Providing a Method to Learning

The universal conceptualisation of love is a subject of many a poet and writer throughout history. As such, each is relevant to their specific periods and their specific value systems. This can be seen in the text; â€Å"Sonnets from the Portuguese† by Elizabeth Barret Browning, where Browning explores a Romantic vision of love and romance through the abandonment of the Petrachan sonnet from. Likewise, the text â€Å"The Great Gatsby† by F. Scott Fitzgerald, explores the turmoils of love in the 1920’s; a world obsessed with materialism and hedonism.Thus through the ways in which each author produces a narrative relevant to the values and contexts of their particular contemporaries we are able to discern how the theme of the transformative power of love and spirituality continues to be avid topics of literature today. In Sonnet 1, Browning conveys the Romantic idea of love and spirituality against the prudish rationalism of the Victorian era. Her Greco-allusion â €Å"How Theocractes had sung†¦Ã¢â‚¬  references the 3rd century BC Greek pastoral poet – mourning the lost ‘art’ of renaissance passion.The aural metaphor reflects how poetry as â€Å"a craft,† had been lost – the past tense reinforcing that love as spiritual and not materialistic is neglected by Victorian culture. This is echoed in the lines: â€Å"of the sweet years, the dear and wished for years†, in which Browning utilizes assonance to accentuate the repetition of â€Å"years†; rhymed in the line, â€Å"through my tears† to emphasize the Victorian’s shifting focus of love to a convention of marriage that relies upon dowries and status.The enjambment, â€Å"who by turns had flung / A shadow across me† is a metaphor illustrating her isolation and sadness in this context – the literal shadow cast by Browning â€Å"across† her is a simulacrum of Victorian conservatism. Her subversion of the pet rachan form is evident as the Volta is linked and the Iambic pentameter has been broken; conveying the challenge expressed by Browning toward the rationality of the Victorian mindset and her embrace of the Romantic idealism of love and spirituality, as Browning has progressed from a solipsistic interest in grief and isolation to an affirmation of love, firmly grounded in reality.In contrast F Scott Fitzgerald reflects the roaring 20’s distillation of love into pragmatism and materialism, forsaking traditional romanticisms such as spirituality and hope. Juxtaposed against the Victorian suppression of passion, the wildly liberalized and sexually expressive twenties are expressed by Fitzgerald to be detrimental to the development of love. â€Å"Chatter†¦ laughter†¦ innuendo†¦meetings between women who never knew each others names,† in which Nick’s observations become anecdotes of accepted social behaviour.Exemplars such as â€Å"Jordan was going to yield him up her person sooner or later† illustrates the same loss of the universal language of love that Browning laments for the Victorian, as hyper-sexualisation of relationships erode spiritual values of love. This awkward inability to understand love for its own sake can be observed in Nick’s indecisive tone â€Å"I wasn’t actually in love but I felt a sort of tender curiosity,† and his mechanical metaphor of his own emotions and passions, â€Å"But I am†¦ full of interior rules that acts as breaks.† The contextual idea that love and hope are no longer associated with romantic relations is lastly compounded in his admission that â€Å"I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. † Illustration that even stripped of pretence and lust, he is unable to interpret love as anything other than hedonism. Browning reflects her strict Victorian patriarchal context through her exploration of the transformative power of love. Sonne t 14 is a subversion of the petrachan sonnets; conveying her assertive role in marriage.â€Å"For these things in themselves, beloved, may/ be changed, or change†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Here the persona challenges the petrachan tradition, which confronts the traditional conventions of Victorian women through the repetitive â€Å"I love her for her smile†¦her look†¦her way of speaking gently †, mocking gender expectations of womanly behaviour. The repetitive juxtaposition in â€Å"changed, or change†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , and the anadiplosis in â€Å"love so wrought /May be unwrought so†, highlights how easily love may come undone when it is based on transient qualities – by literally attaching prefixes to devotional connotations. The imperative tone ofcommand delivered in â€Å"neither love me for thine own pity wiping my cheeks dry. † This paradox of â€Å"neither† suggests her rejection of the feminine role of women. Her dismissal of the ephemeral attr actions of the physical is not only a rejection of Victorian female stereotypes, but also a statement to the transformative power of true love. In comparison to Browning, F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores the lack of the transformative power of love in prohibition America and the need for society to adopt moral values. The â€Å"Jazz Age’ see women as sexual beings and mainstreamed the idea that repression was self-destructive.This sexual liberation is personified in Jordan Baker; whose androgyny and lifestyle is summed up by her symbolic name as two automobiles. She is a dichotomy of the 20s, the freedom and destruction afforded by a period of rapid industrialization. Jordan is the antithesis to Browning, whose deliberate vocabulary seeks happiness within a restrictive setting – she is instead careless, selfish, and immoral. Nick describes her self-serving pragmatism â€Å"too wise to carry well forgotten dreams from age to age†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This indicates a lack of hope and spirituality in her philosophy of life, which is emphasized through the repetitive â€Å"age†.The foreboding tone created through the assonance in â€Å"turned abruptly away and ran up the porch stairs†¦Ã¢â‚¬  illustrates her selfishness towards a Nick who cannot satisfy her own need for careless happiness. Thus Jordan embodies the egocentric love feared by Browning – a love lacking all transformative power and instead focuses solely on self-pleasure. Thus through the analysis of poetic and narrative techniques we are able to see how both author’s are engaged by and through the worlds in which their narrative is produced as a result of their context and values.

General Biology Ii Study Guide (Online Class)

1. Is the gametophyte stage dominant in Bryophytes? Yes or No 2. Most plants have vascular tissue; these constitute the ________ plants. Vascular 3. Seeds can lie dormant for many years. True 4. Bryophytes are small because they lack ______. Vascular Tissue 5. Leaves increase the surface area for photosynthesis. True 6. Seeds contain _____ inside of a protective coat. Nutrient supply, embryo 7. Angiosperms produce seeds that are often enclosed by _____. Fruit 8. _____ transports water in vascular plant. Xylem 9. Pollen is usually dispersed by _____. Wind 10. A ________________ is an embryo and nutrients surrounded by a protective coat.Seed11. Which phylum includes ferns? Phylum Pterophyta12. ________________ are organs that anchor vascular plants. Roots13. What is the difference in reproduction between a blueberry bush and a pine tree? Pine trees do not produce flowers and produce seeds that are not enclosed by fruit. Blueberry bushes produce flowers and produce seeds enclosed by fruit.14. Seedless vascular plants reproduce via spores contained inside seeds. False15. Experiment 2 in lab showed that _____. Plants take up carbon dioxide.16. Non-vascular plants are commonly called ______. Bryophytes17. Which phylum are the moss in?Bryophyta18. Bryophytes require _____ for fertilization to occur. Water19. A fern is a seedless vascular plant. True20. Lab experiment 1 for this week clearly showed that _____. Aquatic plants will produce gas when exposed to light.21. Gymnosperms do not produce seeds. False22. _____ transports sugars in vascu lar plants. Phloem23. Describe two things that are unique to angiosperms that help them in reproduction. They have flowers and the ability of â€Å"double fertilization†.24. A ______ is a passageway for oxygen and carbon dioxide. They are holes in the underside of a leaf. toma (pl. stomata)25. Vascular tissue arrangement is directly related to the stem’s ability for _______________ growth. Secondary26. Trichomes can protect a plant from predation by herbivores. True27. The ground tissue cells called _____ cells are the most common type of plant cell and carry out photosynthesis. Parenchyma28. Which part of the root would you look in if you wanted to find a cell going through mitosis (cell reproduction)? Zone of cell division29. Which type of vascular tissue allows the movement of water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves? Xylem30. What structure protects the root as it pushes its way through the soil? Root cap31. All plant cells contain secondary cell walls. Fal se32. _______________ meristems are located at the tips of stems and roots. Apical33. Which type of plant tissue is for protection? Dermal34. Which type of vascular tissue carries sugars to all parts of the plant. Phloem35. The alternate form of leaf arrangement is the most common of the three types of leaf arrangement. True36. What are plant cell walls made of? Cellulose37. Vascular plants have a have a specialized circulation system composed of [x] and [y]. X=Xylem, Y=Phloem38. Which plant organ is a beet? Root39. Guard cells are responsible for closing and opening the lenticellular maculation. False40. The diffusion of water vapor from a plant is called ____. Transpiration41. Some kinds of plants live without ever making contact with the soil. True42. Which plant organ helps to anchor them in the soil and absorb water and minerals? Roots43. Explain why the carnation changed colors in Experiment #2 in the Plant Circulation lab. The process of water moving through the vascular tiss ue of the plant. As the water moved through the flower it carried the dye with it.44. Lateral meristems are found in plants that exhibit ____ growth. Secondary45. The shoot system consists of the underground portion of the plant. False46. Secondary growth is an increase in the _____ of the plant. Width or girth47. _____ are members of the phylum _____ and feed by _____. Sea anemones †¦ Cnidaria †¦ using stinging cells to capture small animals that venture too close to them48. Planarians lack dedicated respiratory and circulatory systems because none of their cells are far removed from the gastrovascular cavity or from the external environment because they are flat.49. Annelids _____. have a mouth that is separate from the anus and segments50. A sponge's structural materials (spicules, spongin) are manufactured by the Amoebocytes51. In sponges which cell captures food? Choanocyte or collar cell52. In most insects, gas exchange is accomplished by _____. A tracheal system wit h spiracles, trachea, and tracheoles53. A land snail, a clam, and an octopus all share Membership in Phylum Mollusca54. A major characteristic of arthropods is _____. A chitinous exoskeleton and jointed appendages55. In arthropods, molting is necessary because _____.The hard exoskeleton cannot grow.56. Humans most frequently acquire trichinosis (infection by Trichinella spiralis) by Eating undercooked pork57. Which of the following describe(s) echinoderms? Tubefeet provide motility in most species58. Which clade in the phylum Cnidaria includes â€Å"jellies† with rounded (as opposed to boxlike) medusae? Scyphozoa59. Sponges are most accurately described as Aquatic filter feeders60. Sponges lack _____. All of the listed responses are correct.61. Consider the following list of animals: giant squid, earthworm, largemouth bass, snail, tapeworm, coral, and starfish.The two that belong to the same phylum are the _____, and their phylum is _____. giant squid and snail †¦ Mollus ca62. Corals are most closely related to which group? Sea anemones63. Which letter is pointing to the part of the flower that attracts insects? H64. Which letter is pointing to the stamen? A65. An unidentified species of animal displays the following characteristics: bilateral symmetry, a complete digestive system, an open circulatory system, distinct body segmentation, it has six jointed walking legs, and it molts when it grows.To which of the following animal phyla does this species most likely belong? Arthropoda66. Jellies and corals are members of the same _____, all members of which _____. phylum †¦ have special stinging cells on their tentacles67. A terrestrial mollusc without a shell would be called a _____. Slug68. Leeches are members of the phylum _____. Annelida69. Tapeworms are highly specialized worms that make their living as endoparasites. To which of the following phyla do the tapeworms belong? Phylum Platyhelminthes70. Sponges feed by _____. Filtering small part icles from water Read also Lab 2 Biology71. An active marine predator is found possessing these characteristics: a series of tentacles (eight of them modified from the foot) on its head, a highly developed nervous system, and elaborate eyes. To which of the following animal classes does this organism most likely belong? Cephalopoda72. List the four key characteristics of chordates. Notochord Dorsal hollow nerve cord Muscular post anal tail Pharyngeal slits73. What is the single unique characteristic that distinguishes extant birds from other extant vertebrates? Feathers74. Most reptiles are ______ which means they cannot regulate their own body temperature.Cold-blooded and ectothermic75. How would you tell the difference between a reptile egg and a bird egg? The reptile egg will have a flexible leathery shell and the bird egg will have a hard shell.76. A sea star is an invertebrate. True77. If an animal has hair, feeds its young milk, an lays eggs it is a ______. monotreme platypus echidna spiny ante ater78. Why is the amniotic egg considered an important evolutionary breakthrough? It allows deposition of eggs in a terrestrial environment.79. Turtles are reptiles. True80. What is the main difference between the skeleton of a shark and a trout?The shark has a skeleton made of cartilage, while a trout has a skeleton made of bone.81. Sharks are classified in which class? Chondrichthyes82. Birds _____. Warm-blooded83. Chordates have ___________ symmetry. Bilateral84. The gill flap, or operculum, was an important adaptation for fish because it helps with _____. Maintaining a supply of action85. Which of these characteristics added most to vertebrate success in relatively dry environments? The shelled, amniotic egg86. A frog is an invertebrate. False87. Amphibians can lay their eggs on land without fear of them drying out because they lay eggs with a flexible shell.False88. The opossum is an example of a(n) _____ mammal. Marsupial89. Which of the following animals is an amphibian? Cae cilian90. A kangaroo or an opossum is a ______. Marsupial91. All mammals _____. Nourish their offspring through mammary glands92. The swim bladder of ray-finned fishes Provides for regulation of buoyancy.93. Habitat loss, the spread of a fungal disease, climate change, and pollution are causing severe population declines and extinction in _____. Amphibians94. Pick the example of the invertebrate chordate from the list below. Lancelet95. Some sharks are viviparous, which means that _____.The young develop within the female’s body.96. Which of the six major types of connective tissue has a rigid matrix that contains collagen and calcium salts? Bone97. In vertebrates the space between cells if filled with blood. False98. Tissues are composed of cells, and tissues functioning together make up Organs99. __________ animals generate heat by metabolism. Endothermic100. Food processing, absorption, and distribution in your body are mainly accomplished by the _____ systems. Digestive a nd circulatory101. Do hormone signals functions faster than nerve signals? No102. Ligaments are what kind of connective tissue? A type of fibrous connective tissue103. Positive feedback differs from negative feedback in that The positive feedback's effector responses are in the same direction as the initiating stimulus rather than opposite to it.104. Food moves along the digestive tract as the result of contractions by Smooth muscle105. Fibroblasts secrete Proteins for connective fibers106. Hormones _____. All of the listed responses are correct.107. __________ is the study of the biological functions an organism performs. Physiology108. EndothermyIs a characteristic of animals that have a fairly constant body temperature.109. What covers the outside of the body and lines the organs and cavities within the body? Epithelial tissue110. _____ feedback most directly maintains homeostasis because it _____. Negative †¦ tends to keep a system at a desirable â€Å"set point†111. Which of the following are connective tissues? Adipose tissue, cartilage, bone, and blood112. The cells lining the air sacs in the lungs make up a Simple squamous epithelium.113. Explain what happened to your egg or bone in lab this week, why it happened, and what caused it.The egg shell or bone softened and became flexible because the calcium salts were removed from the egg shell or bone by the vinegar (mild acid).114. Tendons connect bones at joints. False115. If we could only carry out digestion but not absorption we would die. True116. List the three major types of blood vessels. Arteries, veins, and capillaries117. When you shiver your muscular system is _____. Producing heat118. Interstitial fluid once it has entered the lymphatic vessels is called ____. Lymph119. Which system eliminates nitrogenous wastes from the body? Urinary system120. Which type of muscle is voluntary?Skeletal121. Weight bearing exercise will do what for the skeleton? Strengthen it122. The organs that pr oduce sperm are the ovaries. False.123. When your body needs calcium for the blood where does it come from assuming the diet is inadequate? The bones or skeletal system.124. The organ level of structural organization comes before the tissue level of structural organization. False125. The integration and command center of the body is the _____. Central nervous system126. Which pigment is most responsible for dark skin color? Melanin127. One function of the integumentary system is to make vitamin _____. D128. The tube that leads into the lungs is called the ____. Trachea129. Which type of blood vessel carries blood away from the heart? Arteries130. Which type of muscle would propel food through the digestive tract? Smooth131. Place the following regions of the skin in the correct order from top (most superficial) to bottom (deepest). Epidermis, dermis, hypodermis132. List the two components of the central nervous system. Brain and spinal cord133. The digestive process depends on _____ . Enzymes134. The kidneys are part of which system? Urinary135. The body system that forms the external body covering is called the ____ system.Integumentary136. What kinds of cells does the skeletal system make? Blood cells137. The system that returns interstitial fluid back to the blood is the ___ system. Lymphatic138. The liver is part of the digestive system. True 139. Mammary glands are specialized sweat glands that produce milk. True140. How are humans altering the carbon cycle? Burning fossil fuels141. The phosphorous cycle depends on the weathering of ____. Rock142. Herbivores eat ____. Plants143. The nitrogen cycle relies heavily on ____. Bacteria144. Fertilizer use will alter the nitrogen cycle balance. True145.The competitive exclusion principle states that two species cannot coexist in a community if their niches are identical. True146. Deforestation and herbicide use will increase the loss of nutrients from the soil. True147. Which type of consumer preys on the producer s? Primary consumer148. Acid rain will remove calcium from the soil just like it removed calcium from the egg or bone in lab. True149. What drives the global water cycle? Solar energy150. Competition may limit the growth of both species involved. True151. A ______ includes all the organisms inhabiting a particular area. Community152. The type of symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits and the other is not significantly affected is called ____. Commensalism153. The gradual colonization of barren rocks is called _____. Primary succession154. ________ may occur when a shared resource is limited. Competition155. Which of the following trophic levels would have the lowest population size? Tertiary consumer156. What two processes does the carbon cycle depend on? Cellular respiration and photosynthesis157. Energy flows into ecosystems in the form of _____ and exits in the form of ______. Light energy, heat158. Which pH did the radish seeds grow best at? The radish seeds would ha ve grown best at a pH near neutral (pH 7)159. Predation can lead to adaptations like _______ and ________ such as poisons. Camouflage and chemical defenses160. Food chains interconnect forming _____. Food webs161. What process is essential for recycling nutrients in an ecosystem? Decomposition162. How much of the energy stored at each trophic level is available to the next level? 10%163. Thorns and poisons are a defense against ______. Herbivores164. List the three types of symbiotic relationships. Parasitism, commensalism, mutualism.165. Dams alter ecosystems both upstream and downstream. True166. Which type of resource cannot be replenished? Non-renewable167. _______ is the variety of life on earth. Biodiversity168. Wetlands filter pollution and limit flooding. True169. Modern farming practices reduce the loss of ____. Topsoil170. Alien species in an area can cause ____. Extinction171. Popcorn trees are an example of an alien species. True172. Desertification removes the base of t he food chain. True173. Light pollution can affect ecosystems. True174. ______ ______ produce greenhouse gases. Fossil Fuels

Contributions of Tun Dr Mahathir Essay

Dr Mahathir was Malaysia’s fourth Prime Minister and he worked very hard to develope our country since the day he was appointed as the Prime Minister. Dr M served as the prime minister of Malaysia for 22 years. He created a concept called VISION 2020, where by the year 2020 Malaysia is expected to be a fully developed country. He called upon the entire citizens of Malaysia to work harder and to prepare themselves to really achieve that vision. Dr M transformed Malaysia from a country that completely depended on self-subsistant agriculture, cultivation of rubber and tin mining, into a vibrant economic country based on trading and industrialisation. Malaysia now has heavy and high technology industries that have become more developed and competitive with other developed countries in the world. Besides that, Dr Mahathir took steps to enable Malaysia to face the future by establishing the Multimedia Super Corridor, which emphasizes ‘Information Technology’ as a very i mportant asset for the country in the new millennium. Dr Mahathir also announced the National Car Project (Proton), which is one of the many important developments of Malaysia in achieving Vision 2020. In the field of literature, Dr Mahathir has contributed greatly since his schooling days. Due to his great interest in writing, Dr Mahathir was an editor of a magazine called Darulaman. Other than that, Dr Mahathir successfully handled the financial crisis 1997 and stabilized the Malaysian economy. All schools were equipped with computers with the help of Dr Mahathir. Dr Mahathir helped Malaysia to not depend too much on neighbouring country ports by constructing Malaysia’s own major ports. This helped Malaysia to reduce foreign currency outflow until now. Dr Mahathir beginned various large scale national projects, such as the North-South Highway, The Multimedia Super Corridor, Malaysia’s new administrative capital Putrajaya, Port of Tanjung Pelepas, KLIA in Sepang, and an adjacent Formula One Circuit, Olympic-class stadium in Bukit Jalil and the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world, the world’s tallest building from 1997-2003, that has become the symbol of modern Malaysia.

Microsoft Corporation Business Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Microsoft Corporation Business Strategy - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that  since Microsoft founding in 1975, there have only been three CEO’s. Since Nadella appointment to CEO in this last year, there have been seen various changes in the company. According to Business Insider, some of the changes he has made include building excitement for Windows, building excitement for Windows 10 among developers, making it easier to bring Android and iOS apps to windows, rolling out new products such as Delve Microsoft Sway and Power BI, turning bitter rivals into partners, and has overseen Microsoft’s biggest layoff ever. Some changes have been positive and some have been negative but overall he is dedicating himself to the company.  This study highlights that Microsoft has recognized a growing global concern of climate change awareness, which carries direct potential to affect its daily operational planning. As stated on its website, environmental sustainability is essential to the company’s core business pra ctices, affecting its daily operations, inspiring it to develop more efficient IT solutions, and motivating it to provide the tools to employees that will enable overall responsible environmental planning (Our Footprint). With intentions of maintaining operational superiority in the IT field, Microsoft has developed a number of initiatives to streamline business processes, as well as distinguish themselves as forerunners in of environmental corporate responsibility.   

The cask of amintiliado and good son movie Essay

The cask of amintiliado and good son movie - Essay Example The movie is about a twelve year old boy, Mark, who promises his mother suffering from cancer that she will not die. Mark is consumed by guilt and grief after his mother’s death because he is not able to keep his promise of keeping her alive. After the death, Mark is dropped off by his father at his uncle’s house while he proceeds to Tokyo for a two week business trip.Initially, Mark practices withdrawal from the rest of the family members but he gets accustomed to his aunt and cousins. He mostly becomes friends with his cousin Henry, whom they spend so much time together. Nevertheless, Mark starts to observe a number of Henry’s views of fun significantly differ from his own. Henry’s parents refuse to listen to Mark when he informs them of their child’s dangerous behavior (Ruben 1). Montresor and Henry are actually identically evil characters and through their example, evil exists. In my view, both Montresor and Henry are identical characters. I also believe evil exists in both Montresor and Henry. One characteristic that Montresor exhibits is that of vengeance. Montresor makes a decision to play therole of the whole justice system as executioner, jury, and judge. At no single point is Montresor considerate of the consequences of his actions because he is certain that his actions are defensible. It may be argued that Montresor is a threatening character. He is an individual you would not want to have an encounter with in any setting. He is portrayed as a ruthless and cold murderer. He both finds pleasure in killing and sees it as necessary. In fact, as he is building the stone tomb of Fortunato, Montresor says, â€Å"I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied† (Poe). The fact that he is satisfied actually means that he feels no guilt at all about the murder. Moreover, according to Montresor, when Fortunato finally tells him, â€Å"Will not they be awaiting us at the palazzo,

Oce 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Oce 2 - Essay Example The Alaska Shell drilling project and the Keystone XL project worth $7 billion does not portray President Obama and his party as very environmentally friendly people in the mainstream media. The Democratic Party is looking forward to change this Image completely through various projects that are about to unfold, with environmental safety as their key concentration. Let us analyze about two such projects. Greenhouse Gas Standards for existing power plants and refineries Nearly 2.4 billion metric tons of Carbon dioxide is emitted into the US sky through the 500 power plants and the oil refineries present here. This constitutes to nearly 40% of the total Carbon dioxide emission in the country (Biello). The new rules will force the refineries and the power plants to avoid using fossil-fuel for energy and look for other alternative means like natural gas. The practical applicability of the plan is still under question. EPA is seeking the co-operation of the state governments to upgrade th e age old techniques used in the power plants and refineries. Though there is much opposition for the move from the Congress, the President had already waived a green flag for EPA to formulate the rule within the next couple of months approximately. Forcing down Carbon dioxide emission means using natural gas as alternative which is way expensive than the current methods. This will result in increased electricity and gasoline bills for the consumer. But, the government is announcing various subsidies for the power plants and oil refineries to keep the prices in check. New Source Performance Standards have framed new rules for using several items in steam generating units like its generators. It closely monitors the emissions of PM, SO2 and NOX from these equipments and orders for an upgrade if they are beyond the permitted level. Various measures like the Acid Rain program and Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants programs will be used to monitor the power plants. Petrole um refineries will be scrutinized under the Catalytic Reforming and Catalytic cracking of Sulphur plants program. President Obama's various measures to make the US environment a cleaner and greener one have resulted in complete failure in the past. The Solyndra project which received nearly $535 million aid from the US government proved to be a failure, which came as a death blow to President Obama's solar electricity dream. Similarly, the A123 system which was encouraged to create hybrid electric cars which do not pollute the environment also became a massive failure. Though the intention of these projects was good, inefficient administration and lack of advanced technologies paved way for their failure. President Obama is quite concerned about not making the same mistake again. EPA held 5 listening and discussion sessions with participants from electric power industry, petroleum refineries, environmental organizations, state and tribal representatives as well as coalition group me mbers to finalize the measures on the actions. The concerns about various parties and the difficulties in implementing the new rules were discussed in detail way back in 2011. EPA had been working on an error proof plan since then. It is only a matter of days before the new green house gas emission standards will roll out. Why is it important to control Green house gas emissions? The sun emits energy which the earth absorbs and re-emits back into the atmosphere. The over emission of green house gases

Cell Biology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Cell Biology - Essay Example Average-sized molecules travel through the gel with different degrees of facility. Electrophoresis is done in a thin vertical slab of polyacrylamide. The course of protein movement is from top to bottom. Protein molecules can be isolated on the basis of their individual mass through use of electrophoresis in a polyacrylamide gel under protein denaturing process. The mixture of protein macromolecules is initially denatured in a homogeneous mixture of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), which is an anionic emulsifier with the ability of disrupting almost all noncovalent interactions in native proteins macromolecules. SDS forms complexes with the denatured proteins which are then subjected to electrophoresis. After the process of electrophoresis, the proteins in the gel are imaged after silver or dye stains are applied. The product is visualized as series of bands. Tiny proteins molecules travel faster through the gel, while bigger molecules of proteins remain at the top where the samples are applied or put. Mobility of most polypeptide chains under these settings is linearly proportional to the logarithm of their mass. SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) is very fast, sensitive, and has capacity of a high degree of resolution. As tiny as 0.1 Â µg which is equivalent to 2 pmol of a protein produces a discrete band when it is stained with Coomasie blue or less (~0.02 Â µg) can be determined with the use of a silver stain. Protein molecules which vary in mass by about 2% are commonly detected (Berg, et al., 2002). It is essential to detect minute quantities of a specific protein molecule in the presence of several other protein molecules, like for instance the presence of viral proteins in blood circulation. Very minute quantities of a protein molecule of interest concern in a cell or in the human blood can be determined by an immunoassay procedure which is called Western blotting. A sample is subjected to electrophoresis on an SDS-polyacrylamide gel. Blot ting or more commonly called electroblotting moves the resolved protein molecules on the SDS-polyacrylamide gel to the surface of a polymer sheet in order to have the proteins more obtainable during the reaction. A specific antibody for the protein of concern is incorporated to the polymer sheet containing the resolved protein which then forms complexes with the specific antibody. The antibody-antigen complex on the polymer sheet can be determined via rinsing the sheet with the use of a second specific antibody for the first antibody. A radioactive label that is located on the second antibody causes an illumination of dark band on an x-ray film. An alternative procedure using the ELISA method is through the use of an enzyme that is also located on the second antibody which produces a colored product. The use of Western blotting has been a breakthrough in finding a specific protein molecule in a complex mixture of different proteins. Currently, it is not only used as the basis for te sting infection of hepatitis C, wherein it is utilized to determine a core protein of the virus but the technique is also now very purposeful in genetic cloning (Berg, et al., 2002). The objective of this activity is to demonstrate stimulation of the epidermal growth factor receptor-signaling pathway by virtue of SDS-PAGE and Western blotting

History of Architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

History of Architecture - Essay Example It will also reveal innovative new building technologies and strategies that can help and restore the viability of a natural cycle (History of architecture, 12). This essay will also touch on the main functions of a shelter and how humans have continuously adapted to differing environments through an amazing diversity of structure. Humans are required to live harmoniously with each other for future growth of the environment. This essay will discuss the nature of dwelling (from the urban scale to the â€Å"home†) in the built environment from the 18th-21st centuries, putting into consideration the scale of the city and the individual or multi-family dwelling. In addition, this essay will describe the design global and the local-built environment from the 18th-21st century and what were happening during the age of reason or enlightenment period, the modern period, and the postmodern period. The traces that are found in caves makes us believe that early humans were living in cave s. The bones they gnawed, even their own bones, and the flints they used were creped around for ever in a cave but get scattered or demolished somewhere else. Caves were winter shelters, and none wished to remain inside on a summer day. This is similar to the response that our ancestors portrayed. The right to travel extensively for the goals of hunting as well as gathering called for the need for at least a short-term shelter. The demand for shelter brought about the beginning of architecture (Pryce, 19). The early human needed a shelter against rain and sun hence they would lean some protective shields, for example, they used leafy branches against the trunk of a tree. Traces of early dwellings that can be counted as reliable were found for as early as 30,000 years ago. The circular or oval ring of stones together with the local materials that was used to act as a tent-like roof was enough evidence that the early humans practiced architecture. An encampment from 25,000 years ago h as been at Dolni Vestonice in Eastern Europe. The evolution of architecture shifted form tents to round houses by around 8000 BC. By 6500 BC, human beings lived in houses with straight walls, which had windows. From the 5th to the 2nd millennium, the construction of Stone Age graves and temples was acquired, and it became common. Multi-family dwelling also known as a multi-dwelling unit or multi-family residential is a categorization of the housing element for the non-commercial populace is contained within one or several building within one complex (McIntyre et al, 15). One common form of a multi-family dwelling is an apartment building. In some cases, multi-family dwelling building is owned individually instead of leasing from a single apartment building owner. There are different types of multi-family dwelling. These include two flat, which is commonly built on a house lot. The second one is a three flat which is similar to two flat, but it contains three flats; they are most com mon. Another type of multi-family dwelling is a four flat apartment (Graff, 17). Duplex or semi-detached - one building, which consist of two houses, townhouse – this is a type of house that is attached to townhouses. There is also the apartment, mixed used building, and apartment community. A one-family dwelling might be referred to as a semi-detached housing. In this case, each unit is separate from another. This makes it easier to sell the

Ohio Casino Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Ohio Casino - Essay Example In ways I can see how the casinos can benefit the state and bring more money in the state then out of the state. One thing about casinos is that they are looked at being corrupt and just taking people’s money. Notice why many Ohioans might be angry about the casino’s being run by certain Politian’s to watch over. On a blog with comments about the conflict one person said â€Å"All the crooks in Ohio have their handouts trying to get a bigger piece of the pie, how pathetic! No wonder Ohio keeps sinking further in its sinkhole† (Mangels). Could this person be talking about the politicians, in which some Politician’s are corrupt and being played to pass this. After the recession hit, Ohio was one of the worst hit states and in turn suffered severe job losses and foreclosures. When forwarding the proposal to build these casinos the strongest case that was presented was that the construction of these casinos will result in creating a huge number of jobs and bringing in the revenue that went to the nearby states casinos, from the pockets of Ohio residents (Adamson). The focus of advertisement campaigns was laid on the recession hit jobless people. During the time that the voting was due for the legislation that would legalize gambling in Ohio; Studies and reviews started appearing which highlighted the significance of these casinos and how jobs would be created for the people of Ohio. Print media and television advertisements targeted the jobless people of Ohio and how these casinos are the only way out. But opposed to this view a local in an article says that, ‘There are so many other options other than gambling that can help the economy that does not pose a risk to others’ (Hunt). Another person remarked that, ‘I wonder if the pro-gambling group's main focus is on creating jobs or on finding a way to "tax the public"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ There are surely other types of businesses that will create jobs’ (Anthony Hopper cited in Hunt). In 2009, the Job and Growth Committee published the results of a study that related that 20, 000 jobs would result from the industry along with $600 billion revenues and a private investment of $1 billion; all of this going to the federal budget (Adamson). Not surprisingly the revenue amount is already far below what was projected in the study and was inturn approved by the people of Ohio (Mayers). Another study was issued by the Department of Taxation, just a month prior to the vote; the study also focused on the financial revenues and jobs that would be created as a result of the industry; but the study completely ignored as to what repercussions the industry will have in terms of social, business and familial aspects and the surrounding competition, which according to experts has resulted in the low revenues generated (Mangels; Mayers). The lobby invested a gruesome amount of $47 million to campaign for the Ohio Casino and Gambling Industry, which is quadru pled amount of what the opponents of the campaign could get together; while ‘their commercials touted the jobs and tax revenue the gambling palaces would generate’ (Mangels). The anti-gambling campaign could only be heard from on the internet or the print media, no reportable television coverage was done leaving a large mass of audiences unaware of their perspective; as Brian Rothenberg of Progress Ohio says that the whole campaign, ‘was so focused on jobs at a time when Ohio was hyper jobs-conscious

Adolescent Dating Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Adolescent Dating - Essay Example Emotional needs are a part and parcel of a person’s life and right from the adolescent age, most people begin to find their interests in other people and begin to date them in order to rest the curiosity that they contain in their minds regarding the opposite sex and dealing with the idea of a relationship. Adolescent dating is one major life stage in human development. The stage predisposes the adolescents to several challenges which have been explained further within the purview of the paper. These major challenges at this stage are mainly emotional. The main aspects to be considered in adolescent stage may include, accepting that adolescence is a normal transitional stage; parental and peer influence during adolescent stage; the dating anxiety and social distress among adolescents and lastly dating violence among adolescents, to name a few. The main objective of this paper is to understand the emotional needs of adolescents with respect to their personal habits and desire t o have someone in their life to share their experiences with. Dating is a very normal part of adolescence stage where most young adults try and get to know one another in order to form a possible relationship with them. This occurs because of reasons like familial or peer pressure, as well as a friend as an outlet for one’s feelings. Furthermore, at this age, dating is seemingly impossible to eradicate or even prevent because almost everyone goes through it and children that don’t are considered to be left out in groups. This kind of dating is normally done in response to the growing emotional, physical and social needs of adolescents. Furthermore, it must be understood that the motives and perspective of adolescents toward dating are different from those of adults due to different levels of maturity. Dating has various effects on adolescents because it ends up having young people get mixed up

The Internal Morality of Chinese Legalism Essay Example for Free

The Internal Morality of Chinese Legalism Essay Abstract It is widely held that there are no indigenous roots in China for the rule of law; it is an import from the West. The Chinese legal tradition, rather, is rule by law, as elaborated in ancient Legalist texts such as the Han Feizi. According to the conventional reading of these texts, law is amoral and an instrument in the hands of a central ruler who uses law to consolidate and maintain power. The ruler is the source of all law and stands above the law, so that law, in the final analysis, is whatever pleases the ruler. This essay argues, to the contrary, that the instrumentalism of the Han Feizi is more sophisticated and more principled than the conventional reading acknowledges. It suggests that, by examining the text of the Han Feizi through the lens provided by American legal theorist Lon Fuller, we can detect an explicit articulation of what Fuller called the internal morality of law. The principles of this morality are elaborated and their importance explained. In this way, the Han Feizi is retrieved as a significant reference point for thinking about legal reform in China today. I am indebted to Liang Zhiping and David B. Wong for comments on an earlier draft, and to William P. Alford, as ever, for his guidance in thinking about law and legal institutions in China. Introduction The rule of law is now commonly regarded as an obligatory step to establishing China’s rightful place in the global community. Yet it is widely believed that there are no indigenous roots for the rule of law ideal; it is an import from the West. The Chinese legal tradition, rather, is rule by law, as elaborated most fully in ancient Legalist texts such as the Han Feizi. The distinction between rule by law and rule of law has many dimensions. Of central importance is the relationship of law and morality. Although no canonical formula exists for the rule of law, a moral ideal lies at the core, however it is specified. In rule by law, in contrast, at least according to the conventional understanding, law is amoral and an instrument of power. A typical statement is offered by Burton Watson, the respected translator of Han Fei’s work in English: Legalism, Watson says, â€Å"professed to have no use for morality whatsoever† (and similarly for religion and ceremony). It focused on a single problem: strengthening and preserving the state.1 In this regard, Watson follows Arthur Waley, who said that members of the â€Å"school of law† (fajia) â€Å"held that law should replace morality.† Instead of the term â€Å"school of law,† which he regarded as too narrow, Waley referred to members of the fajia as â€Å"the Amoralitsts .†2 It is because of this alleged amoralism that Randall Peerenboom can write a 670page book on â€Å"China’s long march toward [the] rule of law† and barely mention Han Fei. Peerenboom expresses the conventional view: for Han Fei, law is one instrument in the ruler’s toolbox for sustaining strong centralized control. Since the ruler is the source of all law, and stands above the law, there are no limits or effective checks on the ruler’s arbitrary power. â€Å"In the final analysis, law was what pleased the ruler.†3 This view of Legalism is reinforced by a particular reading of Chinese legal history during the period of the Three Dynasties, China’s bronze age. Liang Zhiping, the eminent legal scholar, claims that the predilection for rule by law, in Han Fei and other Legalists, has its roots in the way law emerged initially in China, namely, as an instrument by which a single clan exercised control over rival clans. â€Å"[W]ithin a system tha t was inherently unstable †¦ [l]aw was seen as the will of the rulers and an instrument of suppression; its primary manifestation was in punishment.† Hence, the choice of rule by law was the product of an extended and unique cultural development. â€Å"[T]he legalists merely developed to its extreme the ancient legal model, ‘[y]ou who obey my orders shall be rewarded before my ancestors; and you who disobey my orders shall be put to death before the spirits of the land.’†4 These two conceptions of law and legal institutions—rule by law and the rule of law—are familiar in the West, although rule by law now has few, if any, advocates. But one needs to go back only to John Austin, the influential 19th century English legal theorist, for systematic elaboration of rule by law. Western theorists, indeed, might be tempted to look at Chinese Legalists through the lens of Austin, since his work enables us to see a systematic body of thought in the Han Feizi. However, this lens, I shall argue, brings some elements of the Han Feizi into sharp focus only at the cost of distorting others. Western theorists need a corrective lens, which is provided by Lon Fuller. In assessing Austin’s account, Fuller’s approach is most helpful because it offers an internal critique, showing that denial of a compelling connection between law and morality is inaccurate to the theory itself. Fuller’s account does not rest on a semantic analysis of â€Å"law† but on a pragmatic appreciation of legal order as a form of governance. Out of this appreciation, the practical connection—the interaction and mutual dependence of law and morality in the everyday work of lawmakers and other collaborative participants in the creation of legal order—emerges even in rule by law properly understood. Thus, Fuller shows how the moral core of the rule of law is present in the generic use of law in society. The moral core of the rule of law—the thin theory, as it is often called— encompasses two key ideas: (1) While law is an instrument of political power, law also constrains power. Hence, law and power are, to some degree, opposed. (2) While law channels political power, law also enables power to be rightly exercised. Hence, law is a source of legitimation for the exercise of power. How is political power constrained and yet also rightly exercised? The rule of law ideal is that these conditions are met if it is truly the law that governs legal subjects, not the wishes of specific individuals or groups. The ideal is a government of laws, not persons, so the moral core (in a word) is impersonal governance. My thesis is that Han Fei’s text, the Han Feizi, displays this moral core and thus connects law and morality. I shall argue, indeed, that the Han Feizi advocates a purer form of the rule of law than is offered by many Western theorists. Chinese Legalism did not be gin with the Han Feizi, but it is generally regarded as the most sophisticated exposition of the theory. I believe it is more nuanced than generations of commentators have acknowledged. It is important to emphasize that my interest is with the rule of law as a legislative, rather than judicial, ideal. This focus is appropriate for the Han Feizi, since it contains no explicit judicial theory (although it has definite implications, as we shall see, for the work of judges). That means that the vision of law in the Han Feizi is incomplete. On the other hand, most Western theorists neglect the legislative ideal, and many mistakenly believe that judicial independence (or the separation of powers) is sufficient for establishing the rule of law. I shall suggest that, at least for the legislative ideal, worthy indigenous Chinese sources for the rule of law exist. Contrary to Watson and Peerenboom, I argue that the Han Feizi intends to link law and morality. But I should say from the beginning that this essay is not an attempt to recapture Han Fei’s conscious motives or point of view. It is an attempt to retrieve a text for contemporary understanding and use. Admittedly, this effort runs the risk of literary misprision—willful, not to say creative, misreading. But recovering the rich history of Chinese legal thought seems to me worth that risk. It is often said, with good reason, that successive Chinese emperors followed the Legalist template set out by the Han Feizi. If it turns out that the Han Feizi carries a different message from the one it is usually taken to convey, the imperial history may have to be re-examined to determine when it followed the template and when it did not.5 [I] Rule by law: Han Fei and John Austin The conventional reading of the Han Feizi pictures law as an instrument in the hands of the ruler. This could mean different things. Instrumentalism is sometimes construed to mean that rulers use law only if and when it suits their purposes; it is employed (or not) at the ruler’s discretion to achieve the ruler’s own desires or ends. In this construction, law does not have any special pride of place, and certainly nothing beyond a fortuitous connection to moral value. On any particular occasion, if a ruler fails to realize his or her will by the use of law, an alternative instrument of governance could be deployed. Let’s call this ad hoc or strategic instrumentalism. This is not rule by law, as I understand it. Rule by law meets at least one and possibly two conditions missing from ad hoc instrumentalism. Most importantly, the commitment to rules—fixed standards of general applicability—is not ad hoc; they are the ruler’s chosen mechanism of governance. Thus, the commitment to rules is deliberate and firm, and the instrumentalism is consistent and principled. This commitment, we shall see, introduces a variety of self-imposed constraints on lawmaking and secures the connection between law and morality. Second, the rules promulgated are not necessarily intended to serve the lawmaker’s personal desires or ends. They may serve common ends, or they may permit (or enable) subjects to pursue ends of their own. In that event, we move from a minimal to a morally robust instrumentalism. If the rules facilitate the pursuit of ends other than those of the lawgiver, principled instrumentalism transitions into the rule of law. Although the Han Feizi is conventionally read as committed (at worst) to ad hoc instrumentalism or (at best) to a consistent but minimal instrumentalism, I shall argue in section III that many of the essays that make up the Han Feizi advocate a robust principled instrumentalism. For this reason, it will be helpful to examine first a systematic statement of the minimally instrumentalist view. John Austin is more clearly committed to minimal instrumentalism, because his aims were more academic—to elaborate a systematic theory—whereas Han Fei wished to provide practical advice to rulers. A consideration of Austin enables us to grasp what coherence the minimally instrumentalist view has. Like Han Fei, Austin aimed to be a realist about law, to examine actual facts in the world. That led him to trace the existence of law to the exercise of power. Accordingly, the proper understanding of law is genetic. In the strict sense, law is a command—a wish expressed by a determinate person or body possessing supreme power in an organized and independent society, backed by the credible threat of a sanction (i.e., pain) in the event of noncompliance. Why does the credible threat of a sanction make a law binding? Austin was a voluntarist about law as he was in theology. The duty to obey a command rests not on its conformity to an independent moral standard but simply on its emanating from a preponderant power. To have a duty to act is to be compelled to act. â€Å"[I]t is only by the chance of incurring evil, that I am bound or obliged.†7 Thus, whether divine or human, law makes its appearance within a relationship of domination—a superior (in power) issuing orders to an inferior (in power), where the former has the capacity to compel the latter to act by means of a threatened evil, i.e., pain. The duty is legal if it is issued by a political sovereign, moral if issued by God. Hobbes observed that the conditions for a social contract obtain if persons are of roughly equal ability, for then they acquire an equality of hope in having their respective claims satisfied. But in circumstances where a clear supremacy of power lies in one individual or body, no question as to the proper distribution of duties and rights arises. The distribution of duties and rights naturally parallels the distribution of power.8 That, obviously, is Austin’s view as well. The foundation of law is force or the threat of its use. To have a duty, therefore, in Austin’s quaint phrase, is to be obnoxious to the superior’s threat. Obnoxiousness is determined by one of two empirical facts: either the extent to which the inferior party is motivated by fear of the sanction, or the likelihood that the superior party will carry out its threat. While the pursuit of pleasure is as much an ultimate spring of human action as the avoidance of pain, the latter is more to be relied on than the former. The certainty and severity of threatened pain, in the event of noncompliance to the superior’s commands, are defining features of legal (as of moral) order. Since the definition of law stipulates nothing about the content of the superior’s wish, law may have any content whatever and still be binding. The separation of law and morality is secured: might makes right. Thus, law is imperative, preemptory, morally arbitrary, coercive, and an instrument of domination. It also, as we shall see more fully in a moment, aims above all at stability and order. By definition, Austin’s sovereign is not subject to a superior power and hence does not have any legal duties. (By the same token, the sovereign does not have any legal rights, either.) Austin formulates this point most sharply by observing that â€Å"every government is legally despotic.†9 This is a provocative way of saying that its power is legally unlimited; it stands above the law and can make, or unmake, any law whatever. It is not misleading to say the sovereign is self-legitimating, as long as we keep in mind that legitimation comes not from satisfying a standard of legitimacy but from the successful exercise of supreme power. Yet one of the virtues of Austin’s writing is that it is richer than the genetic definition of law would lead one to expect. (Failure in the legal literature to appreciate the richer analysis is the same kind of failure one finds regarding the Han Feizi.) Exploring some of this richness will help us develop a critique that illuminates the Han Feizi. Austin actually formulates three distinct definitions of law—in addition to the genetic there are formal and purposive definitions—each of which meshes imperfectly with the others. The formal definition appears when Austin stipulates that a command is a law only if it has the attribute of generality, that is, it must refer to a class of acts to be done or avoided, not a single action. Particular or occasional commands are not laws in the strict sense.11 This stipulation is sensible, since modern law typically consists of a body of standing rules, not extemporaneous orders. It shows that Austin thought of legal order as a system, or at least a set, of rules. But in relation to the genetic definition, it is completely unmotivated; nothing in the meaning of command requires it. At the same time, the implications are profound. The addition of generality represents a significant departure from personal command and toward impersonal governance. It commits the lawmaker to acting in certain ways in as yet unknown cases. And, by grouping actions into classes, it produces a degree of uniformity of treatment across persons. So, with generality, the picture of a compliant inferior following the wishes of a superior recedes to a significant degree. These implications—uniformity across persons and prior commitment in unknown cases—indicate that certain formal features of laws may have moral import, and I shall say more about them in a moment. With law understood as a self-conscious instrument of domination expressing the wishes of a (human) sovereign, it is only to be expected that Austin would stress the potential divorce between the content of promulgated laws and the requirements of morality. â€Å"The existence of law is one thing; its merit or demerit is another.†12 But if law itself, simply as a body of general rules, has moral import regardless of its content, we have taken an important step toward a robust instrumentalist account of law. The richness of Austin’s analysis is even more evident in his purposive definition. In its most general and comprehensive sense, he says, a law is â€Å"a rule laid down for the guidance of an intelligent being by an intelligent being having power over him.†13 Asymmetry in power is central for Austin, as we have seen, but intelligent guidance introduces a different dimension. Austin followed Locke in thinking of law as a human contrivance, establishing relations between rational beings. But the idea of intelligent guidance has implications Austin was hesitant to pursue. He recognized, for example, that the concept of command precludes ex post facto rules, since an utterance cannot constitute a command if the action required cannot be performed. Yet to acknowledge this conceptual point would be tantamount to placing a limit on sovereign power; an ex post facto pronouncement would not be a law, even though it possessed all the other features of the genetic definition. 14 Further, such acknowledgement would be the first step on a slippery slope. It would allow one to say that other pronouncements of the sovereign are also not laws, for instance, ones that are not clear in meaning. How could an obscure or incoherent utterance provide intelligent guidance to human conduct? Or an utterance that was not made public? Or that kept changing? These implications are precisely the ones pursued by Fuller in developing what he called the internal morality of law. Before turning to Fuller, however, we should pause to ask why Austin recoiled from the implications of his purposive definition and instead adhered to the idea of law as an instrument in the hands of a supreme person or body exercising power over others. My hypothesis is that rule by law in its minimalist variant was important to Austin for two related reasons: the fear of disorder and the uncertainty of morality. Both of these were reflected in Austin’s ambivalence about the expansion of democracy in England in the early 19th century. He saw little possibility, at least in the foreseeable future, of achieving the educational and mental improvement of the general population that he regarded as a prerequisite of democratic government. As a result, according to John Stuart Mill’s account, Austin developed an â€Å"indifference, bordering on contempt, for the progress of popular [i.e., democratic] institutions.†15 In addition, Austin believed that common moral opinion was so fractured, so full of partiality and prejudice, that ordinary people cannot be trusted to act decently. What makes government by a powerful ruler necessary and expedient is the â€Å"uncertainty, scantiness, and imperfection† of the mora l beliefs people espouse. â€Å"Hence the necessity for a common governing (or common guiding) head to whom the community may in concert defer.†16 The resonance of these passages with much of the Han Feizi, or at least the conventional reading of it, should be apparent. Lack of confidence in the capacity of human beings to govern themselves makes it necessary to have a sovereign whose will provides common directives that are easily discernible and effective. If people are allowed to follow their natural propensities, they will engage in all manner of disorderly behavior. Social order requires stable external direction by means of the threat of force. Thus, the solution to the problem of social order—Hobbes’s problem—is managerial direction (to use Fuller’s term). Without top-down control, matters are likely to get badly out of hand. The exercise of control in Austin’s case, of course, is thought of as benign. The goods of order and unity are taken for granted. The power of the superior is canvassed, not in terms of personal wishes or even class interests, but its efficacy in producing the â€Å"steadiness, constancy, or uniformity† that every society needs. Thus, Austin—like Han Fei, as I shall argue—makes sense of law in practice as an instrument in the hands of a single individual or mandarin elite with the competence and requisite disinterestedness to attend to the public need. To that extent, Austin’s theory is a pure expression of rule by law.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Essay Example for Free

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Essay Moral entrepreneurs refer to people who create or define what is wrong. They claim that a certain social phenomenon is a problem that deserves or calls for an immediate response or action. They persuade the society to make or set strategies or policies based on a specific viewpoint. After identifying a social problem, they work on policies that are consistent with the problem definition. A good example of moral entrepreneurs is Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the anti-tobacco lobby. MADD has gained public support in fighting against drink driving which was responsible for many crimes. They have increased the public awareness of drinking to make people more aware about the adverse effects of driving under the influence of alcohol. They changed their initial name of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers to Mothers Against Drunk Driving so that it would gain more meaning as it was against the law. MADD is not opposed to the individuals but to the act of drinking. It has provided grass root leadership so as to create major social change in the people attitudes and behaviour towards drunk driving. It carries out effective research in an effort of providing relevant and accurate information to the public in matters related to drunk driving. Governments, corporations, educators, the media and the public at large encourage MADD’S efforts. It is comprises of men and young women of all walks of life who are willing to join hands in fighting drunk driving as well as underage drinking. It is committed to offering assistance to victims and survivors of drunk driving through emotional, legal, medical and financial ramifications. MADD has large number of trained victims advocates across the country that provide the appropriate information needed. They inform of the criminal justice procedures and assist victims through out the period. Communication is a very important aspect in ensuring that MADD’S activities are successful. It uses the media, the Internet, public or outreach and collaborations with the entertainment industry to ensure that its issues are well addressed. It’s committed to eliminating the problem from grass root level as well as advocating for high-visibility law enforcement strategies. They advocate for severe penalties to those found guilty for instance through license revocation. To influence the public opinion to accept the definition of a problem as important and that which requires to be addressed amicably will require moral entrepreneurs to engage vigorously in public activities. After identifying the ‘evil’ in society they must influence the public with the intension of pulling them to their school of thought. They influence the larger population, legislation, organise public demonstration as well as create issues for the mass media. Tobacco smoking is a serious drug issue that needs to be addressed. Smoking is linked to dangerous health effects not only to the user but also to those surrounding them through the second hand smoke. Tobacco ingredients comprised of over 4000 chemicals all of which can cause harmful effects to the body. They include tar, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide, metals and other radioactive compounds. It can cause cancer and other lung diseases. It causes irritation to the trachea and the voice box and can increase symptoms like coughing and wheezing as well as permanent damage to the air sacs of the lungs. Smoking in public should be prohibited second hand smoke can also cause cancer in human beings leading to deaths of many people. In establishing an effective strategy to gain public support it would be important to first carry out appropriate research on the effects of smoking to human beings. Disseminating this information to the public would enable them have a better understanding of the actual effects of smoking. Incorporating scholars, scientists and relevant professionals not only in the research but also in the information dissemination works to increase the credibility of the efforts against smoking. Lobbying the government to enhance laws against smoking in public places like restaurants, and bars would also be an appropriate step in the fight against adverse effects of smoking. Smoking should also be prohibited in the work place so as to protect innocent workers from the effects of second hand smoke. Installing ‘no-smoking zone’ posters in offices and in other public places would be a way of communicating to people that smoking is not tolerated. Anti-smoking campaigns can be vigorously established where mass education on the dangers of smoking would be applied. Liasing with entertainment programs would also be appropriate in disseminating information regarding smoking. Effective communication must be incorporated in all the campaign strategies. Teamwork is very crucial if any strategy is to be successful. It is therefore very important to ensure that there is collaboration with governmental as well as non-governmental programs. Incorporating people of all races, age, gender and ethnicity would bear positive responses in the fight against smoking. Essay 2 ‘Frequent fliers’ are addicts who are constantly checking in hospitals for detoxification. Their rate or frequency for such visitation could be as high as 100 nights in a year. The detoxification process is at a cost to the government especially when catered for in Medicaid and frequent visitation by same patients aggravates the problem further. (www. jointogether. org). Some patients blame their drug addiction to their social situations. A person would be a heavy user of alcohol, cocaine and heroin but after a detoxification program he or she would go back to drugs when he squandered his money on women and drugs and be rendered homeless. This would trigger their motive of going for a detoxification. They would seek the detoxification due to their homelessness and financial constraints instead of their own personal will to quit drugs. Their main aim would be to acquire a shelter rather than a solution to their drug problem. The fact that the detoxification is free and it offers quality care could be a reason facilitating the ‘frequent fliers’ in hospitals for detoxification. Medicaid programs to fund the drug and alcohol treatment cost much for the government. The cost is aggravated, as there are categories of patient and varying cost for the treatment. Patients going for detoxification may do it at different hospitals across a state and if the patient is being among the most expensive patients the cost will be very high According to hospital executives, the expensive form of detoxification is a significant moneymaker as it brings about more than 40% profits to the hospitals in question. The hospitals may be too unwilling to drop the prices, as their profits would be jeopardized. In fact many hospitals offer the care but opt for the expensive ones rather than the cheaper one. Approximately 80% of the detox patients get treated at the most expensive level as it is the only one available. New York State tends to spend more than other states on alcohol and drug related issues. There is evident wastage of government resources because over 80% of the patients in medically managed detoxification are not serious cases and could have been attended to using cheaper detoxification means. The argument presented is that if the a state paid less for the top level care it would be able to pay for others and the development of such services would be enhanced. An effort to change the detox payment system would spell doom for the hospital industry, as it is one of the hospital’s sources of profit. (www. jointogether. org). Drug treatment would be a very effective way of solving the ‘frequent fliers’ problem. It would also be less expensive and yield better results for the user as well as the government which would now reduce its expenditure costs would be minimal if patients consistently visited the same hospitals and same doctors than if they visited varying doctors. The theory that best explains the phenomenon of ‘frequent fliers’ is the first one, which explains how desperation among the drug addicts sees them back to hospitals for detox. To them, the hospitals act as a home or place that provides shelter for them and this is their main reason for visiting the hospitals. (www. jointogether. org). To my opinion better strategies should be put in place to ensure that addicts visiting hospitals for detox do so out of their own will and not due to compulsion. They ought to have realized that they have problems that need to be addressed and not as a means of seeking greener pastures when life becomes hard. Counselling is also an appropriate measure in ensuring that after the detox addicts reduced their addiction or became better people in society rather than continuing with their drugs abuse problems. Programs established to assist the drug addicts in solving the ‘frequent fliers’ problem would include those geared to increase their skills. Such programs should be geared to restoring their effectiveness or their normal lives through training. This way they would be fit better in the society and lead better lives free from drug addiction. With the training they can regain their self-respect, ethics, and morals and better handle their addiction problem. Effective training can enable them get stable employment which can provide them with the finances to cater for their basic needs for instance shelter, food and clothing and they would not require to go back to the hospitals for the provision of basic needs. With self-respect, they would not indulge in activities that do not add value to their life. Employment is about engagement of mind and time and the chances for idleness are minimized. This works to ensure that they are not attracted back to their drug addiction. More counselling professionals should be incorporated in the hospitals so that those going for detoxification for the first time do not find a reason to go back. More funding should therefore be drawn to this respect. Funding for their accommodation or shelters before they stabilize and suit well in the society is also an appropriate measure. Family members of the addicts should also be trained on how to best handle these people so that they do not go back to their drug addiction. Since drugs would best work for them, they should consequently be funded so that more money is not wasted in trying to fund the detoxification programs that are not efficient or effective to the addicts. They are patient who need help and ought not to be exploited to gain hospital profits.

Partitioning Methods to Improve Obsolescence Forecasting

Partitioning Methods to Improve Obsolescence Forecasting Amol Kulkarni Abstract Clustering is an unsupervised classification of observations or data items into groups or clusters. The problem of clustering has been addressed by many researchers in various disciplines, which serves to reflect its usefulness as one of the steps in exploratory data analysis. This paper presents an overview of partitioning methods, with a goal of providing useful advice and references to identifying the optimal number of cluster and provide a basic introduction to cluster validation techniques. The aim of clustering methods carried out in this paper is to present useful information which would aid in forecasting obsolescence. INRODUCTION There have been more inventions recorded in the past thirty years than all the rest of recorded humanity, and this pace hastens every month. As a result, the product life cycle has been decreasing rapidly, and the life cycle of products no longer fit together with the life cycle of their components. This issue is termed as obsolescence, wherein a component can no longer be obtained from its original manufacturer. Obsolescence can be broadly categorized into Planned and Unplanned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence can be considered as a business strategy, in which the obsolescence of a product is built into it from its conception. As Philip Kotler termed it Much so-called planned obsolescence is the working of the competitive and technological forces in a free society-forces that lead to ever-improving goods and services. On the other hand, unplanned obsolescence causes more harm to a burgeoning industry than good. This issue is more prevalent in the electronics industry; the procurem ent life-cycles for electronic components are significantly shorter than the manufacturing and support life-cycle. Therefore, it is highly important to implement and operate an active management of obsolescence to mitigate and avoid extreme costs [1]. One such product that has been plagued by threat of obsolescence is the digital camera. Ever-since the invention of smartphones there has been a huge dip in the digital camera sales, as can be seen from Figure 1. The decreasing price, the exponential rate at which the pixels and the resolution of the smart-phones improved can be termed as few of the factors that cannibalized the digital camera market. Figure 1 Worldwide Sales of Digital Cameras (2011-2016) [2] and Worldwide sale of cellphones on the right (2007-2016) [3] CLUSTERING Humans naturally use clustering to understand the world around them. The ability to group sets of objects based on similarities are fundamental to learning. Researchers have sought to capture these natural learning methods mathematically and this has birthed the clustering research. To help us solve problems at-least approximately as our brain, mathematically precise notation of clustering is important [4]. Clustering is a useful technique to explore natural groupings within multivariate data for a structure of natural groupings, also for feature extraction and summarizing. Clustering is also useful in identifying outliers, forming hypotheses concerning relationships. Clustering can be thought of as partitioning a given space into K groups i.e., à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬Å": à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬ ¹ à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ {1, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, K}. One method of carrying out this partitioning is to optimize some internal clustering criteria such as the distance between each observation within a c luster etc. While clustering plays an important role in data analysis and serves as a preprocessing step for a multitude of learning task, our primary interest lies in the ability of clusters to gain more information from the data to improve prediction accuracy. As clustering, can be thought of separating classes, it should help in classification task. The aim of clustering is to find useful groups of objects, usefulness being defined by the goals of the data analysis. Most clustering algorithms require us to know the number of clusters beforehand. However, there is no intuitive way of identifying the optimal number of clusters. Identifying optimal clustering is dependent on the methods used for measuring similarities, and the parameters used for partitioning, in general identifying the optimal number of clusters. Determining number of clusters is often an ad hoc decision based on prior knowledge, assumptions, and practical experience is very subjective. This paper performs k-means and k-medoids clustering to gain information from the data structure that could play an important role in predicting obsolescence. It also tries to address the issue of assessing cluster tendency, which is a first and foremost step while carrying out unsupervised machine learning process. Optimization of internal and external clustering criteria will be carried out to identify the optimal number of cluster. Cluster Validation will be carried out to identify the most suitable clustering algorithm. DATA CLEANING Missing value in a dataset is a common occurrence in real world problems. It is important to know how to handle missing data to reduce bias and to produce powerful models. Sometimes ignoring the missing data, biases the answers and potentially leads to incorrect conclusion. Rubin in [7] differentiated between three types of missing values in the dataset: Missing completely at random (MCAR): when cases with missing values can be thought of as a random sample of all the cases; MCAR occurs rarely in practice. Missing at random (MAR): when conditioned on all the data we have, any remaining missing value is completely random; that is, it does not depend on some missing variables. So, missing values can be modelled using the observed data. Then, we can use specialized missing data analysis methods on the available data to correct for the effects of missing values. Missing not at random (MNAR): when data is neither MCAR nor MAR. This is difficult to handle because it will require strong assumptions about the patterns of missing data. While in practice the use of complete case methods which drops the observations containing missing values is quite common, this method has the disadvantage that it is inefficient and potentially leads to bias. Initial approach was to visually explore each individual variable with the help of VIM. However, upon learning the limitations of filling in missing values through exploratory data analysis, this approach was abandoned in favor of multiple imputations. Joint Modelling (JM) and Fully Conditional Specification (FCS) are the two emerging general methods in imputing multivariate data. If multivariate distribution of the missing data is a reasonable assumption, then Joint Modelling which imputes data based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques would be the best method. FCS specifies the multivariate imputation model on a variable-by-variable basis by a set of conditional densities, one for each incomplete variable. Starting from an initial imputation, FCS draws imputations by iterating over the conditional densities. A low number of iterations is often sufficient. FCS is attractive as an alternative to JM in cases where no suitable multivariate distribution can be found [8]. The Multiple imputations approach involves filling in missing values multiple times, creating multiple complete datasets. Because multiple imputations involve creating multiple predictions for each missing value, the analysis of data imputed multiple times take into account the uncertainty in the imputations and yield accurate standard errors. Multiple imputation techniques have been utilized to impute missing values in the dataset, primarily because it preserves the relation in the data and it also preserves uncertainty about these relations. This method is by no means perfect, it has its own complexities. The only complexity was having variables of different types (binary, unordered and continuous), thereby making the application of models, which assumed multivariate normal distribution- theoretically inappropriate. There are several complexities that surface listed in [8]. In order to address this issue It is convenient to specify imputation model separately for each column in th e data. This is called as chained equations wherein the specification occurs at a variable level, which is well understood by the user. The first task is to identify the variables to be included in the imputation process. This generally includes all the variables that will be used in the subsequent analysis irrespective of the presence of missing data, as well as variables that may be predictive of the missing data. There are three specific issues that often come up when selecting variables: (1) creating an imputation model that is more general than the analysis model, (2) imputing variables at the item level vs. the summary level, and (3) imputing variables that reflect raw scores vs. standardized scores. To help make a decision on these aspects, the distribution of the variables may help guide the decision. For example, if the raw scores of a continuous measure are more normally distributed than the corresponding standardized scores then using the raw scores in the imputation model, will likely better meet the assumptions of the linear regressions being used in the imputation process. The following image shows the missing values in the data-frame containing the information regarding digital camera. Figure 2 Missing Variables We can see that Effective Pixels has missing values for all its observations. After cross verifying it with the source website, the web scrapper was rewriting to correctly capture this variable from the website. The date variable was converted from a numeric to a date and this enabled the identification of errors in the observation for USB in the dataset. Two cameras that were released in 1994 1995 were shown to have USB 2.0, after searching online, it was found out that USB 2.0 was released in the year 2005 and USB 1.0 was released in the year 1996. As, most of the cameras before 1997 used PC-serial port a new level was introduced to the USB variable to indicate this. DATA DESCRIPTION The dataset containing the specification of the digital cameras was acquired using rvest -package [5] in R from the url provided in [6]. The structure of the data set is as shown in Appendix A. The data-frame contains 2199 observation and 55 variables. Appendix B contains the descriptive statistics of the quantitative variables in the data-frame. Figure 4 The Distribution of Body-Type in the dataset Observation: Most of the compact, Large SLR and ultracompact cameras are discontinued. Figure 5 Plot showing the status of Digital Cameras from 1994-2017 Observation: Most of the cameras released before 2007 have been discontinued however, we can see that few cameras announced between the period of 1996-2006 are still in production. Fewer new cameras have been announced after the year 2012, this can be evidenced due to the decreasing number of camera sales presented in Figure 5. Figure 6 Distribution of different Cameras (1994-2017) Observation: Between the period of 1996 2012 the digital camera market was dominated by the compact cameras. After 2012, fewer new compact cameras have been announced or are still in production. Same can be said about the fate of ultracompact cameras. In the year 2017, only SLR style mirrorless cameras have been announced, signaling the death of point and shoot cameras. Figure 7 Plot showing the Change in the Total Resolution and Effective Pixels of Digital Camera over the Years Observation: Total resolution has seen an improvement over the years. The presence of outliers can be seen in the top-left corner of the plot. Although the effective pixel is around 10, the total resolution is far higher than any of the cameras announced between the period 1996-2001. These could be the cameras that are still in production as evidenced from Figure 7. ASSESSING CLUSTER TENDENCY A primary issue with unsupervised machine learning is the fact if carried out blindly, clustering methods will divide the data into clusters, because that is what they are supposed to do. Therefore, before choosing a clustering approach, it is important to decide whether the dataset contains meaningful clusters. If the data does contain meaningful clusters, then the number of clusters is also an issue that needs to be looked at. This process is called assessing clustering tendency (feasibility of cluster analysis). To carry out a feasibility study of cluster analysis Hopkins statistic will be used to assess the clustering tendency of the dataset. Hopkins statistic assess the clustering tendency based on the probability that a given data follows a uniform distribution (tests for spatial randomness). If the value of the statistic is close to zero this implies that the data does not follow uniform distribution and thus we can reject the null hypothesis. Hopkins statistic is calculated using the following formula: Where xi is the distance between two neighboring points in a given, dataset and yi represents the distance between two neighboring points of a simulated dataset following uniform distribution. If the value of H is 0.5, this implies that and are close to one another and thus the given data follows a uniform distribution. The next step in the unsupervised learning method is to identify the optimal number of clusters. The Hopkins statistic for the digital camera dataset was found to be 0.00715041. Since Hopkins statistic was quite low, we can conclude that the dataset is highly clusterable. A visual assessment of the clustering tendency was also carried out and the result can be seen in Figure 8. Figure 8 Dissimilarity Matrix of the dataset DETERMINING OPTIMAL NUMBER OF CLUSTERS One simple solution to identify the optimal number of cluster is to perform hierarchical clustering and determine the number of clusters based on the dendogram generated. However, we will utilize the following methods to identify the optimal number of clusters: An optimization criterion such as within sum of squares or Average Silhouette width Comparing evidence against null hypothesis. (Gap Statistic) SUM OF SQUARES The basic idea behind partitioning methods like k-means clustering algorithms, is to define clusters such that the total within cluster sum of squares is minimized. Where Ck is the kth cluster and W(Ck) is the variation within the cluster. Our aim is to minimize the total within cluster sum of squares as it measures the compactness of the clusters. In this approach, we generally perform clustering method, by varying the number of clusters (k). For each k we compute the total within sum of squares. We then plot the total within sum of squares against the k-value, the location of bend or knee in the plot is considered as an appropriate value of the cluster. AVERAGE SILHOUETTE WIDTH Average silhouette is a measure of the quality of clustering, in that it determines the how well an object lies within its cluster. The metric can range from -1 to 1, where higher values are better. Average silhouette method computes the average silhouette of observations for different number of clusters. The optimal number of clusters is the one that maximizes the average silhouette over a range of possible values for different number of clusters [9]. Average silhouette functions similar to within sum of squares method. We carry out the clustering algorithm by varying the number of clusters, then we calculate average silhouette of observation for each cluster. We then plot the average silhouette against different number of clusters. The location with the highest value of average silhouette width is considered as the optimum number of cluster. GAP STATISTIC This method compares the total within sum of squares for different number of cluster with their expected values while assuming that the data follows a distribution with no obvious clustering. The reference dataset is generated using Monte Carlo simulations of the sampling process. For each variable (xi) in the dataset we compute its range [min(xi), max(xj)] and generate n values uniformly from the range min to max. The total within cluster variation for both the observed data and the reference data is computed for different number of clusters. The gap statistic for a given number of cluster is defined as follows: denotes the expectation under a sample of size n from the reference distribution. is defined via bootstrapping and computing the average . The gap statistic measures the deviation of the observed Wk value from its expected value under the null hypothesis. The estimate of the optimal number of clusters will be a value that maximizes Gapn(k). This implies that the clustering structure is far away from the uniform distribution of points. The standard deviation (sdk) of is also computed in order to define the standard error sk as follows: Finally, we choose the smallest value of the number of cluster such that the gap statistic is within one standard deviation of the gap at k+1 Gap(k)à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥Gap(k+1) sk+1 The above method and its explanation are borrowed from [10]. DATA PRE-PROCESSING The issue with K-means clustering is that it cannot handle categorical variables. As the K-means algorithm defines a cost function that computes Euclidean distance between two numeric values. However, it is not possible to define such distance between categorical values. Hence, the need to treat categorical data as numeric. While it is not improper to deal with variables in this manner, however categorical variables lose their meaning once they are treated as numeric. To be able to perform clustering efficiently, Gower distance will be used for clustering. The concept of Gower distance is that for each variable a distance metric that works well for that particular type of variable is used. It is scaled between 0 and 1 and then a linear combination of weights is calculated to create the final distance matrix. PARTITIONING METHODS K-MEANS K-means clustering is the simplest and the most commonly used partitioning method for splitting a dataset into a set of k clusters. In this method, we first choose K initial centroids. Each point is then assigned to the closest centroid, and each collection of points is assigned to a centroid in the cluster. The centroid of each cluster is updated based on the additional points assigned to the cluster. We repeat his until the centroids find a steady state. Figure 9 Plot Showing total sum of square and Average Silhouette width for different number of clusters We can see from Figure 9, that the optimal number of clusters suggested by the optimization criteria is 3 clusters using WSS method and 2 clusters using Average Silhouette width method. Considering the dependent variable is factor with two levels, having two clusters does make sense. The disadvantage of optimization criterion to identify the optimal clusters is that, it is sometimes ambiguous. A more sophisticated method is the gap statistic method. Figure 10 Gap Statistic for different number of clusters From Figure 10, we can see that the Gap statistic is high for 2 clusters. Hence, we carry out k-means clustering with 2 clusters on a majority basis. Figure 11 Visualizing K-means Clustering Method The data separates into two relatively distinct clusters, with the red category in the left region, while the region on the right contains the blue category. There is a limited overlap at the interface between the classes. To visualize K-means it is necessary to bring the number of dimensions down to two. The graph produced by fviz_cluster: Factoextra Ver: 1.0 [11] is not a selection of any two dimensions. The plot shows the projection of the entire data onto the first two principle components. These are the dimensions which show the most variation in the data. The 52.8% indicates that the first principle component accounts for 52.8% variation in the data, whereas the second principle component accounts for 23.9% variation in the data. Together both the dimensions account for 76.7% of the variation. The polygon in red and blue represent the cluster means. PARTITIONING AROUND MEDOIDS K means clustering is highly sensitive to outliers, this would affect the assignment of observations to their respective clusters. Partitioning around medoids also known as K-medoids clustering are much more robust compared to k-means. K-medoids is based on the search of medoids among the observation of the dataset. These medoids represent the structure of the data. Much like K-means, after finding the medoids for each of the K- clusters, each observation is assigned to the nearest medoid. The aim is to find K-medoids such that it minimizes the sum of dissimilarities of the observations within the cluster. Figure 12 Plot Showing total sum of square and Average Silhouette width for different number of clusters We can see from Figure 12, that the optimal number of clusters suggested by the optimization criteria is 3 clusters using WSS method and 2 clusters using Average Silhouette width method. Considering the dependent variable is factor with two levels, having two clusters does make sense. The disadvantage of optimization criterion to identify the optimal clusters is that, it is sometimes ambiguous. A more sophisticated method is the gap statistic method. Figure 13 Gap Statistic for different number of clusters From Figure 13, we can see that the Gap statistic is high for 2 clusters. Hence, we carry out partitioning around medoids clustering with 2 clusters on a majority basis. Figure 14 Plot visualizing PAM clustering method The data separates into two relatively distinct clusters, with the red category in the lower region, while the upper region contains the blue category. There is a limited overlap at the interface between the classes. fviz_cluster: Factoextra Ver: 1.0 [11] transforms the initial set of variables into a new set of variables through principal component analysis. This dimensionality reduction algorithm operates on the 72 variables and outputs the two new variables that represent the projection of the original dataset. CLUSTER VALIDATION The next step in cluster analysis is to find the goodness of fit and to avoid finding patterns in noise and to compare clustering algorithms, cluster validation is carried out. The following cluster validation measures to compare K-means and PAM clustering will be used: Connectivity: Indicates the extent to which the observations are placed in the same cluster as their nearest neighbors in the data space. It has a value ranging from 0 to à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ and should be minimized Dunn: It is the ratio of shortest distance between two clusters to the largest intra-cluster distance. It has a value ranging from 0 to à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ and should be maximized. Average Silhouette width The results of internal validation measures are presented in the table below. K-means for two cluster has performed better for each statistic. Figure 15 Plot Comparing Connectivity and Dunn Index for K-means and PAM for different number of clusters      Ã‚   Figure 16 Plot Comparing Average Silhouette width of K-means and PAM Clustering Algorithm Validation Measures Number of Clusters 2 3 4 5 6 kmeans Connectivity 139.9575 292.5563 406.5429 514.3913 605.5373 Dunn 0.0661 0.0246 0.0223 0.0244 0.0291 Silhouette 0.4369 0.3174 0.2814 0.2679 0.2447 pam Connectivity 156.1004 333.754 474.4298 520.3913 635.3687 Dunn 0.0275 0.0397 0.022 0.028 0.0246 Silhouette 0.4271 0.3035 0.2757 0.2661 0.2325 Table 1 Presenting the values of different validation measures for K-means and PAM Validation Measures Score Method Clusters Connectivity 139.9575 kmeans 2 Dunn 0.0661 kmeans 2 Silhouette 0.4369 kmeans 2 Table 2 Optimal Scores for the Validation Measures CONCLUSION In this research work, partitioning methods like K-means and Partitioning around medoids were developed. The performances of these two approaches have been observed on the basis of their Connectivity, Dunn index and Average Silhouette width. The results indicate that K-means clustering algorithm with K = 2 performs better than partitioning around medoids with two clusters. The findings of this paper will be very useful to predict obsolescence with higher accuracy. FUTURE WORK Advanced clustering algorithms such as Model based clustering and Density based clustering can be carried out to find the multivariate data structure as most of the variables are categorical. [1] Bjoern Bartels, Ulrich Ermel, Peter Sandborn and Michael G. Pecht (2012). Strategies to the Prediction, Mitigation and Management of Product Obsolescence. [2] Source Figure 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/269927/sales-of-analog-and-digital-cameras-worldwide-since-2002/ [3] Source, Figure 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263437/global-smartphone-sales-to-end-users-since-2007/ [4] S. Still, and W. Bialek, How many Clusters? An Information Theoretic Perspective, Neural Computation, 2004. [5] Wickham, Hadley, rvest: Easily Harvest (Scrape) Web Pages. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rvest/rvest.pdf, Ver. 0.3.2 [6] https://www.dpreview.com [7] Rubin, D.B., Inference and missing data. Biometrika, 1976. [8] Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations Stef van Buuren, Karin Groothuis . [9] Learning the k in k-means Greg Hamerly, Charles Elkan [10] Robert Tibshirani, Guenther Walther and Trevor Hast