinopathy in fundus images. Detection and classification of diabetic retinopathy pathologies in fundus images have been investigated by Agurto (2012). He studied the effects of image compression and degradation on an automatic diabetic retinopathy screening algorithm. In addition to these, the Agurto et al. (2012) investigated the detection of hard exudates and red lesions in the macula using the multi-scale approach. Walter et al. (2002) carried out an investigation to contribute the image processing to the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. Authors also focused on automatic detection of diabetic retinopathy from eye fundus images (Man preetkaur, 2015). There are also studies that are focused on coarse-to-fine strategy for automatically identifying exudates in color eye fundus images. Chapter-3 Research Design Introduction: This part examines the design of the study to determine an automated way for finding exudates in eyes. This study compares three methods namely CLAHE (Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization), Histogram Equalization (HE) and Mahalanobis Distance (MD) for enhancing a digital fundus image to detect and choose the best one to classify exudates in Retinal images by adopting graphical user interface in MATLAB. Research design: The reason of the study is to detect exudates in digital fundus image for diabetic retinopathy. In this particular study, we provide an efficient method for identifying and classifying the exudates as soft exudates and hard exudates. The retinal image seen in the CIELab space of the color is pre-processed for eliminating noise. Further, a network of blood vessels is removed for facilitating detection and removing the optic disc. At the same time, optic disc is removed using the technique of Hough transform. Candidate exudates are identified using the method of k-means clustering. At last, exudates are categorized as the soft and hard one by their threshold and edge energy. Developed method has yielded better outcomes. Histogram Equalization: Histogram equalization is a technique for adjusting image intensities to enhance contrast. HE is an operation that is based on histogram specification or modification to obtain new pictures. The objective of this contrast enhancement technique is to get a new enhanced image that has a uniform histogram that only plots the frequency at each gray-level from 0 (black) to 255 (white). Each histogram represents the frequency of occurrence of all gray-level in the image. Figure 1: Image before enhancement Figure 2: Histogram before equalization Figure 3: Image after histogram equalization Figure 4: Histogram after histogram equalization Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization: CLAHE is considered as a locally adaptive method for contrast enhancement. CLAHE is an enhanced version of adaptive HE (AHE) method. The technique AHE has a realistic restriction that homogenous part in the image leads to over-amplification of noise due to thin series of pixels are plotted to a whole range of visualization. In the meantime, it was noticed that contrast limited AHE (CLAHE) was designed for preventing this noise over-amplification in homogenous regions. CLAHE restricts the sound amplification in the image in such a way that image looks like very real. Figure 5: Image after CLAHE Figure 6: Histogram after CLAHE Mahalanobis Distance: Image enhancement using the Mahalanobis distance method is performed by identifying the background image pixels and eliminating them, leaving only the foreground image. It is based on the assumption that in image neighborhood N, the background pixels has significantly different intensity value than those of the foreground pixels. For each pixel (x, y) in the picture, the mean  µn (x, y) and the standard deviation à Ã†â€™n (x, y) of the statistical distribution of intensities in N are estimated. The sample means;  µn is used as the estimator for  µn (x, y) and the e sample standard deviation; à Ã†â€™ n is the estimator for à Ã†â€™n (x, y). If the intensity of pixel (x, y) is close to the mean intensity in N, it is considered to belong to the background set ÃŽÂ ². As defined mathematically in Eq. 1, the expression implies that pixel (x, y) belongs to ÃŽÂ ² if the stated condition is satisfied. Those images would later be combined to evaluate the MD image, which can be segmented using the threshold t to identify the background pixels. Figure 7: Image after MD enhancement Figure 8: Histogram after MD enhancement Summary: This research compares three methods namely CLAHE, HE, MD to enhance a digital fundus image to detect and choose the best one to classify exudates in Retinal images by adopting graphical user interface in MATLAB. It was evident from the above findings that candidate exudates are identified using the technique of Mahalanobis Distance enhancement. Chapter 4 Implementation Plan, Discussion, and Results Introduction: This chapter presents the implementation plan of detection of exudates in digital fundus images by proposed technique. The results of proposed method are also shown. Implementation Plan: The proposed system is implemented using the digital fundus images. DFIs (digital fundus images) are essential in finding the pathological fact that would lead to different diseases. However, digital fundus images have many illumination and contrast issues which make enhancement an important factor. Subsequently, digital fundus images must be developed to permit for good visualization to satisfy ophthalmologists to undertake their diagnosis. The below figure shows the implementation plan of detection of exudates in digital fundus images: Figure 9: Flow chart of the method 4.3 Conversion from RGB color space to CIELab color space A Lab color space is a color-opponent space with dimension L* for lightness and a* and b* for the color-opponent dimensions, based on nonlinearly compressed CIE XYZ color space coordinates. The CIELab color scale is an approximately uniform color range. In a standard color scale, the differences between the points plotted in the color space correspond to the visual difference between the colors plotted. The CIELab color space is organized in a cube form. The L* runs from top to bottom. The maximum for L* is 100, which represents a perfect reflecting diffuser. The minimum for L* is zero, which represents black. The a* and b* axes have no specific numerical limits. Positive a* is red, Negative a* is green. Positive b* is yellow, Negative b* is blue. Figure 10: CIELab color space It is perceptual uniform color space. Perceptual uniformity means how two colors differ from seeing when human observe that two colors. Hence uniform color spaces were defined in such way that all the colors are arranged by the perceptual difference of the colors. The L component closely matches human perception of lightness, and by having it as an independent quantity to control, it can be used to make accurate color corrections without affecting the a* and b* color twins. RGB or CMYK color spaces are designed to model the output of physical devices rather than human visual perception. This color model is used in this work to identify even a small intensity variation. K-means Clustering K-means clustering is a method of vector quantization, originally from signal processing, that is accessible for cluster analysis in data mining. K-means clustering aims to partition n observations into k clusters in which each observation belongs to the cluster with the nearest mean, serving as a prototype of the cluster. This results in a partitioning of the data space into Voronoi cells. K-Means algorithm is chosen because of its simplicity. In this work, k-means clustering is used to partition the data into groups for identifying exudates locations. K-means Usage in our project: Because of the computational simplicity of the k-means algorithm over other clustering algorithms, we decided to use the k-mean clustering in the proposed work. The k-mean clustering algorithm is a particular case of the generalized hard clustering algorithms. It is applied when point representatives are used, and the squared Euclidean Distance is adopted to measure the dissimilarities between vectors and cluster representatives. The k-means algorithm is given below. The steps involved in K-Means algorithm are: Select an initial partition with k clusters Generate a new partition by assigning each pattern to its closest cluster center. Compute new cluster centers. Continue to do steps 2 and 3 until centroids do not change. Figure 11: Input image Figure 12: k-means clustered image Blood vessel detection To facilitate exudates extraction from the pre-processed image, blood vessel network is detected and then eliminated from the picture using Morphological operations. Morphological operations can readily be used in medical image analysis as it supports powerful tools to extract pathologies. The morphological operations employed in the proposed work are given below. An important part of applying morphological operations is to decide on the shape and size of structuring element. In the proposed work, a ball-shaped structuring element of size 8, was found to be optimal for eliminating the blood vessel network from the retinal images of local database Morphological Image Processing: Mathematical morphology (MM) is a theory and technique for the analysis and treatment of geometrical structures, based on set theory, lattice theory, topology, and random functions. MM is most commonly applied to digital images, but it can be employed as well on graphs, surface meshes, solids, and many other spatial structures. Topological and geometrical continuous-space concepts such as size, shape, convexity, connectivity, and geodesic distance, were introduced by MM on both continuous and discrete spaces. MM is also the foundation of morphological image processing, which consists of a set of operators that transform images according to the above characterizations. The basic morphological operators are erosion, dilation, opening, and closing. Dilation: Dilation is one of the two first operators in the area of mathematical morphology, the other being erosion. The primary effect of the operator on a binary image is to gradually enlarge the boundaries of regions of foreground pixels (i.e. white pixels, typically). Thus areas of foreground pixels grow while holes within those regions become smaller. The dilation operator takes two pieces of data as inputs. The first is the image which is to be dilated. The second is a (usually small) set of coordinate points known as a structuring element (also referred to as a kernel). It is this structuring element that determines the precise effect of the dilation on the input image. Figure 13: Dilated image Erosion: Erosion is one of the two first operators in the area of mathematical morphology, the other being dilation. The main effect of the operator on a binary image is to erode away the boundaries of regions of foreground pixels (i.e. white pixels, typically). Thus areas of foreground pixels shrink in size, and holes within those areas become larger. The erosion operator takes two pieces of data as inputs. The first is the image which is to be eroded. The second is a (usually  small) set of coordinate points known as a structuring element (also referred to as a kernel). It is this structuring element that determines the precise effect of the erosion of the input image. Figure 14: Eroded image Figure 15: Morphological image Hough Transform The Hough transform is a feature extraction technique used in image analysis, computer vision, and digital image processing. The purpose of the method is to find imperfect instances of objects within a particular class of shapes by a voting procedure. This voting process is carried out in a parameter space, from which object candidates are obtained as local maxima in a so-called accumulator space that is explicitly constructed by the algorithm for computing the Hough transform. In this project work, circular Hough transform is used to detect optic disk in a retinal image. Elimination of optic disk is necessary for detection of exudates. If the optic disk is not eliminated from a picture, there is a chance of identifying optic disk as exudates, which leads to the false result. Circular Hough Transform Algorithm works is presented below. Step1: Convert color retinal image into grayscale Step2: Create a 3D Hough array (accumulator) with the first two dimensions representing thecoordinates of the circle origin, and the third dimension represents the radii. Step3: Perform edge detection using the Canny edge detector. For each edge pixel, increment thecorresponding elements in the Hough array. Step4: Collect candidate circles, and then delete similar circles. Step5: Circle the object. Figure 16: Optic disc detection Classifying Hard and Soft exudates The final step is to classify the exudates as hard and soft based on the threshold value and edge energy. Edge power calculation is required to extract the exudates with sharp edges which are a characteristic feature of hard exudates. We preferred canny operator over Kirsch operator for edge energy detection. The hard exudates are extracted by combining this edge energy and a Threshold value. To obtain the soft exudates subtract the hard exudates image from the picture that contains both types of exudates. Hard exudates and soft exudates are classified by using reference sum value of white pixels in exudates image. Figure 17: Exudates image Figure 18: Hard and soft exudates Chapter 5 Results and Conclusion Introduction: This section presents the results and conclusion of the research by answering research questions and suggestions for future studies. Results: From the proposed system the results acquired are that the exudates are predicted, then it is categorized as hard, and soft exudates and the severity level is estimated. The first figure shows the input as an original image: Figure 19: Input image Source: Author In the next figure the enhancement methods are applied to digital fundus images for detection of diabetic retinopathy: Figure20: Enhancement methods of DFI Next, the exudates are detected which is depicted in the below set of figures: Figure 21: Step-1 of exudate detection Figure 22: Step-2 giving input image Figure 23: Step-3 enhancing the input image Figure 24: exudate image of abnormal eye Repeating the same procedure for normal eye and is shown in the following figure: Figure 25: Normal eye output displaying no exudates The results of the study reveal that Mahalanobis Distance is the best algorithm for the blood vessels image enhancement application. Throughout the experiment, we have found an average of 88% sensitivity and 60% accuracy. Conclusion Automated diabetic retinopathy detection has become an important research because of the severity of increase in cause of blindness among the diabetes patients. DR is caused mainly by the alterations in retinas blood vessels due to increased level of blood glucose. Exudates are one of the major signs of D