Mount St. Helens

Geographic Facts and OverviewElevation: 8, 635 feet (2,550 m)Prominence: 4, 605 feet (1,404 m)Coordinates: 46 °12’00.17†N, 122 °11’21.13†WAge of rock: > 40,000 yearsEasiest access: southern slopeMount St. Helens is an active stratovolcano in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located 96 miles south of the city of Seattle and 53 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon. Mount St. Helens takes its name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a friend of George Vancouver, who did a survey of this place in the late 1800s.The mountain can be found in the Cascade Range and is part the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes (Mount St. Helens). This volcano is quite well known for its ash explosions and pyroclastic flows. It is located 45 miles west of Mount Adams, in the western part of the Cascade Range. These volcanic mountains are each approximatel y 50 miles from Mount Rainier, the highest of Cascade volcanoes. Mount Hood, the nearest major volcanic peak in Oregon, is 60 miles (95 km) southeast of Mount St. Helens. (Mount St. Helens)Mount St. Helens is quite young compared to the other well-known Cascade volcanoes (Mount St. Helens). It only formed within the last 40,000 years, and the summit cone (before the 1980 eruption) began rising around 2000 years ago. The volcano is still considered the most active in the Cascades within the last 10,000 or so years, according to the Mount St. Helens report in Wikipedia.Mount St. Helens Eruptive HistoryThe early eruptive stages of Mount St. Helens are known as the â€Å"Ape Canyon Stage† (around 40–35,000 years ago), the â€Å"Cougar Stage† (ca. 20–18,000 years ago), and the â€Å"Swift Creek Stage† (roughly 13–8,000 years ago).The modern period, since about 2500 BC, is called the â€Å"Spirit Lake Stage†. (Mount St. Helens) Collectively , the pre-Spirit Lake Stages are known as the â€Å"ancestral stages† (Mount St. Helens).The Eruption of May 18, 1980Mount St. Helens erupts maybe around once each century. After lying asleep for 123 years, Mount St. Helens again spewed steam and ash on March 27, 1980 – a prelude that put geologists on alert. But what happened on the18th of May, 1980, went beyond what anyone had envisioned. According to Mount Saint Helens History report, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake from inside the volcano triggered the destruction of its north flank, letting down the largest landslide in recorded history and a volcanic eruption equal in power to 500 atom bombs (History). As much as a cubic mile of volcanic material shot upward and sideways.The blast traveled at more than 300 miles per hour with temperatures in excess of 600 degrees F, destroying 230 square miles of forest (History).   Within seconds, the trunks of thousands of 150-foot-tall old-growth Douglas firs snapped like toothpi cks. Ash rained down over 22,000 square miles, blew more than 12 miles into the atmosphere and circled the globe in 17 days (History).   When the ash finally cleared up, the mountain was reduced by 1,313 feet (History). Although the Forest Service and local authorities had worked hard to keep people away, 57 were killed.   Rocks, snow and ice roared down the mountain at enormous speeds (sometimes reaching more than 100 miles per hour). Most large animals on the volcano, like mountain goats, black bears, and thousands of elk and deer (even most fish, amphibians, insects and birds), died. (History)Mount St. Helens before the EruptionBefore the eruption of 1980, Mount St. Helens formed an almost perfectly conical, youthful volcano that sometimes was known as the Fuji-san of America (Eruptive History). According to Volcano World’s Eruptive History page, during the 1980 eruption, however, the upper 400 m of the summit was removed by a slope avalanche, leaving a 2 x 3.5 km hors eshoe-shaped crater now partially filled by a lava dome.The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 changed the surrounding environment. Before the eruption, the areas around the mountain were known for its natural beauty. The Spirit Lake basin was said to be coated with ancient trees. The tree rings of these huge 800 year-old trees show evidence of eruptions that date back before the time of the Europeans arrival in the Americas (Biologic History).A few research sites existed before 1980 and they showed a healthy, vigorous forest, growing on the rich volcanic soils typical of the Pacific Northwest (Biologic History). Under the dense canopy, huckleberries, ferns, and mosses grew. A wide variety of animals lived here. Above Spirit Lake, the alpine meadows on the mountain were slowly being overtaken by trees (Biologic History). The alpine meadows supported a wide variety of wildflowers and gnarled trees. Mountain goats were transplanted from the Olympic Peninsula. They were well known fo r their aggressive ways.Sometimes they butted hikers right down the mountain (Biologic History). When people remember Spirit Lake, they always mention how clear it was (Biologic History). Fed by snow and glacial melt, the lake's temperature was normally below 55 degrees Fahrenheit year round (Biologic History). The many types of microscopic plants and animals that fish eat did not do well in this cold water. Because of this, the fish that were stocked never managed to become a self-sustaining population (Biologic History). Some people will tell you that Spirit Lake was overflowing with fish. However, catch records indicate that it was just average for the Northwest. Those who visited Mount St. Helens before 1980, were always impressed by its natural beauty. (Biologic History)Mount St. Helens NowAs amazingly destructive as it was, the May 18, 1980 eruption is just one of many events in the history of Mount St. Helens. Considering the 27 years and renewed volcanic activity, it is surp rising to see how Mount St. Helens continually changes. The past 27 or so years have been characterized by a rebirth.   Within the crater, a new lava dome began rising in 1986, rebuilding the mountain (History).   A new glacier has established itself on the crater floor.  Ã‚   And since early October 2004, a second lava dome has grown at a rate as high as a dump-truck load in volume every second.At this rate, scientists estimate Mount St. Helens could return to its height before the 1980 eruption of 9,677 feet in less than 200 years – less than a blink of the eye in geologic time (History). Remarkably, plant and animal life has revived itself faster than was expected. Beetles were among the earliest animals to return and over 300 kinds now flourish (History). Lupines, members of the pea family, were among the first plants to grow in the deep deposits of volcanic ash.Scientists learned that lupines drive ecological recovery by creating islands of rich nutrients that prom ote establishment of other plant species (History).   Millions of new trees and animal species have also returned to the areas that most of them left in 1980.   Mount St. Helens is back to being a living playground. According to the Mount St. Helens Institute, it has become one of the most  remarkable areas of geological and ecological disturbance and restoration in the world. This country has learned a lot from what happened 27, or so, years ago. We are now better prepared to face another eruption (to avoid the casualties of 1980), and scientists, our other learned friends in different fields of study, and the general public, are coming to experience the remarkable volcano that is Mount St. Helens.The Current EruptionsMount St. Helens came alive again in the fall of 2004 and has continually been erupting. Plenty of news crews and visitors from around the globe have surged to the volcano.   Mount St. Helens has returned to its former grandeur and is now a leading recreationa l area, with more than 500,000 visitors a year. W O R K S  Ã‚   C I T E Dâ€Å"Mount St. Helens.† Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 22 Apr 2007, 19:46 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 24 Apr 2007 ;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mount_St._Helens;oldid=124937639;

SWOT Analysis for Classic Savory Essay

SWOT Analysis for Classic Savory Strengths: 1. Classic Savory offers different kinds of food that they offering to their customer when looking at the menu. The order of the menu is excellent and arrange accordingly to their categories, a very easy way to recognize the food that a customer would order. Pictures of the food itself were also placed in the menu to add attraction and interest of what kind of food they are serving. 2. The quality and taste of the food itself is very delicious, you would come back again and again to them. One of it is their classic chicken; the specialty of Classic Savory that you can order it classic or buttered. Distinctive Competence: The most selling food is the classic chicken; people are craving for their chicken even at a high cost. They will continue doing the best quality and taste of when it comes to their special menu and more variety of foods those customers are willing to eat anytime. Waiters should be more approachable in dealing to their customers when ordering and request from them. Core Capabilities: The competing menu in other restaurants is their 99 pesos meal where you have a meal and drink already, but it is only available during Monday to Friday. In this plan, they will not run out of customers during week days. Weaknesses 1.I could say their first weakness is the price of their food. Savory’s food is very expensive for the people to buy. Example: 1 whole chicken of Classic Savory chicken cost approximately 400 to 500 pesos which that price you can buy one bucket meal of KFC .It has already rice, fixins, drinks, and 6 pieces of chicken. 2.The service of Savory is quite slow; it takes 20 to 30 minutes before the food arrives. When it comes of requesting to get your bill, it also takes time and they will ignore you when you need the waiter. 3.The table is a bit crowded inside savory which the waiters have difficulties to move. Opportunities: The business of savory is continuous and smooth, so it is recommended to renovate a bigger space to have more customers and offer them  a better service give to them. Savory have a chance to compete to other restaurants with their best service when it comes to food and have time to think of another food that they would offer for the customers. Foreign customers are also coming and ordering to Savory that proves that Filipino Foods are delicious and it is the best ( For me! ï Å  ) Environmental Scanning As I observe to the place where the Classic Savory located, there are no near restaurants in the place, but there are stalls, DQ, and semi-restaurants that surround Savory. It is easy to be spotted because the people are mostly passing by and located at the ground floor of Robinson’s Manila. When it comes to the restaurant itself, it is a bit crowded and small. Threats: I could say that the possible threats of Savory are Max, KFC, and Bon Chon. Why? Because their special foods are chicken which that is the special food also of Savory. For Restaurant level is the Max and two fast foods; KFC and Bon Chon. The threats that I have mentioned are far from Savory. The 3 threats are located at the top level of the mall. There is no possibility of forming a Strategic Group will form that will threaten the Savory. In case, there is a spy near to Savory that will observe their procedures, services, quality of food, strategies, process and services which can be reported by their competitor to form an idea and strategy to downfall Savory.

Ancient Rome Essay Example for Free (#2)

Ancient Rome Essay During the Han Empire of China and the Roman Empire of the Mediterranean World were both had advanced technology for their time. Han China’s attitude toward manufacturing and labor was more positive than the Romans who had a more class divided society, therefore causing attitudes toward labor and technology to be looked down upon. The Hans respect technology and the people who use it. In China, 2nd century B. C. E. a government official stated that he wanted to organize their labor force with the use of technology so they could help to prevent a disaster from occurring when and if a flood takes place. This could help the people from getting hurt and their property from getting destroyed (Doc. 1). Huan Guan, a Han government official during the first century B. C. E. was concerned about the lack of technology and poor government policy that is affecting the people. Haun Guan was trying to say to the Han government that using convict labor to make tools and monopoly on salt and iron is causing devastating affects towards the people and feels that the government can solve this problem by using the available technologies. Even though Haun Guan is a government official himself, he shows interest in helping the people and is very critical towards the current government policies that are in place (Doc. 2). Huan Tan, a upper class Han philosopher during 20 C. E. is expressing his appreciation of the progress that technology has had since the emperor’s first invention . Huan Tan also expresses how technology has benefited the Chinese people and feels that technology is a â€Å"gift† from the enlightened emperors (Doc. 3). A Han government sponsored speaker, around 200 C. E. states how a Han governor, Tu Shih, cared deeply for the Chinese people and used the advanced technology to help benefit them. This government sponsored speaker emphasizes how much the inventions helped minimize the amount of human labor that the people did (Doc. 4). This is interesting because he was hired by the government to talk to people who might be losing faith in the Han Dynasty and he basically glorified the information way more than it actually was. On the other hand, the Romans felt that working with your hands was vulgar and seemed to heavily look down upon technology and whoever used it. Cicero, an upper class Roman political leader from Italy during the 1st century B. C. E. states that anyone who works with their hands are vulgar and looks greatly down upon craftsmen and hired workers. Cicero then goes on stating that â€Å"gentlemen do not work with their hands. †(Doc. 5) It seems that Cicero lacks a huge respect for inventions and inventors and feels like technology is indeed necessary, but not for the â€Å"enlightened minds†. Plutarch, a Greek born roman citizen during the 1st century Roman Empire, expresses Gaius Gracchus’ road building enterprises and continues to explain how the Roman upper class does appreciate technology that benefits the upper class (Doc. 6). Plutarch does show appreciation towards technology, but only because it benefits himself, as well as the rest of the upper class. He does not go on to mention how it helped the commoners in any way, because it most likely didn’t help anyone but the upper class. Seneca, an upper class philosopher and advisor to Emperor Nero, from the 1st century Roman Empire, states that it takes someone nimble and sharp to make inventions but craftsmen don’t have great minds. Seneca goes on to say that he does â€Å"not believe that tools and crafts were invented by wise men† (Doc. 7). Seneca lacks respect for craftsmen and is basically saying that they are not as smart as he is, and degrades their achievements and abilities that they have. He isn’t concerned about any of the tools or inventions that are made by these craftsmen because he feels since he is an upperclassmen, he would never use them for the fact that they would be degrading to his specific class in society. Frontinus, a Roman general, governor of Britain, and water commissioner from the 1st century C. E. of the Roman Empire discusses how he praises the Roman aqueducts and their uses in Rome. He talks about how intelligent the designs are and how much it benefits the public (Doc. 8). It was quite interesting how highly was talking about the aqueducts. He talked about how amazing they were to the other Roman officials so they could see he was doing a good job as water commissioner, which is why he talked so highly of the aqueducts, because that’s his job. A point of view that is missing from these documents that could further help to the discussion of the Han and Rome attitudes towards technology would be the commoners. All eight of these documents were of the point of view from government officials or other upperclassmen. It would’ve helped to see an argument made by the commoners from both empires because that’s who the technology is affecting-the commoners. Although the technology is also affecting the upperclassmen, it would have made a better argument to have someone who is more â€Å"exposed† to the technology in their everyday lives. The people of the Han Empire did have a more optimistic approach towards technology, while the Roman Empire looked at technology as a more negative thing. The Hans took more into consideration of how it would benefit the commoners, unlike the Romans who didn’t mention the commoners in any of their arguments. Although both Empires did use technology, some thought more highly of it than others. Ancient Rome. (2017, Jan 01).

The Search for 100 Million Missing Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Search for 100 Million Missing Women - Essay Example This includes preference for boy babies in a patriarchal society, leading to female infanticide; neglect of baby girls in terms of care, nutrition and education; trafficking of adolescent girls through prostitution. Sen argued that all these factors combined to create a disparity of 100 million missing women in Asia. Although the reasons given by Sen are true, they only account for 50 million missing women. Looking to explore this statistical void, other economists took interest in the problem. One such was Emily Oster, who pursued the link between Hepatitis B occurrence and Asia's missing women population. By perusing reliable repository of medical statistics from the region, Oster was able to establish a definite link between Hepatitis B incidence levels and sex ratio in India, China and Pakistan. Backed by reliable statistics and a provable thesis, the finding has altered conventional wisdom. In this case, Oster's finding corrected and expanded Amartya Sen's stated reasons for ske wered sex ratio. At the core of the finding's success is the absence of 'n of 1' patterns in the data. As Oster's own personal history as a prodigious child shows, discounting exceptions to the rule is an important aspect of proper scientific research.

Specific ways in which the internet has changed the way businesses Essay - 5

Specific ways in which the internet has changed the way businesses operate in the global marketplace - Essay Example Without a doubt, like any other technology tools or applications, this technology is just a technology and it depends on a firm how effectively they make use of this technology. In fact, if this technology is used effectively it can bring a large number of opportunities for the business organizations. For instance, the use of the Internet allows business organizations to catch attention of new customers, retain business relationships with old customers and suppliers, deliver its products and services in a better way, communicate with customers and other stakeholders through more efficient and professional ways, gather data about customers, preferences and retrieve it speedily, and buy and sell more products. In addition, a large number of firms have attempted to make use of the Internet as extraordinary much more than it is (Ray 269). The majority of business organizations as well as individuals are moving their businesses from traditional business infrastructures to web based business environments, believing that by some means this would differentiate them from other business organizations. Without a doubt, a business organization can make use of this wonderful technology in a number of ways and in every application of the Internet brings a wide variety of benefits. In each for, Internet technology offers a number of capabilities. For instance, the Internet plays the role of a bridge for the communication of data. In addition, the Internet is a system that establishes and retains connections with any computer connected to it. In fact, if a company puts its full efforts to have control over these two rules or facilities, it can make use of this technology with greatest aptitude to improve the business (Ray 269). Moreover, the Internet minimizes the gap between the organizations and their customers as it allows business organizations to get access to global markets and reach broad categories of people at the

Critical Issue Paper Four Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Critical Issue Paper Four - Essay Example The Second World War proved to be a period of technological breakthrough according to Weinberg. In his book â€Å"A world at Arms: A Global History of World War II,† he related that technological improvements such as radio direction finders and sonar, along with the breaking of the Germans Enigma Code, improved the Allies defenses against their Axis counterparts. He goes on to say that the Germans were able to design new types of submarines, which were faster and could stay submerged longer, however said submarines â€Å"did not become operational before the end of the war.†3 1 Terry Boardman. â€Å"What Was the 20th Century?† A lecture delivered on 17th March 2000 in Stourbridge, England. http://www.monju.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/20th%cent.htm (accessed September 9, 2008), p.1. In relation to the above statements, historian writer Richard Overy in his book â€Å"Why the Allies Won† also made references that the last World War of the 20th century (WWII), showed that American technology and ingenuity combined with correct and better tactics won the war for the Allied forces despite the fact that the Axis nations had the backing of German engineering ingenuity. Overy reasons out that the Allies whose military capacity in the beginning was inferior compared to the Axis forces, integrated technology and logistics with moral force. He detailed facts that the nations which comprise the Allied Grand Coalition succeeded in World War II because they knew that it â€Å"was a life-and-death struggle for fundamental values.†4 Values that are needed in order to establish a better society. Moreover, Keegan in his timeless masterpiece â€Å"The Battle for History: Re-Fighting World War II† says that the Second World War, which was generally acclaimed as a â€Å"wonderful† period in history, should be examined closely because there is nothing wonderful

Latin America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Latin America - Essay Example Last but not the least; deforestation is discussed which is being forecast as pending disaster in Amazonia, Brazil. Some important points are highlighted in this report including the reasons of upcoming disaster and its consequences on the overall economy. Answer 1: Diagnostic characteristics involve the regional, economic, social and cultural differences between Mainland and Rimland cultural areas of Middle America. A well known geographer, John Augelli has highlighted these characteristics and identified Euro- Amerindian as Mainland culture and Euro- African as Rimland culture. It is important to note here that Middle America has great cultural diversity and these groups are considered a main reason of this diversity. Robert B, Kent (2006) has explained that in the areas of Middle America, the RIMLAND population and culture reflect a blend of Euro- African influences. This cultural group covers the areas of West Indies as well as the areas running along east part of Central America. Moreover, RIMLAND cultures are also linked with northern nations of Europe including Great Britain, France and Netherlands. Different European colonies have also emerged that are composed of this cultural group. Rimland cultural group is largely associated with agriculture and plantation economy. Commercial trend of agriculture is also common in this group. Moreover, they are also serving as efficient workers in labor market and various factories. The Euro- Amerindian population of Middle America is associated with Mainland culture. In the beginning, this cultural group prefers to live in Spanish colonies due to the cultural orientations. Nowadays, Mainland cultural group enjoys high estates in Central America. They are self sufficient people associated with agriculture and industry. Answer 3: Most often it is widely claimed that Mexico is the most populated and too crowded country. Among Central American countries, Mexico has the highest population

Aristotles View of Friendship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Aristotles View of Friendship - Essay Example A rich man would need friends to bestow some of his riches on them. According to Aristotle, it is friends who would safeguard his riches. And for the poor man, or the man in trouble, it is only friends who are his refuge. Friendship helps the elderly because friends help them when they are weak and in need. Similarly, young people also benefit by friendship as friends advise them and keep them from following wrong ways. Talking about justice and friendship, Aristotle says that there is no need of justice between friends, and the just need friends too. Although philosophers differed on where friendship grows- whether between similar people or between opposites, Aristotle is not bothered by it. According to him just feeling goodwill towards another, which is not reciprocated, is not friendship, but goodwill. He categorizes friendship in three different kinds. Friendship blossoms where the other person is lovable. According to Aristotle, everything is not lovable but only the good, pleasant and the useful. Thus, in friendship too, there is love when the person is good, or pleasant or useful. Aristotle argues that since usefulness changes with time, the friendship cultivated for the sake of usefulness would soon dissolve. Similarly, friendship which grows because it is pleasant is also not permanent. Aristotle defines perfect friendship as that which exists between men who are both good and have the sa

HW 5 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HW 5 - Case Study Example Attending a Peace Corp mission in Africa enables one fulfil his or her desire to offer assistance to the needy and charity organisations. However, all may not go well after graduation. For example, being employed by Nipsco will require one dedicate most of his or her time towards the work. This may cause a person lose the touch of friends, and break relationships. In addition, a demotion or reduction in bonus could lower someones morale, and affect his or her financial stability. Furthermore, staying in graduate school will result into reduced services for the students seeking classrooms, especially if they are enrolled under distance learning. Moreover, moving to New Orleans can prove to be stressful, especially if one is employed and lowly paid, making it difficult to pay for bills and cater for other necessities. Spending two years as a Peace Corp may divert ones attention and break contact with friends and relatives as one spends more time away from them. Conclusively, the decisions made after graduation determine ones livelihood and professional interaction, and, thus, it is important to make wise decisions that are less likely to affect an individual

European Union Law discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

European Union Law discussion - Essay Example Although the European Union has been concerned with discrimination issues since its inception, it was not until 1997, when the Treaty of Amsterdam3 amended the Treaty of Rome, that anti-discrimination was included as a basic founding principle of the Union. Than, another step was made in 2000 with the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union4 which introduced the notion of equality and non-discrimination as fundamental rights which should be respected by every State.. Since the project of Constitution5, the notions of gender equality and of the respect of the minorities have been introduced. Furthermore, to become a member of the Union, it is necessary to promote all of these values. On this first part, we will discuss one of the principal issues regarding discrimination in the European Union: Gender Equality, through the use of case examples and the description of the policy of the quotas. One of the most important examples of successful gender equality in the European Union today may be the long waited access to politics for women. Belgian Environment, Sustainable Development and Consumer affairs Minister Van den Bossche accessed her position in Parliament thanks to gender quota according Amanda Ripley in her special report about gender equality in Time Europe.6 Taking the example of Belgium, the percentage of women in the lower House of Representatives has risen from 23% in 1999 to 35% in 2003. Nevertheless, the problem does not exist within the politics of quotas but in the mentality of the people: "They insist that France's largest parties failed to meet the quota requirements because powerful men didn't want to relinquish their positions to women. "There is still a lot of machismo," says Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist Party (PS) member who is also deputy mayor of Paris and a city councilwoman."7 When we are dealing with gender equality quotas and the policy of the European Union regarding this subject, we are only facing a European Union Directive aiming to put an end to gender discrimination (COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation8) but there is an absolute lack of promotion dedicated to change the ideas that the population may have regarding women access to higher positions in the public or the private sector. Naturally, the legislation is necessary to make it happen. In "Spain plans to ban sex discrimination at work" from Leslie Crawford9, the consequences of Spain proposed law which would oblige companies with more than 250 workers to introduce "equality plans" aimed at eliminating discrimination against women in pay, promotion and benefits had an echo on the European Union which stated that "a new European institute for gender network of national gender equality bodies to monito r and fight discrimination on equality would be up and running in January next year, while it also promised to fund a grounds of sex in member states." It is disturbing to observe when facing such an important issue like as woman discrimination

Claudius has been presented in the theatre as a worthy King Essay Example for Free

Claudius has been presented in the theatre as a worthy King Essay Claudius has been presented in the theatre as a worthy King and Polonius as an amiable and sensible father. What is your response to the ways in which Shakespeare presents one of these characters? It is hard to judge the character of Polonius in Shakespeares Hamlet, due to the fact Shakespeare presents many of the events not only through Hamlets eyes, but the eyes of Polonius children and the King, and through these different people he is presented in different ways. However, there is a great deal more to this multi-faceted character in the play, as his presence and actions in the play is of great importance, before and after his death. Polonius is presented in different ways in various stage productions; usually, he is presented as a wise man, and one with great influence upon his son and daughter, Laertes and Ophelia, and of a man highly respected by King Claudius, Queen Gertrude and the people of Denmark. Despite this, he can become a rather comic character, if the company wishes Hamlet to be presented more positively. As Polonius is presented through different productions in different ways, it is difficult to evaluate his true nature. As the play is largely presented through Hamlets eyes, it is from him we draw many of our opinions. It is eventually Hamlet that kills Polonius, stabbing him through the arras, and Hamlet who sends him off with such harsh words as a foolish, prating knave; it can be said that he encompasses aspects of this statement, as we see in different parts of the play. However, to be deeply cynical of Polonius is somewhat hard to do. Polonius, in the eyes of Claudius, the Queen, the words and actions of Laertes, Ophelia and the Danish people, and the obediency of Reynaldo give us a more reasoned insight into Polonius. Polonius can be seen as foolish mainly when talking to his servant, Reynaldo, wherein he directs Reynaldo as to how to spy on Laertes. During his speech, Polonius gets wrapped up in his own words, and seems to lose the points he is trying to get across; And then, sir, does a this he does what was I about to say? By the mass I was about to say something. Where did I leave?; Shakespeare also transfers from blank verse into prose, accentuating Polonius loss of grip. However, this may actually be cleverly checking if Reynaldo is listening; the fact he quotes him directly back At closes in the consequence, at friend or so, / and, gentlemen' suggests many positive factors. For one, it is a reflection on Polonius authority and importance that Reynaldo remains attentive and quotes him back perfectly. Also, if this is a trick, Polonius may feel the matter is so important to his sons welfare that he needs to test Reynaldo to see if he really is listening so that the surveillance can be perfectly executed. Polonius may be seen to lose his grip in his bouts of prating to the King and Queen in parts of the play too. His speech to Claudius and Gertrude concerning Hamlets madness is a prime example of Polonius prattling, as we see in his long-winded build up to his conclusion, that Hamlet is mad; Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,  And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,  I will be brief. Your noble son is mad..

Mexican American Journal Entry Essay Example for Free

Mexican American Journal Entry Essay It has been 11 years since we have arrived to Los Angeles, California. I can still remember the feeling of when my father had said to us that he we would be moving to a far place to try to find better jobs for my mother and him because with the two jobs my father had and the washing and ironing of other peoples clothes my mom did was not bringing enough money to support my sisters and me and did they wanted to provide a better life for my sisters and me. Mexico was such a poor country that my parents could not see themselves make enough money to support my sisters and me, let alone see us get a better education. So my parents decide to migrate to the United States with one of my mother’s brother. We arrived in Los Angeles, California on July 16, 1931, with my Aunt Julia and Uncle Fernando. My family and I were so happy to finally arrive to the U. S. to live the â€Å"American Dream. † Soon we would find out that our dreams would come crushing down fast. After settling down, my mother decided it was time to enroll my sisters and me into school. My mother asked my Aunt Julia and Uncle Fernando what my sisters and I need to enroll into school but since my aunt and uncle did not have any children, they were unable to tell my parents the information we would need. As my mother, my sisters and I walked into the school we could notice all the â€Å"gringos† looking at us in a weird way (looking at us like we did not belong there). My mother can right away tell that there was something wrong that we would not be accepted into that school. My mom was correct, as we entered the office the school secretary told my mother that we were not welcomed there and that if she wanted to enroll us into school it needed to be in a segregated Mexican school. Walking out of the school with confusion on her face, my mother saw an elderly Mexican American woman who spoke Spanish and asked her if she knew the reason we were not accepted into the school. The woman proceeded to explain to my mother that in the past few years many Mexicans were migrating to the U. S forced by the economic and political disorder produced by the Mexican Revolution and were tempted by jobs in U. S. agribusiness and industry that many Americans feared losing their jobs to underpaid illegal immigrants. Americans could not deal with losing the jobs they had especially during this time of the Great Depression. The elderly woman proceeded to explain to my mother that Mexicans were not welcomed to California or other parts of the country, that Mexicans were discriminated against and that we only had to go to schools that were for Mexicans only, that the only language we could speak in the schools regardless if they were for Mexicans only was English. She read my mother some signs that said, â€Å"NO MEXICANS ALLOWED. † She continued to tell my mother which neighborhoods we could not enter and which we could. If we saw signs like the ones she read for us, then we should be aware that we were not wanted there. After finding an all Mexican school for my sisters and me, my parents thought the hard part was over. I would here them talking in their bed room that as long as they did not bother the â€Å"gringos† or got in there way we would not have anything to worry about but they were wrong. Shortly after being able to find jobs for themselves, I began to see my parents worried and listening to their radios all the time. They had just found out that Mexicans were being deported back to Mexico regardless of their legal status. The news stated that tens of thousands of Mexican families were arrested and sent to jail for 10 days before they were sent to Mexico by train, because of an anti-immigrant campaign that the Americans had done. Those families were not given a chance to proof if any family members were U. S citizens. Families were not given the chance to take anything with them. The news also began announcing free trains rides back to Mexico for Mexican American and Mexicans who wished to voluntarily be taken back to Mexico. I can remember seeing my mother cry because she said she did not want to return to Mexico and live in the horrible conditions we were living in before. She begged my father to do something so we did not have to return to Mexico. One day my father came home telling my mother that he had heard of migrant work camps established by the U. S. Farm Security Administration, or FSA and that they had a possibility of getting jobs there to stay in the U. S. The camps provided housing, food, and medicine for immigrant families as well as safety from any criminal elements that can take advantage of defenseless immigrants. We had the possibility of staying we were extremely happy!! Little by little more Mexicans have extended their stay as well as the places were we live at. The most popular places where Mexicans live at now are Chicago, California, and New York. We stayed in the U. S. , my sisters and I are receiving a great education and compared to Mexico, I think we are now living the American Dream!!!! Reference: Depression and the Struggle for Survival. (2005, April 20). Immigration. Retrieved August 10, 2008, from The Library of Congress. Koch, W. (2006, April 4). 1930s Deportees Await Apology. USA TODAY. Retrieved from http:www. usatoday. com.

Data Multimedia Images

Data Multimedia Images Chapter I Introduction 1.1 What is meant by Multimedia Data? A number of data types can be characterized as multimedia data types. These data types are normally the essentials for the building blocks of core multimedia environments, platforms and integrating tools. The basic types can be described as text, images, audio, video and graphic objects. Following is a detailed explanation for the same. Text Text can be stored in a variety of different forms. In addition to American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) based files, text is usually stored in spreadsheets, annotations, processor files, databases and common multimedia objects. The task of text storage is becoming more and more complex due to the easy availability and abundance of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and text fonts, permitting unique effects such as text color, text shade etc. Images Digitalized images are nothing but a string of pixels that signify an area in the user’s graphical exhibit. There is an immense variation in the quality and dimension of storage for motionless images. For motionless (still) images, the space overhead varies with respect to complexity, size, resolution and compression format used to store any given image. The frequently used and accepted image formats (file extensions) consist of bmp, jpeg, tiff and png. Audio Audio, being another frequently used data type is relatively space intensive. A minute of sound takes up to 3 Megabytes (MB) of space. Numerous methods can be deployed to compress an audio into suitable formats. Video Another data type which consumes majority of space is categorized as the digitalized video data type. Videos are normally stored as a series of frames, the capacity of which depends on its resolution. A solo video frame can take up to 1 MB of space. Continuous transfer rate is needed to get a reasonable video playback with its proper transmission, compression, and decompression. Graphic Objects This data type consists of unique data structures that can define 2D and 3D shapes which further helps in defining multimedia objects. Today one can use different formats for image applications and video-editing applications. To list few examples Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) are graphic objects 1.2 How is Multimedia Data Different? Theoretically multimedia data should be considered like any regular data based on the data types for instance numbers, dates and characters. Though, there are a few challenges that arise from multimedia as described in [2]: Multimedia data is usually captured with various unreliable capturing techniques such as image processing. These multimedia processing techniques require capabilities for handling these various available methods of capturing content, this includes both automated and manual methods. In multimedia database, the queries created by the user rarely come back with textual answer. To a certain extent, the answer to user query is a compound multimedia presentation that the user can glance through at one’s leisure. The size of the multimedia data being large not only affects the storage, retrieval but also the transmission of data. Time to retrieve information may be vital while accessing video and audio databases, for example Video on Demand. Automatic feature extraction and Indexing: User explicitly submits the attribute values of objects inserted into the database in contrast to advanced tools with conservative databases, such as image processing and pattern recognition tools for images to extract the various features and content of multimedia objects. Special data structures for storage and indexing are needed due to the large size of data. 1.3 Basic Approaches for Data Retrieval Data management is being implemented since long. Many approaches have also been invented for the same to manage and inquire various types of data in the computer systems. The commonly used approaches for data management comprise of conventional database system, information retrieval system, content based retrieval system and graph/ tree pattern matching. The details for the same are as follows: Conventional database system It is the most extensively used approach to manage as well as investigate structured data. Data in a database system must match to some predefined structures and limitations (schema’s). The user should specify the data objects to be retrieved and the tables from which data has to be extracted. The user also has to predicate on which the retrieval of data will be based to formulate a database query. SQL, a query language has a restricted syntax and vocabulary that can be used for such databases. Information retrieval (IR) system This system is prominently used to search enormous text collections; where in the content of the data (text) is illustrated with the help of an indexer using keywords or a textual summary. The query demands are expressed in terms of keywords or natural language. For instance, searching for an image or video, the user is required to describe using words and also need means to store large amount of metadata in textual form. Content based retrieval (CBR) system This approach facilitates in the retrieval of multimedia objects from an enormous collection. The retrieval is based on various features such as color, texture and shape which can be extracted automatically from the objects. Though keyword can be considered a feature for textual data, conventional retrieval of information has a higher performance as compared to content-based retrieval. This is due to the fact that keyword has the demonstrated ability to characterize semantics while no other features have revealed convincing semantic describing capability. A key disadvantage of this particular approach is its lack of accuracy. Graph or tree pattern matching This particular approach seeks the retrieval of object sub-graphs from an object graph as per several designated patterns. Chapter II Data Structures for Multimedia Storage Many modern database applications deal with large amounts of multidimensional data. Multimedia content-based retrieval is one of the examples. Access Methods are essential in order to deal with multidimensional data efficiently. They are used to access selective data from a big collection. 2.1 Importance of Access Methods Efficient spatial selection support is the key purpose of access methods. These include range queries or nearest neighbour queries of spatial objects. The significance of these access methods and how they take into account both clustering techniques and spatial indexing is described by Peter Van Oosterom [3]. In the absence of a spatial index, every object in the database needs to be checked if it meets the selection criteria. Clustering is required to group the objects that are often requested together. Or else, many different disk pages will have to be fetched, resulting in a very slow response. For spatial selection, clustering implies storing objects that are not only close in reality but also close in computer memory instead of being scattered all over the whole memory. In conventional database systems sorting the data is the basis for efficient searching. Higher dimensional data cannot be sorted in an obvious manner, as it is possible for text strings, numbers, or dates. Principally, computer memory is one-dimensional. However, spatial data is 2D, 3D or even higher and must be organized someway in the memory. An intuitive solution to organize the data is using a regular grid just as on a paper map. Each grid cell has a unique name e.g. ’A1’, ’C2’, or ’E5’. The cells are stored in some order in the memory and can each contain a fixed number of object references. In a grid cell, a reference is stored to an object whenever the object overlaps the cell. However, this will not be very efficient due to the irregular data distribution of spatial data because of which many cells will be empty while many others will be overfull. Therefore, more advanced techniques have been developed. 2.2 kd Trees A kd-tree or a k-dimensional tree is a space-partitioning data structure used for organizing points in a k-dimensional space. kd-trees are a useful for several applications such as searches involving a multidimensional search key like range searches and nearest neighbour searches. Kd-trees are a special case of Binary Space Partitioning (BSP) trees. A kd-tree only uses splitting planes that are perpendicular to one of the coordinate axes. This is different from BSP trees, in which arbitrary splitting planes can be used. In addition to this, every node of a kd-tree, from the root to the leaves, stores a point. Whereas in BSP trees, leaves are typically the only nodes that contain points. As a consequence, each splitting plane must go through one of the points in the kd-tree. [4] 2.2.1 Addition of elements to kd trees A new point is added to a kd tree in the same way as one adds an element to any other tree. At first, traverse the tree, starting from the root and moving to either the left or the right child depending on whether the point to be inserted is on the left or right side of the splitting plane. Once you get to a leaf node, add the new point as either the left or right child of the leaf node, again depending on which side of the node’s splitting plane contains the new point. 2.2.2 Deleting from kd trees Deletion is similar as in Binary Search Tree (BST) but slightly harder. Step1 find node to be deleted. Step2 two cases must be handled: (a) No children replace pointer to node by NULL (b) Has children replace node by minimum node in right subtree. If no right subtree exists then first move left subtree to become right subtree. [1] 2.3 Quad-trees Each node of a quad-tree is associated with a rectangular region of space. The top node is associated with the entire target space. Each non-leaf node divides its region into four equal sized quadrants, likewise, each such node has four child nodes corresponding to the four quadrants and so on. Leaf nodes have between zero and some fixed maximum number of points. 2.3.1 Simple definition of node structure of a point quad-tree qtnodetype = record INFO: infotype; XVAL: real; YVAL: real; NW, SW, NE, SE: *qtnodetype end Here, INFO is some additional information regarding that point . XVAL, YVAL are coordinates of that point. NW, SW, NE, SE are pointers to regions obtained by dividing given region. [1] 2.3.2 Common uses of Quad-trees Image Representation Spatial Indexing Efficient collision detection in two dimensions Storing sparse data, such as formatting information for a spreadsheet or for some matrix calculations. 2.3.3 Representing Image Using Quad-tree: [7] Let us suppose we divide the picture area into 4 sections. Those 4 sections are then further divided into 4 subsections. We continue this process, repeatedly dividing a square region by 4. We must impose a limit to the levels of division otherwise we could go on dividing the picture forever. Generally, this limit is imposed due to storage considerations or to limit processing time or due to the resolution of the output device. A pixel is the smallest subsection of the quad tree. To summarize, a square or quadrant in the picture is either : entirely one color composed of 4 smaller sub-squares To represent a picture using a quad tree, each leaf must represent a uniform area of the picture. If the picture is black and white, we only need one bit to represent the colour in each leaf; for example, 0 could mean black and 1 could mean white. Now consider the following image : The definition of a picture is a two dimensional array, where the elements of the array are colored points. Figure 2.3: First three levels of quad-tree Figure 2.4: Given Image This is how the above image could be stored in quad-tree. Figure 2.5: 88 pixel picture represented in a quad-tree Figure 2.6: The quad tree of the above example picture. The quadrants are shown in counterclockwise order from the top-right quadrant. The root is the top node. (The 2nd and 3rd quadrants are not shown.) 2.3.4 Advantages of Quad-trees: They can be manipulated and accessed much quicker than other models. Erasing an image takes only one step. All that is required is to set the root node to neutral. Zooming to a particular quadrant in the tree is also a one step operation. To reduce the complexity of the image, it suffices to remove the final level of nodes. Accessing particular regions of the image is a very fast operation. This is useful for updating certain regions of an image, perhaps for an environment with multiple windows. The main disadvantage is that it takes up a lot of space. 2.4 R-trees R-trees are N-dimensional extension of Binary trees, but are used for spatial access methods i.e., for indexing multi-dimensional information. They are supported in many modern database systems, along with variants like R+ -trees and R*-trees. The data structure splits space with hierarchically nested, and possibly overlapping, minimum bounding rectangles.[4] A rectangular bounding box is associated with each tree node. [5]   Bounding box of a leaf node is a minimum sized rectangle that contains all  the rectangles/polygons associated with the leaf node. Bounding box associated with a non-leaf node contains the bounding box associated with all its children. Bounding box of a node serves as its key in its parent node (if any) Bounding boxes of children of a node are allowed to overlap. 2.4.1 Structure of an R-tree node rtnodetype = record Rec1, .Reck : rectangle P1, .Pk : âˆâ€"rtnodetype end A polygon is stored in one node, and the bounding box of the node must contain the polygon. Since a polygon is stored only once, the storage efficiency of R-trees is better than that of k-d trees or quad-trees. The insertion and deletion algorithms use the bounding boxes from the nodes to ensure that close by elements are placed in the same leaf node. Each entry within a leaf node stores two-pieces of information; a way of identifying the actual data element and the bounding box of the data element. 2.4.2 Inserting a node 1. Find a leaf to store it, and add it to the leaf. To find leaf, follow a child (if any) whose bounding box contains bounding box of data item, else child whose overlap with data item bounding box is maximum 2. Handle overflows by splits. We may need to divide entries of an overfull node into two sets such that the bounding boxes have minimum total area. 2.4.3 Deleting a node 1. Find the leaf and delete object; determine new MBR. 2. If the node is too empty: Delete the node recursively at its parent Insert all entries of the deleted node into the R-tree 2.4.4 Searching R-trees Similarly, for searching algorithms, bounding boxes are used to decide whether or not to search inside a child node. Here we need to find minimal bounding rectangle. In this way, most of the nodes in the tree are never touched during a search. If the node is a leaf node, output the data items whose keys intersect the given query point/region Else, for each child of the current node whose bounding box overlaps the query point/region, recursively search the child. 2.5 Comparison of Different Data Structures [1] k-d trees are very easy to implement. However, in general a k-d tree consisting k nodes may have a height k causing complexity of both insertion and search in k-d trees to be high. In practice, path lengths (root to leaf) in k-d trees tend to be longer than those in point quad-trees because these trees are binary. R-trees have a large number of rectangles potentially stored in each node. They are appropriate for disk access by reducing the height of the tree, thus leading to fewer disk access. The disadvantage of R-trees is that the bounding rectangle associated with different nodes may overlap. Thus when searching an R-tree, instead of following one path (as in case of quad-tree), we might follow multiple path down the tree. This difference grows even more acute when range search and neighbour searches are considered. In case of point quad-trees, while performing search/insertion each case requires comparisons on two coordinates. Deletion in point quad-trees is difficult because finding a candidate replacement node for the node being deleted is not easy. Chapter III Metadata Metadata is data about data. Any data that is used to describe the content, condition, quality and other aspects of data for humans or machines to locate, access and understand the data is known as Metadata. Metadata helps the users to get an overview of the data. 3.1 Need of Metadata The main functions of metadata can be listed as follows: [8] Description To describe and identify data sources. These descriptions help create catalogs, index, etc., thereby improving access to them. Querying Formulation of queries. Administration To provide information to help manage and administrate a data source, such as when and how it was created, and who can legally access it. Preservation To facilitate data archival and preservation like data refreshing and migration, etc. Technical To indicate how a system functions or metadata behaves, such as data formats, compression ratios, scaling routines, encryption key, and security, etc. Use To indicate the level and type of use of data sources like multiversion, user tracking, etc. 3.2 Metadata in the Life Cycle of Multimedia Objects A multimedia object undergoes a life cycle consisting of production, organization, searching, utilization, preservation, and disposition. Metadata passes through similar stages as an integral part of these multimedia objects [8]: Creation Objects of different media types are created often generating data of how they were produced (e.g., the EXIF files produced by digital cameras) and stored in an information retrieval system. Associated metadata is generated accordingly for administrating and describing the objects. Organization Multimedia objects may be composed of several components. Metadata is created to specify how these compound objects are put together. Searching and retrieval Created and stored multimedia objects are subject to search and retrieval by users. Metadata provides aids through catalog and index to enable efficient query formulation and resource localization. Utilization Retrieved multimedia objects can be further utilized, reproduced, and modified. Metadata related to digital rights management and version control, etc. may be created. Preservation and disposition Multimedia objects may undergo modification, refreshing, and migration to ensure their availability. Objects that are out-of-date or corrupted may be discarded. Such preservation and disposition activities can be documented by the associated metadata. 3.3 Classification of Metadata Metadata directly affects the way in which objects of different media types are used. Classifying metadata can facilitate the handling of different media types in a multimedia information retrieval system. Based on its (in)dependence on media contents, metadata can be classified into two kinds, namely content independent and content-dependent metadata [8]: Content-independent metadata provides information which is derived independently from the content of the original data. Examples of content independent metadata are date of creation and location of a text document, type-of-camera used to record a video fragment, and so on. These metadata are called descriptive data. Content-dependent metadata depends on the content of the original data. A special case of content-dependent metadata is content-dependent descriptive metadata , which cannot be extracted automatically from the content but is created manually: annotation is a well-known example. In contrast, content-dependent non-descriptive metadata is based directly on the contents of data. 3.4 Image metadata Some of the image files containing metadata include Exchangeable image file format (EXIF) and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). Having metadata about images embedded in TIFF or EXIF files is one way of acquiring additional data about an image. Image metadata are attained through tags. Tagging pictures with subjects, related emotions, and other descriptive phrases helps Internet users find pictures easily rather than having to search through entire image collections. A prime example of an image tagging service is Flickr, where users upload images and then describe the contents. Other patrons of the site can then search for those tags. Flickr uses a folksonomy: a free-text keyword system in which the community defines the vocabulary through use rather than through a controlled vocabulary. Digital photography is increasingly making use of metadata tags. Photographers shooting Camera RAW file formats can use applications such as Adobe Bridge or Apple Computers Aperture to work with camera metadata for post-processing. Users can also tag photos for organization purposes using Adobes Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) language, for example. [4] 3.5 Document metadata Most programs that create documents, including Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and other Microsoft Office products, save metadata with the document files. These metadata can contain the name of the person who created the file, the name of the person who last edited the file, how many times the file has been printed, and even how many revisions have been made on the file. Other saved material, such as document comments are also referred to as metadata. Document Metadata is particularly important in legal environments where litigation can request this sensitive information which can include many elements of private detrimental data. This data has been linked to multiple lawsuits that have got corporations into legal complications. [4] 3.6 Digital library metadata There are three variants of metadata that are commonly used to describe objects in a digital library: descriptive Information describing the intellectual content of the object, such as cataloguing records, finding aids or similar schemes. It is typically used for bibliographic purposes and for search and retrieval. structural Information that ties each object to others to make up logical units e.g., information that relates individual images of pages from a book to the others that make up the book. administrative Information used to manage the object or control access to it. This may include information on how it was scanned, its storage format, copyright and licensing information, and information necessary for the long-term preservation of the digital objects. [4] Chapter IV Text Databases Basic text comprises of alphanumeric characters. Optical character recognition (OCR) practices are deployed to translate analog text to digital text. The most common digital representation of characters is the ASCII code. For this, seven bits are required (eight bits might be used, where in the eighth bit is reserved for a special purpose) for each character. Storage space for a text document that is required is equivalent to the number of characters. For instance, a 15 page text document consisting of about 4000 characters generally consumes 60 kilobytes. Now days, structured text documents have become extremely popular. They comprise titles, chapters, sections, paragraphs, and so forth. A title can be presented to the user in a different format than a paragraph or a sentence. Different standards are used to encode structured information such as HTML and XML (hyper text markup language and extensible markup language) There are different approaches like Huffman and Arithmetic Coding, which can be used for text compression, but as the storage requirements are not too high, these approaches are not as important for text as they are for multimedia data. [10] 4.1 Text Documents A text document consists of identification and is considered to be a list of words. Likewise, a book is considered to be a document, and so is a paper in the events of a conference or a Web page. The key identification used for a book may be an ISBN number or the title of the paper together with the ISBN number of the conference event or a URL for a Web page. Retrieval of text documents does not normally entail the presentation of the entire document, as it consumes a large amount of space as well as time. Instead, the system presents the identifications of the chosen documents mainly along with a brief description and/or rankings of the document. 4.2 Indexing Indexing refers to the derivation of metadata from their documents and storage in an index. In a way, the index describes the content of the documents. The content can be described by terms like social or political for text documents. Also, the system utilizes the index to determine the output during retrieval. The index can be filled up in two ways, manually as well as automatically. Assigned terms can be added to documents as a kind of annotation by professional users such as librarians. These terms can be selected often from a prescribed set of terms, the catalog. A catalog describes a certain scientific field and is composed by specialists. One of the main advantages of this technique is that the professional users are aware of the acceptable terms that can be used in query formulation. A major drawback of this technique is the amount of work that has to be performed for the manual indexing process. Document content description can also be facilitated automatically resulting in what are termed as derived terms. One of the many steps required for this can be a step in which words in English text are identified by an algorithm and then put to lower case. Basic tools are used in other steps such as stop word removal and stemming. Stop words are words in the document which have a little meaning and most of the times include words like the and it. These stop words are erased from the document. Words are conflated to their stem in the document through stemming. As an example, the stemmer can conflate the words computer, compute and computation to the stem comput. 4.3 Query Formulation Query formulation refers to the method of representing the information need. The resultant formal representation of information is the query. In a wider perspective, query formulation denotes the comprehensive interactive dialogue between the system and the user, leading to both a suitable query and also a better understanding by the user of the information need. It also denotes the query formulation when there are no previously retrieved documents to direct the search, thus, the formulation of the preliminary query. It is essential to differentiate between the expert searcher and the relaxed end user. The expert searcher is aware of the document collection and the assigned terms. He/ she will use Boolean operators to create the query and will be able to adequately rephrase the same as per the output of the system. In case the result is too small, the expert searcher must expand the query, and in case if the result is too large, he/she must be able to make the query more restrictive. The communication of the need for information to the system in natural language interests the end user. Such a statement of the need for information is termed as a request. Automatic query formulation comprises of receiving the request and generating a preliminary query by the application of algorithms that were also used for the derivation of terms. In general, the query consists of a list of query terms. This list is accepted by the system and it composes a result set. The system can formulate a successive query based on this relevant feedback. 4.4 Matching The matching algorithm is mainly the most important part of an information retrieval system. This algorithm makes a comparison of the query against the document representations in the index. In the exact matching algorithm, a Boolean query, which is formulated by an expert searcher, defines precisely the set of documents that satisfy the query. The system generates a yes or a no decision for each document. In the case of an inexact matching algorithm, the system delivers a ranked list of documents. Users can traverse this document list to search for the information they need. Ranked retrieval puts the documents that are relevant in the top of the ranked list, thus, saving the time the user has to invest on reading those documents. Simple but effective ranking algorithms make use of the frequency allocation of terms over documents. Ranking algorithms that are based on statistical approaches, halve the time the user has to spend on reading those documents. Chapter V Image Databases Digital images can be defined as an electronic snapshot scanned from documents or taken of a scene, for example printed texts, photographs, manuscripts, and various artworks. Digital image is modeled and mapped as a grid of dots, pixels or commonly known picture elements. A tonal value is allocated to each of these pixels, which can be black, white, and shades of gray or color. Pixel itself is symbolized in binary code of zeros and ones. Computer stores these binary digits or bits corresponding to each pixel in a sequence and are later reduced to mathematical representation by compressing them. After compression these bits are interpreted and read to generate an analog output by the computer for display or printing purposes. Figure 5.1: As shown in this bitonal image, each pixel is assigned a tonal value, in this example 0 for black and 1 for white. To further describe the grayscale of a pixel one needs to say that one byte is of eight bits. For a color pixel one needs three colors of one bye each, these colors are red, green and blue. So, for a rectangular screen one can compute the amount of data required for the image using the formula: A = xyb Where A is the number of bytes needed, x is the number of pixels per horizontal line, y is the number of horizontal lines, and b is the number of bytes per pixel. Using this formulae for a screen with value of x being 800, y being 600, and for b being 3; A=xyb thus A = 1.44 Mbyte. Compression is required for this significant amount of data. Image compression is based on exploiting redundancy in images and properties of the human perception. Pixels in specific areas appear to be similar; this concept of similarity is called Spatial Redundancy. Human’s views of images are tolerant r

The Mind: Aristotle Kant And Socrates :: essays research papers

Daniel C. Dennet said in A Glorious Accident that, "our minds--if you like-- [are] just as real as our dreams"(Kayzer, 37). The implications of this statement are substantial, for if this is true--if our minds and our consciousness are just dreams or the constructs of our brain, what we perceive, our memories, and our sense of reality are nothing more than illusions. Not only is this scientifically a valid statement, but it forces us to question who we are, and what we know . It is the latter that is of interest at this moment. What I wish to do in this essay is to tie together this concept of perception and the mind with what we have read in Text and Critics, as well as to discuss the need for science to find "reality" and "knowledge." But, first, we must understand what Dennet means by â€Å"our minds being as real as our dreams†. Dennet's point is profound and a point that should not be dismissed as a whim of a philosopher but, instead, a scientific reality-- not the construct of a man's subjective mind. One is led to believe that the best way to describe the mind as an illusion is to describe it in terms of dreams. When we sleep, our external sensory input is shut down. However, our minds, when we dream, are not in a very different state than when we are awake, other than as said before that our external sensory input is shut down. Thus, we can conclude that, our waking state is just as illusionary as our dreams, though with supplementary external sources of information. When dreaming, we obviously receive sensory input that enables our minds to create dreams with sights, sounds, touch, taste, emotions, experience, and sometimes even smell. If there is no external sensory input, we must logically imply that it is coming from internal sources in the brain, the most obvious one being memory. Immediately, we can agree that memory is a subjective source of reality, as we can see in the ease in which memory fills in its missing gaps with often incorrect information (often influenced by our personal bias) as well as the ease in which memory can be altered or repressed and false memory can be created. So, immediately, by looking at S. Brown 2 dreams, we can see that one source of our perception is subject to all sorts of editing by the brain. While the subjectivity of the memories is most evident during the dream state, our memory is

Faith in Faulkners Light In August Essay -- Faulkner Light August Rel

Faith in Faulkner's Light In August Religion is a big part of the southern world that Faulkner creates in Light In August. It is also a major theme of the novel. Most characters seem to use â€Å"Lord† and â€Å"God† very often in their dialogue, which shows that religion is never forgotten by the members of this society. Light in August portrays a type of religious fundamentalism. In this fundamentalism, among the people of the south, there is only one proper way of following and implementing religion in one’s life. Characters are constantly trying to justify killing, hatred, and racism through their faith. The creation of hatred and racism is the result of each character’s belief that theirs are the only genuine beliefs and therefore, it is their responsibility to carry out the work of God in their own personal way and through their own reasoning. Two characters that are blinded by their own version of living a religious life are Mr. Hines and Mr. McEachern. I will argue that the obsession with their religion and their belief of how it should be followed is an ideology that fails each of these characters in their purpose. Consequently, the more these characters are faced by failure the more they try to embody God and take actions as if they are the Almighty Himself. Ironically, while using religion as a shield these characters fail to see their own sins. These characters see their sins instead, as the most essential and virtuous deeds and the work of God. From the moment Mr. McEachern picks up Joe Christmas from the foster home he stresses the importance of religion to Joe. While introducing himself, Mr. McEachern explains to Joe, â€Å"†¦I will have you learn soon that the two abominations are sloth and idle thinking, the... ...forced upon them. There are other types of religious extremists, like Doc Hines, who see those who do not share their faith as enemies and believe that they are a curse of God and therefore, should be eliminated through killing. These ideologies, even though seen in our world today, cannot be the definitions of faith and religion. In fact, the violence created through them defies the very basic beliefs associated with most world religions. Mr. McEachern and Doc Hines are blinded by their faith and their approach to implement religion in their lives and the lives of others is a forceful and violent one. In the end, both characters fail to spread their faith and instead their forceful teachings and extremist beliefs perpetuate more evil than good in the name of God. Works Cited Faulkner, William. Light in August. New York: Vintage International, 1990.

Rebellion in The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood Essay -- Rebel The

Rebellion in The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood 'Rebel' is a term, which is highly weighed down with emotion. In society today we perceive a rebel to be a figure opposing a much stronger majority. We distinguish the rebel to be a character who fights for his/her own ideals. We see a person that will do anything almost being ruthless to destroy the boundaries set up against him/her by the stronger mass. We witness the rebel as an individual who deliberately defines a battlefield and two fighting fronts. The rebel is constantly is resisting. The only way he/she can defend his morals and values are to strike the greater that condemns his/her values and morals. Unfortunately today there are many misconceptions and preconceptions relating to the essence of a true rebel. Society tends to comprehend the rebel to be figure fighting on the front lines, spilling blood for his cause. Especially the media has delivered this image of a rebel. We must acknowledge the fact there are other forms of rebels and rebellions. It is not fair to say that the form of rebel that is described above is not valid, but still we must make a suitable distinction. We must not always consider the rebel to be an individual like 'William Wallace' who fought for his country's independence by using violence as his primary weapon. In the course of history we have witnessed another category of rebels. Characters such as Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King and Emmeline Pankhurst all gave birth to another form of rebel, the rebel that fought for his values passively. They did not confront the enemy with the sword but with words. The novel 'The Handmaids Tale' by Margaret Atwood tells the story of a near future oppressive society govern... ...poke out against them in the loudest voice possible. Offred's cassettes did more than just speak her voice. I feel that the true reason why Offred did not assign her name is because she wanted to speak universally. Offred wanted to speak in the name of all handmaids. In studying Offred's rebellion we can see that she suffered an internal conflict. Offred's plight is always human as well as ideological. She wanted to rebel but at the same time she was scared of loosing herself in the process. Offred had to win the conflict within her before she could start the external battle. Offred won this conflict and decided that her humanity was the risk for a great cause, love. 'As long as women consent to be unjustly governed, they will be; but directly women say: "We withhold our consent," we will not be governed any longer as long as government is unjust.'

Egypt’s Culture and Political System Essay

The Egyptian culture is considered one of the oldest cultures in human history. Surprisingly, it almost has some of gender equality except that it needs more to consider, in order achieving the third Millennium Development Goal, which talks of achieving gender equity/equality and women empowerment by 2015. I would recommend that the Egyptian constitution considers enacting and/or passing several legislations in favor of women and as well give recognition to the informal market sector, where bulks of the women are making meaningful contribution to the economy. I would also recommend that this ancient nation and culture acknowledges the home, where the men considerably have all the major decision making powers. I am of the conviction that women make sound and major decisions as well and can provide better and transformation ideas, realizing the remarkably undeniable work of the women of Liberia during the civil war. I believe that if our generation begins to identify the errors of past generations, relative to gender-related issues, and if we address those issues in more formal ways by beginning to give women their rightful places in society; ensuring that opportunities and privileges are equally and equitably distributed, our world can be the most enjoyable place even for generations unborn. In an effort to do this, we must begin with an identification of the problems as stated above, discuss them thoroughly as a way of enabling us to craft or design ideas that would amicably resolve them for the better of our general world, beginning with the Egyptian society. In Egypt the political system of policies and regulations of its political structure is based on its fundamental laws and practices. Most of which shows how the Egyptian government positions its power on the state and the society it governs. Egypt started out being a Republic adopting a democratic system. This system  defines the way i n which it uses its public authority. There are basically six parts to this system. The first is the constitutional system. There was a constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt in 1971 that was used but then had a written amendment to it in 1980. The actual amendment had commonality in the English Common Law which came from the Napoleonic Code. It simply explains that Egypt declares it’s self as an Arab Republic with a democratic system. The second part is called the Executive Branch. The president is called the Head of State. The head of state is selected by a minimum one-third majority of the Majlis ash-Sha’ab, which is the â€Å"People’s Assembly. The People’s Assembly must approve by a minimum of two-thirds and have to be elected by a majority referendum. The election term is for six years with the possibility for re-election with conditional reasons for return. Putting into to play the general state policy is made up and supervised by the Head of State. He also rules the Armed Force. The last elected president of the republic was Mohammed Hosni Mubarak. The supreme executive and administrative organ of the State is the government; they are comprised of the Council of Ministers. This is ruled by the Prime Minister and he is the overseer of the work of the government. The highest part of the government is the Executive and administrative part of the Egyptian Republic is the Council of Ministers. The Ministers are together responsible for the policy and procedure of the State before the People’s Assembly, every Minister is responsible for the performance of his Ministry and is held to accountability to do so. The Parliament has great power as well. They have the power to withdraw confidence from the Cabinet or from any Cabinet member and leave them powerless. The fourth part of this system is the Legislative Branch. This branch of the Egyptian Parliament is a reflection in character and consists of the People’s Assembly, or Majlis El-Shaab and the Advisory Council or Majlis El-Shourah. â€Å"The People’s Assembly is the legislative branch of the State consisting of 444 directly elected members and 10 members appointed by the President, who serve for a term of five years. It has the power to approve the general policy, new laws, the budget and the development plans of the government. It also has the authority to undertake investigations and to levy taxes, besides appointing the Presidential candidate and passing a vote of no-confidence in the cabinet. The Advisory Council with 140 members, out of which 70 members  are nominated by the President, is Egypt’s consultative council. It offers advices and consultation and proposes to the Assembly new laws and regulations† (Haas, F. 2008). The fifth part of the system is the Judicial Branch. The Judicial branch System was brought into the country introduced into the country in 1854 and predicated on the English common law, Islamic law, and Napoleonic codes system to go through for four categories of courts of justice. Almost like the United States the highest judicial body is the Supreme Constitutional Court, the Court of Cessation. There are seven courts of Appeal in the various systems, and the Summary Tribunals in the districts are the principal court system in Egypt. It guarantees the independence of the judicial system. The fifth system is the Party of Power. This system is ruled on a multi-party system. â€Å"The Law 40 of 1977 regulates the development of political parties in Egypt. Though there is currently 17 active political parties representing various stands across the political spectrum, the law prohibits the creation of religious-based political parties in the state. Presently the National Democratic Party holds the majority of seats in the People’s Assembly† (History. 2012). The sixth system is the local government. This is headed by a Governor who is appointed by the President which is very different as to how they are selected in the US. â€Å"Egypt is administratively divided into 26 Governorates. Within their districts, local government units establish and run all public utiliti es, provide services and designate industrial areas. Working closely at various levels with local government is the Local Popular Councils. The basics: Egypt is a large, mostly Arab, mostly Muslim country. At around 80 million people, it has the largest population in the Middle East and the third-largest in Africa. Most of Egypt is in North Africa, although the part of the country that borders Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, is in Asia. Its other neighbors are Sudan to the South, Libya to the West, and Saudi Arabia across the Gulf of Aqaba to the East. It has been was ruled by Hosni Mubarak since from 1981 until February 11th†( Pew Research Center 2011, November 17). As to what is going on today in Egypt. There has been fierce protest in Egypt that has been promoted by the recent protests in which led to the fall of the Tunisian government as well as getting rid of longtime Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The Egyptians have gathered momentum to get support of other protesters across the Arab world in Algeria, notably in  protesting their autocratic governments, high levels of corruption, and grinding pove rty. This is a big reason Why Egyptians unhappy and disturbed about the government. They feel they have no basic freedom than Tunisians. â€Å"Egypt is ranked 138th of 167 countries on The Economist’s Democracy index, a widely accepted measure of political freedom. That ranking puts Egypt just seven spots ahead of Tunisia. And Egyptians are significantly poorer than their cousins to the west† (Mislan, D. 2012). How did this all start? These protests started with the protests in Tunisia. Just like their Tunisian counterparts, â€Å"Egyptian protesters have pointed to a specific incident as inspiration for the unrest. Many have cited the June 2010 beating death of Khaled Said, allegedly at the hands of police, as motivation for their rage. But it’s also clear that the issues here are larger† (Prager, D. 2012). This seems to be complicated for the US more than Tunisia was. The â€Å"Tunisian regime was a key ally for the US in the fight against Al Qaeda. But the US government’s ties to Tunisia’s Ben Ali pale in comparison to American ties to Egypt. Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank, explains: Predictions that a Tunisia-like uprising will soon topple Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are premature the Egyptian regime, with its well-paid military, is likely to be more unified and more ruthless than its Tunisian counterparts were. The U.S. is the primary benefactor of the Egyptian regime, which, in turn, has reliably supported American regional priorities. After Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel, Egypt is the largest recipient of U.S. assistance, including $1.3 billion in annual military aid. In other words, if the army ever decides to shoot into a crowd of unarmed protestors, it will be shooting with hardware provided by the United States. As Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations points out, the Egyptian military is â€Å"not there to project power, but to protect the regime (History. 2012)†. There was a movement started in Egypt called the Egyptian Movement for Change (EMC). It also has another name called, Kefaya which in English means â€Å"Enough†. This came about in 2004. Almost immediately its importance to Egyptian political life was recognized, though not understood. Both Egyptian and Western analysts have mischaracterized the movement. Interpretations have been too narrow, focusing on specific details and ignoring the movement’s broad vision, or too broad, mistaking Kefaya for a generic social movement in the Western mode. All such approaches fail to  appreciate Kefaya’s real contribution. This essay argues that Kefaya’s significance lies in its transformative potential as a broad political force that is uniquely suited to the needs of the moment in Egypt. It is at once a cross-ideological force that has the potential, in the long run, of creating a new mainstream and a movement of a new kind that is creating a distinctive and promis ing form of politics for Egypt. Egypt’s political system has reached a dead end in the early twenty-first century. The opposition political parties are locked in their headquarters, unable to communicate with the public. Virtually acquiescing to the siege of an arsenal of restrictive laws, these political parties have for years suffered from an increasingly diminishing membership, a lack of operational funds, and internecine internal feuds. The â€Å"illegality† of the Muslim Brothers (MB) has paradoxically liberated that organization from restrictions that come with governmental licensing. However, the ideology, posture, secrecy, and political tactics of the grassroots-based MB engender the mistrust of many political forces, including some Islamists. At the same time, the secularist-Islamist polarization hinders the possibility of reaching any meaningful consensus on critical issues. This blockage is not lost on the regime, the clear beneficiary of such divisions among its adversaries, and it does not augur well for the future of the brothers in a lead role in shaping Egyptian political life. Amid this political disarray, a new generation of Egyptians holds the promise for transforming politics in Egypt. They have found a home and an instrument in Kefaya and in the process have invented a new form of politics. Their innovations are historically grounded on the specifics of Egypt’s political life in recent decades. Unique Egyptian circumstances have shaped their experiences, aspirations, and vision for the future. With the seething political discontent on the one hand and the ideologically based mistrust and mutual exclusion among the political forces on the other, Egypt needs today, more than ever, a new form of politics that pulls together diverse ideas from across the political spectrum to forge a new national project. For more than a decade, a group of activists and intellectuals have interacted across ideological lines to reach a common ground. Kefaya emerged as one manifestation of these efforts and as an important illustration of the possibilities of this new politics.  While such collaborative work across ideological lines is not unique in democratic experiences around the world, Kefaya represents the first successful effort of that sort in modern Egyptian politics. This essay, based on primary sources, including open-ended interviews, statements, newspaper articles, and reports, as well as unpublished documents, is composed of three main parts. The first part explains in more detail the reasons why Kefaya has been widely mischaracterized; the second illustrates why and how Kefaya represents a new force with the potential of creating a new mainstream; and the third explores the new politics invented by Kefaya. There has been Misunderstanding Kefaya Since its early days, there have been various critical interpretations of Kefaya by politicians and intellectuals alike, at times citing deficiencies in the movement’s profile, actions, and approach, while at other times dismissing the movement outright as being a â€Å"foreign puppet† or the pastime of â€Å"a bunch of kids.† The most serious and widely noted critique of Kefaya is that it has been essentially a mere protest movement, targeting President Mubarak personally, without putting forward an alternative candidate or articulating a constructive vision for political transformation. The critique along these lines has gained more momentum since the 2005 presidential election. Because Kefaya’s main slogan expressed the rejection of a fifth term for Mubarak as well as the succession of his son, the argument goes that Kefaya lost its raison d’etre with the end of the election. â€Å"Except for rejecting the election results, symbolized by the slogan of ‘Batel’, nothing new was produced.† When Kefaya played a leading role in the formation of the National Front for Change on the eve of the subsequent parliamentary elections, it was criticized as passing the torch to the old opposition parties, the very same entities whose inaction it has been formed to face. (Haas, F. 2008)†.The EMC had been â€Å"dragged into sitting together with the leaders of the tamed opposition, instead of putting forward a demand for changing the electoral system.† While critics clearly question Kefaya’s contribution to Egyptian politics, even the more positive assessments of the EMC mischaracterize it. For example, the American Left sees Kefaya as the beginning of â€Å"the process of rebuilding an Egyptian Left crushed by decades of police oppression† and a reverse of its â€Å"political marginalization caused by the rise of political Islam (Haas, F. 2008)†. Some Egyptian analysts as well characterize Kefaya  as a â€Å"secular† protest movement and thereby implicitly expect its role to be the containment of the Islamists. Kefaya has been so widely misunderstood in the West as well as among the Western-educated elite in Egypt because of the reliance on Western social scientific classifications, notably the social movement literature, to make sense of a phenomenon emerging from the very different Egyptian context. This shortcoming is compounded by looking at Kefaya with an ideologically selective eye. While Kefaya has indeed demonstrated several of the characteristics highlighted in the literature on new social movements, it is neither single issue oriented nor concerned with identity two of the most important features of new social movements. Shoehorning Kefaya into a category derived from the experience of postindustrial societies obscures more than it illuminates. Nevertheless, the concept of the new social movement comes closest to capturing certain features of Kefaya. The movement is one of dissent, aiming in a constant and persistent endeavor toward the transformation of Egypt.4 It is a loose network of small groupings around the country. Like social movements, it aims at generating public attention and has emerged from a realization of the perils involved in conventional party politics in Egypt, marked by debilitating restrictions and dilemmas. In other words, Kefaya emerges out of realization that the institutional channels are neither neutral nor amenable to the demands for change. However, unlike conventional social movements and because of the specific necessities of the Egyptian context, Kefaya is not focused on a single issue. The same, incidentally, is true of the Islamic movement whose platform also embraces a range of issues. In addition to the breadth of the issues addressed by Kefaya, the movement is ideologically diverse. In this way, it differs from the Islamic movement. While the latter has a concrete ideology shaping its project, Kefaya goes beyond any single ideology to be the only movement in contemporary Egypt that emerged out of serious political interactions across ideological lines. Approaching Kefaya through the prism of the social movement literature, with its American scholarship emphasis on resource mobilization and political processes, blinds analysis to this distinctive feature, which is in fact one of the most important contributions of Kefaya to Egypt’s political life. There is concern about the momentum behind Egypt’s emergency law, and what it means for progress both the incredible progress that has already been  made and the equally incredible progress that has yet to be made. There is concern about the treatment and status of the Copts and other members of the Christian Egyptian minority. There is concern about the security of the Egyptian–Israeli border and about relations between the two countries in general. There is concern that the progress that has been made thus far could actually lead to a reversal of Egypt’s progress, should the freedom to elect lead to a government that constricts the freedom of the Egyptian people even more than we have seen over the past 30 years And the list could go on. Indeed, there is no shortage of things about which to worry. There is a fine line between worrying and believing. Similarly, there is a fine line between two, seemingly contradictory, truths: Some degree of discontent with our present circumstances is healthy and necessary, because discontent fuels progress; at the same time, being happy requires that we make a point of being happy wherever we are. There is a fine and difficult line between making the best of our current reality and not giving up. It is necessary to think through all possible outcomes, including the undesirable and even the remote ones. Both worrying and believing are the result of thinking. Worry and anxiety result from focusing on undesirable outcomes no matter how probable or improbable. Belief, on the other hand, is the result of focusing on the best possible outcomes again, no matter how probable or improbable. Whereas worrying fuels panic and skepticism, believing fuels faith and hope. Positive action rarely results from the chaos, fear, or feelings of scarcity that often accompany worry. Faith and hope lead to trust and courage; and trust and courage lead to positive, prosaically action. So, yes, there does seem to be a great deal to worry about right now. Even still, if there’s even the remotest possibility that believing instead of worrying will lead to continued progress, and then it seems to me that believing is what we have to do. Positive Psychology has been described by Martin Seligman and others as the science of what makes life worth living; of what is working for individuals, families, communities, and society more broadly. The Positive Psychology experiment with which we are now charged is to, together, choose belief over worry. At least between now and Egypt’s presidential election, let us together make a conscious, deliberate decision to focus on what is working and how it can lead to the best possible future for Egypt and for the world as a whole. References Mislan, D. (2012). Cross Cultural Perspectives. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Haas, F. (2008). German Science and Black Racism–Roots of the Nazi Holocaust. FASEB Journal, 22(2), 332-337. History. (2012). Germany Country Review, 7-14. Ninkovich, F. (2001). The United States and Imperialism. Wiley-Blackwell. Pew Research Center. (2011, November 17). The American-Western European Values Gap. Retrieved fromhttp://www.pewglobal.org/2011/11/17/the-american-western-european-values-gap/ Prager, D. (2012). Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph. HarperCollins.

Green Energy Essay

This is a serious issue in many countries and is harmful to humans’ and animals’ health, the environment and also increases pollution (Veziroglu 2007). Now, it is the time to face these problems by using clean energy such as solar, wind and water. Wagner & Mathur (2011) state that hydropower is the most efficient renewable energy, while Veziroglu (2007) claims that hydrogen is the key to the solution in the 21st century. Therefore, this essay will focus on energy sources water and hydrogen. The first part will analyse how to use water to produce a large amount of power in several ways. The second will discuss the effect of hydro energy. The third point will explain where hydrogen comes from and how to use it. The last section will describe the reason why many researchers and industrialists are interested in using hydrogen power. It is argued that using hydro power and hydrogen energy in many countries can decrease CO2 emissions that are the main cause of climate change and create an amount of clean energy, although these sources of energy have some negative impact and requires high investment costs. Hydro is a large natural resource that can be used to generate power in different ways. Hydro means water which is a significant power source to generate electricity. Destouni & Frank (2010) state that hydro-electric is a large resource, and it is more stable and reliable than other resources when they are compared. Additionally, the electric can be produced from water by using generator in many ways. Wagner & Mathur (2011) reveal that there are three ways which are river power plant, storage power plant and oceanic power plant. Firstly, they state that river power plants create power by the flowing and dropping of elevation of water. For storage power plants, they reveal that they generate electricity when the reservoir allows water to fall from natural resources such as Mountain Lake and artificial resources such as dam. For example, they point out that the biggest storage energy stations is the Three Gorges Dam in China which creates over 25 times more electricity than a coal-fired energy station on the basis of capacity. Secondly, another power plant uses water from the ocean such as wave, tide and the different temperatures of the sea to produce energy. Furthermore, hydro-energy is the main source of electricity in some countries. For instance, the percentage of using hydropower in Norway, Brazil and Canada are 99, 84 and 58, respectively (Wagner & Mathur 2011). In the future, the global product of hydro-electricity tends to be growth. Destouni and Frank (2010) suggest that it will increase around 20 percent by 2050 for decreasing the using of fossil fuel and carbon emission. Hydro energy has negative and positive sides that affect human lives. Firstly, all hydro power plants require a great amount of capital. Secondly, river plants produce small amounts of energy compared with other hydropower plants because this type does not use the full flow of the river, so the energy is not sufficient for many households. Thirdly, large dams could lead to floods in the cities which are situated lower than the dams because of overload caused by heavy rain or damage caused by earthquakes (Wagner & Mathur 2011). Moreover, hydro plants could impact on environment. For example, large dams can interrupt fish’s lives when fish try to swim upstream and deplete natural animal habitat for birds and ducks that have to move to another area as shown in the O’Shaughnessy Dam in the United State which destroyed some parts of Yosemite National Park. Moreover, over one million people were forced to move out their villages when China built the Three Gorges Dam project (National Geographic 2012). On the other hand, there are many advantages of hydro power plants. Wagner & Mathur (2011) indicate that storage power plants can generate large amount of energy, and when well managed can avoid flooding, and can provide water for farmers whenever they demand because the dams collect water all year. In addition, dams have the efficiency of controlling the water that can begin, stop and generate power immediately. Furthermore, the average cost to invest in this power is lower than the other sources, and it can be used longer than 50 years. For example, the plant in Darjeeling in India is installed in 1897 (Wagner & Mathur 2011). According to National Geographic (2012), hydropower is sustainable and clean source because of water cycle that water transforms to steam and come back to water again, and no greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide which pollute into the air so that it decreases impact on environment and reduce the causes of global warming. Another widespread renewable energy is hydrogen which is a basic source which can be produced from natural and artificial resources and can use in many kinds of industries for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Hydrogen is made from primary sources such as solar, nuclear, water and fossil fuel (Fig. 1). Edwards, Kuznetsov & David (2007) point out that a fuel cell is a device for generating electricity and recharging power by oxidation between hydrogen and oxygen from the air though electrodes and this process will continue until no fuel and air (Fig. 2). Therefore, many countries select hydrogen energy to solve climate change problems that are caused by the use of fossil fuel. For example, some countries which are interested in using hydrogen power are the United States and Japan who spend a lot of money investing in hydrogen energy projects both to decrease carbon emissions, and as an alternative power resource (European Commission 2003). Hydrogen energy and fuel cell have some pros and cons for decision to use in society such as vehicles, aerosol and stationary. The advantages of hydrogen power and fuel cell are cycling of water, low or zero carbon emission, high efficiency and power quality, and low noise. As a result, these advantages will reduce pollution and eliminate greenhouse gases which cause ozone layer depletion. Moreover, these systems are used in wide range such as hospitals, transport, and IT centres (Edwards, Kuznetsov & David 2007 and Veziroglu 2007). In transport, hydrogen energy has been used in transport because it provides good performance and high convenience such as smoothing and low noise, and also it is used for silent power of airspace and producing high levels of power for advanced soldier uniforms in military program. Furthermore, technology such as computers, telephone and radios also use hydrogen and fuel cell in recent year because it can provide long life batteries. However, it cost a great amount of money to hydrogen project and sometimes it can use in short time just thousands hours (European Commission 2003). In addition, Veziroglu (2007) reports that some process will produce other gases not only hydrogen such as nitrogen oxide group can cause global warming. In conclusion, the advantage of hydropower is providing the amount of energy that is sufficient for the requirements of every household, and the advantage of hydrogen energy is that it can be used in many industries such as cars and airplanes. Moreover, both of them, which are clean and sustainable energy systems, reduce carbon emissions. Furthermore, the cost of these kinds of energy will decrease as these systems become more prominent and will be used more widely in the future. Therefore, hydropower and hydrogen energy are likely to be used in the future to decrease the causes of climate change. Reference List Destouni, G & Frank, H 2010, ‘Renewable energy’, Ambio,  vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 18-21, viewed 1 December 2012, . Edwards, PP, Kuznetsov, VL & David, WIF 2007, ‘Hydrogen energy’, Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, vol. 365, no. 1853, pp. 1043-1056, viewed 1 December 2012, . European commission 2003, Hydrogen energy and fuel cells: a vision of our future, European Communities, Luxembourg, viewed 28 November 2012, . National Geographic 2012, Hydroelectric energy, National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C. , viewed 28 November 2012, . Veziroglu, TN 2007, ‘21st century’s energy: hydrogen energy system’, in JW Sheffield ;  C Sheffield (eds), Assessment of hydrogen energy for sustainable development, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp. 9-31, viewed 23 November 2012, . Wagner, H ; Mathur, J 2011,  Introduction to hydro energy systems,  Springer, Dordrecht.