Risk aversion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Risk aversion - Essay Example ptimally increasing expected net gains does not take into consideration risk attitudes or an individual’s attitude to carrying the risk of uncertainty, it is risk neutral. On the other hand, the individual’s attitude to risk bearing is taken into account if expected utility rather than expected gain is to be maximised. Risk premium, equity premium or market premium refers to the additional allowance for risk which results in high rates of interest in the private sector. â€Å"The market risk premium is the expected rate of return in the aggregate stock market in excess of the risk-free interest rate† (Fernandez 2002, p.201). Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to compare the State Preference and Machina triangle diagrams, explain an Edgeworth Box diagram, and discuss the factors that determine the efficient allocation of risk. An individual is risk averse if for any probability distribution the expected value of the distribution is preferred to the distribution itself. An individual who prefers a certain income rather than an uncertain one is said to be risk averse. â€Å"In contrast, a risk-neutral person is one who is indifferent to all alternatives with the same expected value† (Katz and Rosen 1998, p.168). For the consumer, uncertainty in the economic market could relate to a combination of or any one of the following factors: income, product price, product quality, and product availability, besides future income, interest rates and inflation rates (McKenna 1986). According to Eeckhoudt and Gollier (1995), the inverse relationship between marginal utility and wealth in the context of expected utility, explains why the largest loss should be covered first through insurance. The State Preference and the Machina Triangle diagrams can be compared and contrasted, as indifference maps for risk averse expected utility maximisers. The expected utility model as an approach to the theory of individual behaviour towards risk is distinctive due to the

Strategic Analysis of Amazon.com Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategic Analysis of Amazon.com - Essay Example Amazon.com is an on-line retail company established in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and based in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. The company, ranked 273 last year amongst Fortune 500 companies in America, began as a seller of books through the Internet but has grown into what is essentially a technology and logistics business enterprise, selling services such as Web hosting and supply chain management, and brand new and used products purchased from distributors, manufacturers, and publishers. The company operates seven retail Web sites, two search and navigation sites, and a movie database site (Amazon.com, 2006a). As of December 13, 2006 the company had annual revenues of $9.7 billion, EBITDA of $567 million, net income of $292 million, and some 12,000 employees worldwide. Table 1 shows a summary of how NASDAQ-listed Amazon.com compares with its competitors in the Internet Software and Services such as e-Bay and Barnes and Noble (Yahoo.com, 2006). Amongst the various manners of conducting a strategic analysis, this paper will focus on popular techniques such as SWOT (Ansoff, 1965; Chandler, 1962), PESTEL (Andrews, 1987), and Porter’s Five Forces model and Generic Strategies (Porter, 1980 and 1985). SWOT-PESTEL For this first part, we combine the SWOT-PESTEL approach. The SWOT analysis is so-called because of the acronym of four factors required for assessing the organisation’s internal (Strengths and Weaknesses) and external (Opportunities and Threats) environments. The PESTEL analysis considers six environmental factors that affect the enterprise and its business: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal. The strengths of Amazon.com are its customer-centred focus, the quality of its technology infrastructure, supply chain management experience, its brand name, and its huge database of global customers. Amongst its major weaknesses are product innovation (it sells for others), technology infrastructure utilisation, and a sagging stock price (down 22.3% in the last year) that opens it to takeover risk from other Internet (e-Bay and Google) or software (Microsoft) giants. The more important opportunities are the growth of on-line shopping and the need to innovate products and services to continue growing sales to generating higher margins and profits. These would address the threat from an increasing number of competitors that are eating into the business activity (on-line shopping) it used to dominate. The following PESTEL factors affect the industry and Amazon.com: Political: American legislation on taxation of on-line transactions threatens to reduce usage and margins. Economic: Slowdown in consumer spending in countries with high Internet penetration would drag down profits and margins. Retail giants (Wal-Mart and Tesco) would compete with Internet service providers. Social: Potential backlash from Internet users and competing brick-and-mortar retail shops that discover the anti-social effects of on-line transactions. Technological: Web 2.0 Internet technology is deemed to have a different set of users and protocols that may attract new upstart dotcoms as competitors. The fast obsolescence of the company's technology needs to be utilised and depreciated quickly. Security concerns of on-line transactions remain. Environmental: Server farms are ugly and consume huge amounts of energy. Legal: The risk of identity theft opens Internet companies to

The field of Image Processing refers Essay Example for Free

The field of Image Processing refers Essay The field of Image Processing refers to processing digital images by means of digital computer. One of the main application areas in Digital Image Processing methods is to improve the pictorial information for human interpretation. Most of the digital images contain noise. This can be removed by many enhancement techniques. Filtering is one of the enhancement techniques which is used to remove unwanted information (noise) from the image. It is also used for image sharpening and smoothening. Some neighborhood operations work with the values of the image pixels in the neighborhood and the corresponding values of a sub image that has the same dimensions as the neighborhood. The sub image is called a â€Å"filter†. The aim of this project is to demonstrate the filtering techniques by performing different operations such as smoothening, sharpening, removing the noise etc. This project has been developed using Java language because of its universal acceptance and easy understandability. The Image Processing is based on client-server model. A client sends a request with image that is to be processed to the server computer. The server computer receives the image and process it according to client request and sends the result back to the client machine. Keywords— Image Processing, Human Interpretation, Filtering, Smoothening \ INTRODUCTION Interest in digital image processing methods stems from two principal application areas: improvement of pictorial information for human interpretation; and processing of image data for storage, transformation, and representation for autonomous machine perception. An image may be defined as a two-dimensional function, f(x , y), where x and y are spatial coordinates, and the amplitude of f at any pair of coordinates (x , y) is called the intensity or gray level of the image at the point. When x, y, and the amplitude values of f are all finite, discrete quantities, we call the image a digital image. The field of digital image processing refers to processing digital images by means of digital computer. Digital image is composed of finite number of elements, each of which has a particular location and value. These elements are referred to as picture elements, image elements, pels, and pixels. Pixel is the term most widely used to denote the elements of a digital image. Sometimes a distinction is made by defining image processing as a discipline in which both the input and output of a process are images. Filters are one of digital image enhancement technique used to sharp the image and to reduce the noise in the image. There are two types of enhancement techniques called Spatial domain and Frequency domain techniques which are categorized again for smoothing and sharpening the images. LITERATURE SURVEY AND OUTCOME The Enhancement Techniques make information more visible. The various types of image processing techniques are as follows. A. Histogram equalization- Redistributes the intensities of the image of the entire range of possible intensities (usually 256 gray-scale levels). Unsharp masking-Subtracts smoothed image from the original image to emphasize intensity changes. B. Convolution- It is a technique in which 3-by-3 masks operating on pixel neighborhoods. Highpass filter-Emphasizes regions with rapid intensity changes. Lowpass filter-Smoothes images, blurs regions with rapid changes. C. Math processes- In this technique, It performs a variety of functions. Add images-Adds two images together, pixel-by-pixel. Subtract images-Subtracts second image from first image, pixel by pixel. Exponential or logarithm-Raises e to power of pixel intensity or takes log of pixel intensity. Nonlinearly accentuates or diminishes intensity variation over the image. Scaler add, subtract, multiply, or divide-Applies the same constant values as specified by the user to all pixels, one at a time. Scales pixel intensities uniformly or non-uniformly Dilation-Morphological operation expanding bright regions of image. Erosion-Morphological operation shrinking bright regions of image. D. Noise filtering- It decreases noise by diminishing statistical deviations. Adaptive smoothing filter-Sets pixel intensity to a value somewhere between original value and mean value corrected by degree of noisiness. Good for decreasing statistical, especially single-dependent noise. Median filter-Sets pixel intensity equal to median intensity of pixels in neighborhood. An excellent filter for eliminating intensity spikes. Sigma filter-Sets pixel intensity equal to mean of intensities in neighborhood within two of the mean. Good filter for signal-independent noise. PROBLEM FORMULATION AND METHODOLOGY The System Model We consider a cloud computing model for image processing system. The system will be designed in such a way that the processing of image is performed on server machine rather than client machine. In this, client sends the image with its required request of processing to server machine to process it accordingly. The server machine receives the request and process it and finally send back the result to client machine. Existing System: In the Existing System, A number of image processing techniques, in addition to enhancement techniques, can be applied to improve the data usefulness. Techniques include convolution edge detection, mathematics, filters, trend removal, and image analysis. The Image processing is performed to client computer itself so the overhead to client computer increases due to processing of Image. Proposed System: The proposed system can be summarized as the following three aspects: Most of the digital images contains noise. This can be removed by many enhancement techniques. Filtering is one of the enhancement techniques which is used to remove unwanted information (noise) from the image. It is also used for image sharpening and smoothening.. The Image Processing is based on client-server model. A client sends a request with image that is to be processed to the server computer. The server computer receives the image and process it according to client request and sends the result back to the client machine. The image processing is performed on server computer so there is much less overhead on client computer to process an image. Work done In Image processing methodology, we study the different types of enhancement techniques like noise filtering, image sharpening, image smoothening etc. with the help of different references. Now finally we concluded how to complete this project and we prepared some modules that will be present in our project. And to complete this project we require minimum system requirement and project specification as follows: SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT: Operating system: windows 98/XP or later versions Tool: Java Frames HARDWARE ENVIRONMENT: Processor : Pentium III RAM : 64 MB Harddisk : 2. 1GB Processor speed : 512 MHZ Modules: User/client: In this module user selects an image through GUI. Request: It is a module that belongs to client side that generate request message for server. Process: It’s the module lying on server side that processes the image sent by the client. Reply: It is also a server site module that forward the result after processing of element to client machine. Server: In this module, server machine receives the request from client process it and reply back the result to client. CONCLUSIONS The objective of the project is to smooth and sharp the images by using various Filtering techniques. Where Filtering techniques are one of the enhancement techniques in the Digital image processing. Here in the project I had implemented few spatial domain filters and frequency domain filters. Where spatial domain filters removes the noise and blurs the image. And frequency domain filters are used to sharpen the inside details of an image. The Image Processing is based on client-server model. A client sends a request with image that is to be processed to the server computer. The server computer receives the image and process it according to client request and sends the result back to the client machine. Filters are useful in many application areas as medical diagnosis, Army and Industrial areas. REFERENCES Gonzalez, Rafael; Steve Eddins (2008). 4. Digital Image Processing (2nd ed. ). Mc Graw Hill. p. 163. Tinku Acharya and Ajoy K. Ray (2006). Image Processing Principles and Applications. Wiley InterScience. Wilhelm Burger and Mark J. Burge (2007). Digital Image Processing: An Algorithmic Approach Using Java. Springer. ISBN 1-84628-379-5. R. Fisher, K (2002). Digital Image Processing. Springer. ISBN 3-540-67754-2. Milan Sonka, Vaclav Hlavac and Roger Boyle (1999). Image Processing, Analysis, and Machine Vision. PWS Publishing. Tim Morris (2004). Computer Vision and Image Processing. Palgrave Macmillan.

An Examination of SMEs in Vietnam

An Examination of SMEs in Vietnam Definition of SME Nowadays in Vietnam, developing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is highly concerned by the government because a country prosperity depends lots on the health of the economy and enterprises. At the beginning of developing a market-oriented economy especially, SMEs play a key role because they take up most of enterprises in the economy, let alone creating the most of the labor force. However, up until now, there not yet exists a widely-used, complete definition on SMEs. The definition of SME is going through a process of dynamic change in parallel with the transformation from the centrally planned to market economy. Many of the definitions contained in the previous UNECE document OPA/AC.12/1 are no longer valid. The associated central and eastern European countries are gradually adapting their definitions the recommendation of the EU. The SME definition that is currently in use in the EU, is based on the Commission Recommendation 96/280/EC. Normally, to precisely define which compo nents make up a SME, we need to focus on the following criteria. In terms of qualitative measurement, there are quite a few criteria to define an SME, such as: low level of specialization, decentralization, simple administration requirements†¦ These criteria correctly reflect the nature of SME but simultaneously hard to reconcile. That is why these criteria has referential value only and rarely used in practice. In terms of quantitative measurement, the criteria are more specific and applicable. The most commonly used one is the number of people employed by the business. The second common criterion deals with finance – either the turnover or income, or asset value of the business. The third criterion relates to the independency of the SME from other business entity. This thesis will mainly deal with SME definition quantitatively since it shows clear advantage over the other, which are easy to measure and clear in scope. Since there is not yet a specific and widely-used definition for SME, it is important to take a look at different points of view and decide an overall acceptable concept in this thesis. It affects the analyses in different parts of this thesis. According to EU Commission, the main factors to determine whether an entity is a SME are labor force and either turnover or balance sheet total. Based on the commission staff working document by EU Commission, 2009 edition, the specific benchmark is as follow These ceilings apply for individual firms only. A firm which is a part of larger grouping may need to include related information from that grouping too. This definition use various sources to measure, hence, it covers most of the SME situation. Moreover, these three factors are clear in nature and easy to apply, which helps the firms as well as the government to follow and concept and apply relevant measurements. In 2010, enterprises with less than 250 employees are estimated to have accounted for 99.8% of the total number of enterprises across Europe, 66.9% of employment, 57% of turnover and 58% of value-added. Obviously, without such a clear definition, it would be so hard to statistically compute those figures and the government may neglect the mass number of SMEs in their countries. However, there still exists drawbacks concerning this concept, the most important of which is that it is not suitable for a developing country like Vietnam. For a micro enterprise in Vietnam, for example, it is almost impossible for it to own turnover or balance sheet total of 45 billion VND. Therefore, although EU has developed some reasonable criteria that we can learn to establish our own definition, it is essential for developing countries like ours to come up with one of our own. For Korea, the subject of this thesis, the government has issued legislation regarding SMEs, in which criteria are clearly stated in able to assist policy makers to identify SMEs. These criteria are divided upon specific fields. For example, in construction business, an SME entity has to have fewer than 300 frequent labors and have total investment capital of less than USD 600.000. In trading area, enterprises with less than 20 frequent labor and revenue less than USD 500.000 per year (retailers) or less than USD 250.000 per year (wholesalers) are considered SMEs. In this pool, small enterprises are those that have less than 5 frequent employees. These criteria are established in the 70s, up until now, the number of employees has increased 2 to 3 times and capital has been raised more than 10 times. This definition seems to fit more with Vietnam’s situation as Korea is also an Asia country and has similar economic background to us. It also uses the two most common indicators as labor force and capital to determine an SME. However, this definition is already outdated and adjusted to suit the current situation more. This practice makes the concept no longer appropriate to Vietnam as the economic situation between the two countries now differs quite a lot, which urges the need to develop a concept of our own, depending on the knowledge learned from other countries in the world. In our country, although there are not yet any fixed criteria to clearly define an SME, some organizations have developed their own concept to further support their activities. According to Doc 681/CP – KNT, enterprises with less than VND 5 billion in charter capital and average labor of less than 200 people per year are considered SMEs. Below are some organizations and their own definition Source: Ministry of Planning Investment However, these figures are temporarily just administration-oriented criteria to create supporting policies for SMEs. The fact that non -governmental organizations or governmental organizations develop their own concept is acceptable because they have different objectives and practices. On the other hand, such various opinions on SMEs are only referential in quality because they not yet come to a sufficient conclusion on whether an entity is or is not an SME. Therefore, the majority of intellectuals on this issue has raised to make clear this definition as an entity which has investment certificate, regardless of business type, and has capital as well as labor size that can satisfy government regulations on specific fields or through different times. From this standpoint, our government has finally come up with an official document on this matter. The Vietnamese government, defines SMEs by Decree 56/2009/ ND – CP as follow: â€Å"Small and medium-sized enterprises are business establishments that have registered their business according to law and are divided into three levels: very small, small and medium according to the sizes of their total capital (equivalent to the total assets identified in an enterprise’s accounting balance sheet) or the average annual number of laborers (total capital is the priority criterion), concretely as follows†: Table: by Business-in-Asia.com This definition sticks to criteria that have been used by EU and Korea, but tailored to fit with our economic situation. Furthermore, it divides the economy into different business sectors because of their distinctive characteristics. This definition is established using multiple statistical methods and surveys. Therefore, it is prestigious and practical enough to be used throughout this thesis Roles of SMEs Despite some disadvantages as being an SME, it still bring clear benefits and economic-social impacts due to its distinctive features SMEs considerably contribute to the government budget The contribution of SMEs into both government and local budget is considerable and on the increasing trend. The corporate survey report in 2011 showed that SMEs accounted for more than 97.6% the total number of enterprises in Vietnam, which made it the major tool to create jobs and generate income for the government budget. Income from corporate tax made 103.6% target and increased by 13% compared to the previous year in 2002. In 2003, income from SMEs took up around 15% total income, increasing 29.5% compared to the same quarters of the previous years. In 2004, income from private sector was 13.100 billion VND, occupying 7.8% budget. However, compared to government budget, the contribution of SMEs to local budget is much higher. For example, in Ho Chi Minh City, the private sector accounts for approximately 15%, 24% in Kien Giang, 16% in Dong Thap, 22% in Gia Lai, 19% in Ninh Binh, 16% in Yen Bai, 17% in Thai Nguyen, 22% in Quang Nam, 33% in Binh Dinh†¦ SMEs generate jobs and income for the labor force Due to estimation from some prestigious authorization, SMEs create 49% of non-agriculture jobs in the rural areas, which is about 25-26% of the overall labor force in Vietnam. For business sector, because of the increasing number of SMEs every year, they attracts around 45 million employees with the average income of 1.5 million VND per month. This fact means a lot in the fight to prevent unemployment and stabilize the society nowadays. The average proportion for a corporation to invest in a job vacancy is 70 to 100 million VND; meanwhile, for an SME, the number is only 210 to 280 million VND (around 3 times higher). Due to such a high level of investment, private sector is the main area attracting new employees ever year and redundant employees resulting from administration re-allocation or substantive change in the economic structure. This practice has helped stabilize and enhance the lives of the labor force. To date, more than 7 million people are now working in the private sector. This is such a positive contribution to social-economic stabilization, poverty reduction and awareness improvement. SMEs greatly contribute into the exporting activities In recent years, in line with our government policies about expanding and encouraging international trade, as well as creating the environment for all business sectors to participate in import and export activities, SMEs, especially the crafts, agriculture, aquatic industry have implemented dynamic investment into potential businesses. In specific, they actively seek for and exploit international markets, which helps a great deal in pushing export and tracking down foreign currency for the country. Up until 31/10/2014, the number of SMEs participating in exporting and importing activities takes up 80.6% and 84.2% respectively. The total exporting volume of SMEs in 2012 reached 4.108 million USD, accounting for 24.6%. For importing volume, the number was 4.789 million USD, accounting for 23.3% compared to the total export – import volume of the economy as a whole. The most remarkable thing is that SMEs in private sector has thrived to become the leading sector in exporting marine products, at around 740 million USD, accounting for 39% the total volume of this business sector. The story goes the same for almonds, at 141 million USD, taking up 42% of the total volume. With this increasing trend as these figures, SMEs will soon become the leading sector in obtaining foreign currency for the country. SMEs participate in the process of creating connection with big corporations SMEs, in the recent years, have strong connection with big corporations in supplying raw materials, implementing contracts, gradually generating supporting industries network and products distribution network especially. This is a two-way relationship, which both sides tie and support each other. The big corporations ensure markets, finance, technology and administration experience for SMEs. On the other hand, SMEs support big corporations in supporting industries and products distribution network. SMEs nurture startup spirit With relatively low investment cost, as well as limited size and business environment, individuals have room to experience and nurture ideas. The increasing number of SMEs both create fairly competitive environment and prevent monopoly in business, which brings clear advantages for new ideas. That is why SMEs are places for startups. SMEs are also the perfect places to train inexperienced staff and future leaders to prepare themselves for larger competitive markets. The great success always start from small steps, so SMEs are considered the stepping stones for a successful career. In reality, in many countries, many well-known multi-national corporations with hundreds of employees used to start as startups or small enterprises, with a few people with the same determination and business idea. Many SMEs all over the world were born in tough and flexible business environment. Later, they thrived and rapidly launched their idea into the commercial world. Many economists compare SMEs as a new breeze into the economy, bringing new business value, even in the biggest economy in the world – USA, especially in technology, communication, finance and banking. Starting with a simple idea and a small business size does not mean you stay there forever. Thriving to a successful and stable stage is always what SMEs aim for. SMEs contribute greatly in stabilization and economic restructuring by territory Normally, big corporations are often located in big cities, which exude developed infrastructure. This fact can lead to serious imbalance in economic, cultural and social development level between rural and urban areas. SMEs can greatly contribute to distribute industrial zone to different places, so the development gap among those areas can be narrowed down. The expansion of SMEs has been an essential part in creating the balance among the areas, helping them to identify potential and strength. The results are bright as those provinces can develop their own products and services, which creates industrialized and modernized economic restructuring. It can be stated that the existence of SMEs is the factor that brightens the economic picture of local areas. SMEs are the perfect complementary for the corporations network of the country, as well as those who utilize slight opportunities that big corporations often overlook. That is why SMEs are considered a vital policy tool to achieve development targets, in which is developing rural and remote areas.

The Statue of Liberty Lending Credence to the Word Freedom in America E

The Statue of Liberty Lending Credence to the Word Freedom in America The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognized artifacts of freedom in the world. It has the ability to create emotions that range from happiness to anger all at one time. The best way to analyze such a powerful image is to use Kenneth Burke’s idea of pentadic analysis. By using this method of the analysis, we will be able to answer the rhetorical question: How does the Statue of Liberty lend credence to the word â€Å"freedom† in America? To begin with, it is necessary to obtain some background on the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty was given to the United States in 1886 as a gift from France and dedicated as a national monument in 1924 (1). Standing at approximately 46.50 meters and weighing 225 tons it was the largest structure, at the time, to have entered the United States via Ellis Island, New York (1). Before the entrance of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island was used as a border for immigrants who wanted to be a part of â€Å"the land of the free and the home of the brave (2).† With the coming of the Statue, there was something tangible for new Americans to see when they entered the country. With its newfound fame as the first visual representation of the immigrants, the Statue also soon became a link to the idea of freedom and a brighter future. In 1976, a renovation project began to fix some mistakes made in its initial transport to the United States. Lee Iacocca, CEO of the Chrysler Motor Corporation at the time (3), led this renovation. Iacocca began calling the Statue of Liberty, â€Å"Lady Liberty†, as he was fixing the crown, torch and replacing the copper with bronze (3). This new title also shed some light on the significance of the Statue because now liberty and justice had taken over the form of a woman, tasked to watch over the United States like a mother does her children (3). With the background of the Statue of Liberty, we can move on to the importance of the application of Burke’s pentad model in this artifact. Burke’s initial idea of pentadic analysis stems from his view of dramatism (4). According to Burke, dramatism is a way of analyzing material with the desire to form a direct link between human motives and clusters of terminology (4). Foss (1996) points out that dramatism has two fundamental assumptions. The first assumption is t... ...-act, agency-agent, agency-purpose, purpose-scene, purpose-act, purpose-agent, and purpose-agency (4). For the purposes of this analysis, the ratio of act-purpose will be used. By ordering the ratio in this manner, we are stressing the fact that the act and the purpose have the most influential effects on the pentad. However the dominant factor in all of this is the act – the representation of the American Dream and freedom. The significance of the act is defined by the historical struggle of creating a nation of independence and freedom, also referred to as the scene. The statue itself, the agency, communicates this message to the world and at the same time aims to carry out the underlined purpose, by persuading people to remember the ideals that our nation was founded upon. This is where the element attitude can enter the picture. As mentioned earlier, attitude deals with the manner in which the purpose is portrayed. The Statue of Liberty is an object and therefore does not have the ability to verbalize, however, the attitude seen in her towering presence and the stern look on her face reinforce the purpose and allow the message to be effective. The Statue of Liberty Lending Credence to the Word Freedom in America E The Statue of Liberty Lending Credence to the Word Freedom in America The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognized artifacts of freedom in the world. It has the ability to create emotions that range from happiness to anger all at one time. The best way to analyze such a powerful image is to use Kenneth Burke’s idea of pentadic analysis. By using this method of the analysis, we will be able to answer the rhetorical question: How does the Statue of Liberty lend credence to the word â€Å"freedom† in America? To begin with, it is necessary to obtain some background on the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty was given to the United States in 1886 as a gift from France and dedicated as a national monument in 1924 (1). Standing at approximately 46.50 meters and weighing 225 tons it was the largest structure, at the time, to have entered the United States via Ellis Island, New York (1). Before the entrance of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island was used as a border for immigrants who wanted to be a part of â€Å"the land of the free and the home of the brave (2).† With the coming of the Statue, there was something tangible for new Americans to see when they entered the country. With its newfound fame as the first visual representation of the immigrants, the Statue also soon became a link to the idea of freedom and a brighter future. In 1976, a renovation project began to fix some mistakes made in its initial transport to the United States. Lee Iacocca, CEO of the Chrysler Motor Corporation at the time (3), led this renovation. Iacocca began calling the Statue of Liberty, â€Å"Lady Liberty†, as he was fixing the crown, torch and replacing the copper with bronze (3). This new title also shed some light on the significance of the Statue because now liberty and justice had taken over the form of a woman, tasked to watch over the United States like a mother does her children (3). With the background of the Statue of Liberty, we can move on to the importance of the application of Burke’s pentad model in this artifact. Burke’s initial idea of pentadic analysis stems from his view of dramatism (4). According to Burke, dramatism is a way of analyzing material with the desire to form a direct link between human motives and clusters of terminology (4). Foss (1996) points out that dramatism has two fundamental assumptions. The first assumption is t... ...-act, agency-agent, agency-purpose, purpose-scene, purpose-act, purpose-agent, and purpose-agency (4). For the purposes of this analysis, the ratio of act-purpose will be used. By ordering the ratio in this manner, we are stressing the fact that the act and the purpose have the most influential effects on the pentad. However the dominant factor in all of this is the act – the representation of the American Dream and freedom. The significance of the act is defined by the historical struggle of creating a nation of independence and freedom, also referred to as the scene. The statue itself, the agency, communicates this message to the world and at the same time aims to carry out the underlined purpose, by persuading people to remember the ideals that our nation was founded upon. This is where the element attitude can enter the picture. As mentioned earlier, attitude deals with the manner in which the purpose is portrayed. The Statue of Liberty is an object and therefore does not have the ability to verbalize, however, the attitude seen in her towering presence and the stern look on her face reinforce the purpose and allow the message to be effective.

COACH K :: essays research papers

The emotions Mike Krzyzewski displays on the courtare the hallmarks of any college basketball coach.His angry stare from the bench seems to sear referees. A snarl of disgust from the Duke leader gets his team back in line, and fast.showed a softer side. He cried. From those tears sprang a new beginning. Duke’s loss to Connecticut in the NCAAchampionship game no longer mattered. The stunning departure of five players, three of those leaving early for the NBAdraft, became distant memories. His physical pain became an afterthought on that April day when, recovering from hip-replacement surgery, ChrisCarrawell, Shane Battier and Nate James paid a visit to his home. â€Å"With all the stuff that was happening, they just came out and said, ‘Coach, we just want to know how you’re doing,’†Krzyzewski says. â€Å"It made me cry. It was like, ‘You care.’ We talked for a long time that afternoon, and we talked about next year. That was the start of this year’s team.† This year’s Duke team was minutes removed from cutting down the nets Sunday at the ACCTournament when Krzyzewski opened up about his team’s emotional journey this season. Acursory glance shows few changes from last year: Duke stormed to the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles in 2000, finishing 18-1 in the league; the 1999 squad did the same, only without the one loss. Both Duke teams stood No. 1 in the final AP Top 25 polls and had No. 1 seeds in the NCAATournament. Even the talent level and sky-high expectations heaped on both teams are remarkably similar. And that may be the root of the biggest emotion of all at Duke these days. Surprise. n A decade of Duke dominance ended with a thud last March. The Huskies stunned the nation with a 77-74 win in the NCAAchampionship game, and the bad news kept flowing out of Durham. Sophomore Elton Brand, the national Player of the Year, announced his intention to enter the NBADraft. He made history as the first player in Krzyzewski’s 19-year reign at Duke to leave school early for the pros. Then, in rapid-fire succession, sophomore point guard William Avery and freshman sensation Corey Maggette also declared for the draft. Junior forward ChrisBurgess, disappointed with a lack of playing time, decided to transfer. The team’s rock, five-year star Trajan Langdon, graduated in May and also headed for the NBA. â€Å"Everybody was leaving us,† Carrawell says. â€Å"Quin Snyder left (to take over the head coaching job at Missouri). We lost a couple people off sports information! â€Å"We went over and saw coach. I was like, ‘Are you going to be ready to coach us this year?’† Carrawell says. â€Å"He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be ready,’ and

Didls on George Bernard Shaw Essay

In this letter by George Bernard Shaw, the author conveys vivid detail that is emphasized about the death of his mother. Within this text, the author’s attitude towards his mother and her cremation is utilized by the use of diction, detail, and imagery that serves to express the authors feeling of sentimentality and rebirth from the enchanted tone he attributed his mother with. Throughout the excerpt, the author begins his oration in an admirable tone. The author portrays his attitude towards his mother’s cremation as a positive outlook in life. With the excessive usage of diction, the author describes what lies beyond the oven door of the crematory oven as â€Å"wonderful†, while other people sought it as horrifying to see it. Shaw describes the oven being â€Å"No roaring draught. No flame. No fuel.†; rather, with the appearance of â€Å"cool, clean, sunny† of the coffin. Shaw evokes a sense of diction that is viewed with full of life. The cremation is depicted as a â€Å"beautiful fire† like â€Å"pentecostal tongue† suggests the mother as a spirit ascending from the coffin with the rebirth of life itself. By the presentation of diction use with the mother being rebirthed with attribution of new life, the author’s attitude can be best described in a blissful manner. Although Shaw describes the rebirth of his mother with the excessive usage of diction, he also attributes the cremation with vivid detail of imagery. Shaw’s usage of imagery with his mother’s cremation gives the reader an insight of the author’s attitude towards his mother. When Shaw describes the coffin of â€Å"streaming ribbons of garnet colored lovely flame, smokeless and eager, like pentecostal tongues†, his view of imagery suggests fire is a symbol of life and that there is a spirit ascending from the coffin. Shaw also notes his â€Å"mother became that beautiful fire,† before the cook â€Å"swept her up into a sieve and shook her out: so that there was a heap of dust and a heap of bone straps,† makes the imagery that Shaw conveys to his mother as a spirit being humorous. What Shaw portrays through these details is that by the burning of his mother, the corpse is then observed full of energy and life itself, allowing her rebirth into a spiritual figure a mockery of flesh and bone. By the use of imagery, Shaw is trying to emphasize that the quality of the cremation makes it better compared to a burial. Despite Shaw’s admirable and blissful attitude throughout his oration, there was detail among the letter that gives the reader a more insightful thought of the attitude portrayed to his mother and her cremation. When Shaw addresses â€Å"O grave, where is thy victory?†, it gives the reader the sense that the grave is provided only with death compared to the cremation that allows the spirit to somewhat escape the body and be set out as free, giving the crematory positive connotations. This puny detail shows the difference of the grave and crematory that gives an insightful attitude towards what the author is trying to convey about his mother and her crematory. In all, Shaw’s strange appreciation of the event attributes him with the recognition of victory of life over death from releasing the spirit of his mother through the fire of the crematory.