Network Topology and Wiring Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Network Topology and Wiring - Essay Example The physical mapping of the network may be geometrical in shape whereas the logical topology would include mapping of the network. Ring Topology – where all elements in a network form a ring, and the unidirectional data passes through all elements in the network and thus, each element has to ensure that the speed is being retained Tree Topology – Where the central hub acts as the node from which intermediate nodes emerge and further nodes may emerge from the that node in such a way that a chain may be formed. The last node is termed as a leaf from where no child node emerges In context to the networking needs of the healthcare center, the mesh topology seems quite relevant. With the enhanced technology measures, the healthcare centers require networking topologies for medical practices, pharmacies, laboratories, even for multimedia purposes like cardiac monitoring alongside other applications. Furthermore, communication patterns need to be developed to deal with payment claims, lab test results and other matters which need to be communicated to various stakeholders (Hoysh, Yoshihashi & Bailey 2012). Various prototypes have been developed to increase networking efficiency in similar technologically advanced healthcare centers. Research and experimentation reveals that mesh network prove to be the most cost effective yet relevant network topology in this context. Such a topology is convenient since it has the capacity to support a wide range of network. Also, delivery time for the conveyance to message may be reduced. As mentioned above as well, a mesh topology is one where every node relays data to any other node in the system. Thus, all nodes essentially cooperate in distributing data in the network. Furthermore, since wireless technology needs to be incorporated, mesh typology is more relevant since it supports such a

Deadly Unna Essay Example for Free

Deadly Unna Essay Within the pages of the novel Deadly Unna by Phillip Gwynne we are taken on a journey to a highly racist and bigoted town. Through the eyes of a young teenage boy, we see the world how he does and we experience the division and racism in this corrupt town. In the book, the two races are strongly divided and we can see this clearly in the local bar. The front bar is for the goonyas and the back bar is for the nungas. Nungas are not allowed to be in the front bar with the goonyas, they are not allowed to drink with them. Although the division in the bar is not direct racism, it still leaves a large impression on the reader. In the back bar, there is a serving window for the nungas to buy their drinks, there are no seats at the bar like in the front. â€Å"Back bar or black bar as everybody called it,† (page 156). The back bar is called black bar because that is where all the nungas are permitted to be, not up the front like normal people, like animals at the back. Although the nungas play for the football team, the racial division is even spread in the change rooms. The may not have been a rule in place that the nungas got changed at one end of the rooms and the goonyas at the other, it still came out that way. â€Å"Nungas got changed at one end and us Goonyas at the other. There was no rule or anything; it was just the way it was.† (Page 21) Even though the town allows nungas to play on their football team, they are still classed as unwelcome in the Port. â€Å"boongs piss off  Ã¢â‚¬  is written on the jetty shed. The word â€Å"boong† is a derogatory term that the aboriginals are referred to. â€Å"Everywhere you look boongs piss off, boongs piss off, boongs piss off. Everywhere,† (page 257) the crude saying is written everywhere in The Port making it clear that nungas are not welcome in this part of town. The goonyas part of the town. At the end of the novel, Blacky and his siblings, paint over the sign â€Å"boongs piss off  Ã¢â‚¬  that is on the jetty shed, showing that they are not as racist and narrow minded as the rest of the town, their decision may not be agreed with, but they are standing up for what they think is right, proving that nungas should be accepted, not discriminated against. Not only is this town racist, but it is also filled with sexism, majority of the men and teenage boys do not believe that women are their equals. Mr Robertson will not take advice from Gwen Black (Blacky’s mother) because she is a woman, even if she was a â€Å"tactical genius†. â€Å"Everybody thought that to be a great coach you had to be a great player. And a bloke, of course,† (page 32). Pickles is also sexist, he dislikes Cathy (a camper) squidding with Blacky and himself, he believes that it is a man’s job. â€Å"Girls and squid, according to him didn’t go together,† (page 181). Blacky’s father is also sexist, he is always down at the pub drinking or going out fishing while his wife Gwen is at home cooking and cleaning for her family.

Critical Elements of User Experience Design

Critical Elements of User Experience Design Prof. Michael Weyrich, Tobias Jung, Zeller Christian Zange Hossain Mohammad Faysal Ebna Hossain Critical Elements of User Experience Design as a Success Factor for Virtual Working Spaces in the Digital Enterprise Basis    Thesis No: Type: Class of Process Model: Student: Supervisor: Begin: End: 2843 MT Model for Conceptional Projects Hossain Jg/Ze 20.09.2016 20.03.2017 Document: Version: Author: Date: Status: Basis 1.0 Hossain 16.03.17 submitted File Name: Pages: Print Date: Template: co-basis-v10 31 co-basis.dotm (Program of study: INFOTECH) Document Version Management Version Author QA Date Status Changes 0.1 Hossain Jg 11.11.2016 in progress Creation 1.0 Hossain Jg 22.02.2017 submitted Initial Submission 1.1 Introduction An Enterprise Network is the backbone of communications within an enterprise or organization that that enables the employees and stakeholders communicate with each other in an efficient and effective manner. A digital enterprise workplace is where technology, processes, people, and the Enterprise organization converge to enhance agility, engagement, and productivity. It is a virtual platform where employees and stakeholders can get the technology tools they require to do their tasks effortlessly. [UBMC15] .Here we are talking about the underlying professional and personal network. It enhances internal and external enterprise communication superintendence. The interactive characteristics on the Internet, Wiki and blogosphere have become essential nowadays. With two-thirds of the worlds Internet population are visiting a social networking or blogging site, and the amount of time spent on these platforms are increasing at more than three times the rate of overall Internet growth [UNiel09]. The Enterprise network has also been changing over past years. Social technologies have been added to the Enterprise network to increase productivity to and communication. Social technologies have apprehended the thought of consumers, business leaders, and political leaders. Millions of people have adopted new practices: conveying social interactions online, developing connections, and building and sharing content. Social technologies can be described as digital technologies utilized by people to communicate socially and collectively to build, improve, and exchange contents. Social technologies possess three major characteristics: Figure 1: Characteristics of Social Technologies [McK12] People can communicate socially (e.g., chat, share personal news, send greetings), social technologies enable anybody inside a community or organization to create, add, or modify content and communications. This involves combining or deleting content such as a document or a link, contributing to content supplemented by others, endorsing (e.g., liking a piece of content), or executing an action that an individual knows will be shared. The way of knowledge sharing and communication has been dramatically changed or improved as a side effect of using social technologies. Social technologies can perform a central role in how information is gathered, sourced, analyzed, and disseminated among interested person. 1.2 Applications incorporating Social Technologies and digital workplace    Social technologies incorporate a wide range of applications for both Customers and Enterprises. The figure below has been taken from the report published by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) that includes applications used for social technologies: Figure 2: Wide range of applications for social technologies [McK12] Social network: A Social structure comprised of a collection of social actors (for example organizations or individuals), a collection of dyadic ties, and other social interactions among social actors are known as the Social Network. This perspective provides an assemblage of methods for analyzing the structure of all social entities. [Was94] Blogs/Microblogs: A blog is a conversation or informational web platform published on the World Wide Web comprising of discrete and usually informal diary-style text entries (called posts). Posts are usually arranged in reverse sequential order, so that the very recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. [UBlog17]. Microblogging is a service that facilitates its users to send and announce small notes, normally just text and typically react to queries. The blog is generally a personal reflection. Rating and reviews: Rating and review provide a way that enables users or readers to rank the content socially. It also allows users to reveal their feelings about the content (usually through emoticons). Social commerce: Social commerce is basically a subset of electronic commerce. It involves online social   media that promotes social interaction, and user participation to support online purchasing and selling of goods and services.[USoCo13] Wiki: A wiki is a web-based platform that implements collaborative modification of its content and composition right away from the web browser. In a conventional wiki, the words are written using a simplified markup language (known as wiki markup) and usually edited with the aid of a rich-text editor. [EnBr08]. The wiki the jointly edited content where approved users can jointly edit and publish the content. Discussion Forum: An Internet forum is an online discussion platform where users can hold discussions in the form of posted messages. The posted messages are usually longer than one line of text and are often archived. Additionally, the forum set-up in such a way that a posted message may need to be validated by a moderator before it becomes published. [UWiFo08]. The core idea of the Forum is the exchange of ideas or topics. Shared workspaces: The shared workspace is an interrelated ecosystem in which all users in separated areas can reach and interact with each other. The ecosystem maintained by electronic communications which facilitate users to overcome location and time differentials. The environment is facilitated by a shared rational paradigm, general information, and a common perception by all of the members despite physical position. Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing is a specific sourcing model in which individuals or organizations use contributions from Internet users to obtain needed services or ideas. Crowdsourcing was coined in 2005 as a portmanteau of crowd and outsourcing. [Mat11] Social gaming: A social network game is a type of online game that is played through social networks.[Jarv09] They typically feature multiplayer and asynchronous gameplay mechanics. Social network games are most often implemented as browser games, but can also be implemented on other platforms such as mobile devices.[Kim11] Media and file sharing: Media and files sharing among the members have a significant impact on knowledge and information sharing. It provides flexibility and alternative means to work collaboratively with the members. 2.1 Introduction User experience design is the method of improving user satisfaction with a product by enhancing the usability, accessibility, and pleasure rendered in the interaction with the product. This section begins with regular usability evaluation and why it has become progressively critical to focus on the user experience (UX). 2.2 What is Usability Usability is a quality attribute that determines how usable is a system or product by its user. The term Usability also points to methods for enhancing ease-of-use throughout the design or development process. Nielsen Norman group mentioned five quality components that defines the term Usability: [UNiel12] Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design? Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks? Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency? Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors? Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design? In brief, Usability determines how easy pleasant a product/system to use. 2.3 Importance of Usability It is very much crucial to make a system where users should not have to think too hard while they are using the system. The user should not have to refer to help sections, and they should not be constrained to feel stupid. By observing the user, finding the usability issues and resolving them in an appropriate manner these situations can be avoided. System developers usually forget that they are not typical users. There may be aspects of the system that seem apparent to the developer that might, in fact, be entirely confusing to the users. It is therefore essential to take a step back once in a while and make sure that the users are not left behind. Usability Testing is an indispensable aspect of the User-Centred method that establishes the user, at the heart of the development process rather than the system. Embracing such an approach pushes that the user should be foremost in the design determinations. According to the International Standards Organization (ISO 9241-11: Guidance on Usability) Usability is the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. These three factors are very much important to attain business goals. An effective website An efficient website A satisfied user allows customers (users) to achieve their goals provides answers quickly achieves their goal has a high conversion rate follows a logical sequence enjoys their experience meets business objectives doesnt waste resources tells others delivers a positive brand image requires less content management time comes back again Table 1: Why Usability parameters are important [URed11] Usability testing lets the design and development teams recognize problems before roll out of the system. The earlier flows are identified and fixed; the less costly the fixes will be concerning both resource time and possible influence to the schedule.   During a usability test: Investigate the activities of the participants to see whether it meets usability objectives Identify how satisfied users are with the system or product Discover if users can accomplish specified tasks as intended Experience how long it takes to accomplish specified tasks Determine adjustments needed to enhance user performance and satisfaction 2.4 Usability Evaluation Conventionally evaluating the usability of a product does not come into play until the system development is completed or nearly completed. Once completed, users would be requested to accomplish certain tasks on the system. Their performance would then be measured, often using the five usability attributes of Nielsen: Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors and Satisfaction.[UNiel12] This way of usability testing does not include users until very late in the project and concentrates on the system rather than how the user experiences the System. Racing toward launch without looking back might have seemed like a good idea back when the launch date was set, but the result is likely to be a product that meets all the technical requirements for the project but does not work for your users. Even worse, by tackling user experience evaluation on at the end, you might end up launching a product that you know is broken but have no opportunity (or money left) to fix. [Garret10] This means of usability evaluation is often named user acceptance testing. The term accepting is important here, symbolizing that the focus lies on whether the user accepts the system, rather than whether he/she can use the system as intended 2.5 User Experience Focus Technological improvements in ubiquitous computing have created an opportunity for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to be a massive part of our day-to-day life. This has effected a shift from traditional usability engineering to so-called User Experience, where the emotions and motivations of the end-user are provided a principal role than traditional usability metrics such as efficiency and effectiveness. There have been studies about defining User Experience amongst UX professionals that have demonstrated inconclusive [Law09] and these are within the field of Human-Computer Interaction. One could dispute that the principles following UX could be applied to any production process. The nearest we can get to a definition is addressed in the ISO 9241-210 standard on the Ergonomics of Human System Interaction Part 210: Human-Centred Design for interactive systems (ISO, 2008): A persons perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service Above statement highlights the experience the user has while using or anticipates using a particular product. The notion of anticipated use grants the idea that UX can play a crucial role in the early development stages of system development mentioning that thinking UX before an actual working system is ready can produce invaluable input. User experience specialists strive to make the system User-Centered. It indicates that while the development of the system the user is constantly the principal focus point and drives the evolution process. According to the ISO standard, six postulates assure the product is User-Centered:[UUCD17] 1. The design is based upon an explicit understanding of users, tasks and environments. 2. Users are involved throughout design and development. 3. The design is driven and refined by user-centered evaluation. 4. The process is iterative. 5. The design addresses the whole user experience. 6. The design team includes multidisciplinary skills and perspectives. Second Principle (Users are involved throughout design and development) entails that UX teams should include users in all design stages: not just by operating a focus group at the beginning of design or by administering a survey at the end of the project. 3.1 Introduction Usability testing involves watching representative users working with the system so that development team can make improvements based on what participants do with the system. Usability testing provides invaluable feedback about how the users behave with the system. Knowing how users behave helps to create a much more suitable Platform or application. Rather than just guessing about what people might like on these, it is possible to see their reactions first hand, and then make sure that the system contains just the right features. Learning about issues early in the process saves development time and money. Rather than spending time developing the wrong thing, a quick usability test will tell the developer whether they are on the right track or not. Getting the data directly from the users is a much better way of doing design work than arguing about features among the team. In fact, usability testing is a great way of stopping arguments. Rather than spending time on fighting over whose idea is best, put the concepts in front of real users to see how well they can work with them. There is nothing quite like real user feedback that helps to determine the best way forward. The thing that separates usability testing from many other methods is that with usability testing, it is possible to see real behaviors, what people do rather than just asking what people think. Often watching people do something is the only way to really understand where the issues lie and how to fix the problems you see. Ease of use doesnt originate from wishful thinking. It comes from conveying methodical usability engineering activities throughout the project lifecycle. This is a real effort and sacrifices real money, though not as much as some people worry. It is possible to conduct simple forms of user testing in a few days and obtain vast insights into both user behavior and recommended design enhancements. 3.2 Usability Costs To estimate the total cost of usability (as opposed to the price of a single test), Nielsen Norman Group collected data from 863 design projects that incorporated Usability Testing. Depending on how they have calculated it, usability costs were within 8% and 13% of the projects budget. Based on these findings from other surveys, they have concluded that current best practices call for dedicating about 10% of a projects budget to usability. [UNiel03] In reality, the cost of usability doesnt extend linearly with project size, since many usability testing cost about the same, notwithstanding of how big the project is. A project thats ten times larger, for example, usually requires only four times more usability spending. 3.3 Reduce Development Cost Accurate planning at the start of a Systems design process will save time, money and effort in the long run. A study by Smith Reinersten found that the critical system-design decisions made during the first 10% of a products design process can determine 90% of the products cost and performance. This is an outstanding illustration of how a little investment at an initial stage can have a tremendous positive impact on the final product. [UWilson14] The more money will organization invest in usability at an initial design stage the greater will have the end product. A tiny amount of cash spent on usability design and testing will save the organization from costly design fixes or redesigns later in the cycle. 3.4 Reduced Support Costs An enormous gain of financing in usability is diminished support costs. Just put, a System with better usability will reduce potential customer support concerns and eventually reduce customer support costs. An excellent way to enhance the websites usability, while decreasing support costs is by giving online guidance to the users. Another illustration of how financing in usability at the early stage of the design process will save the money at a later stage. A study by Pressman found that 80% of costs during a softwares lifecycle come from the maintenance phase. The study also found that greatest part of these costs rises out of unmet or unforeseen user requirements. [UWilson14] Figure 3: Reduced call and support costs minimizes maintenance cost Spending in usability helps to resolve these issues during the design stage, where they can be dispensed with at a much lower price. All redundant second that the support staff uses responding to a customer support issue (time when paying for their wages) is the cost of poor usability investment. 3.5 Increased Sales Its not a big leap in logic to claim that improved usability for customers will make them more likely to execute a purchase or to extend their purchase volume. A study by Creative Good discovered that giving a better experience for the customers will prolong the quantity of purchasers by 40%. [UWilson14] Another study by UI Engineering observed that by giving sufficient product information to your customers at the right time you can increase sales on your site by up to 225%. [UWilson14] Improved usability makes for satisfied clients who are more likely to purchase, eventually expanding the businesss profits. 3.6 Usability Benefits The Nielsen Norman Group have analyzed data from 42 cases where usability metrics were available for website redesigns. Averaged across the 42 pairs of measures they had found, usability increased by 135% when they omitted five outliers with especially significant usability improvements. (If they include these outliers, the average improvement jumps to 202%.) [UNiel03] The improvement in usability metrics differed depending on the metric, as the following table shows: Table 2: The improvement in usability metrics differed depending on the metric [UNiel03] The current study of Nielsen Norman Group does not incorporate intranet redesign projects. However, based on their studies of intranet design potential, Jakob Nielsen consider that the average improvement in intranet usability metrics is a bit below 100%. [UNiel03] 3.6.1 Co-Creation Certainly, the very common metric of ROI is financial, and a tested-to-breaking-point product, including a user-centric UI, will assure the user experience is a pleasurable one, promoting more exchanges, and, in turn, increased revenue. 3.6.2 Trust If the organization is providing the users a great user experience, the organization will also be strengthening trust in the brand. A user is more reasonably to retain with a website or platform that theyve earlier had a trouble-free experience of, than one thats showed something of a usability nightmare. How many customers are using the system, and how many are yielding to use again, can be tracked via analytics software. 3.6.3 Productivity Profits can also be gained through an increase in productivity of any employee. Systems need rigorous testing to assure the design and UI are helpful to an experience that cuts the time it needs to accomplish a task, enabling the employee to gain more. 4.1 Introduction The scope of this user experience and usability testing of the platform is for the pilot of GIZs enterprise portal which is focused on GIZs communities of practice. For this instance, it is very much important to understand the community business processes and the specific use cases for GIZs communities of practice (CoP). A community is a group of experts / development practitioners that share knowledge on common development topics and challenges as well as work collaboratively on effective, efficient, innovative, sustainable solutions based on their own experiences and expertise. A community is a collection of people with shared values, behaviors and artifacts. 4.2 Communities of practice Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. [UWen15] Shared domain: It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Website à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   community. Sense of community: In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. Shared practice: Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems-in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction. Communities of practice have a great impact on organizational value chain and knowledge management including knowledge sharing. The infusing factors based on the effectiveness of the communities on practice has been explained by W.M.H. Oosting in 2009 which has shown below: Figure 4: Influencing elements of the effectiveness of a CoP [Oosting09] The core is the proper connection between purpose, content, content, conversations and connections where the purpose is at the center and everything is linked bi-directionally with it. From the figure we can express wrathfully that setting up the purpose has a great impact on the success of CoP. 4.3 Community Management Framework For the business case of GIZ, we have clustered questions which lead to the Community Management Framework. These clusters lead to the business needs of GIZs Communities. Factor Questions Purpose and incentives What is in for me? What benefits do we hope to get? Strategic relevance of the common topic? Outcomes What useful (preliminary) outcomes do we want to achieve? Stakeholders /actors Who should be a member? What is their social glue/shared practice? Have key roles been defined? Negotiations What ground rules and milestones do we need for internal cooperation and management? Orientation What common vision have we agreed upon? Resources Budget for the community? Are members given enough resources by their business units/organizations? Strategy Strategy for planning and implementation by the community? Growth Plan/concept for increasing the number of members? How to turn new members into returning members? Content and moderation Who is/are the community manager/s? Do they have enough resources (time, opportunities and ability to build bridges) and the necessary status? What content is to be created and edited? What content can members be asked to input?

Hoover Dam Essay -- Civil Engineering Construction Essays

Hoover Dam   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hoover Dam is one of America ¡Ã‚ ¦s greatest civil engineering marvels (Hernan 22) and  ¡Ã‚ §has become a magnet to those fascinated by human ingenuity at its best ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Haussler 30). With its enormous size and construction during the Great Depression, it was an interesting topic to me. I would like to major in civil engineering and, at first, I was researching this topic. I was looking for salary and job descriptions. Then, I discovered the name John L. Savage, the engineer who supervised the design of the Hoover Dam and many other dams in the United States. Savage worked on the Minidoka irrigation project in Idaho after joining the United States Reclamation Service in 1903. His future of building dams first began "When I first went out to the Snake River Valley, ¡Ã‚ ¨ he said,  ¡Ã‚ §I saw only a river and a lot of wasteland. After the dam was up the land changed. It got water. Farmers moved in to work the soil. Crops grew. Then came villages and t owns. That's why I think this is the happiest, most thrilling work in the world ¡Ã‚ ¨ (qtd. in McCann). The characteristics he describes are evident to me, as well as other people in this field. All of the great buildings and projects of the World were overseen by civil engineers. These water resources projects, such as the Hoover Dam, not only disturbed the flow of rivers but created towns, industries, and even developed a desert region. Unfortunately, the dams can also cause adverse effects.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Colorado River may have been  ¡Ã‚ §too thick to drink [and] too wet to plow ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Boris 4) but, it was not too strong to dam. The Boulder Canyon Project was first conceived in 1928 (Wassner 98) and was approved for flood control, storage of the Colorado River water, and the production of hydroelectric power (Hoover Dam - FAQs). John R. Hall explains that the Hoover dam was built  ¡Ã‚ §to harness the awesome power of the Colorado River ¡Ã‚ ¨ (22). The Department of Reclamation had a huge task on their hands when supervising the construction of the Hoover Dam (Hall 22), previously known as Boulder Dam and changed to Hoover Dam for President Herbert Hoovers strong support of a Dam on the Colorado River (Wassner 97). First, before even breaking ground, there had to be away to easily access the dam site and house the six-thousand workers who will build the great dam. Boulder City was created to house the Government and contractor ... ... ¡Ã‚ §Dam One Of ¡Ã‚ ¨).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With Hoover ¡Ã‚ ¦s seventeen generators and extremely large water supply, cities were able to grow very rapidly. The hydroelectric turbines produce four billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. According to the American Society of Engineers, the dam has had a huge part in the development of the southwestern United States (American Society). It has stopped flooding, provided water for human consumption and agriculture, and supplied electricity to three states, according to Wassner: Arizona, Nevada, and California (99). Amazingly, power hungry Las Vegas only receives one percent of the power from Hoover Dam. For having such a great impact on the lives of Americans the American Society of Civil Engineers honored the Hoover dam as the Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium. Written on September 27, 2001 the article states  ¡Ã‚ §The new millennium reminds us of the tremendous impact civil engineering has had on the development of our society [. . .] It is fitting that the Hoover Dam would be chosen by ASCE for this special honor. [The dam] ushered in a new era of confidence in the design and building of great water resource projects ¡Ã‚ ¨ (American Society).

Piaget vs. Jung

Piaget *Missing Works Cited* Piaget work has received world wide acclaim and recognition , as well as having a positive impact in areas such as education and social curricula. Though he had made an impact on understanding of the child cognitive development , his theory of cognitive development has suffered a great deal of critics that it neglects the social nature of human development. (Hook, Watts and Cockroft ,2002). So the following essay will discuss on whether this critic is valid or not based on detail discussion of Piaget theory. The theory of Vygotsky shall also be discussed to prove that indeed social factors play a role . Piaget theory of cognitive development neglects the influence of social factors on child cognitive development. (Hook et al ,2002)As stated by Hook et al (2002,p. 190)in agreement with critics like Piaget theory gave insufficient attention to the ways in which children social interaction with their sibling or parents may influence their cognitive development† . Justification of this critic is provided by the fact that Piaget (1952)saw children as lone scientist who sought to understand and build knowledge of their external world through interaction with the world . According to Piaget as stated in Siegel &Brainerd(1978)cognitive development depend on two factors , internal maturation and external maturation . That is children are incapable of learning some tasks until they reached a certain age When considering cognitive development , Piaget focuses on the mental processes that occur, rather than on the actual measure of the cognitive development. Clearly justification to this critic of insufficient has been provided by the fact that Piaget sees children as the lone scientists who sought to understand and build knowledge of their external world their interaction with it (Hooketal ,2002). According to Piaget (1960)children actively construct their own cognitive world , he also stated that information is not just poured into children minds from the environment . Clearly this critic of insufficient attention to social factors was justified . According to Piaget (1952)as stated in Hook et al (2002p180)†much of what child learns begin by accident –The child accidentally performs some action , perceives it , like it and then repeats the action assimilating it into her or his existing schemes . The above quotation provides evidence that Piaget theory neglected social factors that plays a role on cognitive development of the child. Piaget devised four stages of development spanning from birth to adolescence. The stages progress in an invariant sequence, a child moves systematically through stages and advancement into the next stage depends on the mastery of the proceeding one (1952) The succession of stages involves the movement through that four stages. According to Piaget (1952) Children must move through these stages during their childhood. These include Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concreteoperational, and Formal operational. Stage movement is an important factor of Piaget's definition of cognitive development, because Piaget (1960) states that there are a specific set of criteria that must be met and mastered at each stage. In order to move from the first stage to the next, the child must master that specific set of criteria. (Siegel & Brainerd,1978) One may argue that Piaget uses biological approach, or biological adaption to discuss the cognitive development of the child. This includes our reflexes which occur when certain stimuli trigger an instinctive response. Piaget theory explains how child cognitive develops through an intellectual regulatory process geared by adaption to the environment. (Siegel & Brainerd,1978). During this on going relationship with the environment the child exhibits certain organisations based upon assimilation, the taking in process of experience, accepting new encounters and fitting them into existing schemes, and accommodation , the reaction of the individual who encounters new experiences that are not consistent with existingschemes and so the person must change their scheme to accept or accommodate the new information(Hook et al, 2002,Siegel& brainerd, Piaget ,1960,Tryphon & voneche,1996 ,1978) . Piaget felt that a baby is an active and curious organism, that reaches out and seeks to regulate a balance between assimilation and accommodation. This balance is what Piaget describes as equilibrium. Piaget considered the process of equilibrium an important factor in the cognitive growth and development of a child. (Piaget , 1952) This was the ground were he was criticize because he said that children must be allowed to do their own learning(Piaget,1952). Lourenco & Machado (1996)in defense of Piaget theory realized that Piaget has took into consideration the fact that humans progressively develop or mature to higher states of cognitive development and realized that children acquire knowledge transmitted by parents, teachers ,and books, Piaget called this â€Å"social transmission. † Piaget believed that when a child hears contradictory statements that challenge established schemes, equilibrium is disturbed. Piaget called such a disruption in equilibrium cognitive conflict or disequilibrium. When children experience cognitive conflict they set out in search of an answer that will enable them to achieve states of equilibrium. (Lourenco & Machado,1996) Justification of this critique was also provided by Vygotsky theory of development . Vygotsky (1929) believes that adults and child’s peers are involved in shaping cognitive development of the child. As stated by Vygotsky (1929) through social activities a child learns cultural tools and social inventions . These according to Vygotsky (1929) includes language, rules and counting. Vygotsky theory is one theory that has provided justification to the critics that Piaget gave insufficient attention to social factors. Mentioned on the second page Piaget (1952) contended that cognitive development is constructed into four stages . The following paragraph will examine each stage individually focusing on social factors that he ignore on each and every stage. The sensorimotor stage is the first of the four stages Piaget uses to define cognitive development. Piaget designated the first two years of an infants life as the sensorimotor stage. During this period, infants are busy discovering relationships between their bodies and the environment. Researchers have discovered that infants have relatively well developed sensory abilities. The child relies on seeing, touching, sucking, feeling, and using their senses to learn things about themselves and the environment. Piaget calls this the sensorimotor stage because the early manifestations of intelligence appear from sensory perceptions and motor activities. Through countless informal experiments, infants develop the concept of separate selves, that is, the infant realizes that the external world is not an extension of themselves. According to Piaget(1952)Infants at this stage realize that an object can be moved by a hand and develop notions of displacement and events. An important discovery during the latter part of the sensorimotor stage is the concept of object permanence. Object permananceis the awareness that an object continues to exist even when it is not in view. In young infants, when a toy is covered by a piece of paper, the infant immediately stops and appears to lose interest in the toy. After a child has mastered the concept of object permanence, the emergence of directed groping begins to take place. With directed groping, the child egins to perform motor experiments in order to see what will happen. (Hook et al, 2002) During directed groping, a child will vary his movements to observe how the results will differ. The child learns to use new means to achieve an end. The child discovers he can pull objects toward himself with the aid of a stick or string, or tilt objects to get them through the ba rs of his playpen(Hook et al,2002). The concrete operational stage is the third stage in Piaget's theory. This stage typically occurs between the ages of 7 and 12(Hook et al , 2002) During this stage, the child begins to reason logically, and organise thoughts coherently. However, they can only think about actual physical objects, they cannot handle abstract reasoning. This stage is also characterized by a loss of egocentric thinking. During this stage, the child has the ability to master most types of conservation experiments, and begins to understand reversibility. (Piaget 1952,Maier,1978 and Hook et al , 2002). The concrete operational stage is also characterized by the child's ability to coordinate two dimensions of an object simultaneously, arrange structures in sequence, and transpose differences between items in a series. The formal operational stage is the fourth and final stage in Piaget's theory. It begins at approximately 11 to 12 years of age, and continues throughout adulthood, although Piaget does point out that some people may never reach this stage of cognitive development. The formal operational stage is characterized by the ability to formulate hypotheses and systematically test them to arrive at an answer to a problem. The individual in the formal stage is also able to think abstractly and to understand the form or structure of a mathematical problem. Another characteristic of the individual is their ability to reason contrary to fact. That is, if they are given a statement and asked to use it as the basis of an argument they are capable of accomplishing the task. For example, they can deal with the statement â€Å"what would happen if snow were black†. Mental hospital in Zurich, a famous medical hospital. He studied under Eugen Bleuler, who was a famous psychiatrist who defined schizophrenia. Jung was also influenced by Freud with whom he later became good friends. Freud called him his crown-prince. Their relationship ended when Jung wrote a book called â€Å"Symbols of Transformation. † Jung disagreed with Freud's undamental idea that a symbol is a disguised representation of a repressed wish. I will go into that later. After splitting up with Freud, Jung had a 2 year period of non- productivity, but then he came out with his â€Å"Psychological Types,† a famous work. He went on several trips to learn about primitive societies and archetypes to Africa, New Mexico to study Pueblo Indians, and to India and Ceylon to study eastern philosophy. He studied religious and occult beliefs like I Ching, a Chinese method of fortune telling. Alchemy was also one of his interests. His book, â€Å"Psychology and Alchemy,† published in 1944 is among his most important writings. He studied what all this told about the human mind. One of his methods was word association, which is when a person is given a series of words and asked to respond to them. Abnormal response or hesitation can mean that the person has a complex about that word. His basic belief was in complex or analytical psychology. The goal is psychosynthesis, or the unification and differentiation of the psyche (mind). He believed that the mind started out as a whole and should stay that way. That answered structural, dynamic, developmental questions. I will attempt to restate the major ideas and terms in this book in a pseudo- outline. It will make the understanding a bit more clear. STRUCTURE ——— DYNAMICS ——– The psyche . There are some channels into the psyche through which ene rgy can enter in form of experiences. If the psyche were a totally closed systems, it could reach a state of perfect balance, for it would not be subjected to interference from the outside. The slightest stimulus may have far-reaching consequences on one's mental stability. This shows that it is not the amount of energy that is added, but the disruptive effects that the added energy produces within the psyche. These disruptive effects are caused by massive redistributions of energy within the system. It takes only the slightest pressure on the trigger of a loaded gun to cause a great disaster. Similarly, it may take only the slightest addition of energy to an unstable psyche to produce large effects in a person's behavior. Psychic energy is also called Libido. It is not to be confused with Freud's definition of libido. Jung did not restrict libido to sexual energy as Freud did. In fact, this is one of the essential differences in the theories of the two men. It can be classified as actual or potential forces that perform psychological work. It is often expressed in desires and wants for objects. The values for things are hidden in complexes. The psyche is always active, yet it is still very difficult for people to accept this view of a continuously active psyche, because there is a strong tendency to equate psychic activity with conscious activity. Jung, as well as Freud, hammered away at this misconception, but it persists even today. The source of psychic energy is derived from one's instincts and diverted into other uses. Like a waterfall is used to create energy, you have to use your instincts to turn into energy as well. Otherwise, just like the waterfall, your instincts are completely fruitless. For example, if you think that to get a beautiful wife, you have to be rich, so you direct your sexual drive into a business persona, which will bring you money. There are two principles of psychic dynamics. What happens to all that energy? 1. Principle of Equivalence. Energy is not created nor destroyed. If it leaves something, it has to surface. For example, if a child devoted a lot of energy to reading comics, it might be redirected into a different persona, som ething like being Mr. Cool Dude! He then will loose interest in reading comics. Energy also has an inclination to carry tendencies of its source to its destination. 2. Principle of Entropy. Energy usually flows from high to low. If you have a highly developed structure (persona, for example), instead of equalizing, it may start drawing values from other systems to boost itself even higher. Such highly energized systems have a tendency to go BOOOOM! So, entropy can destroy those high energy systems if they get too big. The operation of the entropy principle results in an equilibrium of forces. Just like two bodies of different temperatures touching each other would soon equalize temperatures. The hotter one will transfer heat to the cooler one. Once a balance is reached in your psyche, according to Jung, it will be then difficult to disturb. Tho se two principles influence the following: Progression and Regression. Progression is the advance of psychological adaptation. For example, if you need a shadow (creativity, perhaps), you will try to develop one. When conflicting traits loose power, your psyche enters regression. Say, your persona and shadow are in opposition and because they are in opposition, they both would be suppressed, because neither would get enough libido, or energy. DEVELOPMENT ———– During this stage, an individual establishes his/her position in life. His vocation and marriage partner are determined. A person usually uses his Anima and Shadow to decide those things. Values are channeled into his establishment in the outside world. Once one is independent, even a small experience can influence him greatly. The Middle Age is the one often neglected by psychiatrists. Lots of people have problems in this stage. They usually don't know what to do with the energy left over that was devoted to establishing positions in society as youth. As the principle of entropy suggests, the energy is conserved, so once an adult put it to use, he must redirect it elsewhere. Jung stated that those left-over energies can be usefully diverted into spiritual contemplation and expansion. Nothing much happens in old age. People have so much energy of experiences in their psyche that even a major experience won't upset their psychological balance. Often, society will force people to assume prefered types. Types are categories of classifications of psyches which are non-absolute and have no definite boundaries. There are eight â€Å"types. † Types are combinations of functions and attitudes (page 3). The following are the eight main types: 1. Extraverted Thinking Type. This type of man elevates objective thinking into the ruling passion of his life. He is typified by the scientist who devotes his energy to learning as much as he can about the objective world. The most developed extraverted thinker is an Einstein. 2. Introverted Thinking Type. This type is inward-directed in his thinking. He is exemplified by the philosopher or existential psychologist who seeks to understand the reality of his own being. He may eventually break his ties with reality and become schizophrenic. 3. Extraverted Feeling Type. This type, which Jung observes is more frequently found in women, subordinates thinking to feeling. 4. Introverted Feeling Type. This type is also more commonly found among women. Unlike their extraverted sisters, introverted feeling persons keep their feelings hidden from the world. 5. Extraverted Sensation Type. People of this type, mainly men, take an interest in accumulating facts about the external world. They are realistic, practical, and hardheaded, but they are not particularly concerned about what things mean. 6. Introverted Sensation Type. Like all introverts, the introverted ensation type stands aloof from external objects, immersing himself in his own psychic sensations. He considers the world to be banal and uninteresting. 7. Extraverted Intuitive Type. People of this type, commonly women, are characterized by flightiness and instability. They jump from situation to situation to discover new possibilities in the external world. They are always looking for new worlds to c onquer before they have conquered old ones. 8. Introverted Intuitive Type. The artist is a representative of this type, but it also contains dreamers, prophets, visionaries, and cranks. He usually thinks of himself as a misunderstood genius. Variations in the degree to which each of the attitudes and functions are consciously developed or remain unconscious and undeveloped can produce a wide range of differences among individuals. This book is an extremely valuable source of thought provoking logic. Jung wrote with common sense, passion, and compassion, and the reader experiences a â€Å"shock of recognition†; he will recognize truths he has known, but which he has not been able to express in words. This book made me think about myself, and people in general. How people's minds work, including my own. I found a lot of â€Å"truth† or at least I though I did in Jung's teachings. I could relate some of the reading material to elements studied in class. One will be astounded by the number of Jung's ideas that anticipated those of later writers. Many of the new trends in psychology and related fields are indebted to Jung, who first gave them their direction. The book is also interesting, because of its challenging nature. I suppose that not all people would enjoy reading such type of literature, since many people in this world are sensational types. I certainly did enjoy it, and have found out some things about myself in the process. The book is very well written. It has many good analogies and explanations which even the most sensational type would understand. The collection of information is tremendous. There is so much information bundled in 130 pages, that it makes you think that 500 pages would not be enough to really explain deeply the subject matter. This book can be faultlessly us ed as a textbook, which could prove to be salutary in psychology classes. I strongly recommend reading this book to all audiences that want to. A person, content with the world around him, not wishing to challenge the puzzles of nature, should not. This book is a treasure for all who seek to explore the human mind. Our personality traits come in opposites. We think of ourselves as optimistic or pessimistic, independent or dependent, emotional or unemotional, adventurous or cautious, leader or follower, aggressive or passive. Many of these are inborn temperament traits, but other characteristics, such as feeling either competent or inferior, appear to be learned, based on the challenges and support we receive in growing up. The man who did a great deal to explore this concept is Erik Erikson. Although he was influenced by Freud, he believed that the ego exists from birth and that behavior is not totally defensive. Based in part on his study of Sioux Indians on a reservation, Erikson became aware of the massive influence of culture on behavior and placed more emphasis on the external world, such as depression and wars. He felt the course of development is determined by the interaction of the body (genetic biological programming), mind (psychological), and cultural (ethos) influences. He organized life into eight stages that extend from birth to death (many developmental theories only cover childhood). Since adulthood covers a span of many years, Erikson divided the stages of adulthood into the experiences of young adults, middle aged adults and older adults. While the actual ages may vary considerably from one stage to another, the ages seem to be appropriate for the majority of people. Erikson's basic philosophy might be said to rest on two major themes: (1) the world gets bigger as we go along and (2) failure is cumulative. While the first point is fairly obvious, we might take exception to the last. True, in many cases an individual who has to deal with horrendous circumstances as a child may be unable to negotiate later stages as easily as someone who didn't have as many challenges early on. For example, we know that orphans who weren't held or stroked as infants have an extremely hard time connecting with others when they become adults and have even died from lack of human contact. However, there's always the chance that somewhere along the way the strength of the human spirit can be ignited and deficits overcome. Therefore, to give you an idea of another developmental concept, be sure to see Stages of Growth for Children and Adults, based on Pamela Levine's work. She saw development as a spiraling cycle rather than as stages through which we pass, never to visit again. As you read through the following eight stages with their sets of opposites, notice which strengths you identify with most and those you need to work on some more. . Infancy: Birth to 18 Months Ego Development Outcome: Trust vs. Mistrust Basic strength: Drive and Hope Erikson also referred to infancy as the Oral Sensory Stage (as anyone might who watches a baby put everything in her mouth) where the major emphasis is on the mother's positive and loving care for the child, with a big emphasis on visual contact and touch. If we pass successfully through this period of life, we will learn to trust that life is basically okay and have basic confidence in the future. If we fail to experience trust and are constantly frustrated because our needs are not met, we may end up with a deep-seated feeling of worthlessness and a mistrust of the world in general. Incidentally, many studies of suicides and suicide attempts point to the importance of the early years in developing the basic belief that the world is trustworthy and that every individual has a right to be here. Not surprisingly, the most significant relationship is with the maternal parent, or whoever is our most significant and constant caregiver. . Early Childhood: 18 Months to 3 Years Ego Development Outcome: Autonomy vs. Shame Basic Strengths: Self-control, Courage, and Will During this stage we learn to master skills for ourselves. Not only do we learn to walk, talk and feed ourselves, we are learning finer motor development as well as the much appreciated toilet training. Here we have the opportunity to build self-esteem and autonomy as we gain more control over our bodies and acquire new skills, learning right from wrong. And one of our skills during the â€Å"Terrible Two's† is our ability to use the powerful word â€Å"NO! † It may be pain for parents, but it develops important skills of the will. It is also during this stage, however, that we can be very vulnerable. If we're shamed in the process of toilet training or in learning other important skills, we may feel great shame and doubt of our capabilities and suffer low self-esteem as a result. The most significant relationships are with parents. 3. Play Age: 3 to 5 Years Ego Development Outcome: Initiative vs. Guilt Basic Strength: Purpose During this period we experience a desire to copy the adults around us and take initiative in creating play situations. We make up stories with Barbie's and Ken's, toy phones and miniature cars, playing out roles in a trial universe, experimenting with the blueprint for what we believe it means to be an adult. We also begin to use that wonderful word for exploring the world—†WHY? † While Erikson was influenced by Freud, he downplays biological sexuality in favor of the psychosocial features of conflict between child and parents. Nevertheless, he said that at this stage we usually become involved in the classic â€Å"Oedipal struggle† and resolve this struggle through â€Å"social role identification. † If we're frustrated over natural desires and goals, we may easily experience guilt. The most significant relationship is with the basic family. 4. School Age: 6 to 12 Years Ego Development Outcome: Industry vs. Inferiority Basic Strengths: Method and Competence During this stage, often called the Latency, we are capable of learning, creating and accomplishing numerous new skills and knowledge, thus developing a sense of industry. This is also a very social stage of development and if we experience unresolved feelings of inadequacy and inferiority among our peers, we can have serious problems in terms of competence and self-esteem. As the world expands a bit, our most significant relationship is with the school and neighborhood. Parents are no longer the complete authorities they once were, although they are still important. 5. Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years Ego Development Outcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion Basic Strengths: Devotion and Fidelity Up to this stage, according to Erikson, development mostly depends upon what is done to us. From here on out, development depends primarily upon what we do. And while adolescence is a stage at which we are neither a child nor an adult, life is definitely getting more complex as we attempt to find our own identity, struggle with social interactions, and grapple with moral issues. Our task is to discover who we are as individuals separate from our family of origin and as members of a wider society. Unfortunately for those around us, in this process many of us go into a period of withdrawing from responsibilities, which Erikson called a â€Å"moratorium. And if we are unsuccessful in navigating this stage, we will experience role confusion and upheaval. A significant task for us is to establish a philosophy of life and in this process we tend to think in terms of ideals, which are conflict free, rather than reality, which is not. The problem is that we don't have much experience and find it easy to substitute ideals for experience. However, we can also develop strong devotion to friends and causes. It is no surprise that our most significant relationships are with peer groups. 6. Young adulthood: 18 to 35 Ego Development Outcome: Intimacy and Solidarity vs. Isolation Basic Strengths: Affiliation and Love In the initial stage of being an adult we seek one or more companions and love. As we try to find mutually satisfying relationships, primarily through marriage and friends, we generally also begin to start a family, though this age has been pushed back for many couples who today don't start their families until their late thirties. If negotiating this stage is successful, we can experience intimacy on a deep level. If we're not successful, isolation and distance from others may occur. And when we don't find it easy to create satisfying relationships, our world can begin to shrink as, in defense, we can feel superior to others. Our significant relationships are with marital partners and friends. 7. Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65 Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation Basic Strengths: Production and Care Now work is most crucial. Erikson observed that middle-age is when we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family. Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to â€Å"be in charge,† the role we've longer envied. The significant task is to perpetuate culture and transmit values of the culture through the family (taming the kids) and working to establish a stable environment. Strength comes through care of others and production of something that contributes to the betterment of society, which Erikson calls generativity, so when we're in this stage we often fear inactivity and meaninglessness. As our children leave home, or our relationships or goals change, we may be faced with major life changes—the mid-life crisis—and struggle with finding new meanings and purposes. If we don't get through this stage successfully, we can become self-absorbed and stagnate. Significant relationships are within the workplace, the community and the family. 8. Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death Ego Development Outcome: Integrity vs. Despair Basic Strengths: Wisdom Erikson felt that much of life is preparing for the middle adulthood stage and the last stage is recovering from it. Perhaps that is because as older adults we can often look back on our lives with happiness and are content, feeling fulfilled with a deep sense that life has meaning and we've made a contribution to life, a feeling Erikson calls integrity. Our strengt h comes from a wisdom that the world is very large and we now have a detached concern for the whole of life, accepting death as the completion of life. On the other hand, some adults may reach this stage and despair at their experiences and perceived failures. They may fear death as they struggle to find a purpose to their lives, wondering â€Å"Was the trip worth it? † Alternatively, they may feel they have all the answers (not unlike going back to adolescence) and end with a strong dogmatism that only their view has been correct.

Learning objectives of the student Essay

By the end of the grant period, the learners should be able to: †¢ Internalize the basic definitions of concepts which will be met during the study. †¢ Use the various methods of measuring techniques to find measurements of simple lengths. †¢ Use the measurement tools effectively in class and outside the classroom. †¢ Demonstrate on the board on the use of the various tools in measuring. †¢ Apply the knowledge learned in class in real life situation i. e. giving the students a challenging life application question and finding out if they can get the answers correctly. Method of Instruction: Teacher may adopt the instruction led method to disseminate information to the learners by use of segments of information and presenting the idea systematically. Teacher can adopt use of the demonstration method where the learner follows in detail how a particular procedure or technique is being followed. The lecture method is also a common instructional method which can be used by the teacher. This involves the teacher gives monologue information without getting responses from the learners. The teacher can use the coaching instruction for the learner. This refers to a detailed step in which the learner is taken through so that he can grasp the concept. The students can also be left on their own to practice what has been learned in class, thus the practice method is another instructional method to be used in the classroom. Reference: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Retrieved o

How to Craft an Exploratory Essay on the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

How to Craft an Exploratory Essay on the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Welcome to our third and final manual: informative guide for an exploratory essay on The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Here, you will learn how to properly write an exploratory essay, how it’s outlined and some dos and don’ts that will help you write a stellar exploratory essay on the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. We already discussed some topics in our guide 20 exploratory topics on The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini earlier, and facts in our 10 facts on The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini guide. Now, let’s look at how to write an essay on this subject. The Purpose of an Exploratory Essay If you’ve worked on argumentative assignments in the past, you’ll find that an exploratory essay is a bit different from an argumentative essay. In fact, exploratory essays are distinctive from other essay cores out there. Unlike other essays, where you convince the audience with regard to the validity of your thesis or gaining approval on your point of view, exploratory essays introduce problems you’ve discovered in a particular object, book, film, subject, etc. Sometimes, you need to form explanatory conclusions on how the problem can be solved. In order for your exploratory essay to turn out well, you need to keep in mind that it should be retrospective to your writing and introspective to your thoughts. An exploratory essay follows the standard structure to writing an essay, however, it is different in context, which is as follows: How an exploratory essay is written: The Introduction First of all, you should write an overview of your exploratory essay. In your first paragraph, you should outline the problems, its significance, and a brief discussion of the problem’s root causes, the institutions or people involved in it, and some possible solutions to the problem. There is no harm in including the source you’ve used as part of your research. Body Paragraphs Here is how the body of an exploratory essay is written: In the first few paragraphs, you write about the introduction of your source and the reason behind choosing this source as a means of your exploration process. Between the first and last paragraphs, you discuss the information that you’ve found during the exploration process and the information which defines the problem you’ve found. You also discuss the importance of this information and how it’s related to the problem you’ve unearthed. In the final paragraphs, you bring your introspection into play – how the exploration helped you think differently and sort out the problem or, in some cases, led to other sources. Conclusion The conclusion is roughly the same in every essay. You have to reinstate your thesis, review the problem and people or institutions involved and highlight possible solutions to the problem. However, if you haven’t found any solutions and there are a plethora of questions to be answered, it’s recommended that you discuss them here. Be sure to include the sources where you would have looked and other forms of research necessary to find the solution to the problem. That’s it! Now you are ready to write a brilliant exploratory essay on The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. If you have any other inquiries related to this topic, feel free to reach out to us – we are here to help you in any way we can.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer - Discussion Questions

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer - Discussion Questions The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer was published in April 2013Publisher: Riverhead468 pages may seem like a simple story of how friendships formed as teenagers during summer camp evolve over the years with the characters. In fact, the novel has many threads that book clubs might choose to discuss dreams expectations, secrets, relationships and marriage are just a few. If your group is in New York City, there is also a lot about life there over the decades. These questions are designed to spark conversation and help your group go deeper into Wolitzers novel. Spoiler Warning: These questions reveal details of the story. Finish the book before reading on. There are several secrets in the novel. The next few questions will explore some of these, but feel free to bring up others and to discuss the overall role of secrets in the novel with your book club. The Interestings is divided into three parts: Part I - Moments of Strangeness, Part II - Figland, and Part III - The Drama of the Gifted Child. Do you think these titles or divisions are particularly meaningful to the story?Jules is one of the main characters in the novel, and one of her biggest struggles is contentment and envy. Early in the novel, Wolitzer writes of Jules, What if shed said no? she liked to wonder afterward in a kind of strangely pleasurable, baroque horror. What if shed turned down the lightly flung invitation and went about her life, thudding obliviously along like a drunk person, a blind person, a moron, someone who thinks that the small packet of happiness she carries is enough (3).Then later, when Jules is reading Ethan and Ashs Christmas letter, she says, Their lives were much too different now for Jules to have kept up a sustained level of envy. Mostly, she had given up her envy, had let it recede or dissipate so that she wasnt chronically plagued by it (48 ).Do you think Jules ever conquers her envy? Do you think her experiences at Spirit in the Woods and friendships with the Interestings actually made her happier? Why or why not? What did you think of Dennis and of his relationship with Jules? Was it good? Did you sympathize more with him or with her?Did you sympathize with the ways the characters had to adjust their expectations about life, love, and greatness?What did you think of Ethans giving financial help to Jules and Dennis? Was that an appropriate expression of friendship? How can friends navigate very different financial realities?Did you have any camp or teenage experiences that were as forming as Spirit in the Woods?The biggest secret in The Interestings is that Goodman is still alive and in contact with his family. Why do you think Ash never told Ethan? Do you think he would have reacted differently to finding out if Ash had been honest with him?Do you think Goodman raped Cathy? Why or why not?Jonah also holds on to a secret from his childhood for most of his life that he was drugged and his music stolen. Why dont you think Jonah ever told anyone? How did this secret change the course of his life ? Ethan secretly loves Jules his whole life. Do you think he also truly loves Ash? What do you think about his other secrets contacting Cathy, doubting his love for his son? Are they as big as the secret Ash keeps from him? Why or why not?Were you satisfied with the end of the novel?Rate The Interestings on a scale of 1 to 5.

Free Will Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Free Will - Essay Example So in an instance where a person is issued a threat his decision to act in a certain way need not necessarily be influenced by the threat and hence he holds moral responsibility since he was not deprived of alternatives. On the other hand, it is also possible that the person was profoundly impacted by the threat and his action was completely out of fear of dire consequences. But this impact was what compelled him to make his decision and therefore in relative terms his moral responsibility for his action still remains. Yet another possibility would be that the person’s choice of action was predetermined and any threat issued to him only coincided with his decision. Since the threat in this situation is irrelevant to the decision making process, he remains morally responsible for his action. The author’s argument is therefore a logical understanding of the principle’s plausibility and its failure as an a priori truth. His analysis concludes that there are various circumstances that could make a person morally responsible for his action with an exception being that he had done what he did only because he could not have done otherwise, even if that was what he desired to do.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - Essay Example aller subtitles such as ‘corporate governance’ and ‘implementation of corporate governance principles and recommendations in the UK and the US’ in order to cover the topic exhaustively. The conclusion section summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper and makes inferences where appropriate. Corporate governance refers to a set of laws, policies, institutions and customs that affect the manner in which a corporation is controlled, administered, or directed1. Corporate governance also incorporates the corporation’s goals of governance and the relationships among its numerous stakeholders2. The major stakeholders in any corporation include the board of directors, management, and shareholders or members. Others include regulators, suppliers, creditors who include bond holders and banks, customers and employees or labour. For non-profit organizations as well as other membership organizations, their shareholders are their members. Corporate governance is a many-sided subject3. One of the most important themes of corporate governance is ensuring the accountability of particular individuals in the corporation. This is achieved through mechanisms aimed at reducing or eliminating altogether the problem of principal-agents. Corporate governance also helps in improving economic efficiency by emphasizing on the welfare of the shareholders. Corporate governance also has encompasses other subjects such as the view of stakeholders and corporate governance models4. Modern corporations have increasingly renewed their interest in corporate governance practices, particularly since 2001. This has been attributed to the high profile crumbling of numerous big corporations in the United States, including MCI Inc and Enron Corporation. For instance, the US federal government enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in order to restore the confidence of the public in corporate governance5. Corporate governance involves a number of parties such as the regulatory body that

An essay on harriot story Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

An on harriot story - Essay Example Still, the reader is struck by the detail, and the effort to be accurate, so Harriot becomes an auditor of all he surveyed. His words, although spelled inconsistently (as was then quite common) and phrased awkwardly, are not very hard to understand even from this distance in time. Remembering this man wrote with a quill and ink, with only available light, it amazes with quality of detail and recall: this is not a quick method such as typing, but a laborious hand task. It gave him time to think and consider his words carefully, which modern readers, who are used to backspacing and cutting and pasting, highlighting and copying to edit, must respect for its results. It is a clear and concise report. A student must deal with distracting words such as thereof, hereafter and wherein to get at the core of the communication, and also remember that although it is early history of the United States of America, this was an Englishman writing in the English language of the day and according to English custom and usage. What strikes the reader immediately is the point Harriot makes about using the discovered ‘country’ for making money for England: his eye was mainly on the financial and physical benefits available. His aim, and the aim of those he wrote to was to ‘... enrich your selves the providers.’ This is not a cultural expedition, where they did everything they could to find out about the ‘natural inhabitants’. The ir intention was strictly financial: to accumulate wealth and resources for England. The list of resources is very interesting, and shows how advanced England was in a scientific sense in the mid-1500s. They knew all about extracting metallic ores, and Harriot’s understanding of what could be done with certain plants and natural products is excellent, which is probably why he was sent out in the first place. (Baym Ibid) It seems a bit confronting at first to find the report so exploitative: the intention was to use one

Corporate finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate finance - Assignment Example Blume (1993) had suggested that CAPM provides a model of equilibrium risk/return relationship. The CAPM also denotes that there exists a linear relationship between expected return and non-diversifiable systematic risk which is denoted as beta. This linear relationship is denoted as security market line (SML). In SML, the systematic risk of a share is compared with the risk and return of the market as well as the risk free rate of return for estimating the expected return of a particular share (Arnold, 2008; Pike and Neale, 1999). Figure 1 Source: (Ogilvie, 2008) CAPM defines risk as an extent to which the return of the portfolio of shares or a single share has a covariance with the return in the market. If it is assumed that CAPM correctly defines the capital market, then the risk/return relationship can be established for an efficient market strategy. The CAPM equation represents this relationship and expected return is seen to be a function of the following equation: R = Rf + ? (R m – Rf) Where: R = Expected return on the portfolio or share. Rf = Risk-free rate of return. ? = Beta. It signifies the volatility of the portfolio or the share relative to the market portfolio. Rm = Expected return on the market portfolio. Rm – Rf = Market risk premium (Harrington, 2001; Jones, 1998). Parameters of CAPM The risk-free rate of return: It signifies the return on the asset that has no risk. This indicates that it neither has covariance nor variance with the return on the market. In reality, it is difficult to find an asset of this kind and doubts prevail regarding the actual existence. Various proxies like, treasury bills and government bonds, are used in this stead. However, these proxies are also subjected to inflation and uncertainty and cannot be considered as entirely risk-free (Harrington 2001; Watson and Head, 1998). Return on the market: For CAPM, one of the most important implications is the existence of optimally efficient market portfolio. In t heoretical approach, the market portfolio consists of risky assets that are diversified among the portfolios available. Once this portfolio is held, it is not possible to diversify the risk any further. The market return is the return on the market portfolio, including all the risky assets. Unlike risk-free rate, the market return is difficult to estimate. It is approximated by using the indices of the stock exchange as the proxy for the market. However, issues exist regarding the selection of index to be used as proxy. Beta: It is the measure of non-diversifiable risk and relative measure of risk. It is the risk estimation relative to the market portfolios. In simple words, it measures the price volatility of the share or a portfolio of shares and also, how the expected return of the portfolio or the share will react in consideration to the movement of return in the market portfolio (Moyer, McGuigan and Kretlow 2001; Jones 1998). Hence, beta is the measure for the difference betwee n the return of the various portfolios of share or shares (Ward, 2000; Jones, 1998). Application of Capital Asset Pricing Model in Corporate Decision making CAPM argues that total risk is measured by

Napster; The P2p Model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Napster; The P2p Model - Essay Example Peer to peer software was developed by an American Teenager, Shawn Fanning, through his system for music sharing called Napster. This allows users to swap music directly from one computer to another without the need to go through a central server.(Annonymous, 2000). The system became so popular that Napster had 20 million users in 2000, with the number ever growing. The process of downloading music off the Net was initially a cumbersome process because music files contained too much of data – up to 172 kilobytes of information per second (Westrup 2000). A single AIFF sound file used on audio CDs takes up 8.75 megabytes of storage space for each minute of music, so that even with a 56K high speed modem, an individual song would take at least an hour to be downloaded.(Woodworth, 2004). During the process of making a digital recording, sound waves are changed into the digital format. Since sound travels through the air in waves, it must first be transferred to a transducer in order to convert the sound waves into voltage variations. This further moves to an analog to digitial convertor. The analog voltage is converted into digital bits, each of which is assigned a number with a particular binary value, which are then recompiled within the storage facility of a computer.(Anderton, 1985).

Write a paper on ONE of the following topics Essay

Write a paper on ONE of the following topics - Essay Example They even viewed the body as a prison house of the entity which they called the soul. During the Middle Ages, however, such thinking was challenged and was slowly replaced by the belief on psychosomatic unity. Following St. Thomas Aquinas’ metaphysics, man is a unified composite substance of two essential principles: form and matter. His teaching introduced concept of the unity of human nature as constituted by form and matter—soul and body. In this regard, the mind and body problem pertains to the nature of the dynamics between the two substances. Can a non-material substance truly affect a material substance, if so, in what manner and up to what extent? With this, it is my task to present how four philosophers have attempted to provide answers to this boggling question. In this regard, I will critically examine Descarte’s Interactionism, Malebranche’s Occasionalism, Spinoza’s Double Aspect Theory, and Leibniz’ Pre-Established Harmony. Having done so, I will then dedicate my discussion on evaluating the logical soundness of each viewpoint on the mind-and-body problem in order to arrive at a conclusion on which philosopher presented the strongest arguments. Interactionism begins with the basic assumption that the non-material substance of man (soul) can interact with the material substance (body). As Descartes further explained, although the sense perceptions and the physical passions of humans are dependent on the body, the awareness and understanding of them lies on the mind. Thus, there is indeed an interaction between the mind and the body, and the point of interaction happens in the pineal gland. Because the body is an extended matter and the mind is an un-extended spirit, there ought to be a physical venue to allow for their interaction. But as Descartes claimed, the soul is united to all parts of the body conjointly. Thus, the body provides proper housing to the soul. When a member of

Corporate finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate finance - Assignment Example Blume (1993) had suggested that CAPM provides a model of equilibrium risk/return relationship. The CAPM also denotes that there exists a linear relationship between expected return and non-diversifiable systematic risk which is denoted as beta. This linear relationship is denoted as security market line (SML). In SML, the systematic risk of a share is compared with the risk and return of the market as well as the risk free rate of return for estimating the expected return of a particular share (Arnold, 2008; Pike and Neale, 1999). Figure 1 Source: (Ogilvie, 2008) CAPM defines risk as an extent to which the return of the portfolio of shares or a single share has a covariance with the return in the market. If it is assumed that CAPM correctly defines the capital market, then the risk/return relationship can be established for an efficient market strategy. The CAPM equation represents this relationship and expected return is seen to be a function of the following equation: R = Rf + ? (R m – Rf) Where: R = Expected return on the portfolio or share. Rf = Risk-free rate of return. ? = Beta. It signifies the volatility of the portfolio or the share relative to the market portfolio. Rm = Expected return on the market portfolio. Rm – Rf = Market risk premium (Harrington, 2001; Jones, 1998). Parameters of CAPM The risk-free rate of return: It signifies the return on the asset that has no risk. This indicates that it neither has covariance nor variance with the return on the market. In reality, it is difficult to find an asset of this kind and doubts prevail regarding the actual existence. Various proxies like, treasury bills and government bonds, are used in this stead. However, these proxies are also subjected to inflation and uncertainty and cannot be considered as entirely risk-free (Harrington 2001; Watson and Head, 1998). Return on the market: For CAPM, one of the most important implications is the existence of optimally efficient market portfolio. In t heoretical approach, the market portfolio consists of risky assets that are diversified among the portfolios available. Once this portfolio is held, it is not possible to diversify the risk any further. The market return is the return on the market portfolio, including all the risky assets. Unlike risk-free rate, the market return is difficult to estimate. It is approximated by using the indices of the stock exchange as the proxy for the market. However, issues exist regarding the selection of index to be used as proxy. Beta: It is the measure of non-diversifiable risk and relative measure of risk. It is the risk estimation relative to the market portfolios. In simple words, it measures the price volatility of the share or a portfolio of shares and also, how the expected return of the portfolio or the share will react in consideration to the movement of return in the market portfolio (Moyer, McGuigan and Kretlow 2001; Jones 1998). Hence, beta is the measure for the difference betwee n the return of the various portfolios of share or shares (Ward, 2000; Jones, 1998). Application of Capital Asset Pricing Model in Corporate Decision making CAPM argues that total risk is measured by

Write a paper on ONE of the following topics Essay

Write a paper on ONE of the following topics - Essay Example They even viewed the body as a prison house of the entity which they called the soul. During the Middle Ages, however, such thinking was challenged and was slowly replaced by the belief on psychosomatic unity. Following St. Thomas Aquinas’ metaphysics, man is a unified composite substance of two essential principles: form and matter. His teaching introduced concept of the unity of human nature as constituted by form and matter—soul and body. In this regard, the mind and body problem pertains to the nature of the dynamics between the two substances. Can a non-material substance truly affect a material substance, if so, in what manner and up to what extent? With this, it is my task to present how four philosophers have attempted to provide answers to this boggling question. In this regard, I will critically examine Descarte’s Interactionism, Malebranche’s Occasionalism, Spinoza’s Double Aspect Theory, and Leibniz’ Pre-Established Harmony. Having done so, I will then dedicate my discussion on evaluating the logical soundness of each viewpoint on the mind-and-body problem in order to arrive at a conclusion on which philosopher presented the strongest arguments. Interactionism begins with the basic assumption that the non-material substance of man (soul) can interact with the material substance (body). As Descartes further explained, although the sense perceptions and the physical passions of humans are dependent on the body, the awareness and understanding of them lies on the mind. Thus, there is indeed an interaction between the mind and the body, and the point of interaction happens in the pineal gland. Because the body is an extended matter and the mind is an un-extended spirit, there ought to be a physical venue to allow for their interaction. But as Descartes claimed, the soul is united to all parts of the body conjointly. Thus, the body provides proper housing to the soul. When a member of

Analysis of the Allegory of the Cave Essay Example for Free

Analysis of the Allegory of the Cave Essay Plato’s â€Å"Allegory of the Cave† presents a visualization of people who are slaves that have been chained in front of a fire their whole lives. These people observe the shadows of different things shown on the cave wall that is in front of them. The shadows are the only â€Å"reality† the slaves know. This is because they have never seen anything else to compare them to. Plato argues that there is a critical flaw in how people mistake their limited perceptions as reality, as truth, and as what they believe to be what is good. The allegory reveals how the flaw affects our education, our spirituality, and our politics. The flaw that Plato speaks about is how people trust what they see and think it is real. In The Allegory of the Cave, the slaves in the caves know that the shadows, shown on the wall by the fire behind them, are real. If they were to talk to the shadows echoes would make the shadows appear to talk back. To the slaves, as Plato puts it, â€Å"the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images†¦. † The allegory also talks about how a slave is later brought out of the cave, in what Plato refers to as â€Å"the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world. † Once out of the cave, the slaves discover that what they thought was real is not. They learn to understand all of these new images as what is real and what is true. Since the slaves have been in the dark for all their lives, both literally and metaphorically, the light blinds them. Representing knowledge, the light is too brilliant for them to see and comprehend. The slaves must be re-educated. They have to learn that the reflections are truer than shadows and the objects truer than reflections. They must deal with a new reality that does not exist within the cave. Plato says that these people who are brought out of the cave must go back into the cave to educate the other slaves. But the only people who should be allowed back into the cave are the ones who are willing to go back. The people must teach the other slaves about the reality outside of the cave, and what is outside of the slaves’ reality. These are representing the philosophers in the allegory. The capacity to learn exists in the soul. Humans need to use their whole soul to learn, not just use their eyes. The allegory states that, â€Å"†¦the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from the darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only y the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being†¦. † According to Plato, human beings’ misperception about â€Å"reality† also affects the spiritual growth of that person. When the slave makes the ascent out of the cave that they have been in their entire life and sees the sun, they will be reminded of God. Plato wrote about how the slaves may even mistake the sun for God because the slaves would have no real perception of what the sun or what God looks like. Having moved from darkness into light, the slaves come to the conclusion that this bright light must be God. Plato argues that one’s soul holds knowledge of what is true. When one learns, one simply remembers. People originate from Heaven where they knew the truth. In the Bible it even talks about how on the outside people are wasting away every day but on the inside they are being renewed every day. One is renewed day by day by remembering things that their soul knows, but that they have forgotten. Also, Plato discredits a government run by the people in the cave who are uneducated and yet still fight for power. He also argues that the people who have made the ascent from the cave must govern, for they know what is real and what is not real because they understand that the shadows are only dreams, or something that is unreal. Plato says it is difficult to go back down into the darkness after somebody has seen the light, but they must. They must educate the slaves about the world above, so the slaves understand that power is not the greater good. Even though it will be about ten times harder to readjust to the darkness after descending into the cave again they will see about ten times better, because now they know the shadows are not real. They will govern with knowledge of good and truth. I believe that the Allegory of the Cave simply states that we must question reality and we must not trust just what our eyes tell us. We must know more than just what the eyes see. The slave in the allegory that makes the ascent and eventually rejects the truth of the shadows comes to know a truer truth. But then they believe what their eyes show them that is on this world. They have forgotten that they must question reality, because how are they to know that this reality is realer than that of the caves’? Somebody may wonder what if we are the shadows in the cave. And who knows. It corresponds to having an imaginary friend when a person is younger. The imaginary friend is very real to whoever the befriended person is, but as the person gets older or makes the ascent to the world of knowledge, they will mostly likely reject their childhood imaginary friends. Everybody is faced with a different reality where they start to believe that what their eyes show them is the only truth. They forget to question things and don’t realize that maybe there is yet another ascent, out of this bigger â€Å"cave† of the light. It may be something that nobody will know about until they reach the point of ascent. Human beings’ knowledge of goodness, reality, and truth will forever be limited by their fear of new ideas and new perspectives. As long as people are afraid of questioning what they cannot see, they will be stuck, chained up as slaves who are trapped in the darkness of the unknown in their very own cave.

Mobile Robotic Arm Motivation Computer Science Essay

Mobile Robotic Arm Motivation Computer Science Essay Robotics is technology that deals with the design, construction and operation of  robots  that are used in numerous applications is called robotics. It has become an unstoppable force in the development of modern machinery as they make life easier. It is an interesting topic to dwell in as it is the future of mankind. Although we know them as recent inventions, the idea of automated or controlled machines has fascinated humans. With this fascination it motivated me to work on this project, building and programming a mobile robotic arm. It is my hunger to learn and attain knowledge that drives me towards this field of study for my project. C:UsersDanDesktopImages21042010(002).jpg Figure 1.1.1 : Mobile Robotic Arm 1.2 Introduction to Robotics Robotics is an interesting topic of research. Basically it is an engineering field that is concerned with research and creation of robots for various applications. Robots are machines that consist of electronic and mechanical parts such as gears and cogs put together for performing tasks in place of humans. They can be programmed to perform a whole range of tasks with ease. They are most desired for certain functions because they never tire, they can endure harsh physical conditions that is possibly life threatening and they never get bored or distracted from repetitious work. The number of robots has begun to increase in numbers everywhere as they make human labour almost non-existent with their efficiency and throughput. They can work with the simplest of materials to the most dangerous such as radioactive materials. They can be found more commonly in industrial use from production lines of factories to harvesting of fruits in orchards. In domestic use, from vacuum cleaning to lawn mowing where these domestic tasks have become boring for a human to undertake and would rather leave it to robots. In the more modern military use, robots play an important role to reduce human casualties from dangerous jobs such as bomb defusal and not forgetting space exploration where it might not be possible for humans to explore and for collecting terrain sample from foreign planets. For exploring enemy territories unmanned aerial vehicles are used from which these pilotless drones can search terrains for hostiles and fire on targets. Robots are meant to complete tasks that it is programmed to do. Programs can always be altered to suit the task at hand. As robots become more advanced they gain more features such as sensors and artificial intelligence as they become more human like. Examples of sensors include motion sensors, temperature sensors, light and many more various types. For example, in pathfinder robots we usually find a motion sensor which aids a robot in avoiding obstacles. In other applications for example in a water tank when the water has reached a certain level the sensor enables the robot to stop the flow of water. It can be used in industrial applications such as gripping objects from conveyor belts or it can be used in a more advanced role such as bomb defusal, where it would be dangerous for a human to interact. With camera attachments, humans can control these machines from a safe distance while completing the task at hand in a safe and efficient manner. In the medical field where a more delicate touch is required, a robotic arm can perform tiny incisions for a less invasive method. With a robotic arm jobs can be done with ease and efficiency and thus eliminate human errors and the costs that come with those errors. http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/mech324/handouts/linkage_stuff/Mars_rover.png Figure 1.2.1 : Mars Rover 1.3 Objectives The aim of this project is to build a robotic arm for the purpose of lifting and moving small objects. It is just like a human arm with joints to facilitate movement. The end attachment features a gripper which is able to grab and hold objects and also a probe light in order to work in low light scenarios. The arm is controlled via wired remote. It is rested on a mobile base which is fitted with 2 rear wheels and 2 robot castors at the front. This allows the robot to move to the desired location where the object is. The objectives of this project are: To understand and develop core knowledge in robotics. To apply the knowledge of robotics and design a prototype. To implement the designs and build an actual prototype. Figure 1.3.1 : Project Layout End Insert Instruction Codes into PIC Test Prototype Evaluate Coding in relation to hardware design Write Codes Discuss Movement Concept Propose Objectives1.4 Design Stage Figure 1.4.1 : Design Flow Chart This simple flowchart can explain the overall process involved in this project. After the objectives have been proposed the robot movement and motion concept is discussed and after that the codes are written. It is downloaded into the microcontroller for testing. If testing fails we return to the code stage and evaluate the coding. The process reaches the end after testing passes. Chapter 2: Robot Overview 2.1 Hardware Design This aim of this project is to design a mobile robotic arm. The arm part consists of two joints which enable 2 degree of movement and at the end of the top joint is a gripper which enables objects to be gripped by the attachment. The base has two wheels at the back and at the front two robot castors which has ball bearings underneath. This project involves two parts which is hardware and software. However both parts are intricately connected and it is hard to actually separate them completely. This report will focus more on the software aspect. There will be some minor hardware introduction as understanding of the hardware is required to work with the software. Here is the component list for the hardware: Component Amount Microcontroller PIC18F4520 1 Motor Driver SN754410 1 4.7k Ohm Resistor 1 1uF Capacitor 4 0.33uF Capacitor 1 0.1uF Capacitor 1 L7805 Voltage Regulator 1 20MHz Oscillator 1 9 Volt Battery 1 C40R Servo Motor 3 C55R Servo Motor 1 Servo Holder 4 Servo U Bracket 2 SPG10 Geared Motor 2 42mm Wheels 2 Robot Castors 2 Table 2.1.1 : Hardware Components To write the software one must be familiar with the hardware functionality, configuration and settings. The hardware of significant importance would be the microcontroller as the program is stored there. It sends the signal to the pins where other devices are connected. One of those devices is the servo motor. It is what controls the arm and base. Actual control of the servos is by buttons. Those buttons are connected to the microcontroller and is able to control the servo thru programming of the microcontroller. It is done by generating and manipulating PWM signals which will be discussed later. PROJECT BOARD 20.0 cm 24.0 cm 10.0 cm 25.6 cmTOP PROFILE.jpg Figure 2.1.1 : Robot Layout 2.2 Software Design After the purpose and specifications are determined it is time to plan and design the software. Most modern robots are controlled by sophisticated software. Creation and modification of the software is crucial to make machines work the way we want it to. There are many ways a machine can be programmed. The software is usually stored in the heart of the machine which is either a microprocessor or a microcontroller depending on what the machine does and how it works. That device is the brains of the robot as all the instructions are stored there. The software is the link for the user to the hardware as the program relays the instructions to the robot in machine code. The user writes the program in computer language which will then be converted into machine code by the compiler. There are many computer languages available to write programs such assembly, C, Pascal, BASIC and FORTH. For this project the microcontroller that is used is Microchips PIC18F4520. The language used to program the microcontroller is C. C is a simple and procedural language and it has influenced many later languages such Java. It is generally variable and function based. Values are stored in variables for easy access and it is structured by defining and calling functions to perform tasks. C allows precise control of the input and output. The input and output can be easily directed to the microcontroller terminals. The IDE (integrated development environment) that is used for this project is MPLAB which is a 32bit program used for the software development of this project along with the MPLAB C18 compiler add-on to allow the codes to be written in C . This is the screenshot of the development environment: C:UsersDanDesktopFYP ReportimagesUntitled.jpg Figure 2.2.1: MPLAB IDE The general idea of writing the program is to control the pins of the microcontroller. The robot arm mechanism and the base mechanism will be separated for easier explanation. The arm is made up of the 1st stage, 2nd stage, the left gripper and the right gripper. Control of the servos is by generating PWM signals which will be discussed in detail in chapter 4. By manipulation of these PWM signals we can control the servo movement to a certain angle with great precision. For the DC motors in the base, it is controlled via motor controller. By manipulating logic combinations we will be able to control the movement and direction of the base. Infinite loop to check for button press A button is pressed Necessary routine or function is called to move servo/ DC motor End Figure 2.2.2 : General Software Flowchart This is a general flowchart to represent the program flow. A while loop with an infinite condition is used to continuously check if a button has been pressed. If a button is pressed it will call the necessary function to run the specific device whether it is the servo or the DC motor. Chapter 3: Hardware Information 3.1 Microcontroller This project makes use of Microchip Technologys PIC18F4520 microcontroller. Lets discuss in detail what is a microcontroller and how it makes this project work. Notice that a microcontroller is chosen instead of a microprocessor for this project for a number of reasons. To make the choice, one must know the difference between a microcontroller and a microprocessor in terms of functionality and application. Both are typically a small computer in the form of an integrated circuit which contains things like registers, memory, I/O, interrupts and timers. They vary in terms of number of I/O, registers, clock speed and memory size. Microcontrollers are usually for cases that involve a lot of input output devices in contrast to a microprocessor which is usually used for heavy data applications. So that means microcontrollers dominate the robotics and automation industry. Lets examine closely what it looks like and the detailed features for this particular microcontroller, the PIC18F4520. Its versatility, robust nature and features contributed to the choosing of this IC. The detailed features along with its operation can be found in the datasheet for the microcontroller. C:UsersDanDesktopFYP ReportimagesPIC18F4520IP.jpg Figure 3.1.1 : PIC18F4250 Parameter Name   Value   Program Memory Type   Flash   Program Memory (KB)   32   CPU Speed (MIPS)   10   RAM Bytes   1,536   Data EEPROM (bytes)   256   Digital Communication Peripherals   1-A/E/USART, 1-MSSP(SPI/I2C)   Capture/Compare/PWM Peripherals   1 CCP, 1 ECCP   Timers   1 x 8-bit, 3 x 16-bit   ADC   13 ch, 10-bit   Comparators   2   Temperature Range (C)   -40 to 125   Operating Voltage Range (V)   2 to 5.5   Pin Count   40 Table 3.1.1 : PIC18F4250 Specifications Peripheral Highlights: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ High-current sink/source 25 mA/25 mA à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Three programmable external interrupts à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Four input change interrupts à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Up to 2 Capture/Compare/PWM (CCP) modules, one with Auto-Shutdown (28-pin devices) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Enhanced Capture/Compare/PWM (ECCP) module (40/44-pin devices only): One, two or four PWM outputs Selectable polarity Programmable dead time Auto-Shutdown and Auto-Restart à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Master Synchronous Serial Port (MSSP) module supporting 3-wire SPIà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ (all 4 modes) and I2Cà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Master and Slave Modes à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Enhanced Addressable USART module: Supports RS-485, RS-232 and LIN 1.2 RS-232 operation using internal oscillator block (no external crystal required) Auto-Wake-up on Start bit Auto-Baud Detect à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 10-bit, up to 13-channel Analog-to-Digital Converter module (A/D): Auto-acquisition capability Conversion available during Sleep à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Dual analog comparators with input multiplexing) Power Managed Modes: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Run: CPU on, peripherals on à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Idle: CPU off, peripherals on à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sleep: CPU off, peripherals off à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Idle mode currents down to 5.8 ÃŽÂ ¼A typical à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sleep mode current down to 0.1 ÃŽÂ ¼A typical à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Timer1 Oscillator: 1.8 ÃŽÂ ¼A, 32 kHz, 2V à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Watchdog Timer: 2.1 ÃŽÂ ¼A à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Two-Speed Oscillator Start-up Flexible Oscillator Structure: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Four Crystal modes, up to 40 MHz à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 4X Phase Lock Loop (available for crystal and internal oscillators) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Two External RC modes, up to 4 MHz à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Two External Clock modes, up to 40 MHz à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Internal oscillator block: 8 user selectable frequencies, from 31 kHz to 8 MHz Provides a complete range of clock speeds from 31 kHz to 32 MHz when used with PLL User tuneable to compensate for frequency drift à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Secondary oscillator using Timer1 @ 32 kHz à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Fail-Safe Clock Monitor: Allows for safe shutdown if peripheral clock stops Special Microcontroller Features: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ C compiler optimized architecture: Optional extended instruction set designed to optimize re-entrant code à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 100,000 erase/write cycle Enhanced Flash program memory typical à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1,000,000 erase/write cycle Data EEPROM memory typical à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Flash/Data EEPROM Retention: 100 years typical à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Self-programmable under software control à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Priority levels for interrupts à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 8 x 8 Single-Cycle Hardware Multiplier à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Extended Watchdog Timer (WDT): Programmable period from 4 ms to 131s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Single-supply 5V In-Circuit Serial Programmingà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ (ICSPà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢) via two pins à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ In-Circuit Debug (ICD) via two pins à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Wide operating voltage range: 2.0V to 5.5V à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Programmable 16-level High/Low-Voltage Detection (HLVD) module: Supports interrupt on High/Low-Voltage Detection à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Programmable Brown-out Reset (BOR With software enable option Here is a list of pins and how they are connected in the circuit. Pin Name Pin Number (PDIP) Functions MCLR 1 Reset RA1 3 Servo PWM Input RA2 4 Servo PWM Input RA3 5 Servo PWM Input RA4 6 Servo PWM Input VDD 11 +5V VSS 12 Grounded OSC1 13 Oscillator Crystal/External Clock Input OSC2 14 Oscillator Crystal/External Clock Input RC0 15 IN2 of Motor Driver RC1 16 IN1 of Motor Driver RC3 18 IN4 of Motor Driver RD0 19 IN3 of Motor Driver VSS 31 Grounded VDD 32 +5V RB0 33 Motor Push Button RB1 34 Motor Push Button RB2 35 Motor Push Button RB3 36 Motor Push Button RB4 37 Servo Arm Push Button RB5 38 Servo Arm Push Button RB6 39 Servo Arm Push Button RB7 40 Servo Arm Push Button Table 3.1.2 : Pin Connections C:UsersDanialDesktopFull Schem.JPG Figure 3.1.2 : Full Schematics 3.2 Motor Driver Figure 3.2.1 : SN754410 Motor Driver The SN754410NE is a quadruple half-H driver. The SN754410 can operate a pair of DC motors at the same time. It gives the robot bidirectional movements. It carries the peak output currents up to 1 ampere at a voltage range of 4.5 to 36V. The SN754410 has a minimum logic voltage of 4.5V and a maximum logic voltage of 5.5V. This driver is made to operate from a -400C to 850C. Drivers are enabled in pairs. Driver 1 and driver 2 are enabled by 1,2EN. Driver 3 and driver 4 are enabled by 3,4EN. When the input is low, the drivers are disabled and the outputs are off. If the input is high, the drivers are enabled and the outputs are on. Figure 3.2.2 : SN754410 Motor Driver Pinout Pin 1 (1,2EN) enables/ disables the motor Pin 2 (1A) is a logic pin for the motor Pin 3 (1Y) is for Motor A Pin 4, 5 are for grounding Pin 6 (2Y) is for Motor A Pin 7 (2A) connected to the motor Pin 8 (VCC2) connected to source for motor power Pin 9 (3,4EN) enables/ disables the motor Pin 10 (3A) connected to the motor Pin 11 (3Y) is for Motor B Pin 12, 13 are for grounding Pin 14 (4Y) is for Motor B Pin 15 (4A) connected to the motor INPUTS OUTPUT Y H = High Level L = Low Level X = Do Not Matter XX = OFF A EN H H H L H L X L XX Table 3.2.1 : SN754410 Function Table C:UsersDanialDesktopMotor.JPG Figure 3.2.3 : Motor Schematics 3.3 DC Motor This project will use the SPG10 Geared Motor that has 1.3 kg/cm torque. This motor is light enough to not weigh down the robot and only weighs 10 grams. It runs at 45 rpm. Figure 3.3.1 : SPG10 Motor C:UsersDanDesktopImages23042010(001).jpg Figure 3.3.2 : Motor Wheel 3.4 Servo Motor A servo is a mechanism used in robotic control systems. It is a mechanism that the user can set and forget. This is because of its ability to make corrections to return to its preset state if any changes occur. This is thanks to feedback operations. A servo is a casing that contains a DC motor, some gears with an output shaft, a variable resister that is connected to the output shaft, and a control board. The sensor mechanism allows the control circuit to monitor the current. The motor, through a series of gears, turns the output. The control circuit calculates the difference from the intended position from the current position the shaft is in. This makes the motor turn to its new position. If the control circuit senses that the position is accurate, it brings to a halt the motor. There are three connections to a servo; the power line, the ground line and finally the control signal. The servo needs to be told when to move and wont do so even if power is provided directly. The servo utilizes pulse width modulation (PWM) stream to indicate its position. Specification Servo Motor Model At 5 Volts Speed (s/60o) 0.19 Torque (Kg.cm) 6.00 Signal To Control Angle TTL PWM PWM At Min Angle (ms) 0.54 PWM At Max Angle (ms) 2.40 Operating Voltage (VDC) 4.8-6.0 Operating Frequency (Hz) 50.0 Moving Range(degree) 0-180 Wiring (Black/Brown Wire) Ground Wiring (Red Wire) 4.8-6.0 Volts Wiring (Orange/Other Wire) PWM Signal Table 3.4.1 : Servo Specifications C:UsersDanialDesktopUntitled.jpg Figure 3.4.1 : Servo Motor C:UsersDanialDesktopServo.JPG Figure 3.4.2 : Servo Schematic Chapter 4: Software Coding 4.1 PWM Generation PWM is simply the short form for pulse-width modulation. It is an efficient way to provide intermediate amounts of electrical power between fully on and fully off. This means PWM signals are digital, because at any instant given instant of time, the full DC supply is either fully on or fully off. PWM is employed in a wide variety of applications, ranging from measurement and communications to power control and conversion. Many microcontrollers include on-chip PWM controllers, like the one which is used this project, which makes this easy for controlling the servos for this project. One of the advantages of PWM is that the signal remains digital all the way from the processor to the controlled system and no digital-to-analog conversion is necessary. By keeping the signal digital, noise effects are minimized. Noise can only affect a digital signal if it is strong enough to change logic 1 to logic 0, or vice versa. PWM is the basis of controlling the servos in this project. Lets examine some basic theory. C:UsersDanDesktopFYP Reportimagespwm.gif Figure 4.1.1 : PWM Square Wave The diagram above shows a PWM signal that changes between 0 and 5 volts which is equivalent as digital logic 0 and 1. Notice that the waves are symmetrical. The uptime and downtime is 10ms when added together we get the period which is 20ms. Now that the basics are out of the way, lets look at how a normal servo signal input looks like. C:UsersDanDesktopFYP Reportimagespwm_servo.gif Figure 4.1.2 : PWM Wave Note that the servo runs at 50Hz frequency and therefore the period is 20ms. The uptime is what determines the angle of which the servo motor moves to. In simple words, we can tell the servo where to move with great precision. These are some examples for 180 ° servos. t = 0.9ms T = 20ms Angle = 0 ° t = 1.5ms T = 20ms Angle = 90 ° t = 2.1ms T = 20ms Angle = 180 ° The next step is to create these PWM signals using the PIC microcontroller. The PWMs is in this switch statement: switch(count){ //Choose which servo to modify case 1: PORTA = 0x02; // First Stage WriteTimer1( servo3 ); break; case 2: PORTA = 0x04; // Left Gripper WriteTimer1( servo1 ); break; case 3: PORTA = 0x08; //Right Gripper WriteTimer1( servo0 ); break; case 4: PORTA = 0x10; // Second Stage WriteTimer1( servo2 ); break; } Figure 4.1.3 : Switch Statement The operations for the timers are split in to 4 possible cases of how to generate PWM signal to the pins to power the servos. This is what the statement does:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  //INTERRUPT CONTROL #pragma code InterruptVectorHigh=0x08 void InterruptVectorHigh (void) { _asm  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  //assembly code starts goto InterruptHandlerHigh   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  //interrupt control _endasm  Ã‚  Ã‚  //assembly code ends } #pragma code #pragma interrupt InterruptHandlerHigh   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  //end interrupt controlCase 1 turns PortA1 On and resets the timer1.   Case 2 turns PortA1 Off, PortA2 on and resets the timer1. Case 3 turns PortA2 Off, PortA3 on and resets the timer1. Case 4 turns PortA3 Off, PortA4 on and resets the timer1. Figure 4.1.4 : Interrupt Handler The switch statement is nested in the interrupt handler function. The interrupt handler handles the timer operations. The interrupt control runs assembly code and then calls the go-to function which is InterruptHandlerHigh. The interrupt controller is set at high priority 0x08. Once the interrupt control is correctly implemented interrupts is sent to the interrupt handler where we can do whatever operation necessary depending on the type of interrupt.   4.2 Arm Control void move(int one,int two,int three,int four, int five) { if(one) servo0 = one; // Right Gripper if(two) servo1 = two; // Left Gripper if(three) servo2 = three; // Second Stage Link if(four) servo3 = four; // First Stage Link }A move function is declared to make things easier when linking with buttons. The arguments of the move function are the respective position the servo moves to when it is called upon. Figure 4.2.1 : Move Function After the move function is declared it can be called when the specific button is pressed. //Arm Control if(PORTBbits.RB7==1) move(0xF03B,0xF477,0,0,0); //GRIP! if(PORTBbits.RB6==1) move(0,0,(servo2-0x0250),(servo3+0x0100),0); //MOVE AWAY if(PORTBbits.RB5==1) move(0,0,(servo2+0x0250),(servo3-0x0100),0); //MOVE TOWARDS if(PORTBbits.RB4==1) move(0xFA77,0xEE07,0,0,0); //UNGRIP! Figure 4.2.2 : Arm Button Check There are 4 buttons that control the movement of the arm. PortB pin 0: Close the gripper PortB pin 1: Move arm away PortB pin 2: Move arm towards PortB pin 3: Open the gripper C:UsersVictorDesktopImagesClose Gripper.jpg Figure 4.2.3 : Close Gripper This picture depicts a closed gripper state that is triggered by the button. The following figure is how the robotic arm will look when it is triggered to open both grippers. C:UsersDanDesktop22042010(007).jpg Figure 4.2.3 : Open Gripper 4.3 Base Control The only thing that needs to be controlled in the base is the 2 DC geared motors. It is linked with the microcontroller through the H-bridge. The motors rotational direction is determined by a combinational logic code as seen in the data sheet of the motor driver. It is the same with the servo, when a button is pressed certain commands will be executed. //Base Control if(PORTBbits.RB3==1) { //Forward control PORTCbits.RC1=1; PORTCbits.RC0=0; PORTDbits.RD0=1; PORTCbits.RC3=0; } if(PORTBbits.RB2==1) { //Reverse control PORTCbits.RC1=0; PORTCbits.RC0=1; PORTDbits.RD0=0; PORTCbits.RC3=1; } Figure 4.3.1 : Base Button Check (Forward/Reverse) if(PORTBbits.RB1==1) { //Left control PORTCbits.RC1=0; PORTCbits.RC0=1; PORTDbits.RD0=1; PORTCbits.RC3=0; } if(PORTBbits.RB0) { //Right Control PORTCbits.RC1=1; PORTCbits.RC0=0; PORTDbits.RD0=0; PORTCbits.RC3=1; } Figure 4.3.2 : Base Button Check (Left/Right) There are 4 buttons that control the movement of the base. PortB pin 4: Forward PortB pin 5: Reverse PortB pin 6: Move right PortB pin 7: Move left 4.4 Simulation C:UsersDanDesktopUntitled.jpg Figure 4.4.1 : Watch Simulation The MPLAB software allows a minimal amount of simulation to show that the program is written correctly. Due to software limitation on the PIC18F4520 it is unable to correctly show port activities. However it does show variable activity like in the figure by using the watch feature in the MPLAB. This screenshot shows the stepping when reaching the OpenTimer1 function. A separate window opens to show the function and it will continue to step through the function until it is done. C:UsersDanDesktopUntitled1.jpg Figure 4.4.2 : Program Stepping The stepping continues while opening the necessary functions in a separate window and steps though it until it is done. It reaches the while loop and it keeps looping as it waits for a button to be pressed. Figure 4.4.3 shows the final stage of the program stepping. C:UsersDanDesktopUntitled3.jpg Figure 4.4.3 : Final Stepping Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendation 5.1 Summary This project has further expanded my interest and knowledge in the field of robotics. A project that is very hands on like this helps with the development of certain skills that would certainly help when I go on to become a professional engineer. The most important skill would be planning the stages of the project. To conclude, this project involved two phases which is the hardware design and software design. This report covered the software aspect in detail. In the early stages of this project different methods was planned for the outcome. At the start, the use of a PLC (programmable logic controller) was planned. However it proved to be infeasible in terms of cost and size. In the end it was decided that a PIC microcontroller was to be use as it is easier to implement with respect to the project and provides a great deal of functionality. The programming was made easier with the addition of the C compiler thus enabling the use of a higher level language which is C. With the use of a language of higher level it would be easier to implement features that were not possible using the PLC. 5.2 Recommendations In this project, certain improvements can be made in order to make things work more efficiently. For example, the quick movements seen in the arm is because of the incrementer seen in the codes and lack true control software. By revising the software and introducing more control oriented design it is possible to fine tune the speed. Instead of the 2 robot castors that make up the front motion it could be replaced with wheels and a servo in between them to make the movement and control similar to remote controlled cars. The wired controller could be replaced with a wireless RF controller to allow more freedom to the user. The body work could be improved by using sturdier and lightweight materials such as aluminium. Some sensors could be added to enhance the normal usage of the arm.