Purpose of higher education Essay

The reason for advanced education has been a subject of discussion for a long time. There was a significant stretch when the larger part concurred that advanced education is the way to progress, there is nothing to contend about that. In any case, these days, seeing having advanced education as a speculation, numerous individuals, particularly understudies, believe that what they lose is a lot greater than what they gain from advanced education. At the end of the day, they accept that what advanced education brings them doesn't merit what they pay for it. As I would like to think, what we profit by advanced education can't be estimated by cash. For me, the most noteworthy reason for advanced education is to make arranged personalities, which are extremely valuable. Simultaneously, the shocking outcomes that understudies get from advanced education, I accept, are because of the unscrupulous ways they use to manage the tests and horrendous circumstance while having advanced education. Quit cheating and see completely the motivation behind advanced education, we will perceive the advantage we gain from it. Cheating, as referenced above, is the demonstration of utilizing deceptive techniques to get rewards or to manage obstructions. Concerning scene of advanced education, cheating incorporates â€Å"cribbing schoolwork, appropriating expositions from the Internet, or messaging test answers to a friend’s cell phone† (Studies Shed Light on How Cheating Impedes Learning, Sarah). Understudies simply do anything they can to get a â€Å"A† and graduate with their degree on schedule. Be that as it may, it is only the dream of achievement. The most noteworthy motivation behind advanced education isn't to have however many graduated understudies as could reasonably be expected. Instructors can simply accept the pen and give the same number of As to understudies as they need, at that point their employments are finished. Understudies don't have to go to the tests. All things considered, that colleges hold tests isn't to set scores for understudies. Tests are intended to check whether students’ information and aptitudes are sufficient for the following level, for their life or not. Cheating may assist understudies with getting prizes for the short-run yet will without a doubt get them nothing the since quite a while ago run. Set those deceiving demonstrations aside and investigate again at the motivation behind advanced education, we can see thatâ there are abilities and information that we can gain from no place however advanced education. Without those essential apparatuses, we will step into life astonishing with new things and incredible difficulties. In the event that by any possibility we miss any of those aptitude and information, it is important to return and adapt once more, until we get what we need. Shock ingly, numerous understudies don't know about the significance of doing as such. As indicated by Lucas’s blog, â€Å"students feel they are excelling when they cheat† and â€Å"students who cheat delude themselves into accepting they merit better grades†. They don't realize that they really â€Å"are falling into an input circle in which they fall further and further behind†. Plus, it is important to underscore that the readied personalities that advanced education makes are not utilized distinctly for getting a steady profession, yet additionally for managing issues in our employments, family and life. Going to these smaller scale territories, cheating is not any more only a basic demonstration that can be fixed or even disregarded. The outcomes from unoriginality (one kind of cheating) are significantly more serious, when we can even be detained. I thoroughly concur with Lucas when he says in his blog that â€Å"students who cheat in secondary school are bound to be deceptive as grown-up in the workplace†. We ought to alter ou r conduct properly to forestall framing negative behavior patterns just as to accomplish the correct reason for advanced education. To wrap things up, it is the most significant inquiry that how we can accomplish the motivation behind advanced education? How might we have arranged personalities from advanced education? The appropriate response is straightforward yet the activity isn't: demoralize cheating; remain on our own foot and put forth all the attempt that we have. Instructor needs to assist understudies with understanding the â€Å"importance of scholastic honesty and learning, not simply reviews, can make them less inclined to cheat†. The three strategies that Lucas referenced are the least that educators ought to do: â€Å"carefully diminish chances to cheat†; â€Å"establishing class or school respect codes† and â€Å"discuss the significance of scholarly respectability preceding each assignment†. Taking everything into account, the facts confirm that everybody has the motivating forces to discover simple approaches to get rewards or to manage terrible circumstances. Be that as it may, cheating to succeed just brings us hallucination of progress. It is very hazardous when we apply unscrupulous approaches to breathe easy. The motivation behind advanced education is without a doubt undermined by swindling acts and on the off chance that we don't know about that, we may increase a great deal toward the start however at long last, we will get nothing.

Gatbys Symbols Essay Example For Students

Gatbys Symbols Essay Looking for Symbolism - HS1. The valley of remains speaks to an advanced world, which, similar to a twisted hellfire made by the business of manufacturing plants and prepares and has contaminated America with its waste. The valley represents a world whose occupants are so profoundly lost they, similar to Myrtle, start to love cash and riches. The outskirts guarantee has been undermined by the lies of ravenousness and the vacancy of a fantasy dependent on riches. 2. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg speak to Fitzgeralds feeling that God and religion had played a less considerable job in correlation with the divine beings that use the forces of riches, status, and insatiability. The character has an authentic nearness related with him and is befuddled by Wilson in that capacity. The announcement speaks to a God who has been made by present day society to bring in cash. 3. Green in the story is the shade of guarantee, of expectation, recharging and at last the shading to which Gatsby will extend his arms for. He makes the shading the epitome of his fantasy for the future; to rejoin with Daisy is that fantasy. Through the light he makes progress toward a superior existence where the yearning in his heart for Daisy is satisfied. 4. The owl-looked at man speaks to reality behind a shrouded veneer with the end goal of material prevalence, just like the case with Gatsby and the books in the library. He additionally represented the perhaps of world put together not with respect to realism however keenness as he is the just one out of the partygoers to come to Gatsbys burial service. 5. Gatsbys childhood plan tells the assurance that Gatsby has had for everything materialistic except at long last he is devastated by his materialistic deceptions of Daisy, similarly as the new American boondocks was changed over into the valley of cinders and the green light turns out to be only a bulb toward the finish of Daisys dock. 6. Daisys character is improved by Fitzgeralds utilization of the shading white to show Daisys newness and blamelessness. Fitzgerald inspires two implications of white: one is the customary significance of immaculateness; the second is the strengthening of whiteness. Daisy speaks to both benefit and immaculateness. The utilization of white assists with describing her as the out of reach charmed princess who gets manifest as Gatsby s dream. 7. Gatsbys gold hued tie and silver shirt connote the endeavor that Gatsby made to show tht he was of the old riches. Be that as it may, the green clear in the book differentiates in a noteworthy way. In bygone eras individuals utilized gold as a methods for trade, yet as a national cash was built up green cash supplanted the gold and gold was not, at this point sponsored the dollar. In this way, gold speaks to the old cash and green speaks to the new. Similarly, gold represents Daisy and Toms old cash and green represents Gatsbys new cash. One can show up to the end to state that Gatsby is green and Tom is gold. He wore the gold tie and silver shirt since he needed to introduce himself to Daisy similar to a piece of the old riches. 8. Gatsbys dream is the emblematic portrayal of the perspectives that Fitzgerald holds about the authentic American experience. The debasement of Gatsbys dream; with realism as its methods and the figment of guarantee as its objective, is the defilement o f American Idealism, which thusly turns into the unfilled guarantee. Copyright 2000-95630

You Are Welcome Here

You Are Welcome Here My oldest son graduated from high school this summer and is now pursuing a career as a filmmaker. It was a proud moment for him, and for me his mom, when he won second place in a local filmmaking competition for his very first documentary. Of course, I would have loved his documentary even if the subject was about something I know nothing about like Dubstep. Okay, so someone please tell how this is any better than music from the 80’s? But I digress here. His film is actually about a topic I know a little something about as a queer mom who has questioned my sexual identity in the not too distant past. And it’s also, at the same time, about something I really know very little about too, because I have never questioned my gender. His film “Other” is about a very important topic for a lot of teens at his school. It is about gender and how kids are choosing to identify. It’s about challenging stereotypes. It’s about education. And mostly it’s about diversity. (And as soon as he gets it back online again, I’ll link it here.) And speaking of diversity, there are a few things I think are worth repeating about MIT. Things that make it such a great place to work and be a student. 1. MIT is very diverse  -with no majority ethnicity for one- and the Institute really believes in a person’s freedom of self-expression. Anyone who is taking part in REX right now can probably feel it. 2. And MIT has a non-discrimination policy that is worth taking a look at it. Here’s the statement. But I think one of the best things about MIT is that we are not part of the common application, which means we get to consider changes and additions to questions we include on our application completely independent of all the other common app schools and their particular needs. Right now, a small liberal arts college in Illinois is paving the way for what will soon be something for more Admissions offices to consider. Way to go Elmhurst! I think it’s about time that there are questions about sexual identity and gender identity on college applications and it’s my personal hope that MIT won’t be far behind in including these as well. I echo the sentiments of a commenter on the Elmhurst article who writes: “The question doesnt give them an advantage over other students, nor would it disqualify them from anything. It is what it appears to be: an optional self-identifier. No smoke or mirrors, no secret agenda, no harm. ??The application is in a section that states that Elmhurst College is committed to diversity and that if people choose to self-identify with any of a number of questions, they would like to help connect students with resources on campus…?“   And when it comes to resources on campus, MIT has the rainbow lounge, where I will be this week welcoming members of the freshman class at a couple of orientation events. And MIT also has this really wonderful website that is full of educational resources about transgender issues. Check it out. This a wonderful institution in so many ways and no matter how you choose to identify,  just remember: You are welcome here.

Facts About the First Televised Presidential Debate

The first televised presidential debate took place on Sept. 26, 1960, between Vice President Richard M. Nixon and U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy. The first televised debate is considered among the most important in American history not just because of its use of a new medium but its impact on the presidential race that year. Many historians believe Nixons ​pale, sickly and sweaty appearance helped to seal his demise in the 1960 presidential election, even though he and Kennedy were considered equals in their knowledge of policy issues. On sound points of argument, The New York Times later wrote, Nixon probably took most of the honors. Kennedy went on to win the election that year. Criticism of TV Influence on Politics The introduction of television to the electoral process forced candidates to tend not only the substance of serious policy issues but such stylistic matters as their manner of dress and haircut. Some historians have bemoaned the introduction of television to the political process, particularly the presidential debates. The present formula of TV debate is designed to corrupt the public judgment and, eventually, the whole political process, historian Henry Steele Commager wrote in the Times after the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960. The American presidency is too great an office to be subjected to the indignity of this technique. Other critics have argued that the introduction of television to the political process forces candidates to speak in short sound bites that can be cut and rebroadcast for easy consumption through advertisements or news broadcasts. The effect has been to remove most nuanced discussion of serious issues from American discourse. Support for Televised Debates The reaction wasnt all negative to the first televised presidential debate. Some journalists and media critics said the medium allowed broader access to Americans of the often cryptic political process. Theodore H. White, writing in The Making of the President 1960, said the televised debates allowed for the simultaneous gathering of all the tribes of America to ponder their choice between two chieftains in the largest political convocation in the history of man. Another media heavyweight, Walter Lippmann, described the 1960 presidential debates as a bold innovation which is bound to be carried forward into future campaigns and could not now be abandoned. Format of the First Televised Presidential Debate An estimated 70 million Americans tuned in to the first televised debate, which was the first of four that year and the first time two presidential candidates met face-to-face during a general election campaign. The first televised debate was broadcast by CBS affiliate WBBM-TV in Chicago, which aired the forum in place of the regularly scheduled Andy Griffith Show. The moderator of the first 1960 presidential debate was CBS journalist Howard K. Smith. The forum lasted 60 minutes and focused on domestic issues. A panel of three journalists—Sander Vanocur of NBC News, Charles Warren of Mutual News, and Stuart Novins of CBS—asked questions of each candidate. Both Kennedy and Nixon were allowed to make 8-minute opening statements and 3-minute closing statements. In between, they were allowed 2 and a half minutes to respond to questions and a short amount of time for rebuttals to their opponent. Behind the First Televised Presidential Debate The producer and director of the first televised presidential debate was Don Hewitt, who later went on to create the popular television news magazine 60 Minutes on CBS. Hewitt has advanced the theory that television viewers believed Kennedy won the debate because of Nixons sickly appearance, and radio listeners who could not see either candidate thought the vice president emerged victorious. In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Hewitt described Nixons appearance as green, sallow and said the Republican was in need of a clean shave. While Nixon believed the first televised presidential debate to be just another campaign appearance, Kennedy knew the event was momentous and rested beforehand. Kennedy took it seriously, Hewitt said. About Nixons appearance, he added: Should a presidential election turn on makeup? No, but this one did. A Chicago newspaper wondered, perhaps in jest, whether Nixon had been sabotaged by his makeup artist.

The Secret of Writing Research Report No One Is Talking About

The Secret of Writing Research Report No One Is Talking About Such reviews also chance to be a type of short report. Plagiarism is a specific sort of cheating. You might also take a look at quality report examples. Business report writing becomes a crucial portion of the communication process in the industry atmosphere. Dwelling just on the introduction is not a simple task. What You Should Do to Find Out About Writing Research Report Before You're Left Behind The faculty member should clearly describe to the student any information regarding the possible academic integrity violation and permit the student a chance to react to the allegations. Writing Research Briefs for every single research project is possibly the single most impactful thing a researcher can do in order to raise and consistently maintain a top quality bar. The function of the Purdue University academic community is to look for truth and to endeavor to communicate with one another. Integrity is an indis pensable part of all students' academic experience. A favorite reportis used in the event the research results have policy implications. The research design should link the information or data that are going to be collected and analyzed to the research questions which will be studied. Don't forget that it is among the sections of your research. Needless to say, plagiarizing other people's research is extremely unethical and isn't legal in some instances too. At precisely the same time, a forecast of the probable future of the subject and an indication of the type of research which should be carried out in that specific field is helpful and desirable. There are two major sorts of assessment methods direct and indirect. Apparently, the benefit is on the exact detailed specifications on the way you may present your research success. Actually, you might alter the order of the steps based on the topic, your understanding of the matter, and your sources. Remember that many of students might have to gain from your term paper. Some students highly trust the web for sources due to its convenience. Surprisingly, many students do not understand how to get the best sources. A prudent student does not need to cover a sample paper. What You Should Do About Writing Research Report Beginning in the Next 5 Minutes Your work is just the very best. Writing a memorable intro is just one of the biggest issues which people face and often, a studen t loses an excessive amount of time to compose an ideal introduction and misses out many fantastic ideas because of it. In case the class is what you would like, click the NEXT button. Not every research group, though, will publish previews. Choosing Writing Research Report Is Simple Nevertheless, the secret to a thriving research paper is organization. After you've developed your thesis statement, consider the principal points you'll have to present to support that statement. Information regarding overall profitability in addition to the intended use of the funds may also be included. You're now prepared to take that topic and produce a research proposal outline. Writers should select a wide topic about which they genuinely would love to learn more. You ought to be detached and objective in your writing. There's no denying the simple fact that academic writing is challenging. Science report writing is intended to communicate specific info in a very clear and concise man ner to the reader. With this much research available on any certain topic, research questions must be as clear as possible in order to work in helping the writer direct her or his research. By way of example, sometimes you have to do just a little background research and reading before it's possible to develop a research question. In case the report contains the work of some other author, a scarcity of referencing can cause plagiarism, which is a severe offence. Whatever sort of academic report you're writing, Custom-Writing. Take be aware that although it's supplied for free, you might wind up paying for it if you're idle. The rules specify the sort and measurements of the paper to be used together with the font style and size that the report ought to be written in. Glancing at other research reports of precisely the same type may also offer a notion of the type of format that would look best and the type of presentation skills it is possible to adopt also. Sample term papers ought to be strict ly weighed side by side with the matter of plagiarism.

Evaluate Thomas Jefferson Presidency Free Essays

The election of 1800 was a tight race and a tie broken by the House of Representatives, led to the election of Thomas Jefferson as the third president of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was in office as president for two terms, serving from 1801-1809. As a whole, Thomas Jefferson had a very positive presidency even though there were a few setbacks throughout. We will write a custom essay sample on Evaluate Thomas Jefferson Presidency or any similar topic only for you Order Now There were many significant events that happened during these eight years and the most well known would be: the Louisiana Purchase, the undeclared Barbary War, and the trade acts imposed due to problems with France and Britain . All great things must come to an end and Jefferson was succeeded by John Adams. America is a superpower and Thomas Jefferson was a great impact to all that as been accomplished as a nation. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803, was the greatest accomplishment of Jefferson in his presidency. The French under Napoleon had a great deal of economic problems already and maintaining the land in the west was a lot to handle so they sold it to the United States. In addition, France was fighting Britain and they needed more money and they wanted to only sell New Orleans at first, but ended up selling the whole territory (Henretta). At the time they sold this territory for 15 million dollars which ended up being about two cents an acre(Holmes). This purchase was very positive because this territory doubled the United States territory and this was great for them in order with westward expansion and exploration of the west. This expansion led to Lewis and Clark to explore the new lands. They were sent to experience the plants, animals, geography, and to learn how this region could be exploited economically. Without Jefferson in power, this expedition that they set out on may not have been accomplished and the United States may have not been so advanced at this time. At the time of the purchase, buying it was deemed unconstitutional but Thomas Jefferson went through with it anyway. The purpose at the time was to get French out of this region all together to protect our trade on the port of New Orleans. Also, it was to protect the free passage along the Mississippi River. Not only was this one of the greatest accomplishments of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, but may have been one of the greatest events in America’s history. During Thomas Jefferson’s presidency another event that is very significant would be the undeclared Barbary Wars. During this time, a reason this is so remembered, Jefferson was spending a lot of the country’s money. The Barbary States were off of North Africa and leading up to this undeclared war, they were seizing the international ships and holding the crews hostage for ransom money. At the time, he wanted to avoid all out war which would increase taxes and national debt which at this point he was very right (Henretta). This was particularly dangerous for the country because at the time there was not a strong navy. Merchants were in danger every time they went out on the water. As a nation, the United States defeated the Barbary States and that led to not paying the Barbary people money. These tensions may have been negative during the time, but as we look back on history, Jefferson did the right thing for the country and him defeating these pirates really reflects on his presidency being very positive for the United States. Lastly, major trade problems with Britain and France and relationships were very important to Jefferson’s presidency. With all of these problems many acts were passed in order to relive the tension. The United States wanted to be neutral during problems between Britain and France, but somehow always ended up right in the middle. One of the first acts that was imposed was the Nonintercourse Act(1806), and that halted importation of British products. This did little to no harm to the British so in 1809 trade with Britain was reopened. Another act that was imposed on America was the Embargo Act which prohibited all trade and this really hurt New England the most. This hurt New Englanders so much that it caused many of them to side with Pinckney in the 1808 election. Even though some may have sided, John Adams won the election and succeeded Thomas Jefferson. This was a rough patch to his presidency, but despite the few foreign affairs he did a great job with dealing with France and Britain during these times. Thomas Jefferson was one of the very first presidents of the United States and his presidency is one of many that have made America the super power that it is. Each president that lasts the full two terms must have been liked by many to stay in the office for eight years so he definitely did something right. Jefferson purchased territory that nearly doubled America’s size, defeated the Barbary pirates in â€Å"undeclared war†, and although there were many foreign affairs during this time he handled them very well. He is one that is remembered and will continue to be remembered through time for all of the positive things he accomplished. Thomas Jefferson had a very positive presidency and in eight years did a lot for Americans and has been apart of shaping the nation. How to cite Evaluate Thomas Jefferson Presidency, Papers

One Can No More Prevent The Mind From Returning To An Idea Than The Se

"One can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the seas from returning to a shore. In the case of the guilty, it is called remorse." Victor Hugo's examination of Jean Valjean's thoughts in Les Mis?rables applies to everybody. Humans can respond to this guilt from mistakes in different ways. Sometimes, we accept our mistakes and can carry on with our lives. Other times, we slip into a vicious cycle of denial, destroying our conscience, while other times, guilt can consume our every thought and destroys our being. Guilt is a very powerful emotion that can destroy even the strongest people unless they can find forgiveness. Lady Macbeth feels guilty about her part in Duncan's murder. Her intense regret is best expressed in her sleep walking scene in Act V, scene i. Her sadness is also expressed in Act III, when she misses her husband's love and endearment. This guilt eats away at Lady Macbeth's soul, and she eventually commits suicide. Lady Macbeth allowed her guilt to fill her every thought and she let this feeling get to the point where she could bear it no more. Her mind kept on returning to thoughts of remorse she had for encouraging her husband to kill Duncan. Because Lady Macbeth was not able to forgive herself for her part in Duncan's murder, her guilt led to her death. Macbeth responded quite differently to his guilt than Lady Macbeth. At first, he was very distraught by it. He was paralyzed by guilt for an instant, when he was unable to go back to plant the daggers on the guards. Later, he expressed his remorse to Lady Macbeth with the phrase "scorpions in my mind." He envisioned Banquo's ghost in the dining hall, and temporarily became insane. Through these events and at other times in the play, it shows how Macbeth gradually became more immune to this guilt. At least his exterior appearance became more immune to guilt. Macbeth's conscience seemed to be destroyed. Macbeth seemed to rationalize his murders and thus, slipped into a state o f denial. This denial was not without its drawbacks though. While Macbeth was able to put the murder behind him, deep down, he knew that he couldn't rationalize the murder, and this inner conflict stirred in Macbeth's mind, turning him into a paranoid schizophrenic. Macbeth kept on returning to the thought of murder, and all the power each subsequent murder brought him, urging him further into evil. Although Macbeth appeared to become more cool and confident as the play progressed, I believe his outward stability progressed at the expense of his inward security. Macduff epitomizes what humans should strive for when facing their mistakes. Macduff's mistake was not a heinous murder, yet it did end in the tragic massacre of his family. Macduff's loyalty to his country compelled him to leave his family alone, vulnerable to Macbeth's regime. While Macduff, like Macbeth, was temporarily paralyzed by his guilt and grief, Macduff acknowledges his own wrongdoing. By accepting his part, he wa s able to begin finding forgiveness. The first critical step different from Macbeth's quest for forgiveness was Macduff was consoled by his friend Malcolm. Macduff did feel guilty for leaving his family alone, yet he realized that he could not change the past, and forced himself to move on. While Macduff probably thought about his family often, he realized that they were gone, and that he had to move on. By forgiving himself, he was able to move on to save the good of Scotland. Neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth were able to forgive themselves for their actions, yet they responded to their guilt in different ways. There are many reasons why they could have responded differently, but I believe that these characters were returning to different thoughts of remorse. Lady Macbeth kept on returning to her idea to kill Duncan, and that she convinced Macbeth to carry out the murder. She didn't get any benefits from Duncan's death, and felt nothing but sorry for her actions. Macbeth kept retur ning to the actual murder, his source of guilt, yet he received many benefits from Duncan's death. He became king and received the admiration of Scotland.

Japanese Martial Arts Essays - Japanese Martial Arts, Danzan-ry

Japanese Martial Arts Essays - Japanese Martial Arts, Danzan-ry Japanese Martial Arts The Martial Arts of Japan The martial arts have influenced Japan in many ways. Many of these arts have been passed down from ancient times and are still even practiced today. In my report, I will examine the major Japanese arts and tell how they have influenced Japan. First, however, I will give a little background for these arts. The original word for Japanese martial arts was bujutsu, or art of the military. This had more to do with physical techniques than philosophical and mental. The physical, mental and philosophical techniques were combined to create budo, or way of the military. Budo was also used to describe the code of the samurai in feudal days. Karate is actually a Japanese word meaning empty hand.(Nakayama 80) This applies that no weapons other than the hands are needed to attack or defend. Karate is categorized into four parts physical conditioning, self-defense, mental conditioning, and sport. A typical Karate tournament would include demonstrations of breaking, weapons use, self-defense techniques, tradition and open forms and the most exciting competition, sparring. Nobody is quite sure when Karate was created, but we do know that an Indian priest, Daruma, a brilliant doctor, Hua T'o, and a popular general of the Sung Dynasty, Yuen Fei, are considered its forefathers. We also know that it was developed in Okinawan islands from Chinese techniques and local innovations as a system of self-defense. In the 1920's, Gichin Funakoshi, an Okinawan schoolteacher taught a method of karate to Japan which caught on. Figure 1 - Sumo Warrior seen meditating before a battle Sumo in its early days tended to be violent with no holds barred. During the reign of Emperor Saga (r. 809-23) the practice of sumo was encouraged as a martial art and rules were established and techniques cultivated. It is impossible to determine whether the art of sumo is a completely native sport or whether similar forms of grappling from other parts of Asia and Eurasia influenced it. Grappling is a rather basic, instinctive sport practiced mostly by men. In fact, the first grappling match ever described went as so, 'lowly mortals grappled for quite a while until one finally rendered some devastating kicks to the other's stomach and solar plexus. The one who was kicked was mortally wounded, and the victor went cheered.'(Newton 103) The earliest written mention of sumo is found in the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), a book from the year 712. According to the book, about 2,500 years ago, the gods Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata grappled along the Japan Sea coast in what is now Shimane-ken, until the latter finally lost. Takemikazuchi, who is said to have established the imperial family from which emperors could trace their roots, gave control of the archipelago to the Japanese people. The Japanese did not keep any written records until the 8th century. This means it is impossible to know, aside from the legend, exactly when the art of sumo first developed in Japan. However, ancient wall paintings indicate the origin is very old. Jujitsu is a 3,000-year-old martial art. It originated from a blending of native sumo and fighting techniques in Japan with the soft aspects of Kung Fu from China. Jujitsu incorporates empty hand defense and offense as well as bone setting and healing techniques for use by the instructor to fix any injuries occurring during training. It is also the predecessor of Aikido and Judo. One popular style of jujitsu is Danzan Ryu (the Cedar Mountain System.) Seishiro Okazaki founded Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. He got tuberculosis and sought to build his strength in martial arts. Affecting a cure due to the 6 days per week workout, massage and healing by his sensei, he dedicated his life to study of Budo & healing. Another style of jujitsu is ninjitsu. Ninjitsu is the art of invisibility. Along with its jujitsu background, it can also be traced back to Chinese spying techniques. Ninjas were used in the sixth century to gain information about the enemy and sabotage his operations. However, we now call ninjas anybody who practices this art. Ninjas can be both male and female, but must possess three abilities. They must be a hunter, a wizard and a warrior. As with

4 Amazing Recommendation Letter Samples for Students

4 Amazing Recommendation Letter Samples for Students SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips How important are recommendation letters in a college application? According to William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, they are "extremely important." If you're a student, examples of great letters of recommendation can help you understand how to get strong letters yourself from your teachers. If you're a teacher, the examples in this guide will inspire you to support your students strongly as they apply to college. Keep reading for four excellent letters from teachers that will get anyone into college, along with expert analysis on why they're so strong. Important Note: Are you looking for job recommendation letters? If so, check out my great post here! Want to provide a strong recommendation for your employee, but don't have the time to craft the perfect letter? PrepScholar's new recommendation tool, SimpleRec, takes you from good intentions and a blank page to a fully written and formatted letter of recommendation in under 5 minutes. All you need to do is give us some simple pieces of information about your employee and your experience working with them, and we'll do the rest. Try out SimpleRec risk-free today: First, let's understand the role of recommendation letters in your application. Why are Recommendation Letters Important? The majority of admissions officers at four-year colleges, especially private schools, emphasize that their process is holistic. They seek to gain a sense of the student as a "whole person," rather than focusing on pieces of who she is based solely on grades and test scores. Since they rarely meet the student in person, the recommendation letters, along with the student's own personal essay, play a huge role in illuminating her intellectual and personal qualities. That's why recommendation letters from teachers, especially those who know their students well, carry a great deal of weight in applications. A letter that expresses a strong vote of support, as well as highlights a student's impressive academic and personal strengths, can have a powerful effect on that student's chances of admission. Let's look at some samples of strong recommendation letters, one from an English teacher, another from a physics teacher, the third from a history teacher, and the final one from a math teacher. Then we'll break down exactly why these letters of recommendation are effective. The first example recommends Sara, a senior who loves to write and read poetry. Sample Letter #1: Sara the Poet Dear Admissions Committee, I had the pleasure of teaching Sara in her th grade honors English class at Mark Twain High School. From the first day of class, Sara impressed me with her ability to be articulate about difficult concepts and texts, her sensitivity to the nuances within literature, and her passion for reading, writing, and creative expression- both in and out of the classroom. Sara is a talented literary critic and poet, and she has my highest recommendation as a student and writer. Sara is talented at considering the subleties within literature and the purpose behind authors' works. She produced an extraordinary year-long thesis paper on creative identity development, in which she compared works from three different time periods and synthesized cultural and historical perspectives to inform her analysis. When called upon to give her thesis defense in front of her peers, Sara spoke clearly and eloquently about her conclusions and responded to questions in a thoughtful way. Outside of the classroom, Sara is dedicated to her literary pursuits, especially to poetry. She publishes her poetry in our school's literary magazine, as well as in online magazines. She is an insightful, sensitive, and deeply self-aware individual driven to explore art, writing, and a deeper understanding of the human condition. Throughout the year Sara was an active participant in our discussions, and she always supported her peers. Her caring nature and personality allow her to work well with others in a team setting, as she always respects others' opinions even when they differ from her own. When we held a class debate about gun laws, Sara opted to speak for the side opposite her own views. She explained her choice as motivated by a desire to put herself in other people's shoes, view the issues from a new perspective, and gain a clearer sense of the issue from all angles. Throughout the year, Sara demonstrated this openness to and empathy for the opinions, feelings, and perspectives of others, along with shrewd powers of observation, all qualities that makes her outstanding as a student of literature and burgeoning writer. I am certain that Sara is going to continue to do great and creative things in her future. I highly recommend her for admission to your undergraduate program. She is talented, caring, intuitive, dedicated, and focused in her pursuits. Sara consistently seeks out constructive feedback so she can improve her writing skills, which is a rare and impressive quality in a high school student. Sara is truly a stand-out individual who will impress everyone she meets. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at callmeclemens@gmail.com. Sincerely, Ms. ScribeEnglish TeacherMark Twain High School This is a thorough, glowing recommendation for a student that Ms. Scribe clearly knows well. What other features make it stand out as a strong letter of rec? The Breakdown Ms. Scribe has a high opinion of Sara and her skills at writing and literary analysis. One way that she expresses this is by using powerful and specific language. She doesn't merely say Sara is a good writer. She says she's articulate about difficult concepts and sensitive to the nuances within literature. She calls her insightful and self-aware with shrewd powers of observation. These descriptors don't happen by accident. Ms. Scribe took the time to choose her words carefully, and that effort paid off with a strong letter that captures Sara's special qualities. Ms. Scribe also supports her characterization of Sara with examples. She describes her thesis paper and how she responded to questions thoughtfully under the pressured situation of her thesis defense. She gives the example of the debate on gun laws to illustrate Sara's openness to many different points of view. In addition to illuminating her intellectual and personal strengths and supporting them with specific examples, Ms. Scribe speaks to Sara's goals for the future. She points out that she is talented at writing, poetry specifically, and that she is committed to continuing to improve as a writer in her future. This letter, by virtue of its wording, length, and specificity, shows that Ms. Scribe took the time and effort to recommend Sara thoughtfully and with conviction. The fact that she knows Sara well and is committed to helping her application succeed with a thoughtful letter further adds weight to her assessment. This letter would be a boon to Sara's application, especially if she's applying to study writing or English. She clearly impressed her English teacher and, in return, got a memorable, complimentary letter of recommendation for her college application. This next example is similarly enthusiastic and detailed. It's for a student applying to an engineering program. Want to build the best possible college application, with the strongest recommendations? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. Sample Letter #2:Stacy the Engineer Dear Admissions Committee, It is a great pleasure to recommend Stacy for admission to your engineering program. She is one of the most exceptional students I have encountered in my 15 years of teaching. I taught Stacy in my th grade honors physics class and advised her in Robotics Club. I am not surprised to find out she is now ranked at the top of an extraordinarily capable class of seniors. She has a keen interest in and talent for physics, math, and scientific inquiry. Her advanced skills and passion for the subject make her an ideal fit for your rigorous engineering program. Stacy is a perceptive, sharp, quick individual with a high aptitude for math and science. She is driven to understand how things work, whether they be the old computer hard drives in the school library or the forces that hold our universe together. Her final project in class was especially impressive, an investigation of frequency-dependent sound absorption, an idea that she said was sparked by not wanting to bother her parents with her hours of guitar practice at home. She's been a strong leader in Robotics Club, eager to share her knowledge with others and learn new skills. I have the students in the club prepare lessons and take turns leading our after-school meetings. When it was Stacy's turn, she showed up prepared with a fascinating lecture on lunar nautics and fun activities that got everyone moving and talking. She was our only student teacher to be met with much deserved applause at the end of her lesson. Stacy's personal strengths are as impressive as her intellectual accomplishments. She's an active, outgoing presence in class with a great sense of humor. Stacy's the perfect person to get a group project rolling, but she also knows how to sit back and let others take the lead. Her cheerful nature and openness to feedback means she's always learning and growing as a learner, an impressive strength that will continue to serve her well in college and beyond. Stacy is just the kind of driven, engaging, and curious student that helped make our classroom a lively environment and safe place to take intellectual risks. Stacy has my highest recommendation for admission to your engineering program. She has demonstrated excellence in all that she puts her mind to, whether it's designing an experiment, collaborating with others, or teaching herself to play classical and electrical guitar. Stacy's endless curiosity, combined with her willingness to take risks, leads me to believe there will be no limit to her growth and achievements in college and beyond. Please don't hesitate to contact me at milevamaricfanclub@gmail.comif you have any questions. Sincerely, Ms. RandallPhysics TeacherMarie Curie High School Ms. Randall is clearly as much of a fan of Stacy as she is of Mileva Marić. How does she communicate her recommendation? The Breakdown Ms. Randall plugs for Stacy right off the bat with a statement of outstanding ranking: Stacy isone of the most exceptional students she's had in 15 years of teaching. A statement like this is pretty extraordinary and will make an impact in the mind of its readers. Stacy sounds like a special student, and she chose her recommender well. Like in the last example, this letter uses strong, specific language, calling Stacy a perceptive and sharp person who has the confidence and good humor to take intellectual risks. Through its accurate and expressive language, this letter helps Stacy come to life in the mind of the reader. Beyond the evaluation, Ms. Randall gives specific examples of Stacy's academic and personal strengths. She talks about her successful teaching in Robotics Club, her leadership in group projects, and her dedicated practice to teaching herself to play the guitar. Rather than spreading the letter too thin, Ms. Randall highlights a few core themes. She connects Stacy's love of music with her passion for physics by talking about the frequency-dependent sound absorption project. All the threads tie together in a nice, memorable bow. This letter is a strong vote of support for Stacy's application to an engineering program. Her physics teacher admires Stacy's skills and goals, and she made it clear that Stacy had her highest recommendation in this letter. This next example also comes from a teacher who's extremely impressed with his student. It focuses on the student's performance in class and his volunteer work outside the classroom. Sample Letter #3:William the History Buff and Social Organizer Dear Admissions Committee, It is hard to overstate the meaningful contributions that William has made to our school and surrounding community. As both his 10th and th grade History teacher, I've had the pleasure of seeing William make profound contributions both in and out of the classroom. His school and community service is motivated by a strong sense of social justice, which he informs through a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of historical trends and events. I can say with confidence that William is one of the most caring and driven students I've ever taught in my fifteen years at the school. As a child of immigrant parents, William is especially drawn to understand the immigrant experience. He produced an extraordinary semester-long research paper on the treatment of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. during WWII, in which he went beyond all expectations to conduct Skype interviews with relatives of his featured subjects to incorporate into his paper. William has a great capacity to draw connections between past and present and to ground his understanding of current issues in the context of historical events. He never retreats to a simple answer or explanation, but is comfortable dealing with ambiguity. William's fascination with U.S. and World History and skill for deep analysis have him an exemplary scholar, as a well as a motivated activist driven to promote civil rights and work towards social equity. In sophomore year, William noticed that the college planning seminars students attended included little information for first generation or immigrant students. Always thinking about how institutions can better serve people, William spoke with counselors and ESL teachers about his ideas to better support all students. He helped collect resources and design a college planning curriculum for immigrant and undocumented students to enhance their college access. He further helped organize a group that connected ESL students with native English speakers, stating his mission to be helping ELLs improve their English and increasing multicultural awareness and social cohesion at the school as a whole. William identified a need and worked with students and faculty alike to meet it in an extremely effective and beneficial way. Ever the history scholar, he did plenty of research to back up his ideas. William believes passionately in social progress and working for the common good. His own personal experiences, along with his profound grasp on social history, drive his advocacy work. He is a talented, intelligent student with the charisma, confidence, strong values, and respect for others to make a huge difference in the world around him. I'm looking forward to seeing all the good that William continues to do for his fellow humanity in college and beyond, as well as the excellent work that he will produce at the college level. William has my highest recommendation. If you have any questions, please contact me at thethingstheycarried@gmail.com. Sincerely, Mr. JacksonHistory TeacherMartin Luther King, Jr. High School Mr. Jackson's letter makes William sound like a pretty amazing student and person. How does he go about expressing his admiration for William in this rec letter? The Breakdown Like Ms. Randall did in her letter, Mr. Jackson provides a statement of outstanding ranking for William, calling him one of the most caring and driven students he's ever taught. Considering his long teaching career of 15 years, this says a lot about William as a student and a person. Also like in the last example, Mr. Jackson focuses on a few core aspects of William's character. He talks about his love of history and how it informs his social activism. He comments on his exceptional historical scholarship, as well as his personal qualities of caring for those around him and working for the social good. Mr. Jackson also gives insight into William's personal life, explaining how he has a personal connection to his projects and volunteer work as the child of immigrant parents. This letter reveals that William is a thoughtful, motivated individual who connects his own experiences with his learning and desire to contribute to his community. The letter also showcases William's exceptional accomplishments by giving specific examples of William's research paper and his work supporting the academic and personal needs of ELL students. Mr. Jackson expresses his enthusiastic recommendation while illuminating William's love of learning and strength of character. This letter would be both impressive and memorable to admissions officers considering William for admission to their school. This next example comes from a math teacher. Let's see what Mr. Wiles has to say about Joe. Sample Letter #4:Joe the Hard Worker Dear Admissions Committee, It is my pleasure to recommend Joe, who I taught in my th grade math class. Joe demonstrated tremendous effort and growth throughout the year and brought a great energy to class. He has that combination of a positive attitude and the belief that he can always improve that's rare in a high school student, but so essential to the learning process. I am confident that he will continue to display the same commitment and diligence in everything he does. I highly recommend Joe for admission to your school. Joe would not describe himself as a math person. He's told me on several occasions that all the numbers and variables make his mind go fuzzy. Joe did, in fact, struggle to comprehend the material at the beginning of the year, but his response to this is what really struck me. Where so many others have given up, Joe took on this class as a welcome challenge. He stayed after school for extra help, got extra tutoring at the nearby college, and asked questions in and out of class.Due to all his hard work, Joe not only raised his grades, but he also inspired some of his classmates to stay after for extra help, as well. Joe truly demonstrated a growth mindset, and he inspired his peers to adopt that valuable perspective, too. Joe helped contribute to our classroom environment as one where all students can feel supported and able to ask questions. Joe's strong belief in his ability to acquire new skills and improve through practice was likely shaped by his years as a baseball player. He's played all through high school and is one of the team's most valuable players. In his final for our class, Joe designed an impressive project calculating and analyzing batting averages. While he initially described himself as not a math person, Joe reaped the benefits of his tremendous effort and found a way to make the subject come alive for him in a way that he was personally invested in. As a teacher, it is incredibly fulfilling to witness a student make this kind of academic and personal progress. Joe is a trustworthy, reliable, good-humored student and friend who supports others in and out of the classroom. He was a pleasure to have in class, and his positive attitude and belief in himself, even in the face of difficulty, is an immensely admirable asset. I'm confident that he will continue to demonstrate the same diligence, perseverance, and optimism that he showed myself and his peers. I highly recommend Joe for admission to your undergraduate program. Please feel free to contact me with any further questions at fortheloveofalgebra@gmail.com. Sincerely, Mr. WilesMath TeacherEuclid High School While the students featured in the first three examples were top of their class or demonstrated leadership in the school, Joe isn't a top achiever in the traditional sense. However, this recommendation is still a strong one, even if it says he struggled in the teacher's class. What does Mr. Wiles focus on to recommend Joe? The Breakdown Mr. Wiles writes a strong letter for Joe, with the same kind of enthusiasm and specific examples as the other three letters. Even though Joe may not have gotten the strongest grades in his math class, he found an enthusiastic recommender in his math teacher. Mr. Wiles was extremely impressed with Joe's attitude, effort, and growth mindset, which he demonstrated throughout the year and inspired in his fellow classmates. Mr. Wiles focuses on Joe's substantial personal strengths, ones that would likely be impressive to his future educators. Even in a subject that may not come naturally to him, Joe is diligent and committed. He's not self-conscious about asking questions or seeking extra help, and he retains a strong belief in himself that he can continuously learn, improve, and acquire new skills. This letter, like the others, is effective because it is focused, supportive, and backed up with examples.As you can tell from these examples, recommendations can communicate a great deal about a student. Because of this, they can have a powerful impact on a student's chances of admission. So what can teachers and students do to make sure they are sending a strong recommendation letter that will help their chances? Enthusiasm is key. How to Get a Strong Recommendation Letter While these letters are about different students with different interests, they share certain fundamental features. One, they sound excited and enthusiastic. The teachers clearly communicate that they are impressed by these students and eager to help them get into college. At the same time, the letters don't go overboard because they have examples to back up their assessments. Specific examples and stories are key for backing up the assessment. Plus, they make a letter more interesting and memorable. Rather than just another engineering applicant, Stacy is the student who researched sound-absorption to spare her parents from hours of guitar scales. Finally, the teachers all discuss their students' personal strengths, along with their academic strengths. They present the holistic view that admissions officers are looking for, along with their strong vote of confidence in the students' future success. Teachers should incorporate all these features into their letters, and students should help provide them with the raw material to write about. While students should choose a teacher who knows them well and has stories and observations to share, they should also give their teachers a detailed "brag sheet" and let them know what would go into their ideal letter. That way it can be even more personalized and complement the story the student is telling in the rest of her application. While recommenders may or may not share their letters with students, there should still be open, two-way communication when the student makes her request. That way students and teachers can work together to produce an insightful, enthusiastic, and specific letter of recommendation to send to colleges. Want to build the best possible college application, with the strongest recommendations? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. What's Next? Are you a teacher writing recommendations for your students? Read all about how to write an outstanding recommendation letter for your students, along with what not to include. Are you or a student you work with applying to a selective school, like Harvard? Learn about what kind of letter she should get for the Ivy League. Now that you've read these examples of strong teacher recommendation letters, check out these examples of bad ones. Warning: rec letters may appear better than they actually are. 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Summarise the major current demographic trends in any one country with Assignment

Summarise the major current demographic trends in any one country with which you are familiar.Explain what the likely long-term - Assignment Example This upward trend in the UK’s population represents reversal of the position in the 1970s and 1980s, when, due to substantial emigration and low birth rates, there were negative swings in population. The rise in birth rate after 2004 is attributed to women born overseas who generally bear more number of children than their native counterparts. The higher birth rate has also led to the increase in the average age of the population. During 1851, 7 per cent of the population was aged above 60. This increased to 9 per cent and 16 per cent by 1901 and 1951 respectively, and to 21 per cent as per the 2001 census. Moreover, it has been estimated that there will be 16.8 million people above 65 years of age in the UK by 2050. There is a local dimension to the population spread. On average the population of England is expected to increase by 7% between 2010 and 2020 but according to projections from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), some areas are expected to record a decrease. Of the 20 local authority areas for which fastest growth is projected, Norwich is the furthest north (Local Government Association report, 2010). In the UK, 80 per cent of people live in the urban areas, and population density varies hugely across the country. It is highest in inner London, and lowest in the Scottish highlands. Within the UK again, there is fair amount of migration taking place. Between the 1930s and 2001 the major trend was a movement of people from the north of the country to the south. The southern regions gained 30,000 people a year on average during this period. Since 2001 there has been an apparent reversal of this long term trend, the north gaining 35,000 people per year at the expense of the south. Due to such trends, the populations of Scotland and Wales are falling. In both countries there are considerably more deaths than births each year and relatively high levels of net-emigration. The UK is also dealing with the issue of ever-increasing immigration. In terestingly, throughout the 1970s as well as during early 1980s, there was more migration from the UK to elsewhere in the world than immigration to it. From 1993, this trend reversed and there was a huge gap between people migrating from the UK and those migrating to the UK. This gap kept widening till 2008, after which it has slowly begun to narrow. Such demographic changes have had direct impact on the country’s welfare policies. As the size of the population is getting bigger who avail the welfare schemes than those who contribute for them there is a potential threat to social security, although this is yet not apparent. Demography is pivotal to framing and execution of social policy because of its close relationship to need, and in turn, demand upon the welfare state (Vickerstaff, Manning, and Baldock, 2007). Also, the demand for new housing and related development as a result of demographic change is increasingly posing threat to environmental issues in some parts of the country, and in order to tackle this, the economy is further being strained (UK report, 2011). On the other hand, demographic changes pose challenges for the economy and public finances in the long term, as the increase in dependents is greater than the increase in working-age population. The main driver of this change is the ageing of population (Financial Statement and

Buddhism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Buddhism - Essay Example Thus, Buddhism is a philosophy that can also be a religion. One of the passages that relates to personal ethics is this: â€Å"Wakefulness is the way of life†¦How happy he is! For he sees that wakefulness is life!...† (from the Dhammapada translated by Byrom as qtd. in Kornfield 1). When I am wakeful, I am aware of who I am and what I am doing in relation to the effects of my actions to others and my environment. Wakefulness is important to being mindful of my impacts on others. In addition, this passage is related to professional and public ethics: â€Å"A person of wisdom should be truthful, without arrogance, without deceit, not slanderous and not hateful† (adapted from the Sutta-nipata translated by Saddhatissa as qtd. in Kornfield 3). This is related to professional ethics because it emphasizes the importance of truthfulness in doing our jobs. It reminds people of the wisdom in being honest in all our roles and responsibilities as professionals. It is also related to public ethics because public employees should serve without malice and deceit. They should do their jobs with honesty and integrity. The moral framework of Buddhism works within some of our public topics because it highlights moral responsibilities for truthfulness and mindfulness that are important, such as when voting and public policy. For example, we have to be mindful when voting and be critical of whom we are selecting as our public officials because they are going to make important decisions with our taxpayers’ money and the power we give to them. Public policy also needs truthfulness in being sincere in serving people’s real needs and mindfulness in being aware of how every decision impacts different stakeholders. The moral framework of Buddhism can help citizens and politicians become more aware of their roles and responsibilities and how they can work together in solving social Buddhism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4 Buddhism - Essay Example Buddhism, as a few people know, is not as much a religion as it is a meditative inner power of sorts. Contrary to other religions, Buddhism does not bestow upon its followers a doctrine or set of instructions that one must follow if they do not want to be banished to eternal hellfire. In fact, Buddhism’s primary principles are based on the human psychology, something many people can and do relate to. Unlike a god that cannot be seen and that must be envisioned as being eternally powerful, Buddhism’s mantra revolves around inner finding, and inner peace with oneself (Hanh, pp.4 – 11). This lack of external factors incites people to come towards it and share in this belief. As it is human nature to be alpha dogs of society, this is ultimately the perfect combination of belief and human psychology since now man is satisfied that there is no factor outside his influence as far as life is concerned, and that, crude as it may sound, is a proposition that brings about s atisfaction to man today. The secret to Buddhism’s success lies within its principles; most ideas that conflict with man’s autonomous nature have been discarded by Buddhism. For example, Buddhism by and large rejects the tedious existence of God, angels, heaven and hell. So now, instead of feeling confined, forced and, in a way, threatened to believe in a religion, people are told that if they follow, they will be doing so only for their inner peace, and that equation settles well with most cynics and rebels of society. This lack of ultimatums makes man feel less violated and less forced; in short, it is a religion that actively allows man to practice according to his free will. In addition, thus, as a progressive religion that adapts to man’s nature, it has done pretty well in terms of acceptance on a global level, as can be seen from its increasing numbers. Transformation of consciousness is one of the primary aims of a Buddhist. In America, freedoms of

Speech Enhancement And De Nosing By Wavelet Thresholding And Transform Ii Computer Science Essay

Speech Enhancement And De Nosing By Wavelet Thresholding And Transform Ii Computer Science Essay In this project the experimenter will seek to design and implement techniques in order to denoise a noisy audio signal using the MATLAB software and its functions, a literature review will be done and summarized to give details of the contribution to the area of study. Different techniques that have been used in the audio and speech processing procedure will be analyzed and studied. The implementation will be done using MATLAB version 7.0. Introduction The Fourier analysis of a signal can be used as a very powerful tool; it can perform the functions of obtaining the frequency component and the amplitude component of signals. The Fourier analysis can be used to analyze components of stationary signals, these are signals that repeat, signals that are composed of sine and cosine components, but in terms of analyzing non stationary signals, these are signals that have no repetition in the region that is sampled, the Fourier transform is not very efficient. Wavelet transform on the other hand allows for these signals to be analyzed. The basic concept behind wavelets is that a signal can be analyzed by splicing it into different components and then these components are studied individually. In terms of their frequency and time, in terms of Fourier analysis the signal is analyzed in terms of its sine and cosine components but when a wavelet approach is adapted then the analysis is different, the wavelet algorithm employes a process and an alyzed the data on different scales and resolution as compared to Fourier analysis. In using the wavelet analysis, a type of wavelet, referred to as being the mother wavelet is used as the main wavelet type for analysis; analysis is then performed from the mother wavelet that is of higher frequency. From the Fourier analysis the frequency analysis of the signal is done with a simplified form of the mother wavelet, from the wavelet components that are achieved via this process further analysis can be done on these coefficients. Haar wavelet types are very compact and this is one of their defining features, its compact ability, as the interval gets so large it then starts to vanish, but the Haar wavelets have a major limiting factor they are not continuously differentiable. In the analysis of a given signal the time domain component can be used in the analysis of the frequency component of that signal, this concept is the Fourier transform, where a signal component is translated to th e frequency domain from a time domain function, the analysis of the signal for its frequency component can now be done, and based of Fourier analysis this is possible because this analysis incorporates the cosine and sine of the frequency. Based on the Fourier transform a finite set of sampled points are analyzed this results in the discrete Fourier transforms, these sample points are typical to what the original signal looks like, to gather the approximate function of a sample, and the gathering of the integral, by the implementation of the discrete Fourier transforms. This is realized by the use of a matrix, the matrix contains an order of the total amount of points of sample,  the problem encountered worsens as the number of samples are increased. If there is uniform spacing between the samples then it is possible to factor in the Fourier matrix into the, multiplication of a few matrices, the results of this can be subjected to a vector of an order of the form m log m operation s, the result of this know as the Fast Fourier Transform. Both Fourier transforms mentioned above are linear transforms. The transpose of the FFT and the DWT is what is referred to as the inverse transform matrix and they can be cosine and sine, but in the wavelet domain more complex mother wavelet functions are formed. The domain of analysis in the Fourier transforms are the sine and cosine, but as it regards to wavelets there exist a more complex domain function called wavelets, mother wavelets are formed. The functions are localized functions, and are set in the frequency domain, can be seen in the power spectra. This proves useful in finding the frequency and power distribution. Based on the fact that wavelet transforms are transforms that are localized as compared to Fourier functions that are not, the Fourier function being mentioned are the sine and cosine, this feature of wavelet makes it a useful candidate in the purpose of this research, this feature of wavelets makes oper ations using wavelets transform sparse and this is useful when used for noise removal. A major advantage of using wavelets is that the windows vary. A major application of this is to realize the portions and signals that are not continuous having short wavelet functions is a good practice to overcome this, but to obtain more in depth analysis having longer functions are best. A practice that is utilized is having basis functions that are of short high frequency and basis functions that are of long low frequency (A. Graps, 1995-2004), point to note Is that unlike Fourier analysis that have a limited basis function sine and cosine wavelets have unlimited set of basis functions . This is a very important feature as it allows wavelet to identify information from a signal that can be hidden by other time frequency methods, namely Fourier analysis. Wavelets consist of different families within each family of wavelet there exist different subclasses that are differentiated based on the coefficients that are decomposed and their levels of iteration, wavelets are mostly classified based on their number of coefficients, that is also referred to as their vanishing moments, a mathematical relationship relates both. Fig above showing examples of wavelets (N. Rao 2001) One of the most helpful and defining features of using wavelets is that the experimenter has control over the wavelet coefficients for a wavelet type. Families of wavelets were developed that proved to be very efficient in the representation of polynomial behavior the simplest of these is the Haar wavelet. The coefficients can be thought of as being filters; these are then placed in a transformation matrix and applied to a raw data vector. The different coefficients are ordered with patterns that work as a smoothing filter and another pattern whose function is to realize the detail information of the data (D. Aerts and I. Daubechies 1979). The coefficient matrix for the wavelet analysis is then applied in a hierarchical algorithm, based on its arrangement odd rows contain the different coefficients, the coefficients will be acting as filters that perform smoothing and the rows that are even will have the coefficients of the wavelets that contains the details from the analysis, it is to the full length data the matrix is first applied, it is then smoothed and disseminated by half after this process the step is repeated with the matrix., where more smoothing takes place and the different coefficients are halved, this process is repeated several times until the data that remains is smoothed, what this process actually does is to bring out the highest resolutions from that data source and data smoothing is also performed. In the removal of noise from data wavelet applications have proved very efficient and successful, as can be seen in work done by David Donoho, the process of noise removal is called wavelet shrinkage and thresholding. When data is decomposed using wavelets, actually filters are used as averaging filters while the other produce details, some of the coefficients will relate to some details of the data set and if a given detailed is small, it can then be removed from the data set without affecting any major feature as it relates to the data. The basi c idea of thresholding is setting coefficients that are at a particular threshold or less than a particular threshold to zero, these coefficients are then later used in an inverse wavelet transform to reconstruct the data set (S. Cai and K. Li, 2010) Literature Review The work done by Student Nikhil Rao (2001) was reviewed, according to the work that was done a completely new algorithm was developed that focused on the compression of speech signals, based on techniques for discrete wavelet transforms. The MATLAB software version 6 was used in order to simulate and implement the codes. The steps that were taken to achieve the compression are listed below; Choose wavelet function Select decomposition level Input speech signal Divide speech signal into frames Decompose each frame Calculate thresholds Truncate coefficients Encode zero-valued coefficients Quantize and bit encode Transmit data frame Parts of extract above taken from said work by Nikhil Rao (2001). Based on the experiment that was conducted the Haar and Daubechies wavelets were utilized in the speech coding and synthesis the functions that were used that are a function of the MATLAB suite are as follows; dwt, wavedec, waverec, and idwt, they were used in computing the wavelet transforms Nikhil Rao (2001). The wavedec function performs the task of signal decomposition, and the waverec function reconstructs the signal from its coefficients. The idwt function functions in the capacity of the inverse transform on the signal of interest and all these functions can be found in the MATLAB software. The speech file that was analyzed was divided up into frames of 20 ms, which is 160 samples per frame and then each frame was decomposed and compressed, the file format utilized was .OD files, because of the length of the files there were able to be decomposed without being divided up into frames. The global and by-level thre sholding was used in the experiment, the main aim of the global thresholding is the maintenance of the coefficients that are the largest, this not being dependent on the size of the decomposition tree for the wavelet transform. Using the level thresholding the approximate coefficients are kept at the decomposition level, during the process two bytes are used to encode the zero values. The function of the very first byte is the specification of the starting points of zeros and the other byte tracks successive zeros. The work done by Qiang Fu and Eric A. Wan (2003) was also reviewed; there work was the enhancement of speech based on wavelet de-nosing framework. In their approach to their objective, the noisy speech signal was first processed using a spectral subtraction method; the aim of this involves the removal of noise from the signal of study before the application of the wavelet transform. The traditional approach was then done where the wavelet transforms are utilized in the decomposition of the speech into different levels, thresholding estimation is then on the different levels , however in this project a modified version on the Ephraim/Malah suppression rule was utilized for the thresholdign estimates. To finally enhance the speech signal the inverse wavelet transform was utilized. It was shown the pre processing of the speech signal removed small levels of noise but at the same time the distortion of the original speech signal was minimized, a generalized spectral subtraction algorithm was used to accomplish the task above this algorithm was proposed by Bai and Wan. The wavelets transform for this approach utilized using wavelet packet decomposition, for this process a six stage tree structure decomposition approach was taken this was done using a 16-tap FIR filter, this is derived from the Daubechies wavelet, for a speech signal of 8khz the decomposition that was achieved resulted in 18 levels. The estimation method that was used to calculate the threshold levels were of a new type, the experiments took into account the noise deviation for the different levels, and each different time frame . An altered version of the Ephraim/Malah rule for suppression was used to achieve soft thresholdeing. The re-synthesis of the signal was done using the inverse perceptual wavelet transform and this is the very last stage. Work done by S.Manikandan, entitled (2006) focused on the reduction of noise that is present in a wireless signal that is received using special adaptive techniques. The signal of interest in the study was corrupted by white noise. The time frequency dependent threshold approach was taken to estimate the threshold level, in this project both the hard and soft thresholding techniques were utilized in the de-noising process. As with the hard thresholding coefficient below a certain values are scaled, in the project a universal threshold was used for the Gaussian noise that was added the error criterion that was used was under 3 mean squared, based on the experiments that were done it was found out that this approximation is not very efficient when it comes to speech, this is mainly because of poor relations amongst the quality and the existence to the correlated noise. A new thresholding technique was implemented in this technique the standard deviation of the noise was first estimated of the different levels and time frames. For a signal the threshold is calculated and is also calculated for the different sub-band and their related time frame. The soft thresholding was also implemented, with a modified Ephraim/Malah suppression rule, as seen before in the other works that were done in this are. Based on their results obtained, there was an unnatural voice pattern and to overcome this, a new technique based on modification from Ephraim and Mala is implemented. Procedure The procedure that undertaken involved doing several voice recording and reading the file using the wavread function because the file was done in a .wav format The length to be analyzed was decided, for the my project the entire length of the signal was analyzed The uncorrupted signal power and signal to noise ratio (SNR) was calculated using different MATLAB functions Additive White Gausian Noise (AWGN) was then added to the original recorded, making the uncorrupted signal now corrupted The average power of the signal corrupted by noise and also the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was then calculated Signal analysis then followed, the procedure involved in the signal analysis included: The wavedec function in MATLAB was used in the decomposition of the signal. The detail coefficients and approximated coefficients were then extracted and plots made to show the different levels of decomposition The different levels of coefficient were then analyzed and compared, making detailed analysis that the decomposition resulted in After decomposition of the different levels de-nosing took place this was done with the ddencmp function in MATLAB, The actual de-nosing process was then undertaken using wdencmp function in MATLAB, plot comparison was made to compare the noise corrupted signal and the de-noised signal The average power and SNR of the de-noised signal was done and comparison made between it and the original and the de-noised signal. Implementation/Discussion The first part of the project consisted of doing a recording in MATLAB, a recording was done of my own voice and the default sample rate was used were Fs = 11025, codes were used to do recordings in MATLAB and different variables were altered and specified based on the codes used, the m file that is submitted with this project gives all the codes that were utilized for the project, the recordings were done for 9 seconds the wavplay function was then used to replay the recording that was done until a desired recording was obtained after the recording was done a wavwrite function was then used to store the data that was previously recorded into a wav file. The data that was written into a wav file was originally stored in variable y and then given the name recording1. A plot was then made to show the wave format of the speech file recorded. Fig 1 Fig1 Plot above showing original recording without any noise corruption According to fig1 the maximum amplitude of the signal is +0.5 and the minimum amplitude being -0.3 from observation with the naked eye it can be seen that most of the information in the speech signal is confined between the amplitude +0.15 -0.15. The power of the speech signal was then calculated in MATLAB using a periodogram spectrum this produces an estimate of the spectral density of the signal and is computed from the finite length digital sequence using the Fast Fourier Transform (The MathWorks 1984-2010) the window parameter that was used was the Hamming window, the window function is some function that is zero outside some chosen interval. The hamming window is a typical window function and is applied typically by a point by point multiplication to the input of the fast fourier transform, this controls the adjacent levels of spectral artifacts which would appear in the magnitude of the fast fourier transform results, for a case where the input frequencies do not correspond with the bin center. Convolution that occurs within the frequency domain can be considered as windowing this is basically the same as performing multiplication within the time domain, the result of this multiplication is that any samples outside a fr equency will affect the overall amplitude of that frequency. Fig2 Fig2 plot showing periodogram spectral analysis of original recording From the spectral analysis it was calculated that the power of the signal is 0.0011 watt After the signal was analyzed noise was added to the signal, the noise that was added was additive gaussian white noise (AWGN), and this is a random signal that contains a flat power spectral density (Wikipedia, 2010). At a given center frequency additional white noise will contain equal power at a fixed bandwidth; the term white is used to mean that the frequency spectrum is continuous and is also uniform for the entire frequency band. In the project additive is used to simply mean that this impairment to the original signal is corrupting the speech; The MATLAB code that was used to add the noise to the recording can be seen in the m file. For the very first recording the power in the signal was set to 1 watt and the SNR set to 80, the applied code was set to signal z, which is a copy of the original recording y, below is the plot showing the analysis of the noise corrupted recording. Fig3 Fig3 plot showing the original recording corrupted by noise Based on observation of the plot above it can be estimated that information in the original recording is masked by the additive white noise to the signal, this would have a negative effect as the clean information would be masked out by the noise, a process known as aliasing. Because the amplitude of the additive noise is greater than the amplitude of the recording it causes distortion observation of the graph shows the amplitude of the corrupted signal is greater than the original recording. The noise power of the corrupted signal was calculated buy the division of the signal power and the signal to noise ratio, the noise power calculated from the first recording is 1.37e-005. The noise power of the corrupted signal is 1.37e-005; the spectrum peridodogram was then used to calculate the average power of the corrupted signal , based on the MATLAB calculations the power was calculated to be 0.0033 watt Fig4 Fig4 plot showing periodogram spectral analysis of corrupted signal From analysis of the plot above it can be seen that the frequency of the corrupted signal spans a wider band, the original recording spectral frequency analysis showed a value of -20Hz as compared to the corrupted signal showed a value of 30Hz this increase in the corrupted signal is attributed to the noise added and this masked out the original recording again as before the process of aliasing. It was seen that the average power of the corrupted was greater than the original signal, the increase in power can be attributed to the additive noise added to the signal this caused the increase in power of the signal. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the corrupted signal was calculate from the formula corrupted power/noise power , and the corrupted SNR was found to be 240 as compared to 472.72 of the de-noised, the decrease in signal to noise ratio can be attributed to the additive noise this resulted in the level of noise to the level of clean recording to be greater this is the basis for the decreased SNR in the corrupted signal, the increase in the SNR in the clean signal will be discussed further in the discussion. The reason there was a reduce in the SNR in the corrupted signal is because the level of noise to clean signal is greater and this is basis of signal to noise comparison, it is used to measure how much a signal is corrupted by noise and the lower this ratio is, the more corrupted a signal will be. The calculation method that was used to calculate this ratio is Where the different signal and noise power were calculated from MATLAB as seen above The analysis of the signal then commenced a .wav file was then created for the corrupted signal using the MATLAB command wavwrite, with Fs being the sample frequency, N being the corrupted file and the name being noise recording, a file x1 that was going to be analysed was created using the MATLAB command wavread. Wavelet multilevel decomposition was then performed on the signal x1 using the MATLAB command wavedec, this function performs the wavelet decomposition of the signal, the decomposition is a multilevel one dimensional decomposition, and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is using pyramid algorithms, during the decomposition the signal is passed through a high pass and a low pass filter. The output of the low pass is further passed through a high pass and a low pass filter and this process continues (The MathWorks 1994-2010) based on the specification of the programmer, a linear time invariant filter, this being a filter that passes high frequencies and attenuates frequency that are below a threshold called the cut off frequency, the rate of attenuation is specified by the designer. While on the other hand the opposite to the high pass filter, is the low pass filter this filter will only pass low frequency signals but attenuates signal that contain a higher frequency than the cut off. Ba sed on the decomposition procedure above the process was done 8 times, and at each level of decomposition the actual signal is down sampled by a factor of 2. The high pass output at each stage represents the actual wavelet transformed data; these are called the detailed coefficients (The MathWorks 1994-2010). Fig 5 Fig 5 above levels decomposition (The MathWorks 1994-2010) Block C above contains the decomposition vectors and Block L contains the bookkeeping vector, based on the representation above a signal X of a specific length is decomposed into coefficients, the first part of the decomposition produces 2 sets of coefficients the approximate coefficient cA1 and the detailed coefficient cD1, to get the approximate coefficient the signal x is convolved with low pass filter and to get the detailed coefficient signal x is convolved with a high pass filer. The second stage is similar only this time the signal that will be sampled is cA1 as compared to x before with the signal further being sampled through high and low pass filter again to produce approximate and detailed coefficients respectively hence the signal is down sampled and the factor of down sampling is two The algorithm above (The MathWorks 1994-2010) represents the first level decomposition that was done in MATLAB, the original signal x(t) is decomposed into approximate and detailed coefficient, the algorithm above represents the signal being passed through a low pass filter where the detail coefficients are extracted to give D2(t)+D1(t) this analysis is passed through a single stage filter bank further analysis through the filter bank will produce greater stages of detailed coefficients as can be seen with the algorithm below (The MathWorks 1994-2010). The coefficients,  cAm(k)  and  cDm(k)  form  m = 1,2,3  can be calculated by iterating or cascading the single stage filter bank to obtain a multiple stage filter bank(The MathWorks 1994-2010). Fig6 Fig6 showing graphical representation of multilevel decomposition (The MathWorks 1994-2010) At each level it is observed the signal is down sampled and the sampling factor is 2. At d8 obeservation shows that the signal is down sampled by 2^8 i.e. 60,000/2^8. All this is done for better frequency resolution. Lower frequencies are  present  at all time; I am mostly concerned with higher frequencies which contains the actual data. I have used daubechies wavelet type 4 (db4), the daubechies wavelet are defined by computing the running averages and differences via scalar products with scaling signals and wavelets(M.I. Mahmoud, M. I. M. Dessouky, S. Deyab, and F. H. Elfouly, 2007) For this type of wavelet there exist a balance frequency response but the phase response is non linear. The Daubechies wavelet types uses windows that overlap in order to ensure that the coefficients of higher frequencies will show any changes in their high frequency, based on these properties the Daubechies wavelet types proves to be an efficient tool in the de-nosing and compression of audio signals.  For the Daubechies D4 transform, this transform has 4 wavelet types and scaling coefficient functions, these coefficient functions are shown below The different steps that are involved in the wavelet transforms, will utilize different scaling functions, to the signal of interest if the data being analyzed contains a value of N, the scaling function that will be applied will be applied to calculate N/2 smoothed values. The smoothed values are stored in the lower half of the N element input vector for the ordered wavelet transform. The wavelet function coefficient values are g0  = h3 g1  = -h2 g2  = h1 g3  = -h0 The different scaling function and wavelet function are calculated using the inner product of the coefficients and the four different data values. The equations are shown below (Ian Kaplan, July 2001); The repetition of the of the steps of the wavelet transforms was then used in the calculation of the function value of the wavelet and the scaling function value, for each repetition there is an increase by two in the index and when this occurs a different wavelet and scaling function is produced. Fig 7 Diagram above showing the steps involved in forward transform (The MathWorks 1994-2010) The diagram above illustrates steps in the forward transform, based on observation of the diagram it can be seen that the data is divided up into different elements, these separate elements are even and the first elements are stored to the even array and the second half of the elements are stored in the odd array. In reality this is folded into a single function even though the diagram above goes against this, the diagrams shows two normalized steps. The input signal in the algorithm above (Ian Kaplan, July 2001) is then broken down into what are called wavelets. One of the most significant benefits of use of wavelet transforms is the fact that it contains a window that varies, to identify signal not continuous having base functions that are short is most desirable. But in order to obtain detailed frequency analysis it is better to have long basis function. A good way to achieve this compromise is having a short high frequency functions and also long low frequency ones(Swathi Nibhanupudi, 2003) Wavelet analysis contains an infinite basis functions, this allows wavelet transforms and analyisis with the ability realize cases that can not be easily realized by other time frequency methods, namely Fourier transforms. MATLAB codes are then used to extract the detailed coefficients, the m file shows these codes, the detailed coefficients that are Daubechies orthogonal type wavelets D2-D20are often used. The numbers of coefficients are represented by the index number, for the different wavelets they contain vanishing moments that are identical to the halve of the coefficients. This can be seen using the orthogonal types where D2 contain only one moment and D4 two moments and so on, the vanishing moment of the wavelets refers to its ability to represent the information in a signal or the polynomial behavior. The D2 type that contains only one moment will encode polynomial of one coefficient easily that are of constant signal component. The D4 type will encode polynomial of two coefficients, the D6 will encode coefficient of three polynomial and so on. The scaling and wavelet function have to be normalized and this normalization factor is a factor  Ã‚  . The coefficients for the wavelet are derived by the reverse of the order of the scaling function coefficients and then by reversing the sign of the second one (D4 wavelet = {-0.1830125, -0.3169874, 1.1830128, -0.6830128}) mathematically, this looks like   where  k  is the coefficient index,  b  is a wavelet coefficient and  c  a scaling function coefficient.  N  is the wavelet index, ie 4 for D4 (M. Bahoura, J. Bouat. 2009) Fig 7 Plot of fig 7 showing approximated coefficient of the level 8 decomposition Fig 8 Plot of fig 8 showing detailed coefficient of the level 1 decomposition Fig 9 Plot of fig 9 showing approximated coefficient of the level 3 decomposition Fig 10 Plot of fig 10 showing approximated coefficient of the level 5 decomposition Fig 11 Plot of fig 11, showing comparison of the different levels of decomposition Fig12 Plot fig12 showing the details of all the levels of the coefficients; The next step in the de-nosing process is the actual removal of the noise after the coefficients have been realized and calculated the MATLAB functions that are used in the de-noising functions are the ddencmp and the wdencmp function This process actually removes noise by a process called thresholding, De-noising, the task of removing or suppressing uninformative noise from signals is an important part of many signal or image processing applications. Wavelets are common tools in the field of signal processing. The popularity of wavelets in de-nosingis largely due to the computationally efficient algorithms as well as to the sparsity of the wavelet representation of data. By sparsity I mean that majority of the wavelet coefficients have very small magnitudes whereas only a small subset of coefficients have large magnitudes. I may informally state that this small subset contains the interesting informative part of the signal, whereas the rest of the coefficients describe noise and can be discarded to give a noise-free reconstruction. The best known wavelet de-noising methods are thresholding approaches, see e.g. In hard thresholding all the coefficients with greater magnitudes as compared to the threshold are retained unmodified this is because they comprise the informative part of data, while the rest of the coefficients are considered to represent noise and set to zero. However, it is reasonable to assume that coefficients are not purely either noise or informative but mixtures of those. To cope with this soft thresholding approaches have been proposed, in the process of soft thresholding coefficients that are smaller than the threshold are made zero, however the coefficients that are kept are made smaller towards zero by an amount of the threshold value in order to decrease the effect of noise assumed to corrupt all the wavelet coefficients. In my project I have chosen to do a eight level decomposition before applying the de-nosing algorithm, the decomposition levels of the different eight levels are obtained, because the signal of in

Poetics by Aristotle Essay

Aristotle’s most famous contribution to logic is the syllogism, which he discusses primarily in the Prior Analytics. A syllogism is a three-step argument containing three different terms. A simple example is â€Å"All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. † This three-step argument contains three assertions consisting of the three terms Socrates,man, and mortal. The first two assertions are called premises and the last assertion is called the conclusion; in a logically valid syllogism, such as the one just presented, the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises. That is, if you know that both of the premises are true, you know that the conclusion must also be true. Aristotle uses the following terminology to label the different parts of the syllogism: the premise whose subject features in the conclusion is called theminor premise and the premise whose predicate features in the conclusion is called the major premise. In the example, â€Å"All men are mortal† is the major premise, and since mortal is also the predicate of the conclusion, it is called the major term. Socrates† is called the minor term because it is the subject of both the minor premise and the conclusion, and man, which features in both premises but not in the conclusion, is called the middle term. In analyzing the syllogism, Aristotle registers the important distinction between particulars and universals. Socrates is a particular term, meaning that the word Socrates names a particular person. By contrast, man andmortal are universal terms, meaning that they name general categories or qualities that might be true of many particulars. Socrates is one of billions of particular terms that falls under the universal man. Universals can be either the subject or the predicate of a sentence, whereas particulars can only be subjects. Aristotle identifies four kinds of â€Å"categorical sentences† that can be constructed from sentences that have universals for their subjects. When universals are subjects, they must be preceded by every, some, or no. To return to the example of a syllogism, the first of the three terms was not just â€Å"men are mortal,† but rather â€Å"all men are mortal. † The contrary of â€Å"all men are mortal† is â€Å"some men are not mortal,† because one and only one of these claims is true: they cannot both  be true or both be false. Similarly, the contrary of â€Å"no men are mortal† is â€Å"some men are mortal. † Aristotle identifies sentences of these four forms—â€Å"All X is Y,† â€Å"Some X is not Y,† â€Å"No X is Y,† and â€Å"Some X is Y†Ã¢â‚¬â€as the four categorical sentences and claims that all assertions can be analyzed into categorical sentences. That means that all assertions we make can be reinterpreted as categorical sentences and so can be fit into syllogisms. If all our assertions can be read as premises or conclusions to various syllogisms, it follows that the syllogism is the framework of all reasoning. Any valid argument must take the form of a syllogism, so Aristotle’s work in analyzing syllogisms provides a basis for analyzing all arguments. Aristotle analyzes all forty-eight possible kinds of syllogisms that can be constructed from categorical sentences and shows that fourteen of them are valid. In On Interpretation,Aristotle extends his analysis of the syllogism to examine modal logic, that is, sentences containing the words possibly ornecessarily. He is not as successful in his analysis, but the analysis does bring to light at least one important problem. It would seem that all past events necessarily either happened or did not happen, meaning that there are no events in the past that possibly happened and possibly did not happen. By contrast, we tend to think of many future events as possible and not necessary. But if someone had made a prediction yesterday about what would happen tomorrow, that prediction, because it is in the past, must already be necessarily true or necessarily false, meaning that what will happen tomorrow is already fixed by necessity and not just possibility. Aristotle’s answer to this problem is unclear, but he seems to reject the fatalist idea that the future is already fixed, suggesting instead that statements about the future cannot be either true or false. Organon: The Structure of Knowledge Summary The Categories, traditionally interpreted as an introduction to Aristotle’s logical work, divides all of being into ten categories. These ten categories are as follows: Substance, which in this context means what something is essentially (e. g. , human, rock) * Quantity (e. g. , ten feet, five liters) * Quality (e.g. , blue, obvious). * Relation (e. g. , double, to the right of) * Location (e. g. , New York, home plate) * Time (e. g. , yesterday, four o’clock) * Position (e. g. , sitting, standing) * Possession (e. g. , wearing shoes, has a blue coat) * Doing (e. g. , running, smiling) * Undergoing (e. g. , being run into, being smiled at) Of the ten, Aristotle considers substance to be primary, because we can conceive of a substance without, for example, any given qualities but we cannot conceive of a quality except as it pertains to a particular substance. One important conclusion from this division into categories is that we can make no general statements about being as a whole because there are ten very different ways in which something can have being. There is no common ground between the kind of being that a rock has and the kind of being that the color blue has. Aristotle’s emphasis on the syllogism leads him to conceive of knowledge as hierarchically structured, a claim that he fleshes out in the Posterior Analytics. To have knowledge of a fact, it is not enough simply to be able to repeat the fact. We must also be able to give the reasons why that fact is true, a process that Aristotle calls demonstration. Demonstration is essentially a matter of showing that the fact in question is the conclusion to a valid syllogism. If some truths are premises that can be used to prove other truths, those first truths are logically prior to the truths that follow from them. Ultimately, there must be one or several â€Å"first principles,† from which all other truths follow and which do not themselves follow from anything. However, if these first principles do not follow from anything, they cannot count as knowledge because there are no reasons or premises we can give to prove that they are true. Aristotle suggests that these first principles are a kind of intuition of the universals we recognize in experience. Aristotle believes that the objects of knowledge are also structured hierarchically and conceives of definition as largely a process of division. For example, suppose we want to define human. First, we note that humans are animals, which is the genus to which they belong. We can then take note of various differentia, which distinguish humans from other animals. For example, humans walk on two legs, unlike tigers, and they lack feathers, unlike birds. Given any term, if we can identify its genus and then identify the differentia that distinguish it from other things within its genus, we have given a definition of that term, which amounts to giving an account of its nature, or essence. Ultimately, Aristotle identifies five kinds of relationships a predicate can have with its subject: a genus relationship (â€Å"humans are animals†); a differentia relationship (â€Å"humans have two legs†); a unique property relationship (â€Å"humans are the only animals that can cry†); a definition, which is a unique property that explains the nature or essence of the subject; and an accident relationship, such as â€Å"some humans have blue eyes,† where the relationship does not hold necessarily. While true knowledge is all descended from knowledge of first principles, actual argument and debate is much less pristine. When two people argue, they need not go back to first principles to ground every claim but must simply find premises they both agree on. The trick to debate is to find premises your opponent will agree to and then show that conclusions contrary to your opponent’s position follow necessarily from these premises. The Topicsdevotes a great deal of attention to classifying the kinds of conclusions that can be drawn from different kinds of premises, whereas the Sophistical Refutations explores various logical tricks used to deceive people into accepting a faulty line of reasoning. Physics: Books 1-4. The Physics opens with an investigation into the principles of nature. At root, there must be a certain number of basic principles at work in nature, according to which all natural processes can be explained. All change or process involves something coming to be from out of its opposite. Something comes to be what it is by acquiring its distinctive form—for example, a baby becomes an adult, a seed becomes a mature plant, and so on. Since this the baby or the seed were working toward this form all along, the form itself (the idea or pattern of the mature specimen) must have existed before the baby or seed actually matured. Thus, the form must be one of the principles of nature. Another principle of nature must be the privation or absence of this form, the opposite out of which the form came into being. Besides form and privation, there must be a third principle, matter, which remains constant throughout the process of change. If nothing remains unchanged when something undergoes a change, then there would be no â€Å"thing† that we could say underwent the change. So there are three basic principles of nature: matter, form, and privation. For example, a person’s education involves the form of being educated, the privation of being ignorant, and the underlying matter of the person who makes the change from ignorance to education. This view of the principles of nature resolves many of the problems of earlier philosophers and suggests that matter is conserved: though its form may change, the underlying matter involved in changes remains constant. Change takes place according to four different kinds of cause. These causes are closer to what we might call â€Å"explanations†: they explain in different ways why the change came to pass. The four causes are (1) material cause, which explains what something is made of; (2) formal cause, which explains the form or pattern to which a thing corresponds; (3) efficient cause, which is what we ordinarily mean by â€Å"cause,† the original source of the change; and (4) final cause, which is the intended purpose of the change. For example, in the making of a house, the material cause is the materials the house is made of, the formal cause is the architect’s plan, the efficient cause is the process of building it, and the final cause is to provide shelter and comfort. Natural objects, such as plants and animals, differ from artificial objects in that they have an internal source of change. All the causes of change in artificial objects are found outside the objects themselves, but natural objects can cause change from within. Aristotle rejects the idea that chance constitutes a fifth cause, similar in nature to the other four. We normally talk about chance in reference to coincidences, where two separate events, which had their own causes, coincide in a way that is not explained by either set of causes. For instance, two people might both have their own reasons for being in a certain place at a certain time, but neither of these sets of reasons explains the coincidence of both people being there at the same time. Final causes apply to nature as much as to art, so everything in nature serves a useful purpose. Aristotle argues against the views both of Democritus, who thinks that necessity in nature has no useful purpose, and of Empedocles, who holds an evolutionary view according to which only those combinations of living parts that are useful have managed to survive and reproduce themselves. If Democritus were right, there would be as many useless aspects of nature as there are useful, while Empedocles’ theory does not explain how random combinations of parts could come together in the first place. Books III and IV examine some fundamental concepts of nature, starting with change, and then treating infinity, place, void, and time. Aristotle defines change as â€Å"the actuality of that which exists potentially, in so far as it is potentially this actuality. † That is, change rests in the potential of one thing to become another. In all cases, change comes to pass through contact between an agent and a patient, where the agent imparts its form to the patient and the change itself takes place in the patient. Either affirming or denying the existence of infinity leads to certain contradictions and paradoxes, and Aristotle finds an ingenious solution by distinguishing between potential and actual infinities. He argues that there is no such thing as an actual infinity: infinity is not a substance in its own right, and there are neither infinitely large objects nor an infinite number of objects. However, there are potential infinities in the sense that, for example, an immortal could theoretically sit down and count up to an infinitely large number but that this is impossible in practice. Time, for example, is a potential infinity because it potentially extends forever, but no one who is counting time will ever count an infinite number of minutes or days. Aristotle asserts that place has a being independent of the objects that occupy it and denies the existence of empty space, or void. Place must be independent of objects because otherwise it would make no sense to say that different objects can be in the same place at different times. Aristotle defines place as the limits of what contains an object and determines that the place of the earth is â€Å"at the center† and the place of the heavens as â€Å"at the periphery. † Aristotle’s arguments against the void make a number of fundamental errors. For example, he assumes that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones. From this assumption, he argues that the speed of a falling object is directly proportional to an object’s weight and inversely proportional to the density of the medium it travels through. Since the void is a medium of zero density, that would mean that an object would fall infinitely fast through a void, which is an absurdity, so Aristotle concludes that there cannot be such a thing as a void. Aristotle closely identifies time with change. We register that time has passed only by registering that something has changed. In other words, time is a measure of change just as space is a measure of distance. Just as Aristotle denies the possibility of empty space, or void, Aristotle denies the possibility of empty time, as in time that passes without anything happening. Physics: Books 5-8 Summary There are three kinds of change: generation, where something comes into being; destruction, where something is destroyed; and variation, where some attribute of a thing is changed while the thing itself remains constant. Of the ten categories Aristotle describes in the Categories (see previous summary of the Organon), change can take place only in respect of quality, quantity, or location. Change itself is not a substance and so it cannot itself have any properties. Among other things, this means that changes themselves cannot change. Aristotle discusses the ways in which two changes may be the same or different and argues also that no two changes are opposites, but rather that rest is the opposite of change. Time, space, and movement are all continuous, and there are no fundamental units beyond which they cannot be divided. Aristotle reasons that movement must be continuous because the alternative—that objects make infinitesimally small jumps from one place to another without occupying the intermediate space—is absurd and counterintuitive. If an object moves from point A to point B, there must be a time at which it is moving from point A to point B. If it is simply at point A at one instant and point B at the next, it cannot properly be said to have moved from the one to the other. If movement is continuous, then time and space must also be continuous, because continuous movement would not be possible if time and space consisted of discrete, indivisible atoms. Among the connected discussions of change, rest, and continuity, Aristotle considers Zeno’s four famous paradoxes. The first is the dichotomy paradox: to get to any point, we must first travel halfway, and to get to that halfway point, we must travel half of that halfway, and to get to half of that halfway, we must first travel a half of the half of that halfway, and so on infinitely, so that, for any given distance, there is always a smaller distance to be covered first, and so we can never start moving at all. Aristotle answers that time can be divided just as infinitely as space, so that it would take infinitely little time to cover the infinitely little space needed to get started. The second paradox is called the Achilles paradox: supposing Achilles is racing a tortoise and gives the tortoise a head start. Then by the time Achilles reaches the point the tortoise started from, the tortoise will have advanced a certain distance, and by the point Achilles advances that certain distance, the tortoise will have advanced a bit farther, and so on, so that it seems Achilles will never be able to catch up with, let alone pass, the tortoise. Aristotle responds that the paradox assumes the existence of an actual infinity of points between Achilles and the tortoise. If there were an actual infinity—that is, if Achilles had to take account of all the infinite points he passed in catching up with the tortoise—it would indeed take an infinite amount of time for Achilles to pass the tortoise. However, there is only a potential infinity of points between Achilles and the tortoise, meaning that Achilles can cover the infinitely many points between him and the tortoise in a finite amount of time so long as he does not take account of each point along the way. The third and fourth paradoxes, called the arrow paradox and the stadium paradox, respectively, are more obscure, but they seem to aim at proving that time and space cannot be divided into atoms. This is a position that Aristotle already agrees with, so he takes less trouble over these paradoxes. Aristotle argues that change is eternal because there cannot be a first cause of change without assuming that that cause was itself uncaused. Living things can cause change without something external acting on them, but the source of this change is internal thoughts and desires, and these thoughts and desires are provoked by external stimuli. Arguing that time is infinite, Aristotle reasons that there cannot be a last cause, since time cannot exist without change. Next, Aristotle argues that everything that changes is changed by something external to itself. Even changes within a single animal consist of one part of the animal changing another part. Aristotle’s reflections on cause and change lead him ultimately to posit the existence of a divine unmoved mover. If we were to follow a series of causes to its source, we would find a first cause that is either an unchanged changer or a self-changing changer. Animals are the best examples of self-changers, but they constantly come into being and pass away. If there is an eternal succession of causes, there needs to be a first cause that is also eternal, so it cannot be a self-changing animal. Since change is eternal, there must be a single cause of change that is itself eternal and continuous. The primary kind of change is movement and the primary kind of movement is circular, so this first cause must cause circular movement. This circular movement is the movement of the heavens, and it is caused by some first cause of infinite power that is above the material world. The circular movement of the heavens is then in turn the cause of all other change in the sublunary world. Metaphysics: Books Alpha-Epsilon Knowledge consists of particular truths that we learn through experience and the general truths of art and science. Wisdom consists in understanding the most general truths of all, which are the fundamental principles and causes that govern everything. Philosophy provides the deepest understanding of the world and of divinity by pursuing the sense of wonder we feel toward reality. There are four kinds of cause, or rather kinds of explanation, for how things are: (1) the material cause, which explains what a thing is made of; (2) the formal cause, which explains the form a thing assumes; (3) the efficient cause, which explains the process by which it came into being; and (4) the final cause, which explains the end or purpose it serves. The explanations of earlier philosophers have conformed to these four causes but not as coherently and systematically as Aristotle’s formulation. Aristotle acknowledges that Plato’s Theory of Forms gives a strong account of the formal cause, but it fails to prove that Forms exist and to explain how objects in the physical world participate in Forms. Book Alpha the Lesser addresses some questions of method. Though we all have a natural aptitude for thinking philosophically, it is very difficult to philosophize well. The particular method of study depends on the subject being studied and the inclinations of the students. The important thing is to have a firm grasp of method before proceeding, whatever the method. The best method is that of mathematics, but this method is not suitable for subjects where the objects of study are prone to change, as in science. Most reasoning involves causal chains, where we investigate a phenomenon by studying its causes, and then the cause of those causes, and so on. This method would be unworkable if there were infinitely long causal chains, but all causal chains are finite, meaning that there must be an uncaused first cause to every chain. Book Beta consists of a series of fifteen metaphysical puzzles on the nature of first principles, substance, and other fundamental concepts. In each case, Aristotle presents a thesis and a contradicting antithesis, both of which could be taken as answers to the puzzle. Aristotle himself provides no answers to the puzzles but rather takes them as examples of extreme positions between which he will try to mediate throughout the rest of the Metaphysics. Book Gamma asserts that philosophy, especially metaphysics, is the study of being qua being. That is, while other sciences investigate limited aspects of being, metaphysics investigates being itself. The study of being qua being amounts to the search into first principles and causes. Being itself is primarily identified with the idea of substance, but also with unity, plurality, and a variety of other concepts. Philosophy is also concerned with logic and the principles of demonstration, which are supremely general, and hence concerned with being itself. The most fundamental principle is the principle of noncontradiction: nothing can both be something and not be that same something. Aristotle defends this principle by arguing that it is impossible to contradict it coherently. Connected to the principle of non-contradiction is the principle of the excluded middle, which states that there is no middle position between two contradictory positions. That is, a thing is either x or not-x, and there is no third possibility. Book Gamma concludes with an attack on several general claims of earlier philosophers: that everything is true, that everything is false, that everything is at rest, and that everything is in motion. Book Delta consists of the definitions of about forty terms, some of which feature prominently in the rest of the Metaphysics, such as principle, cause, nature, being, and substance. The definitions specify precisely how Aristotle uses these terms and often distinguish between different uses or categories of the terms. Book Epsilon opens by distinguishing philosophy from the sciences not just on the basis of its generality but also because philosophy, unlike the sciences, takes itself as a subject of inquiry. The sciences can be divided into practical, productive, and theoretical. The theoretical sciences can be divided further into physics, mathematics, and theology, or first philosophy, which studies first principles and causes. We can look at being in four different ways: accidental being, being as truth, the category of being, and being in actuality and potentiality. Aristotle considers the first two in book Epsilon and examines the category of being, or substance, in books Zeta and Eta, and being in actuality and potentiality in book Theta. Accidental being covers the kinds of properties that are not essential to a thing described. For example, if a man is musical, his musicality is accidental since being musical does not define him as a man and he would still be a man even if he were not musical. Accidental being must have a kind of accidental causation, which we might associate with chance. That is, there is no necessary reason why a musical man is musical, but rather it just so happens by chance that he is musical. Being as truth covers judgments that a given proposition is true. These sorts of judgments involve mental acts, so being as truth is an affection of the mind and not a kind of being in the world. Because accidental being is random and being as truth is only mental, they fall outside the realm of philosophy, which deals with more fundamental kinds of being. Metaphysics: Books Zeta-Eta Summary Referring back to his logical work in the Categories, Aristotle opens book Zeta by asserting that substance is the primary category of being. Instead of considering what being is, we can consider what substance is. Aristotle first rejects the idea that substance is the ultimate substrate of a thing, that which remains when all its accidental properties are stripped away. For example, a dog is more fundamental than the color brown or the property of hairiness that are associated with it. However, if we strip away all the properties that a dog possesses, we wind up with a substrate with no properties of its own. Since this substrate has no properties, we can say nothing about it, so this substrate cannot be substance. Instead, Aristotle suggests that we consider substance as essence and concludes that substances are species. The essence of a thing is that which makes it that thing. For example, being rational is an essential property of being human, because a human without rationality ceases to be human, but being musical is not an essential property of being human, because a human without musical skill is still human. Individual people, or dogs, or tables, contain a mixture of essential and inessential properties. Species, on the other hand—for instance, people in general, dogs in general, or tables in general—contain only essential properties. A substance can be given a definition that does not presuppose the existence of anything else. A snub, for example, is not a substance, because we would define a snub as â€Å"a concave nose,† so our definition of snub presupposes the existence of noses. A proper definition of a thing will list only its essential properties, and Aristotle asserts that only substances have essential properties or definitions. A snub nose, by contrast, has only accidental properties—properties like redness or largeness that may hold of some snubs but not of all—and per se properties—properties like concavity, which necessarily holds of all snubs but which is not essential. Physical objects are composites of form and matter, and Aristotle identifies substance with form. The matter of an object is the stuff that makes it up, whereas the form is the shape that stuff takes. For example, the matter in a bronze sphere is the bronze itself, and the form is the spherical shape. Aristotle argues that form is primary because form is what gives each thing its distinctive nature. Aristotle has argued that the definitions of substances cannot presuppose the existence of anything else, which raises the question of how there can be a definition that does not presuppose the existence of anything else. Presumably, a definition divides a whole into its constituent parts—for example, a human is defined as a rational animal—which suggests that a substance must in some way presuppose the existence of its constituent parts. Aristotle distinguishes between those cases where the parts of an object or definition are prior to the whole and those cases where the whole is prior to the parts. For example, we cannot understand the parts of a circle without first understanding the concept of circle as a whole; on the other hand, we cannot understand the whole of a syllable before we understand the letters that constitute its parts. Aristotle argues that, in the case of substance, the whole is prior to the parts. He has earlier associated substance with form and suggests that we cannot make sense of matter before we can conceive of its form. To say a substance can be divided by its definition is like saying a physical object can be divided into form and matter: this conceptual distinction is possible, but form and matter constitute an indivisible whole, and neither can exist without the other. Similarly, the parts of a definition of a substance are conceptually distinct, but they can only exist when they are joined in a substance. Having identified substance with essence, Aristotle attacks the view that substances are universals. This attack becomes effectively an attack on Plato’s Theory of Forms, and Aristotle argues forcefully that universal Forms cannot exist prior to the individual instances of them or be properly defined and so cannot play any role in science, let alone a fundamental role. He also argues against the suggestion that substances can be genus categories, like â€Å"animal† or â€Å"plant. † Humans and horses, unlike animals, have the property of â€Å"thisness†: the words human and horse pick out a particular kind of thing, whereas nothing particular is picked out by animal. Genuses are thus not specific enough to qualify as substances. Book Eta contains a number of loosely connected points elaborating Aristotle’s views on substance. Aristotle associates an object’s matter with its potentiality and its form with its actuality. That is, matter is potentially a certain kind of substance and becomes that substance in actuality when it takes on the form of that substance. By associating substance with form and actuality, Aristotle infers a further connection between substance and differentia: differentia are those qualities that distinguish one species in a genus from another. Book Eta also contains reflections on the nature of names, matter, number, and definition. Metaphysics: Books Theta-Nu Summary Book Theta discusses potentiality and actuality, considering these concepts first in regard to process or change. When one thing, F, changes into another, G, we can say that F is G in potentiality, while G is G in actuality. F changes into G only if some other agent, H, acts on it. We say that H has active potentiality and F has passive potentiality. Potentiality can be either rational or irrational, depending on whether the change is effected by a rational agent or happens naturally. Aristotle distinguishes rational potentiality from irrational potentiality, saying that rational potentiality can produce opposites. For example, the rational potentiality of medicine can produce either health or sickness, whereas the irrational potentiality of heating can produce only heat and not cold. All potentialities must eventually be realized: if a potentiality never becomes an actuality, then we do not call it a potentiality but an impossibility. A potentiality is also determinate, meaning that it is the potential for a particular actuality and cannot realize some other actuality. While irrational potentialities are automatically triggered when active and passive potentialities come together, this is not the case with rational potentialities, as a rational agent can choose to withhold the realization of the potentiality even though it can be realized. Aristotle identifies actuality with form, and hence substance, while identifying matter with potentiality. An uncarved piece of wood, for example, is a potential statue, and it becomes an actual statue when it is carved and thus acquires the form of a statue. Action is an actuality, but there are such things as incomplete actions, which are also the potentiality for further actions.