Mcdonalization Essays - McDonalds, George Ritzer,

Mcdonalization Is Mcdonaldization Inevitable? George Ritzer's, Mcdonaldization of Society, is a critical analysis of the impact on social structural change on human interaction and identity. According to Ritzer, Mcdonaldization ?is the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as rest of the world? (Ritzer, 1). Ritzer focuses on four foundations of Mcdonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These are the commandments of any rationalized corporation. However, they are not carried out from the point of view of the consumer. Efficiency, for example, may entail the placing of great inconveniences upon a consumer for the sake of efficient management. Calculability may involve hiding certain information from the consumer. Predictability and control may involve a company's ability to predict and control consumer behavior, not the consumer's ability to predict what kind of product or control what kind of service he gets. Ritzer calls such breakdowns the irrationality of rationalization. Ritzer points out the irrationality of rationality, as all of the supposed benefits of Mcdonaldized systems backfire: waiting in long lines, suspect quality, little or no customer service, little or no customer service, the illusion of large quantities for low prices, and severely limited selection of choice. Throughout Mcdonaldization of Society, Ritzer describes Mcdonaldization as largely negative and often destructive. While Mcdonaldization is rapidly taking over American society and spreading to the rest of the globe, it is not something unjustly imposed on the American people. The consumerist culture of America has groomed the public to seek efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These principles grow in importance and value in contemporary America. Even when given the choice to avoid a Mcdonaldized establishment or product, people will flock to it. I agree with Ritzer's analysis of a Mcdonaldized society, but I feel that Ritzer has failed to provide any real solutions to the Mcdonaldization process. I will support Ritzer's analysis of the Mcdonaldization process, but also show that it is inevitable and essential in the American society to have a rationalized system. Ritzer stresses that ?Mcdonaldization? does not just refer to robotlike assembly of food. Rather, this process, occurring throughout society, is transforming our lives. ?In the 1980s and 1990s Mcdonaldization has extended its reach into more and more regions of society, and those areas are increasingly remote from the heart of the fast-food business? (Ritzer, 137). Shopping malls are controlled environments of approved design, logo, colors, and opening and closing hours. ?For those people who wish to see Europe, a package tour rationalizes the package. People can efficiently see, in a rigidly controlled manner, many sights while traveling in conveyances, staying in hotels, and eating in fast-food restaurants just like those at home? (Ritzer, 21). ?USA Today? produces the same bland, instant news- in short, unanalytic pieces that can be read between gulps of the Mcshake or the Mcburger. Is this all bad? Not necessarily. Efficiency does bring reduced prices. But at a cost, a loss of something difficult to define or quantify, a quality of life washed away by rationalization. When I travel, for example, had I taken a packaged tour, I never would have had the opportunity to have all the unique experiences that I've had. However, the costs may be even simpler than that. For example, just recently I was ordering food through the drive-thru during lunch hour. The employee at the window was already stressed from trying to work too fast, gave me large cokes in a flimsy cardboard container. The coke went from the window onto to my car seat. Later it was established that the lids weren't even properly placed on the glasses. This is also and example of the irrationality of rational systems. The lines at the fast-food restaurants can be very long, and waiting to get through the drive-thru can even take longer than going inside. In addition, Ritzer explains that in Mcdonaldization establishes control through the substitution of nonhuman for human technology. He explains that ?...these two elements are closely linked. Specifically, replacement of human by nonhuman technology is often oriented towards greater control. The great source of uncertainty and unpredictability in a rationalizing system are people-either the people who work within those systems or the people who are served by them? (Ritzer, 148). For example, in my telemarketing job, individuality is frowned upon. The idea is to read the screen and deviate as little as possible. The human employee is not required to think, just follow the instructions and push

Literary Wit and Wisdom

Literary Wit and Wisdom Chinua Achebe (1930-2013, Nigeria): â€Å"We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye nani ji onwe ya: He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down,† The Education of a British-Protected Child. Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986, Argentina): â€Å"You cant measure time by days, the way you measure money by dollars and cents, because dollars are all the same while every day is different and maybe every hour as well.† Willa Cather (1873-1947, United States): â€Å"In great misfortunes, people want to be alone. They have a right to be. And the misfortunes that occur within one are the greatest. Surely the saddest thing in the world is falling out of loveif once one has ever fallen in,† The Professor’s House. Kate Chopin (1850-1904, United States): â€Å"Some people are born with a vital and responsive energy. It not only enables them to keep abreast of the times; it qualifies them to furnish in their own personality a good bit of the motive power to the mad pace. They are fortunate beings. They do not need to apprehend the significance of things. They do not grow weary nor miss step, nor do they fall out of rank and sink by the wayside to be left contemplating the moving procession, The Awakening.    Victor Hugo (1802-1885, France) â€Å"What Is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784, England): â€Å"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.† George Orwell (1903-1950, England) â€Å"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it, 1984. Natsume SÃ… seki (1867-1916, Japan) â€Å"Approach everything rationally, and you become harsh. Pole along in the stream of emotions, and you will be swept away by the current. Give free rein to your desires, and you become uncomfortably confined. It is not a very agreeable place to live, this world of ours, The Three-Cornered World. John Steinbeck (1902-1968, United States) â€Å"Its so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone, The Winter of Our Discontent. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745, Ireland) â€Å"You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910, Russia) â€Å"If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you, Essays, Letters and Miscellanies. Edith Wharton (1862-1937, United States) â€Å"A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.† Émile Zola (1840-1902, France) â€Å"If people can just love each other a little bit, they can be so happy,† Germinal.

Should You Be a Communications Major

Should You Be a Communications Major SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Most colleges offer a communications major. In fact, you probably know at least a few people who plan to major or are currently majoring in the field. What exactly does a communications major entail in terms of coursework and skills? And what kinds of jobs and salaries can you expect with a communications degree? Read on to learn what a communications major is, what the most popular jobs for communications majors are, and what the job outlook is for each major job option. We’ll also provide you with some tips on how to determine whether a communications major is the right path for you. What Is a Communications Major? A communications major (also called a communication major or a communication studies major) is the study of how to effectively communicate different types of information in various fields such as journalism/media, business, politics, and law. As a communications major, you’ll learn how to research and analyze information and how to clearly and cogently communicate topics through writing and speaking. You will take courses in research strategies, theory, rhetoric, public speaking, writing, and journalism/media. According to the website Communication Studies, undergraduate communications courses can be grouped into two categories: theory-based courses and skills-based courses. Whereas theory-based classes deal with different types of communication (e.g., political vs virtual communication), skills-based courses emphasize the application and mastery of key skills, including public speaking, group communication, and public relations. For most undergraduate communications programs, you’ll be required to take a handful of core communications courses. These are typically taken during the first two years of undergrad in order to provide you with a basic foundation for your communications major. The exact core courses your communications major will require depends on the school you attend. For example, communication majors at Stanford must take an introductory comm course in addition to classes on research methods, media processes, and writing. Similarly, comm majors at UCLA must take intro comm courses as well as area courses centering on mass communication, interpersonal communication, communication technology, and political and legal communication. Because communications is such a broad field, many colleges offer specific concentrations to communications majors. This allows comm students to specialize in a particular area. At UMass Amherst, for instance, possible comm subfields include interpersonal communication and culture, media and popular culture studies, and film studies. Meanwhile, comm majors can specialize in one of three subfields at The Ohio State University: Communication Analysis and Practice, New Media and Communication Technology, and Strategic Communication. What Can You Do With a Communications Degree? Now that you know exactly what a communications degree entails, what can you do with it once you graduate college and enter the workforce? What are popular communications major jobs? As I mentioned, communications is a pretty broad field- meaning there’s actually a lot you can do with your major, depending on what your concentration is, what kind of job/career you want, and whether you plan to get an advanced degree. Here are some common fields communications majors often work in: Advertising Business Corporate management Customer service Education Film production Government/politics Graphic design Healthcare Human resources (HR) International relations (IR) Journalism Law Marketing Public relations (PR) Sales Social media Social work Writing/editing Below is a list of potential communications major jobs you could get. Note that for some jobs, such as lawyers, you must have further education in the form of advanced degrees, training, etc.: Announcer Author Brand manager Communications director Creative director Educational administrator Event planner/manager Foreign correspondent Graphic designer HR specialist/manager/coordinator Journalist/reporter Labor relations specialist/manager Lawyer Lobbyist Market researcher Marketing director Media planner/coordinator Media relations manager Newscaster Political scientist Politician Producer Professor PR specialist Sales representative Social media manager Translator/interpreter Writer/editor (including copywriter, scriptwriter, speechwriter, and technical writer) Communications Major: Salary and Job Outlook As we saw above, there’s a big number of jobs and careers you can have with a communications major. Consequently, your job outlook and salary potential as a communications major will depend mostly on the field you enter. Here is an overview of the (median) salaries for various communications major jobs and their job outlooks in terms of projected employment growth rates. Note that any number in the negatives means that decline in employment is expected instead of growth. All information is from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Currently, the average employment growth rate in the US is 7%. Any rate that is more than 1% higher than this average signifies growth, while any rate more than 1% lower indicates a decline. All jobs in the chart below are arranged from highest to lowest (median) salary: Job Title Median Salary (2017) Employment Growth Rate (2016-2026) Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers $129,380 10% Sales Managers $121,060 7% Lawyers* $119,250 8% Political Scientists* $115,110 3% Public Relations and Fundraising Managers $111,280 10% Human Resources Managers $110,120 9% Training and Development Managers $108,250 10% Art Directors $92,500 5% Postsecondary Education Administrators* $92,360 10% Postsecondary Teachers* $76,000 15% Technical Writers $70,930 11% Purchasing Managers, Buyers, and Purchasing Agents $66,610 -3% Social and Community Service Managers $64,100 18% Market Research Analysts $63,230 23% Labor Relations Specialists $63,200 -8% Writers and Authors $61,820 8% Human Resources Specialists $60,350 7% Public Relations Specialist $59,300 9% Editors $58,770 -1% Insurance Sales Agents $49,710 10% Advertising Sales Agents $49,680 -4% Graphic Designers $48,700 4% Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners $48,290 11% Interpreters and Translators $47,190 18% Reporters, Correspondents, and Broadcast News Analysts $40,910 -9% Announcers $31,500 -9% *Master’s and/or doctoral degree typically required. As you can see from this chart, there is a big array of salaries and employment growth rates for communications majors depending on what job you get. The highest-grossing jobs are typically managerial positions and jobs that require advanced degrees, such as lawyers, political scientists, and college professors. Know, however, that it’ll likely take a lot of time and experience before you can reach this salary level (or higher). In other words, don't expect to be getting this salary straight out of undergrad. By contrast, jobs with the lowest salaries are usually those that require a high amount of independent work and little leadership skill, from designers and translators to announcers. Many of these positions can be considered entry-level jobs, as they're more likely to be open to those with minimal work experience. By looking at the employment growth rates for all the jobs listed above, we can see that there are clear differences between the communications jobs that are in high demand and those that are gradually falling in importance. Jobs with faster-than-average growth rates include market research analysts (23%), interpreters and translators (18%), and social and community service managers (18%). These are excellent jobs for communications majors to get, as there is a growing demand for them. Meanwhile, jobs that can expect declines include reporters and correspondents (-9%), announcers (-9%), and labor relations specialists (-8%). As a result, communications majors will be better off avoiding these types of jobs, since they're not in demand right now. Is a Communications Degree Right for You? So far, we’ve taken a look at what a communications major is, what kinds of jobs you can get with a communications degree, and what salaries and employment growth rates you can expect. With all this information in mind, you’re probably wondering: is a communications degree right for you? Here are three questions to ask yourself to help you decide whether you should go for a communications major or not: #1: Do You Have a Passion for Communicating With Others? First things first, are you absolutely passionate about communicating with others? Do you enjoy facilitating and improving communication, be it in written or spoken form (or both)? If so, then a communications major sounds like a great fit for your skills and career goals. Remember, communications is ultimately about, well, communicating. So if you love writing, connecting with audiences, and giving presentations, you'll most certainly enjoy this major- and be more likely to utilize it in a career you love. #2: Do You Have a Specific Field or Concentration in Mind? Although you don’t need to have everything decided before you declare a communications major, it’s a good idea to take some time to think about what types of subfields or concentrations within the communications field interest you most. For example, if you’re a great writer, you might want to explore a concentration in journalism or media. A fan of politics? Look into political communication. Hoping to break into graphic design? Consider an emphasis in visual communication. It's your choice and yours alone. (Note that the communications concentrations available to you will ultimately depend on what’s offered at your particular college.) Being able to narrow your focus early on can help you eventually look for (and land) jobs that target your specific area of expertise, since you’ll know exactly what kind of field you're hoping to work in and will have all the applicable skills and knowledge necessary to do well in it. It’ll also help you figure out ahead of time whether your field will be easier or harder to break into (i.e., whether it has a high employment growth rate or a low/negative growth rate). If you don’t have a specific concentration in mind, you might find it harder to figure out what it is you want to do with your communications degree once you graduate college. Ultimately, it’s better to spend your time as a communications major developing specific skills that’ll serve you well in a particular field rather than overly general skills that won’t make you stand apart from other job applicants. #3: Are You OK With Getting an Advanced Degree If Necessary? As we discussed above, some communications majors go on to enter specialized professions in fields such as law, politics, or education. If your interest lies in a specialized field, be sure to ask yourself whether you’d be OK with having to get a master’s degree or doctorate after receiving a bachelor’s degree in communications. This isn’t just about time but also money. Do you have enough funds to get yourself through multiple years of grad school? If not, are you open to taking out loans? Do you have a particular career in mind that you believe is worth going to grad school for? That being said, having an advanced degree and meeting all prerequisites for a job doesn’t guarantee that you'll get hired. This is especially true for college professors. If your goal is to become a full-time professor, you can bet that it’ll take far more than a doctorate to actually get you there. Why is this? The reality is that many jobs that require applicants to have an advanced degree also expect them to have ample experience (e.g., internships) and/or a prominent professional presence (e.g., academic publications). These high expectations for candidates are mainly due to how competitive certain jobs have become in recent years. In short, be sure to weigh the pros and cons of attending grad school for the communications career you’re considering pursuing. Should You Be a Communications Major? Key Takeaways Communications is one of the broadest majors out there, letting students study tons of skills and pursue an array of careers. In general, a communications major is the study of communicating, interpreting, and analyzing different types of information. Most colleges that have a communications major offer specific concentrations or subfields for students to select from as part of their communications degree; these often include themes such as visual communication, political communication, and media. Communications majors can choose from many career paths and fields, from public relations and advertising to graphic design and translation. Job outlooks can vary significantly depending on the field, so it’s important to keep this factor into consideration as you decide which concentration you want to do for your communications major. Finally, in order to determine whether a communications degree is right for you, ask yourself the following three questions: Do you have a passion for communicating with others? Do you have a specific field or concentration in mind? Are you OK with getting an advanced degree if necessary? No matter what you decide to major in, know that a communications major is a great choice for many students- and you might just be one of them! What’s Next? Considering studying journalism or graphic design in college? Then take a look at our lists of the best journalism schools and the best graphic design schools in the US! Struggling to figure out what you should major in? Check out our five expert tips to help you select the best college major based on your interests and goals. If you're looking for a low-key major, we also have a guide to the easiest majors for your bachelor's degree here. Do you love to communicate in foreign languages, or hope to be able to do so one day? Then you'll definitely want to read my guide on why you should consider majoring in a foreign language. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Article response about architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Article response about architecture - Essay Example ansion and growth of American commercial life encouraged broader spectrum of American people to relocate into suburban cities or communities after the bloody world war. From 1949 to 19955, the American suburban societies grew by forty percent in contrast to general population growth of 10%. At an amazing pace, the futuristic mass built and highways and well-equipped home appliances that had been dreamt of during the New York Global Fair in 1940 had become a real (Cohen 1055). The topic focused on the transformation and reconstruction of American suburban life after the war from 1947 to 19991. In addition, it presents a clear picture of how American suburban population grew after some families opted to move out of town and start new life in suburban communities. The restructuring and reconfiguration of consumer marketplace led to transformation of suburban residential places. The article asserts that during the 1920, merchandisers and business people in America had desired to live in a motorized and developed society. After the war, this dream was changing into realty in the sense that as consumers became autonomous, they encountered new problems that one had predicted. For instance, every American used to drive a situation that caused traffic snarl up since developing towns had little pace to accommodate the increasing population (Cohen 1059). 20. Most Interesting Passage (single quotation of 100-300 words, plus page citation—or series of up to three shorter quotations, same aggregate word-count, plus page citation) plus a brief comment as to why this passage(s) is interesting to you It was interesting to learn that when planner and town developers dreamt to construct a consumer oriented center in 19950, they aimed to perfect the idea of downtown despite the fact that their project challenged the feasibility of existing commercial towns such as Hackensack in Bergen County (Cohen 1061). I found it interesting because it is not easy to imagine that during the

Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Management Assignment

Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Management - Assignment Example It is very important that linkages between strategic planning and performance are addressed. The business planning process should take into account the organizational performance. Also planning should not be rigid and formal. The business planning process should not be idealistically rational, rigid, bureaucratic and a dysfunctional exercise. The planning process should be drawn in such a way that management are actively involved in the actual decision making process. The strategic plans and objectives formulated should be flexible. Hence, there is an element of intuition in the business planning process. In order to attain strategic competence, it is very necessary that the intuitive judgment taken in the plan is successful (Hodgkinson et al. 2009). They may change in the course of time in order to meet the final goal. An ideal business plan consists of long term and short term goals which needs to be attained. These strategic objectives should be flexible and accordingly the strate gic plans may change to meet requirements (Shrader et al. 1984). Market analysis and research – Most organizations draw up a marketing plan in order to attain the formal goal. Unfortunately, only few strive to develop a comprehensive plan which entails to research and analyze the product and service market before implementing it. Most organizations shy away from developing a comprehensive marketing plan as they may face a lot of hurdles which may be in the form of procedural, cognitive, research, cultural, informational, environmental and organizational aspects (Wilson & McDonald 1994). One of the procedural benefits of planning is that it helps in attaining realistic and attainable goals. However, in... From this paper, it is clear that modern researchers assert that sole emphasis on entrepreneurial characteristics does not completely attribute to entrepreneurial success. Researchers are more interested in evaluating and researching on the thinking doing nexus of entrepreneurial behavior. Managers interact with the environment and make decisions with reference to success factors. Most of the times, entrepreneurs have to make decisions with limited or ambiguous data. Hence they have to possess the knowledge to assess, judge and decide depending on the creation of ventures, opportunities, and growth. Hence, action and thought are important components of the behavior of an entrepreneur and play an important role in determining successful decision making.All in all, a successful entrepreneur have a diverse set of qualities which includes personality traits.According to me, an entrepreneur needs to manage certain important areas like risk management, planning for new ventures, networking , learning, financial management and human resource management. In order to handle all these aspects in a successful manager, the entrepreneur must take the right decision at the right time. Hence, in order to be a successful manager, an individual needs to have the skills, experience and personality traits to manage a venture successfully. This includes problem-solving and decision-making skills, strategic thinking, capacity to close deals successfully, time and project management, selling, negotiation, persuasion, and motivation.

To Kill a Mockingbird Moral Essay Example for Free

To Kill a Mockingbird Moral Essay The depth behind this novel is too see how Scout has progressed throughout the course of two years. Slowly but surely, she realizes the life lessons that have been waiting for her all along. She does this with the help of her family and her community. One man importantly sticks out the most, and his name is Arthur Radley, but Scout and the children like to call him Boo. Lee incorporated Mr. Radley to really show Scout the important lessons of life through the experiences and the encounters she faces with him, while also helping her grow into maturity. In the beginning, Atticus says â€Å"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view –until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.† (Lee 30). Boo Radley helps Scout realize the lesson her father is trying to teach her in a copious amount of ways. First off, the children believe that Boo Radley is the child-eating monster, when in reality he is not. He turns out to be quite the opposite to Scouts suprise. Boo does this by leaving the pennies and bubblegum in the hollow of the tree for Scout and Jem as a gift, yet not revealing that it was him. Also, when Scout, Jem, and Dill all try to peep into the Radley house, Jem gets his pants stuck on the fence and Boo sews them back up for him. Surprised, yet still weary of Boo, Scout still hasnt completely walked around in Boos skin for her to see what a good person he is yet. When Miss Maudies house catches on fire that cold night, Boo comes up behind Scout and puts a blanket on her. Scout in fear pays no attention to the blanket and runs away. Even though Scout doesnt recognize the kind acts that Boo is paying her, all these things help her realize the lessons of the novel at the end. If it werent for Boo and his encounters with Scout, she wouldnt understand the meaning of stepping into someone else shoes, and seeing things from their point of view. The second lesson that Boo helps teach Scout is the meaning of a mockingbird, and how a mockingbird can be the personality and heart of a person. Mockingbirds are the only birds that Jem and Scout arent allowed to shoot with the rifle by Atticuss words because it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Miss Maudie explains this later by saying Mockingbirds dont do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They dont eat up peoples gardens, dont nest in corncribs, they dont do but one thing but sing their hearts out for us. Thats why its a sin to kill a mockingbird. (Lee 10). This correlates to when Bob Ewell tries to murder Jem and Scout, until Boo saves them and winds up killing Mr. Ewell himself. Later, the Sheiff explains that he does not want to make Boo out to be a hero or publicize him, so they use a cover story instead. The Sheriff knew this would be a bad idea because he is such a recluse, and doesnt want him to have to justify himself to the public and face ridicule. Atticus explains this to Scout, and she says she understands because it would be like shooting a mockingbird. At this point the maturity is shown and she has just applied one of the lessons, thanks to Boo Radley. She realizes that Boo has never actually harmed someone (opposite to the rumors) and has done nothing but looked out for her. She now realizes that people can be mockingbirds too. At the very end of the novel, when Scout walks Boo home across the street, she is standing on his porch. She remembers what her father said about standing in someone elses shoes and she says Just standing on the Radley porch was enough. (Lee 31). From his perspective she can see the town and her house right across the street from it. She realizes how he protected them and watched out for them. If it wasnt for Boo, she wouldve never started looking through the grown-up perspective. The lessons that Atticus was trying to teach her wouldnt have been applied, and Scout wouldnt know how a person could symbolize a mockingbird. She says to Atticus he was real nice and Atticus replies Most people are, Scout, once you finally see them. (Lee 31). Works Cited Page: To Kill a Mockingbird. Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2013. To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide Essays. To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide Literature Essays. N.p., 1999. Web. 06 Feb. 2013. To Kill a Mockingbird. Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2013

The Coyote: Taking Illegal Immigrants Across the Border Essay -- Illeg

The Coyote: Taking Illegal Immigrants Across the Border I would like the critics of immigration to think of the coyotes while you read this paper. The coyote has the easiest job pertaining to illegal immigration. They are paid well and once they have done there job, they can go on there way with a fat wallet and no worries. The immigrants who pay these people their loot of cash that they most likely saved for who knows how long, are now the new victims of these coyotes. These illegal immigrants now must find shelter and jobs to start their new lives in the United States. I would like to show both stories of these two types of people on different paths. The coyote that transports the immigrants across the border and the immigrant who now has to start a new life from scratch. I chose this topic because I found it most interesting to me and the fact that I have known both illegal immigrants and coyotes. This topic relates to migration and culture because it is one of the biggest businesses along the bordering states of the United States. This is one of the biggest population increases into our country. Along with these new immigrants will be their culture, just because their new home is in United States does not mean they will live like Americans. Their culture will flourish through their homes, clothes and food. Immigrants will flow to the neighborhoods and areas of the city that host most of their people. Hispanics will likely find pro-Latino neighborhoods just like Asians will migrate to china towns or similar Asian neighborhoods. This is where their culture will be ultimately displayed. For Latino’s west and south Phoenix in Arizona have become havens for these new immigrants. The majority of the areas h... ... on these people and most of them would not arrive here safely without them. Who should the people of America have sour feelings towards, fellow humans trying to find a better life for their children or coyotes who are taking advantage of laws and innocent people? Maybe heavier laws and fines for coyotes would slow the immigration flow into the United States. The immigrants have nothing to lose if they get caught. They will not stop coming into the country as long as there is a job that no one else wants to occupy. Maybe we should look at these businesses that welcome the illegal work force. Immigrants will not stop flowing into the United States, the business is too big, and the money is too large. There is too much help available for the immigrants to get from there to here. Coyotes are available for the right price on both sides of the borders.

Comparitive/Contrast Assessment on Fast Food Nation and the Jungle

*Comparative/Contrast Assessment*: Fast Food Nation **and The Jungle Similar to the many real-life stories told by Schlosser in his written depiction of the fast food industry, The Jungleby Upton Sinclair is a notable relation of the same type of horrors. Unlike Schlosser, though, Sinclair writes his book in a fictional story line, in which he included great models of figurative language and imagery that strategically capture the reader in a world full of sympathy and belief. In this manner, he uses the journey of Jurgis Rudkis to depict the conditions in the meat packing industry in the United States. Jurgis, being the main character, was not used only to reveal the harsh and hidden lives of those working and living in Packingtown, however. Sinclair also used Jurgis to portray his personal belief of capitalism being corrosive. The following quote has been taken from a review found at AssociatedContent. com. â€Å"The Jungle shows the effects of economic hardship on an immigrant family in the early 1900's. That is all it is reliably accountable for. This story is a downright attack on capitalism that the author tries to conceal behind a fictional story of a sympathy deriving family of Lithuanian Immigrants† (A Review of The Jungle, 2007). Sinclair’s attacks on the United States’ economic and governmental system immediately point out the radical side of his personality, and from there the doubt that his ideas and story are not radical in and of themselves as well begins to grow. It is with this part of his writing that Sinclair loses his rhetoric flair and ability to produce quality muckraking journalism. In order for me to be able to effectively explain how both Fast Food Nation and The Jungleare poor examples of muckraking journalism, I must first enlighten you with the definition of the actual term â€Å"muckraking†. According to Webster's New World College Dictionary 2009, muckraking is searching for and publicizing, as in newspapers, any real or alleged corruption by public officials, business executives, or other important persons (Muckraking Definition, YourDictionary. com). Muckraking journalism is then defined as the literature that displays these corruptions of society, whether effectively or not. The role of journalism in a democratic society is to report the truth, with minimal harm, and no outside interest. It should also be held accountable to its readers. Journalists are not filling this role by reporting half-truths that send people into a anic, like Fast Food Nation and even The Jungle. Starting with Fast Food Nation, I found by researching that many published book reviews had at least one major commonality: the book covers too many different aspects of the fast food industry that it came to a point where there were too many things to comprehend and analyze all at once while reading . That’s not even everything he talked about either! Throw in a plethora of statistics and facts, and you have some highly confused readers! In his work, Schlosser writes, â€Å"This is a book about fast food, the values it embodies, and the world it has made. However, it is much more than that. It is everything that anybody could ever imagine that somehow, in some unbelievably slight way, has to do with fast food. Eric Schlosser tries to associate everything from armed robbery to political bombings to the spread of a particular strain of Escherichia Coli, all with fast food companies. Schlosser discusses how and why the industry developed, current labor practices in fast food establishments, how the taste of food can now be manipulated, federal regulations (and lack thereof), television and school advertising, health issues, and the spread of fast food abroad. This book is cleverly disguised as being about fast food. It is not about fast food. It is about how evil conservat ives are and how capitalism is the cause of all that is bad in America. It is about how armed robbery has drastically increased. Fast food just happens to be mentioned quite a bit. The author constantly inserts little comments here and there that try to make even very debatable topics out to be unequivocally bad things. In my opinion, this book should come with a warning label and include a free copy of The Communist Manifesto† (Jayson D. White, Socialist Propaganda in Fast Food). Jayson D. White’s perspective here describes what many others were saying as well, telling of how Schlosser strays far and wide, devoting chapters to various aspects of the industry and then referencing other random aspects in unrelated chapters. They do not all fit neatly together, and even the jumbled picture is a frightening one. Schlosser closes Fast Food Nationby saying that â€Å"you can still have it your way† and that consumers have the choice to just say no to fast food. His hope is apparently that, armed with the information he provides, consumers will make the obvious choice and run as fast as they can from any and every fast food joint. Unfortunately, he never really addresses the question of why consumers would (and so often do) choose to purchase the products of these establishments in the first place. He never mentions the opposing argument to his own personal viewpoint, and his credibility drops with that lack of information. Instead, Schlosser inputs more and more seemingly random statistics to show his own views have â€Å"support† behind them, when in all reality, they don’t at all. Schlosser was determined to make a point, and he does so with the uncontrollable urge to exaggerate details, add in supposed â€Å"facts† and numbers, and altogether disregard the opposing viewpoint, something which is of high importance in a persuasive and informative piece of muckraking literature. This shows how Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation is a poor example to use when describing muckraking journalism. Now we can move on to The Jungle and the different viewpoints that have been written regarding the book’s contents and set-up. From the muckraking standpoint, the way Sinclair writes his fictional story is actually quite interesting and as a result a lot more persuasive and believable than Schlosser’s book which is only jam packed with statistics. The following quote is one that I feel really stands out strong from the book in regards to how imaginative and mind-painted creation Sinclair’s writing is as a whole. . The Jungle, on the other hand, is written directly form Sinclair’s personal experience of being in Packingtown for even just a week, and he already was able to smell the horrible scent, even taste the horrible scent! Sinclair’s use of figurative language really appeals to the reader, and that strengthens the reader’s opinion to side with the author. â€Å"Elzbieta sees how the sausage is doctored when she works filling casings in the sausage room. She sees how any random mix of animal parts is ground into â€Å"sausage. † Anything that is spoiled is simply dyed with chemicals like borax and packaged for sale. In addition, she watches as leftovers that have fallen on the floor of the room are scooped up, along with dead rats and other filth, and put into the grinding machine for sausage† (_The Jungle_– Upton Sinclair, Chapter 7). Not only does this quote give the reader a very nice detailed image to let them think over in the back of their minds, it also gets its point across, which is that the meatpacking plants use absolutely anything in their batches of sausages that end up being sold at the super market. As a result, this is a great muckraking example included in the book. Upon reading The Jungle and various critical analyses, I would say that the novel is actually quite nice in its overall appeal to me as a reader. With this novel, being of journalistic muckraking character, I was surprisingly persuaded for the most part with what Upton Sinclair was telling me. . In addition, unlike Fast Food Nation, I felt like the pieces of information and statistics in The Junglewere relevant to the current topic at hand in the novel, rather than just being thrown at the reader in hopes of persuading them that this statistic pertains to the aspect being discussed. Like many of these reviews, I too feel that The Jungle is not perfect; however, I do agree with many critics that the manner in which the story was written was quite appealing. I was particularly attracted to and persuaded with the story line and its continuous rising and falling actions that were filled with suspense, to the point where I actually wanted to read each and every next page so that I could find out what would happenAs a reader, I felt highly pressured to believe what was being told to me while I read Eric Schlosser’s piece of literature, and that if I don’t believe his words then I would be assisting in and attributing towards the awful-sounding statistics that were abundant in Fast Food Nation. While reading Sinclair’s novel, on the other hand, I felt relatively at ease in making my own decision, knowing that there were facts and stories laying out there for me to grasp and believe if I so chose. As a result, I was more directed to believe Sinclair’s words than the numerous statistics and â€Å"facts† trying to be shoved down my throat by Schlosser. Another aspect of The Jungle that helped capture my overall opinion, and presumably many other readers’ as well, was that of the emotional attachment with the portrayed characters and the events they were going through. Sinclair did an excellent job at creating a real life experience for the reader, as if they were the â€Å"Jurgis† in the book, creating distinct emotional reactions to the horrible reality of the meatpacking industry, which in turn establishes his pathos. However, like Schlosser, Sinclair’s downfall was his inclusion of personal political and economic system goals. Upton Sinclair's â€Å"sudden stray from the story and straightforward praise of socialism at the end of the novel reveals his narrow-minded opinion of the economy of the United States and labels him as a radical believer in socialism, just like that of Schlosser in Fast Food Nation. Sinclair’s book also hinders the reader’s knowledge of socialism because it does not reveal its negative effects. Socialism puts complete control of the economy in the hands of the government. It places a barrier on production and decreases the influence to create new products. Socialism is a less severe definition for an economy that supports communism. While Upton Sinclair wrote this novel to ‘find righteousness’ and benefit the American people he fails to foresee the negative effects of his ideas. Sinclair's novel makes it evident that many immigrants and workingmen unjustifiably suffered under capitalism, but an economy influenced by his views would not necessarily be better. † (Associated Content, 2007). By hiding the other side’s opposition, just like what Schlosser did in Fast Food Nation, author Upton Sinclair hushes his audiences’ questions by not answering them whatsoever. As you can see, although each author wrote with a different style, the authors were still not nearly as effective muckraking journalism examples as they would have been. Bibliography Fast Food Nation – by Eric Schlosser The Jungle – by Upton Sinclair http://www. yourdictionary. com/muckraking http://www. amazon. com/Fast-Food-Nation-Eric-Schlosser/product-reviews/0395977894/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1? e=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar http://www. complete-review. com/reviews/food/schlosse. htm http://www. amazon. com/Fast-Food-Nation-Eric-Schlosser/product-reviews/0395977894/ref=cm_cr_pr_link_next_5? ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar&pageNumber=5 http://www. bookrags. com/notes/jun/TOP1. htm http://www. enotes. com/history/q-and-a/how-did-muckraking-journalism-change-u -s-44633 http://mandatorychaos. blogspot. com/2007/11/role-of-journalism-in-democracy. html

Cultural Values Essay

The world is changing politically, economically, technically, and collectively at a previously unthinkable rate. Both new and skilled multinational firms are stumbling and committing mistakes as they confront these recently emerging environmental forces. What is desired now is a new way of viewing both the global and foreign operations of multinational firms. To be as thriving as possible, these firms should be as culturally attuned to the world and to every foreign society in which they seek to work as they are to their own home society. The Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1980) defines culture as â€Å"the incorporated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends on man’s competence for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations† and â€Å"the customary beliefs, social forms, and material behavior of a racial, religious, or social group.† These definitions point to numerous important aspects of culture. First, culture permeates all human behaviors and interactions. Second, culture is shared by members of a group. And third, it is handed down to newcomers and from one generation to the next. This description of culture is not aimed at organizations but is very appropriate to them (AAhad M. Osman-Gani & Zidan, S.S. 2001, pp.452-460). The prevailing trend in the international business environment in current decades has been greater directness in trade, investment, finance and technology resultant in increased international integration and interdependence in business and between states. What is also obvious is that large swathes of the world’s population are efficiently marginalized or barred from these trends. This segregation has been a major factor in modern anti-globalization campaigns and is often used to justify proposals to reform or even abolish international institutions and to invalidate policies that have contributed to international integration. Morrison (2006) characterized a global industry as having intense levels of international competition, competitors marketing a standardized product worldwide, industry competitors that have a presence in all key international markets and high levels of international trade. These definitions have the common thread of the need and opportunity to integrate strategy across countries. Though aspects of globalization and the guiding principles of the IMF and the World Bank have not always been affirmative for developing countries, it is a generalization to place all or most of the blame for the marginalization of developing countries onto these factors. Development is a multifaceted process but some countries have managed it successfully. Considerably, it is those countries that have affianced most intensively with the outside world (that is, in East Asia), that have been most successful in their development endeavors. Equally considerable has been the keenness of each state to take a central role in the development process, a role that assorted from country to country depending on its culture and early circumstances.

Ofdm-Based Cooperative Communications in a Single Path Relay Network and a Multiple Path Relay Network Essays

Ofdm-Based Cooperative Communications in a Single Path Relay Network and a Multiple Path Relay Network Essays Ofdm-Based Cooperative Communications in a Single Path Relay Network and a Multiple Path Relay Network Essay Ofdm-Based Cooperative Communications in a Single Path Relay Network and a Multiple Path Relay Network Essay In this thesis, we investigate cooperation by applying OFDM signals to cooperative relay networks. We consider the single path relay network and the multiple path relay network. Using the amplify-and-forward relay algorithm, we derive the input-output relations and mutual informations of both networks. Using a power constraint at each relay, we consider two relay power allocation schemes.The ? rst is constant gain allocation, where the amplifying gain used in the amplify-and-forward algorithm is constant for all subcarriers. The second is equal power allocation, where each subcarrier transmits the same power. The former scheme does not require CSI (channel state information), while the latter one does. We simulate the mutual informations using the two relay power allocation schemes. Results indicate that equal power allocation gives a slightly higher mutual information for the single path relay network. For the multiple path network, the mutual information is practically the same for both schemes.Using the decode-and-forward relay algorithm, we derive the inputoutput relations for both networks. The transmitter and each relay are assumed to have uniform power distributions in this case. We simulate the BER (bit error rate) and WER (word error rate) performance for the two networks using both the amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relay algorithms. For the single path relay network, amplify-andforward gives very poor performance, because as we increase the distance between the transmitter and receiver (and thus, add more relays), more noise and channel distortion enter the system. Decode-and-forward gives signi? antly better performance because noise and channel distortion are eliminated at each relay. For the multiple path relay network, decode-and-forward again gives better performance than amplify-and-forward. However, the performance gains are small compared to the single path relay network case.Therefore, amplify-and-forward may be a more attractive choice due to its lower complexity. ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Wireless communication systems inherently su? er from multipath propagation and channel fading. Time diversity, space diversity, frequency diversity [8], and combinations of the three are traditionally used to combat these e? cts. More recently, relays situated between the transmitter and receiver are also being exploited to improve information transfer. The relays are a network of transceiver nodes between the transmitter and receiver that facilitate the transfer of information. Thus, the relay network as a whole is an equivalent channel between the transmitter and receiver. This type of scheme is known as cooperation or cooperative communications in the literature because the relay network is cooperating with the transmitter and receiver to improve performance.In this thesis, we consider cooperation in the context of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. 1. 1 Motivation The motivation for cooperati ve communications is obvious. Cellular phones, laptops and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are just three examples of wireless devices that are very prevalent today. These transceiver devices usually communicate independently from each other. As the authors in [6] note, this is wasting the broadcast nature of the wireless medium.For example, if a base station is communicating with a user’s cellular phone, his/her nearby laptop has the capability to receive the base station’s signals and relay them to the phone, improving the end-to-end performance of the base station-phone link. Unfortunately, laptops and cellular phones today are not designed this way. This illustration is an example of an ad-hoc network, where nodes spontaneously recognize each other and cooperate. In this thesis, we investigate structured networks, where each node knows the existence of all the other nodes a priori.Whether the nodes discover each other through an ad-hoc algorithm or they are pre- programmed to have this knowledge is beyond the scope 1 of this thesis. 1. 2 Related Literature The authors in [10], [11] have considered cooperation between intra-cell users in a code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular network. In this case, cooperation results in higher data rates and leads to lower power requirements for users. As well, the system is less sensitive to channel variations. Relaying of signals, as viewed from the physical layer, is not a trivial issue. The authors in [5], [6], [7] have provided several physical layer relay algorithms.These include amplifyand-forward, decode-and-forward and selection relaying. In amplify-and-forward, a node ampli? es its receive symbol, subject to a power constraint, before re-transmitting to the next node. This algorithm is obviously with low complexity. In decode-and-forward, a node fully decodes a symbol, re-encodes it and then re-transmits it. In other words, this scheme attempts to eliminate channel distortion and noise at each node. In selection relaying, a node only re-transmits a symbol if the measured receiving channel gain is above a certain threshold.If the threshold is not reached, the relay requests a re-transmission from the sender. In networking terminology, this is a type of automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme. The authors in [6], [7] have investigated cooperation for the classical relay channel introduced in [1], [7]. Outage probability is used to characterize performance. Outage probability is the probability that the mutual information between the transmitter and receiver does not reach a certain throughput threshold. Without cooperation, the outage probability decays proportionally with 1/SNR, where SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio of the channel.Using cooperation and the amplify-and-forward scheme, the outage probability decays proportionally with 1/SNR2 , achieving full diversity. This results in large power savings for the transmitter. The authors in [3], [4] have investigated coo peration for a single path of relays connected in series. The motivation for this network structure is that broader wireless coverage can be achieved, while still maintaining a low power constraint at the transmitter. The authors consider analog relaying and digital relaying as two possible relay algorithms. These are 2 equivalent to the amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward algorithms, respectively.A power budget is considered where each packet travelling through the network is only allowed to consume a total ? xed amount of power. As well, each node has a certain transmit power limit. The outage probability is then minimized by allocating power among the relay network under these power constraints. This power allocation accounts for the channel conditions in the network in order to achieve the optimal outage probability. Simulations indicate that 2 dB of total power can be saved for 5 relays by using optimal power allocation instead of uniform power allocation. This is for th e decode-and-forward case.However, at high SNR values, the decode-and-forward case approximates the amplify-and-forward case. The authors in [13] have investigated cooperation for multiple paths of relays connected in parallel. In the conventional scheme, all relays participate using amplify-and-forward. This is called all-participate amplify-and-forward (AP-AF). The authors also consider an algorithm where only one relay is selected in the transmission to maximize the mutual information. This is called selection amplify-and-forward (S-AF). S-AF selects the relay which results in the maximum mutual information between transmitter and receiver.Simulations of outage probability indicate that 5 dB of SNR can be saved for 3 relays by using S-AF instead of AP-AF. The authors in [9] derive symbol error probabilities for multiple paths of relays. 1. 3 OFDM in Cooperative Communications In this thesis, we continue to investigate cooperation by applying OFDM signals to cooperative relay netw orks. We consider a single path relay network and a multiple path relay network. Using the amplify-and-forward relay algorithm, we derive the input-output relations and the mutual informations of both networks. Using a power constraint at each relay, we consider two relay power allocation schemes.The ? rst is constant gain allocation, where the amplifying gain used in the amplify-and-forward algorithm is constant for all subcarriers. The second is equal power allocation, where each subcarrier transmits the same power. We simulate the mutual informations using these two relay power allocations. Using the decode-and-forward relay algorithm, we derive input-output relations for both 3 networks. We simulate bit error rates (BERs) and word error rates (WERs) for the two networks using both the amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relay algorithms. 1. 4Organization of Thesis The thesis is organized as follows. In Chapter 2, we consider the single path relay network in [3], [4]. In C hapter 3, we consider a modi? ed version of the multiple path relay network in [13] where the transmitter-receiver direct link is removed. Notice that these latter two relay con? gurations are series and parallel analogs of each other. As well, they do not involve a direct link between the transmitter and receiver. Finally, Chapter 4 concludes the thesis and provides future research directions. 4 CHAPTER II SINGLE PATH RELAY NETWORK 2. 1 2. . 1 Amplify-and-Forward System Model Figure 1 shows the single path relay network. In the ? gure, r0 is the transmitter, rm+1 is the receiver, and r1 , . . . , rm are m relay nodes connected in series forming a single path link between the transmitter and receiver. The relays perform amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying. We assume that OFDM with N subcarriers is used in the system. hk , . . . , hk (0) (m) (0) are the complex subchannel gains at the kth subcarrier in the link, for (m) k = 1 to N . nk , . . . , nk are the corresponding noises, which a re assumed to be mutually ndependent, zero-mean, circular symmetric complex Gaussians all with variance N0 B/N , where N0 is the power spectral density of the underlying continuous time noise process and B is the OFDM bandwidth of the system. Let pk = Ptot /N be the transmitter power on (l) the kth subcarrier, where Ptot is the net transmitter power. Let pk be the amplifying gain used in the amplify-and-forward algorithm at the lth relay, for l = 1 to m. The kth (0) receive symbol at rl is ampli? ed by pk before it is forwarded to the next node. (l) Let xk be the kth transmit symbol with zero mean and unit variance.Let yk be the kth receive symbol at the receiver. Using Figure 1, the input-output relation is (0) nk r1 nk hk (1) (m? 1) nk (m) rm+1 r0 hk (0) hk (m? 1) rm hk (m) Receiver Transmitter Figure 1: Single Path Relay Network 5 m yk = i=0 (i) hk (i) pk m xk + j=0 ? ? m (i) hk i=j+1 where we assume r i=q a(i) = 1 for q gt; r and any a(i) . We use this assumption throughout (i) (j) pk ? n k , ? (1) the rest of this paper. If we de? ne m hk = i=0 hk (i) pk , ? k = i=j+1 (i) (j) m hk (i) pk , (i) (2) ?k = and ?k (0)  ·  ·  · ? k (m) , nk = nk (0)  ·  ·  · nk (m) T , (3) wk = ? k nk , then (1) can be written as yk = hk xk + wk .Now, consider the variance of wk . Using (2), (3), and (4), we have Rw k w k ? = E [wk wk ] (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (i) (i) bk p k ? , = E ? k nk nH ? H k k = ? k E nk nH ? H k k = N0 B N m j=0 ? m where E [ ·] is the expectation operator, ( ·)? is the complex conjugate operator for a scalar, ( ·)H is the Hermitian (complex transpose) operator for a vector or matrix, and bk = hk (i) (i) 2 ? i=j+1 ? (9) , for i = 0 to m. Rwk wk is positive for a nonzero N0 . We de? ne a transformed version of the system in (5) ? yk = hk xk + wk , ? ? (10) 6 ? where yk = yk / Rwk wk , hk = hk / Rwk wk , and wk = wk / Rwk wk .The variances of wk ? ? ? and yk are ? E [wk wk ] = E ? = wk Rwk wk ? wk Rw k w k (11) (12) (13) Rw k w k Rw k w k = 1 and E [? k yk ] = E y ? hk xk + wk ? ? hk xk + wk ? ? (14) (15) ? ? = hk h? + 1 k = 1 Rw k w k m i=0 bk p k (i) (i) + 1, (16) ? ? respectively. The cross terms do not appear in (16) because hk , wk , and xk are mutually independent. Note that the transformed system has unit variance noise. 2. 1. 2 Mutual Information To derive the mutual information, note that the di? erential entropy of a circular symmetric complex Gaussian vector, v, with covariance matrix, K, is h (v) = log2 det (? eK) [2].When the circular symmetric complex Gaussian is a scalar, v, the di? erential entropy is 2 2 h (v) = log2 ? e? v , where ? v is the variance of v. Let Ik be the mutual information between the transmitter and receiver on the kth subcarrier Ik = h (? k ) ? h (wk ) y ? = log2 ? e = log2 1 Rwk wk 1 Rw k w k m i=0 m i=0 (17) bk p k bk p k (i) (i) (i) (i) +1 ? log2 (? e) (18) (19) +1 , where the ? rst equality comes from basic mutual information calculations [1]. The total mutual information betwe en the transmitter and receiver, I, is the sum of all Ik divided by N . That is, after substituting (9) into (19), we have I = 1 N NIk k=1 (20) 7 = 1 N N k=1 log2 ? 1 + SNR ? T ? ? bk (0) (i) (i) m i=1 bk pk (i) (i) m i=j+1 bk pk m j=0 , (21) where SNR = Ptot /N0 B. If we denote b(i) = for i = 0 to m and T b1 (i)  ·  ·  · bN (i) and p(i) = p1 (i)  ·  ·  · pN (i) T , (22) eN = 1  ·Ã‚ ·Ã‚ · 1 N ones , (23) then (21) can be written in matrix form. First, let m zsingle = b(0) ? ? i=1 b(i) ? p(i) where the ? and ? operators both represent element-wise matrix multiplication and the ? /? ? m j=0 ? m i=j+1 b(i) ? p(i) , (24) ?/ operator represents element-wise matrix division. Then, (21) in matrix form is I= 1 T e log2 eN + SNR zsingle , N N (25) here log2 ( ·) of a vector is the vector of the logarithms of the vector’s entries. 2. 1. 3 Relay Power Allocation We assume that the net transmit power at the transmitter and at each each relay is Ptot . At the transmit ter, we assume a uniform power distribution, that is, pk (0) = Ptot /N . To (l) derive the power constraint at each relay and thus, possible power allocations, consider vk , the kth transmit symbol of rl vk = (l) (l) pk ? ? l? 1 i=0 N hk (i) pk (l) 2 (i) l? 1 xk + j=0 ? ? l? 1 i=j+1 hk (i) (i) (j) pk ? n k ? . ? ? (26) The constraint is Ptot = k=1 N E ? vk . Thus, l? 1 j=0 (l) (0) P Ptot = pk ? k tot N k=1 l? 1 i=1 bk p k (i) (i) N0 B + N ? ? l? 1 i=j+1 (i) (i) bk pk (27) 8 or pk ? (0) bk N k=1 N (l) ? l? 1 i=1 (i) (i) bk p k Note that (28) is de? ned recursively. The power constraint for pk depends on pk , . . . , pk pk is the base case in the recursion, which follows from (28), when l = 1. (1) 1 l? 1 ? l? 1 (i) (i) b p = 1. + SNR j=0 i=j+1 k k (l) ? (28) (1) (l? 1) . (l) One power allocation at the lth relay is to set pk constant for all subcarriers. This results in moving pk in (28) out of the summation because it is no longer a function of k pk,ct = pct = (l) (l) (l) N SNRN k=1 ? We call this constant gain allocation (CT). Note that this power allocation does not require each relay to have any CSI (channel state information). The lth relay only has to multiply its entire OFDM receive symbol by a constant, pct , such that the total transmit power is (l) ?SNRb(0) k l? 1 i=1 (i) (i) bk pct l? 1 + j=0 ? ? l? 1 i=j+1 (i) (i) bk pct . (29) Ptot . We call constant gain capacity, Cct , as the mutual information in (25) resulting from this power allocation. A second power allocation is to choose pk such that every subcarrier transmits the same power at the lth relay.The transmit power on the kth subcarrier is the kth summand on the right hand side of (27). Since they are all equal to Ptot /N , we have Ptot (l) (0) P = pk,eq ? bk tot N N pk,eq = SNRbk (0) (l) (l) ? l? 1 i=1 (i) (i) bk pk,eq N0 B + N l? 1 j=0 ? ? l? 1 i=j+1 or (i) (i) bk pk,eq (30) SNR l? 1 i=1 bk pk,eq (i) (i) l? 1 + j=0 ? ? l? 1 i=j+1 We call this equal power allocation (EQ). Note that this power allocation does require each relay to have the CSI of its upstream channels. We call equal power capacity, Ceq , as the mutual information in (25) resulting from this power allocation. 2. 1. 4 Capacity Simulations k pk,eq ? (i) (i) ?. (31) We simulate Cct and Ceq assuming that all distances between any two adjacent transceiver nodes are the same. Therefore, all path loss e? ects are normalized to 0 dB. Shadowing 9 between nodes is assumed to be log-normally distributed. That is, the received power gain due to shadowing in dB is a zero-mean Gaussian with variance of 8 dB, which is typical for cellular land mobile applications [12]. We model frequency selective fading e? ects as Typical Urban (TU) channels and Hilly Terrain (HT) channels [12]. We use an OFDM bandwidth of 800 kHz divided into N = 128 equal blocks.Maintaining OFDM orthogonality, this translates into an OFDM symbol period of Ts = 160  µs. Results are shown in Figures 2 and 3. The plots exhibit the familiar monot onically increasing shape for mutual information in the case of direct transmission between a transmitter and receiver. This is expected if we look at the mutual information in (25). We can think of this con? guration as still being direct transmission where the channel is the single path relay network, characterized by zsingle . Note that zsingle also determines the power allocations in the relays.In other words, (25) is a system level representation of the mutual information. As we increase the distance between the transmitter and receiver (and thus, add more relays), more noise and channel distortion enter the system. Consequently, the mutual information decreases. Equal power allocation results in a slightly higher mutual information than that of constant gain allocation. TU channels and HT channels give very similar results. 2. 2 2. 2. 1 Decode-and-Forward System Model In decode-and-forward (DF), each relay fully recovers the information bits (with possible errors) after receiv ing an OFDM symbol.It then converts the information bits back into an OFDM symbol and then transmits it. The transmitter and all the relays transmit with the same uniform power distribution. That is, pk = pk = for k = 1 to N and for l = 1 to m. (l) (0) Let xk be the kth transmit symbol from the transmitter and xk be the kth transmit (m+1) be the symbol from the lth relay, all with with zero mean and unit variance. Let yk (0) (l) Ptot , N (32) 10 8 7 8 Cct Ceq 7 Cct Ceq Capacity (bits/s/Hz) 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Capacity (bits/s/Hz) 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (a) m=1 8 7 8 SNR (dB) (b) m=2 Cct CeqCct Ceq 7 Capacity (bits/s/Hz) 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Capacity (bits/s/Hz) 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (c) m=3 SNR (dB) (d) m=4 Figure 2: Capacity in a single path relay network with TU channels using AF. N = 128, m = 1, 2, 3, and 4. 11 8 7 8 Cct Ceq 7 Cct Ceq Capacity (bits/s/Hz) 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Capacity (bits/s/Hz) 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (a) m=1 8 7 8 SNR (dB) (b) m=2 Cct Ceq Cct Ceq 7 Capacity (bits/s/Hz) 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Capacity (bits/s/Hz) 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (c) m=3 SNR (dB) (d) m=4Figure 3: Capacity in a single path relay network with HT channels using AF. N = 128, m = 1, 2, 3, and 4. 12 output 1 input output 2 output 3 Figure 4: Convolutional encoder. kth receive symbol at the receiver and yk be the kth receive symbol at the lth relay. Using (l) Figure 1, the input-ouput relation at the lth relay is yk = hk (l) (l? 1) Ptot (l? 1) (l? 1) + nk . x N k (33) The input-output relation at the receiver is yk (m+1) = hk (m) Ptot (m) (m) + nk . x N k (34) 2. 3 BER and WER Simulations We simulate bit error rates (BERs) and word error rates (WERs) for both the amplify-andforward and decode-and-forward cases.At the transmitter (and at the transmitter structure of a relay using decode-and-forward), each information word contains 83 bits. Using the convolutional encoder shown in Figure 4, the information word is encoded into a 255 bit codeword. A zero bit is padded at the end to make 256 bits. The bits are then interleaved and modulated onto N = 128 QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying) subcarriers to form one OFDM symbol. At the receiver (and at the receiver structure of a relay using decodeand-forward), the codeword is recovered (with possible errors) using a matched ? lter and 13 deinterleaving.A Viterbi decoder is used to decode the codeword. Both hard decisions and soft decisions are used. We assume that all distances between any two adjacent transceiver nodes are the same. Therefore, all path loss e? ects are normalized to 0 dB. Shadowing is assumed to be lognormally distributed. That is, the received power gain due to shadowing in dB is a zero-mean Gaussian with variance of 8 dB, which is typical for cellular land mobile applications [12]. We model frequency selective fading as Typical Urban (TU) channels and Hilly Terrain (HT) channels [12]. We use an OFDM bandwidth of 800 kHz divided into N = 128 equal blocks.Maintaining OFDM orthogonality, this translates into an OFDM symbol period of Ts = 160  µs. 2. 3. 1 Amplify-and-Forward The BER versus SNR and WER versus SNR plots for a single path relay network with TU channels using amplify-and-forward are shown in Figures 5 and 6, respectively. The corresponding plots for HT channels are shown in Figures 7 and 8, respectively. As expected, soft decisions in Viterbi decoding give better performance than hard decisions. In particular, there is up to 4 dB of SNR gain for the constant gain allocation and m = 1 case, as shown in Figures 5(a), 6(a), 7(a), and 8(a).In general, using hard decisions with constant gain allocation results in the worst performance. Soft decisions with equal power allocation gives the best performance, except for the m = 1 case, where soft decisions with constant gain allocation is slightly better. As w e increase the distance between the transmitter and receiver (and thus, add more relays), more noise and channel distortion enter the system. Consequently, the error rate (BER and WER) performance becomes worse and as a result, all four curves are very close together at low to medium SNR values. TU channels and HT channels give very similar results. . 3. 2 Decode-and-Forward The BER versus SNR and WER versus SNR plots for a single path relay network with TU channels using decode-and-forward are shown in Figures 9 and 10, respectively. The 14 10 0 10 0 10 ?1 10 ?1 BER 10 ?2 BER hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?2 10 ?3 10 ?3 10 ?4 10 ?4 hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (a) m=1 10 0 SNR (dB) (b) m=2 10 0 10 ?1 10 ?1 BER 10 ?2 BER ard, constant gain allocati on hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?2 10 ?3 10 ?3 10 ?4 10 ?4 hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (c) m=3 SNR (dB) (d) m=4 Figure 5: BER in a single path relay network with TU channels using AF. N = 128, m = 1, 2, 3, and 4. 15 10 0 10 0 WER 10 ?1 WER hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 1 10 ?2 10 ?2 hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (a) m=1 10 0 SNR (dB) (b) m=2 10 0 WER 10 ?1 WER hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?1 10 ?2 10 ?2 hard, constant gain alloc ation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (c) m=3 SNR (dB) (d) m=4 Figure 6: WER in a single path relay network with TU channels using AF.N = 128, m = 1, 2, 3, and 4. 16 10 0 10 0 10 ?1 10 ?1 BER 10 ?2 BER hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?2 10 ?3 10 ?3 10 ?4 10 ?4 hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (a) m=1 10 0 SNR (dB) (b) m=2 10 0 10 ?1 10 ?1 BER 10 ?2 BER hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?2 10 ?3 10 ?3 10 4 10 ?4 hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR ( dB) (c) m=3 SNR (dB) (d) m=4 Figure 7: BER in a single path relay network with HT channels using AF. N = 128, m = 1, 2, 3, and 4. 17 10 0 10 0 WER 10 ?1 WER hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?1 10 ?2 10 ?2 hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24SNR (dB) (a) m=1 10 0 SNR (dB) (b) m=2 10 0 WER 10 ?1 WER hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?1 10 ?2 10 ?2 hard, constant gain allocation hard, equal power allocation soft, constant gain allocation soft, equal power allocation 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (c) m=3 SNR (dB) (d) m=4 Figure 8: WER in a single path relay network with HT channels using AF. N = 128, m = 1, 2, 3, and 4. 18 10 0 10 0 hard soft ?1 ? 1 hard soft 10 10 BER 10 ?2 BER 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?2 10 ?3 0 ?3 10 ?4 10 ?4 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (a) m=1 10 0 SNR (dB) (b) m=2 10 0 hard soft ?1 ? 1 hard soft 10 10 BER 10 ?2 BER 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?2 10 ?3 10 ?3 10 ?4 10 ?4 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 SNR (dB) (c) m=3 SNR (dB) (d) m=4 Figure 9: BER in a single path relay network with TU channels using DF. N = 128, m = 1, 2, 3, and 4. corresponding plots for HT channels are shown in Figures 11 and 12, respectively. As expected, soft decisions in Viterbi decoding give better performance than hard decisions. In particular, there is up to 5 dB of SNR gain, as shown in the plots.As we increase the distance between the transmitter and receiver (and thus, add more relays), more noise and channel distortion enter the system. However, the error rate (BER and WER) performance su? ers only slightly as m increases. TU channels and HT channels give very similar results. 2. 3. 3 Comparison The BER versus SNR and WER versus SNR plots for a single path relay network with TU channels using amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward are shown in Figures 13 and 19 10 0 10 0 hard soft hard soft WER 10 ?1 WER 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 10 ?1 10 ?2 10 ?2

The Best ACT Score Predictor

The Best ACT Score Predictor SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Taking the ACT is stressful- some test you’ve never seen before will affect where you go to college. As a high school student, I felt anxious taking the ACT because I hadn’t done any practice and had no idea whether I’d reach my target score. One way to mitigate nerves surrounding the ACT is to try to predict your ACT score. If you find out your estimate is close to your target score, you’ll feel relieved. If it’s low, at least you’ll know you need to do more preparation before taking the test. What is the best ACT score predictor? What should you do with your estimated ACT score? In this guide, I’ll walk you through the different ways to predict your ACT score and explain the pros and cons of each. I’ll also let you know how to use your estimated score to your advantage. What’s the Best Way to Predict Your ACT Score? The most accurate ACT score predictoris taking a full-length ACT practice test under realistic testing conditions. It's the closest thing tothe real ACT- your using an official ACT practice test from the ACT makers and taking it under similar testing conditions. This process is very time-consuming - it’ll take about four hours - but it’s worth it. Afterward, you have an ACT score from a real ACT test, whichyou can use to checkyourpreparedness to take the actual test, but I'll dive into that later. Where Can You Find a Practice Test? There are five free official ACT practice test PDFs available online, or if you own The Real ACT 3rd Edition, you could use one of those tests. If you’re using one of the free online tests, to give yourself the most realistic testing experience (and to avoid the distractions on the internet), I’d recommend that you print out a copy of the test. Key Tips fora Realistic Testing Experience Your goal is to try to accurately predict your ACT score. To do so, you need to mirror the circumstances of the actual ACT. Clear your desk.You should not have your phone, computer, dictionary or any other outside help.Note: Your phone should be off during the entire practice test.Only put some pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, a calculator and extra batteries on your desk. Keep time on a watch, and stick to the exact timing for each section.Note: the time permitted is printed at the start of the section.Don’t allow yourself extra time; if you allow even an extra minute, you could end up with an inaccurate estimate.Also, you’re only allowed to work on one section during the allotted time. Don’t work on the next section if you finish early, and don’t do work on a previous section. How Do You Score Your Practice Test? Each practice test comes with scoring instructions, which are locatednear the end of the PDFs (typically in the last tenpages). You’ll start by calculating your raw score or the number of questions you answered correctly.Then, you use that raw score and a chart to find your scaled score for each section.You average the foursection scores to find your composite score. Note: This is only a baseline score- you can do dedicated ACT prep and raise your score. Start by creating a study schedule, and if you need a launching off point for your prep, read our free ACT study guides for Reading, Math, English, and Science. Create a schedule for test prep success! What Are Other Less Time Consuming Predictors? Did you take the PreACT* or SAT? If so, you can use that score to predict your ACT score. These test scores make good estimates because they’re taken under the same conditions as an ACT test (in the morning, with other students, etc.).I’ll give an overview of the pros and cons of using these tests as ACT score predictors. *Note:The PreACT is a brand new test that's debuting in the 2016-2017 school year. No one has taken it yet- the firsttest dates will be in Fall 2016. PreACT The PreACT is the next best option to taking an official ACT practice test.The PreACT was created by ACT, Inc., the same company that makes the ACT, to help predict your ACT score.It covers the same content as the ACT.Its difficulty level is similar to the ACT since it uses old ACT questions. The PreACT is graded on the same 1-36 scale.However, it’s much shorter than the actual ACT; it’s only 1 hour and 55 minutes (compared to almost 4 hours for the ACT plus Writing), so it doesnt' require the same level of endurance as the full test. Pros The PreACT was created by the same company as the ACT. It covers the same content as the ACT. The difficulty level is on par with the ACT. It is specificallyintended to predict your ACT score. Cons It’s much shorter than the actual ACT. SAT Score There are easy-to-use conversion tables that will convert your 400-1600 SAT score to a 1-36 score, but this isn’t as reliable as using a PreACT score.While the SAT is similar to the ACT and PreACT, the SAT was made by the College Board, not ACT, Inc. Though there is some matching content on the SAT and ACT, the material is not the same.For instance, while the ACT has a science section, the SAT doesn’t, and while the SAT has a no-calculator math section, the ACT doesn’t. If you use an SAT score to estimate your ACT score, the prediction could be off by up to 4 points.As an example, I got a 1420 on my SAT. Using this score and the conversion table, I found out my ACT score prediction would be 31, but I got a 34, 3 points more than the estimate.Some people do better on the ACT than the SAT (and vice versa). Pros Like the ACT, the SAT is designed to show college preparedness. Like the ACT, the SAT covers Math, Reading, and Writing topics. Cons The SAT was not created by ACT, Inc. The SAT doesn’t cover all of the material on the ACT. Estimates may not be exact (could be off by up to 4 points). Also, comparisons between the two tests are difficult to make since the SAT just underwent major changes. Some students simply performbetter on the ACT than SAT (and vice versa). Now that you know the good predictors let's examine the bad: What Won’t Be Good Predictors? I’d recommend avoiding any estimation method not mentioned above. However, here are some of the more commonly used ACT score predictors that I wouldn’t recommend. Non-Official Practice Tests Online you might find some non-official ACT practice tests (ones not created by ACT, Inc.).These will not give you a reliable ACT score prediction because they’re too dissimilar to the ACT.They don’t cover the same topics and don’t accurately copy the test format. While some students end up with scores close to the non-official prediction, the majority end up with scores 5-10 points higher or lower than the estimate. GPA Some students assume ACT scores correlate to GPA.If you have straight A’s, then you’ll get a 36; if you have a low GPA, then you’ll get a low ACT score.However, that’s not necessarily true. Some test-takers with low GPAs can get high ACT scores while others with high GPAs can end up with low scores.Don’t rely on your GPA to estimate your ACT score. AP/IB Tests Other students think that AP and IB exam score will be good ACT predictors since they cover college level material. However, these tests cover very specific, high-level subject matter such as Biology, Calculus, Economics, and History.These tests surpass the level of content covered by the ACT.Excelling or failing AP and IB exams has no correlation with ACT success. Use your predictor to see if you meet your target score. What Should You Do With Your Prediction? Are you unhappy with your predicted score? If so, you need to create an ACT prep schedule to help raise your score.Here is a rough estimate of how many hours you need to study to achieve certain score improvements: 0-1 ACT Composite Point Improvement: 10 hours 1-2 Point Improvement: 20 hours 2-4 Point Improvement: 40 hours 4-6 Point Improvement: 80 hours 6-9 Point Improvement: 150 hours+ Check out our ACT study guide for the Reading, Math, English, Science, and Writingsections to help you get started with your preparation. Are you happy with your estimated score? If so, you should still do a little ACT prep.Study for at least 10 hours.Take two practice tests with in-depth review. This way you’ll get more comfortable with the ACT test format, and you’ll be able to double check that your practice test scores match the original prediction. The ACT plusWriting has five sections:English,Math,Reading,Science, and Writing- they always appear in that order.Below is a breakdown of the timing and number of questions per section: English - 45 minutes - 75 questions Math - 60 minutes - 60 questions Reading- 35 minutes - 40 questions Science - 35 minutes - 40 questions Writing - 40 minutes - 1 essay Disclaimer: Remember that no estimate is 100% accurate, not even taking an official ACT practice test.Therefore, you should plan to take the real ACT more than once. That way, if you don’t reach your target score the first time, you have another chance. What’s Next? Now that you found your estimated ACT score how does it compare to your target score? Not sure where you’d like to go to college? Read our guide to finding your target school. Need help with your college application? Learn how to write about extracurriculars on your college application; get advice on the Common App essays. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

The rationale of a reduction in incarceration in the United States Essay - 1

The rationale of a reduction in incarceration in the United States - Essay Example Some of these men and women have families who depended on them and once they are put in jails, it means that their source of income have been lost (Arditti, 2012). Such a move leaves that family in poverty as they can no longer cater for their basic needs. In order to make the ends meet, such a family may turn to crime as the only alternative. In this way, incarceration end up creating more problems rather than providing a solution. Reducing incarceration should not be based on the manner of health. This is because, if prisoners can be well checked in matters pertain to their health, both mental and physical illness cannot be witnessed in prisons. Law enforces must also put into consideration the way offenders have been brought up by their parents before determining the incarceration period. Some parents neglect their children forcing them to turn to crime. Therefore, such children need to be considered and their term be reduced. In addition, there is also a need for counseling of such