Saturday, November 30, 2019

The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Example Essay Example

The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Example Paper The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Introduction A Comparison of Psychological and Physical Deceit and Disguise In many of Shakespearean works, he suggests that appearances are not reflective of reality and uses this idea to develop many subplots in his works. He is notorious for constructing these false identities to advance the plotting and create unsuspecting twists. As his plays progress, different characters employ different strategies to promote their actions, with some opting to psychologically deceive their targets while others select to physically disguise themselves as someone else. Shakespearean King Lear, Is no exception; he portrays this theme through the various disguises of an array of characters that utilize deceit to reach their goals, which range from being supportive to being sinister. This element of deceit and disguise is first established in the opening scene when the reader discovers that King Lear Is planning to delve his kingdom between his three daughters. He tests his daughters by demanding them to procla im their love for him, with the intentions of awarding the daughter who displays her love to him the best with the largest share of his kingdom. The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Body Paragraphs The play as Just begun and Shakespearean theme of fake appearances has already arisen, as the outside appearances that each of the sister’s displays for their father is not in accordance with their actual thoughts. General and Reagan, King Learns two oldest daughters, both spin verbose and grandeur explanations about their deep love for him with General starting off by stating, â€Å"Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter. Beyond all manners of so much I love you† (1. 1. 60-67). Reagan then plays off of her sister’s lead and begins to say, â€Å"l am made of that self mettle as my sister. And mind I am alone felicitate / In your dear Highness’ love† (1. 1. 76-84). This psychological ploy they use on King Lear seems to work, as he becomes frustrated and dissatisfied with his youngest daughter, Cordillera’s, answer. As King Lear waits for her to match her sisters’ responses, Cornelia refuses to make such comments, asserting that, â€Å"Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less† (1. 1. 100-102). As a result of this, King Lear disowns Cornelia, abolishes her from the kingdom and splits the kingdom between the other two sisters. Following this incident, the Earl of Kent, who is the King’s most loyal nobleman and servant, while attempting to reconcile the King about his brash decision to banish Cornelia, is also hastily exiled from the kingdom for giving his opinion on the matter. Here, you can see that King Lear has let his emotions get the best of him as he tells Kent, â€Å"Five days we do allot thee for provision To shield thee from disasters of the world, And on the sixth to turn thy hated back Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions, The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter, This shall not be revoked. † (1. ‘. 197-203) Not only has the plans of obtaining the power of the kingdom gone accord ing to their plan, but General and Reagan were also able to unexpectedly rid the kingdom of two of their potential obstacles to the throne: one being Learns favorite daughter, Cornelia, and the other being his most loyal servant, Kent. The aftermath of this sequence of events turns out to play a large role in the future, as the King will soon learn that he made a mistake. Even though this is only the start of psychological deception in the play, the importance of its presence sets the tone for the play and makes it clear that everyone is susceptible to such trickery, even the almighty King. As the plot of King Lear and his daughters begins to develop in the opening scene, we are simultaneously introduced to another one of King Learns nobleman, the Earl of Gloucester. Early on, we learn that Gloucester is an adulterer and has a bastard son, Edmund. In contrast to Edmund is Edgar, Gloucester oldest and legitimate son. At the beginning of the second scene of the Act One, Edmund gives a soliloquy on the lack of respect and class he has received for being a bastard, stating that † Thou, Nature, art my goddess. Now, gods, stand up for bastards† (l. I. 1-23)! Here we learn of Edmunds plan to betray Edgar, by means of a forged letter, which documents Edger’s â€Å"plan† to kill his own father. When Gloucester reads the letter, he barely questions the authenticity of the letter and lets his emotions overcome him, â€Å"O villain, villain!. Abominable villain! † (l. Ii. 79). Afterwards, Edmund meets up with Edgar and alerts him of the news that Gloucester is livid at Edgar and that he is chasing him. Pretending to be of assistance to Edgar, Edmund suggests that he avoid Gloucester as much as possible and to remain armed in case Gloucester finds him. Here, Edgar naively mistakes Edmunds plan to protect his own brother as a sign of sincerity because of Edmunds ability to swiftly talk coupled with his deceptive nature. This makes it easy fo r Edmund to take advantage of the trusting and gullible personality of Edgar. In reality, Edmund is merely setting the bait for Gloucester to fully turn his back on Edgar so that Gloucester will anoint Edmund as the next heir to the throne. Edmund succeeds in accomplishing the next step of his plan when he convinces Edgar to flee Gloucester castle as their father approaches the room. Right when Edgar flees, Edmund intentionally wounds his arm, affirming â€Å"Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion / Of my more fierce endeavor. I have seen drunkards / Do more than this in sport. / Father! Father† (11. 1. 36-39)! By framing Edgar for his wounds as he fled the scene, Edmund has now secured Gloucester trust which has led him to the condemnation of Edger’s death. As the two plots continue to unravel, more disguises begin to unfold, with one of them being Kent after he was expelled from Learns Kingdom. Instead of double crossing his friends and family like Edmund had, Ke nt chose to return to Learns kingdom, disguised as an ordinary peasant, even though he had been wronged by Lear. When asked by King Lear who he was, Kent simply replied, â€Å"A man, sir† (l. V. 1 1). Lear seemed to be content with the man’s answer and allowed the newly disguised Kent to become his new servant. Even after that Kent was using was not of any importance, his characteristics lead him to be different than almost every character in the play. His role and physical disguise of being a random, selfless person who cares about the well-being of the King over his win safety Juxtaposes the psychological disguise the two sisters, General and Reagan, displayed back in Act One. Even though Kent has no familial relations to the King, he cared more about the King than the Kings own two daughters did. Not only did the two sisters deceive Lear into dividing his kingdom amongst them, but they both treated Lear with disrespect and banished him from their respective kingdoms . One cannot simply put a price Ken’s loyalty to King Lear, even after being expatriated by the King. Much like Kent, Edgar was also forced away from his kingdom ND was required to disguise himself as a means of protection. Under the name of Poor Tom, Edgar disguised himself as a beggar; however, unlike Kent, Edger’s entire persona changed. In an aside, we learn that throughout Edger’s time as a homeless man, there was no possibility that life could have been worse for him – â€Å"And worse I may be yet. The worst is not / So long as we can say ‘This is the worst† (IV. I. 30-31). It is only during his time as a homeless man that he knows that life couldn’t get any worse. Such logic would make sense in this situation because it is only at a man’s utmost lowest point where he becomes the true essence of what he is. With that being said, by spending time as a beggar and being homeless, Edger’s body is stripped away to the ve ry pith of his being and it is there that he finds what he is truly made of. When Edgar has almost fully adjusted to his new life as a homeless bum, he then sees his father, Gloucester, walking towards him, but without any eyes. Here, Gloucester believes that Edgar is Poor Tom and also divulges that he knows that Edgar is innocent and that it was Edmund who was behind everything. Gloucester hen asks Edgar to lead him to Dover, where â€Å"There is a cliff, whose high and bending head / Looks fearfully in the confined deep. ‘ shall no leading need† (IV. Ii. 83-88). At this point in the play, I was puzzled as to why Edgar did not disclose his real identity to his father, but I believe that it all boiled down to his father condemning him to death, which would always be hard to forgive. Edgar would eventually deceive Gloucester by not letting him commit suicide and Jump off of the cliffs of Dover, but instead Jump onto flat ground. This means of deception was a necessity to prevent Gloucester from killing himself which was easily diverted. After experiencing so many life-altering events, Edgar had finally grown into and found his new identity. Having become encapsulated in this new physical disguise that he had finally developed into, it ultimately gave him the strength and mental fortitude to face and defeat his brother in the final scene. By creating and interweaving these deceptions and disguises amongst all the characters, Shakespeare is able to more effectively develop the characters of the play. Much like the formal title, The Tragedy of King Lear, it was tragic and quite ironic that at the end of the play neither Kent nor Edgar got a chance to adequately reveal their true identities that were hiding beneath their disguises to both King Lear and Gloucester. Lear was far too delusional to understand Ken’s explanation that he was the Kings new servant due to the combination of his uneasy mental state along with Cordillera’s corpse in his arms, whereas we learn that Gloucester died from shock when Edgar attempted to reveal Shakespeare ends the play with only three surviving characters, leaving the reader to contemplate the mystery of their futures. We will write a custom essay sample on The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Example specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

The Pitfalls of Thinking - The Road essays

The Pitfalls of Thinking - The Road essays The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, is a story of a post-apocalyptic world seen through the eyes of a father and son, while traveling in a seemingly desolated environment searching for a civilized society. The Road portrays what is left of the world and its inhabitants in a cold, unforgiving, and depressing manner. Traveling the road the father and son strive to carry the fire with them as they keep pushing on through what seems to be a futile and endless journey. Many characters in The Road are depicted as savages who have resorted to barbaric and cannibalistic methods in order to survive the environment they are placed in, which no longer contains any type of plant growth or animal food source, except humans. While traveling down the road, many of the characters in the story have resorted to survival by any means necessary, in doing so they have forgotten what it means to be human, thus creating many pitfalls in their thinking. The father in The Road creates many errors in his thinking that become recognizable and pointed out to him more and more by his son as the story progresses. The error of perspective the father makes the most is their error of the either or outlook. There are many factors to consider in thinking about surviving in a post-apocalyptic society. The father tells his son that they are the good guys while the cannibalistic murdering characters are the bad guys. The father tells the son that the good guys carry the fire, which represents internal human strength in the form of qualities as hope, perseverance, and resilience as well as morality, and the ability to retain ones humanity in the face of ultimate destruction and evil. The father explains to his son that there are either good guys or bad guys in this post-apocalyptic society. Unfortunately, their situation does not exactly lend themselves to such clear cut definitions of these terms and the son begins to realize this. Along their journey the son begins to c...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Seven Things You Need to Know About the Ocean

Seven Things You Need to Know About the Ocean Its a fact that you may have heard before, but it bears repeating: scientists have mapped more terrain on the surface of the Moon, Mars, and Venus than they have of Earths ocean floor. There is a reason for this, however, beyond apathy towards oceanography. It is actually more difficult to map the surface of the ocean floor, which requires measuring gravity anomalies and using sonar at close ranges, than the surface of a nearby moon or planet, which can be done by radar from a satellite. The entire ocean is mapped, its just at a much lower resolution (5km) than the Moon (7m), Mars (20m) or Venus (100m). Needless to say, Earths ocean is vastly unexplored. This makes it hard for scientists and, in turn, the average citizen to fully understand this powerful and important resource.  People need to understand their impact on the ocean and the oceans impact on them- citizens need ocean literacy.   In October 2005, a group of national organizations  published a list of the 7 major principles and 44 fundamental concepts of Ocean Science Literacy. The goal of Ocean Literacy is threefold: to understand the science of the ocean, to communicate about the ocean in a meaningful way and to make informed and responsible decisions about ocean policy. Here are those seven Essential Principles.   1. The Earth Has One Big Ocean With Many Features Earth has seven continents, but one ocean. The sea is not a simple thing: it hides mountain ranges with more volcanoes than all those on land, and it is stirred by a system of currents and complex tides. In plate tectonics, the oceanic plates of the lithosphere mix the cold crust with the hot mantle over millions of years. The oceans water is integral with the freshwater we use, connected to it through the worlds water cycle. Yet as large as it is, the ocean is finite and its resources have limits. 2. The Ocean and Life in the Ocean Shape the Features of Earth Over geologic time, the sea dominates the land. Most of the rocks exposed on land were laid down underwater when sea level was higher than today. Limestone and chert are biological products, created from the bodies of microscopic sea life. And the sea shapes the coast, not just in hurricanes but in the persistent work of erosion and deposition by waves and tides. 3. The Ocean Is a Major Influence on Weather and Climate Indeed, the ocean dominates the worlds climate, driving three global cycles: water, carbon and energy. Rain comes from evaporated seawater, transferring not just water but the solar energy that took it from the sea. Sea plants produce most of the worlds oxygen; seawater takes up half the carbon dioxide put into the air. And the currents of the sea carry warmth from the tropics toward the poles- as the currents shift, the climate shifts as well. 4. The Ocean Makes the Earth Habitable Life in the ocean gave the atmosphere all of its oxygen, starting in the Proterozoic Eon billions of years ago. Life itself arose in the ocean. Geochemically speaking, the ocean has allowed Earth to keep its precious supply of hydrogen locked up in the form of water, not lost to outer space as it otherwise would be. 5. The Ocean Supports a Great Diversity of Life and Ecosystems The living space in the ocean is vastly greater than the habitats of the land. Likewise, there are more major groups of living things in the sea than on land. Ocean life includes floaters, swimmers and burrowers, and some deep ecosystems depend on chemical energy without any input from the sun. Yet much of the ocean is a desert while estuaries and reefs- both delicate environments- support the worlds greatest abundances of life. And the coastlines boast a tremendous variety of life zones based on the tides, wave energies and water depths. 6. The Ocean and Humans Are Inextricably Interconnected The ocean presents us with both resources and hazards. From it we extract foods, medicines and minerals; commerce relies on sea routes. Most of the population lives near it, and it is a major recreational attraction. Conversely ocean storms, tsunamis and sea-level change all threaten coastal lives. But in turn, humans affect the ocean in how we exploit, modify, pollute and regulate our activities in it. These are matters that concern all governments and all citizens. 7. The Ocean Is Largely Unexplored Depending on resolution, only .05% to 15% of our ocean has been explored in detail. Since the ocean is approximately 70% of the entire Earths surface, this means that 62.65-69.965% of our Earth is unexplored. As our reliance on the ocean continues to grow, marine science will be even more important in maintaining the oceans health and value, not just in satisfying our curiosity. Exploring the ocean takes many different talents- biologists, chemists, technicians, programmers, physicists, engineers and geologists. It takes new kinds of instruments and programs. It also takes new ideas- maybe yours, or your childrens. Edited by Brooks Mitchell

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Death penalty Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Death penalty - Research Paper Example While some people support the death penalty, others strongly condemn it. Some of the arguments in its favor are discussed below. This refers to a logical state-sponsored rejoinder to criminality, which is warranted given that once a crime happens; the victim is the state (Robinson, 2009). Cavadino & Dignan (2007) explain that retribution chastises the criminal in terms of â€Å"just deserts†. It focuses on the past events rather than on the future, and presumes that the penalty should fit the crime – â€Å"a tooth for a tooth†, so to say. Normally, criminals who face execution are those who cause serious harm to the society. A murderer for instance is executed with the validation that â€Å"two offences make a right†. Seemingly, the retributive argument is the strongest – when harmed, the government has a right to seek out justice with the intent of re-balancing the justice scales that the lawbreaker skewed to his or her benefit when he or she committed the crime (Robinson, 2009). According to Scott (2008), incapacitation is a philosophical justification of punishment that dictates that an offender’s physical capacity to commit a crime be removed (199). Those who hold this argument hold the view that death penalty takes away a criminal’s freedom in such a way that he or she is not able to perpetrate another offense – he/she permanently ceases being a menace to the society (Robinson, 2009).   Those who hold this view argue that once an individual initiates force against another guiltless individual, he or she has in reality declared that he or she does not conform to the principle of person’s rights. That criminal is not prepared to live among men as a reasoning individual – he or she only wants to live as a predator, to the obliteration as well as disadvantage of other beings around him or her. They also argue that rights result from a person’s nature of living as a rational being and if a person decides to live unreasonably, he or she is

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Installation art of Olafur Eliasson Research Paper

Installation art of Olafur Eliasson - Research Paper Example Art allows artists the freedom to exercise with just any material to express their creativity. In the recent past, artists have taken this freedom to higher unique levels and have been using elemental materials such as humidity, water, air temperature, and light to come up with unique pieces. One such artist is Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Olafur Eliasson transforms the perception of reality by inserting massive installations of nature into public spaces as this research study will reveal. To create The Weather Projectin London’s Turbine Hall, he made a large circular disc using multiple monochromatic lamps to create a sun radiating yellow light. Additionally, he created artificial mist in the hall using humidifiers casting a mixture of water and sugar then finished it by covering the ceiling with a large mirror1. The installation comes off as a large sun casting yellow rays into a dense mist. Visitors lie on their back and see themselves as tiny black shadows immersed in an ocean of yellow light. The purpose of the installation is to create an artifice of the sun, allowing visitors to â€Å"engage† closely with nature2. The New York Waterfallsinstallation at the New York harbor is a composition of four gigantic [artificial] waterfalls ranging between 90 to 120 feet high3. Eliasson created the project to allow people in the city to experience and appreciate their relationship with nature of immense nature. The size of the installations, which rise high above eye view creates an enhanced feeling of rare experience that the townsfolk are rare with. In this case, he brought the perception of reality (waterfalls) into a public space (New York City), allowing people to familiarize with the proportion of such occurrences as they are in nature without visitng them4. The Infinite Staircase in Munich, Germany, is yet another of Eliasson’s unique perception of reality in a public space. It

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Translation and Technology Essay Example for Free

Translation and Technology Essay Contents 4 Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources Workbenches Translation support tools and resources Localization tools Commercial computer-aided translation tools Standards for data interchange Conclusion 5 Evaluating Translation Tools Machine translation systems Computer-aided translation tools Stakeholders Evaluation methods General frameworks for evaluating translation tools Conclusion 6 Recent Developments and Future Directions Machine translation systems Computer-aided translation tools Translation systems with speech technology. Translation systems for minority languages Translation on the web Machine translation systems and the semantic web The localization industry Conclusion 7 Translation Types Revisited Relationships between topics and translation types Machine translation systems Computer-aided translation tools Conclusion Appendices References Index  93 93 106 113 117 119 128 129 129 131 133 135 139 151 152 152 156 157 162 164 166 170 171 172 173 191 193 195 197 204 218 List of Figures, Tables and Boxes Figures 1. 1 1. 2 1. 3 1. 4 1. 5 2. 1 2. 2 2. 3 2. 4 2. 5 2. 6 2. 7 2. 8 2. 9 2. 10 2. 11 2. 12 2. 13 3. 1 3. 2 3. 3 3. 4 3. 5 3. 6 3. 7 3. 8 3. 9 Classification of translation types Machine translation model Machine translation system based on usage Human-aided machine translation model Machine-aided human translation model Chronology of translation theories Translation process model Example of sentence representations Holmes’ schema of translation studies A schema of  applied translation studies A model of the translation process including pre- and post-editing tasks Example of an English SL text and its pre-edited version Unedited and post-edited Spanish machine translation output Example of natural and controlled languages. Example of original English text and its AECMA simplified English version Example of natural English, simplified English and simplified Arabic texts Example of an English controlled language text and its translations Illustration of the translation process using a machine translation system Chronology of machine translation development Example of structural representations. Machine translation architectures Direct translation model Interlingua model Interlingua multilingual machine translation system model Transfer model Transfer using tree-to-tree parsing Transfer multilingual machine translation system model ix  7 9 10 12 13 23 29 31 37 42 43 44 46 48 50 51 53 54 58 68 68 70 72 72 74 75 76 x List of Figures, Tables and Boxes 3. 10 3. 11 3. 12 3. 13 4. 1 4. 2 4. 3 4. 4 4. 5 4. 6 4. 7 4. 8 4. 9 4. 10 4. 11 4. 12 4. 13 4. 14 4. 15 4. 16 4. 17 4. 18 4. 19 4. 20 4. 21 4. 22 5. 1 5. 2 5. 3 5. 4 5. 5 6. 1 6. 2 Statistical-based model Probabilities workflow in the statistical-based approach Example-based model Translations by online machine translation systems Example of HTML code in a web page Example of the web page without HTML code Example of a translation workflow using a translation memory system Example of an English source text Pre-translation 1 Database model in translation memory systems Reference model in translation memory systems. Flowchart to illustrate how to build a parallel corpus Example of a text header in a corpus Example of part-of-speech tagging Example of a concordance for the word ‘round’ Types of tool used in a localization project Example of the translation process using a machine translation system, a translation database and a terminology database Example of TMX  data-sharing Example of a header in TMX Example of a body in TMX Example of a header in TBX Example of a body in TBX Example of XLIFF in the localization process Example of a header in XLIFF Example of a body in XLIFF Example of an alternate translation element in XLIFF Example of a glass-box evaluation. Example of a black-box evaluation Example of an evaluation process Standardization projects for evaluating machine translation systems EAGLES general evaluation framework Future-use model of translation technology Speech technology in translation. 78 80 81 87 99 99 102 102 103 103 104 109 110 111 112 114 117 120 121 122 124 125 126 127 127 127 138 139 141 142 145 154 158 Tables 1. 1 3. 1 An example of a table for describing translation types Example of a word entry in KAMI 8 67. List of Figures, Tables and Boxes  xi 3. 2 3. 3 3. 4 4. 1 4. 2 4. 3 4. 4 4. 5 4. 6 4. 7 4. 8 7. 1 7. 2 7. 3 7. 4 7. 5 7. 6 7. 7 7. 8 7. 9 7. 10 7. 11 7. 12 7. 13 7. 14 7. 15 7. 16 7. 17 7. 18 7. 19 7. 20 Imitation in the example-based approach Semantic similarity in the example-based approach Classification of commercial machine translation systems Example of perfect matching Examples of fuzzy matching Higher and lower threshold percentages for fuzzy matching Examples of matching suggestions for ‘bow’ Example of segments Example of translation units Example of English-French translation units from a database Classification of commercial computer-aided translation tools. Degree of automation Human intervention Integrated tools Application of theory Application of theory in machine translation systems Source-language texts Target-language texts Stages of the translation process Types of text Language dependency Types of source language Data interchange standards in translation Translation groups  and data interchange standards Levels of evaluation Methods of evaluation Features in a machine translation system Language coverage in machine translation systems Texts and computer-aided translation tools. Language dependency in computer-aided translation tools Number of languages in computer-aided translation tools. 82 82 88 95 96 97 98 100 101 102 118 174 175 175 176 177 178 180 181 182 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 193 194 194 195 Boxes 1. 1 5. 1 A translator at work FEMTI evaluation framework 14 147 Series Editors’ Preface Recent years have witnessed momentous changes in the study of Modern Languages, globally as well as nationally. On the one hand, the rapid growth of English as a universal lingua franca has rendered the command of other languages a less compelling commodity. On the other hand, the demand for intercultural mediators including translators and interpreters has grown as a result of many recent social, political and economic developments; these include legislative changes, the emergence of supranational organisations, the ease of travel, telecommunications, commercial pressures raising awareness of local needs, migration and employment mobility, and a heightened awareness of linguistic and human rights. Today, linguistically oriented students wishing to pursue a career in which they are able to further their interest in languages and cultures would be more inclined to choose vocationally relevant courses in which translation and interpreting play an important part rather than traditional. Modern Language degrees. Thus the possibilities for professional work in translation and interpreting have been extended, particularly as a result of developments in technology, whether as facilitating the translation process or as a means of dissemination and broadening access to communications in a range of media. The role of translation is, for example, becoming increasingly important in the context of modern media such as television and cinema, whether for documentary or entertainment purposes. And the technological possibilities for providing interpreting services, whether to the police officer on the beat or to the businessperson on a different continent, have extended the previously physically confined nature of mediating the spoken word. Not only do these new vistas open up opportunities for the professional linguist, they also point to expanding areas of research in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Practice and theory are of mutual benefit, especially in the case of a relatively young discipline such as Translation Studies. As a result, the first aim of this series, written primarily for the MA and advanced undergraduate student, is to highlight contemporary issues and concerns in order to provide informed, theoretically based, accounts of developments in translation and interpretation. The second aim is to provide ready access for students interested in the study and pursuit of Modern Languages to xii Series Editors’ Preface xiii vocational issues which are of relevance to the contemporary world of translating and interpreting. The final aim is to offer informed updates to practising professionals on recent developments in the field impacting on their discipline. Linguistic, Culture and Translation Studies University of Surrey Guildford UK GUNILLA ANDERMAN MARGARET ROGERS Acknowledgements I am indebted to three individuals for their contributions. This book would have taken more time to complete if it had not been for Chooi Tsien Yeo who researched background information for me. Words cannot express my gratitude to Stephen Moore, in between translation deadlines, for putting his experiences as a professional translator into writing. I am extremely indebted to Paul Marriott for his comments and suggestions, particularly on helping to visualize a new way to depict the multidimensional classification of translation types in Chapter 7. I would like to acknowledge especially the Duke University Libraries and Institute of Statistics and Decision Science at Duke University in providing me with the environment and research facilities where most of this book was written. Also my thanks to the National University of Singapore Libraries, George Edward Library at the University of Surrey, and the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo for their help. I would also like to acknowledge the following authors, publishers and organizations for allowing the use of copyright material in this book: John Hutchins, Harold Somers and Elsevier (Academic Press Ltd) for the classification of translation types in Chapter 1; Eugene Nida and the Linguistic Society of America for the translation process in Chapter 2; John Smart and Smart Communications, Inc. for the controlled and simplified English samples in Chapter 2; Francis Bond and Takefumi Yamazaki for the KAMI Malay–English dictionary entry in Chapter 3; Paolo Dongilli and Johann Gamper for the building of a parallel corpus in Chapter 4; Tony Jewtushenko and Peter Reynolds of OASIS for XLIFF in Chapter 4; Enrique de Argaez at Internet World Stats for the statistical figure on the Internet population in Chapter 6; Michael Carl, Reinhard Schaler, Andy Way, Springer Science and Business Media, and Kluwer Academic Publishers for the model of the future use of translation technology in Chapter 6. To Antonio Ribeiro, Tessadit Lagab, Margaret Rogers and Chooi Tsien Yeo, my most sincere thanks for translating from English into Portuguese, French, German and Chinese respectively. I am solely responsible for any translation errors that occurred. A special thank you goes to Elsie Lee, Shaun Yeo, Angeliki Petrits, Mirko Plitt and Ken Seng Tan for answering some of my queries. xiv Acknowledgements xv. To Caroline, Elizabeth, Gillian and Lyndsay, thank you for helping out with keying in corrections on the earlier drafts. Lastly, to my ‘sifu’ and friend Peter Newmark, a big thank-you for all the translation discussions we had during our coffee–biscuit sessions years ago. If it had not been for the series editors, Gunilla Anderman and Margaret Rogers, this book would not have been written. I am forever grateful to both of them for their feedback and comments. Thanks to Jill Lake of Palgrave Macmillan for her patience and understanding due to my ‘country-hopping’ from Southeast Asia to North America during the writing of this book. Waterloo, Canada CHIEW KIN QUAH List of Abbreviations. ACRoTERMITE AECMA AIA ALPAC ALPS ALT-J/C ALT-J/E ALT-J/M AMTA ASCC ASD ATA BASIC BLEU BSO CAT CAT2 CESTA CFE CIA CICC CRATER CTE CULT DARPA DBMT DIPLOMAT DLT DTS EAGLES EARS EDIG Terminology of Telecommunications European Association of Aerospace Industries Aerospace Industries Association of America Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee Automatic Language Processing System Automatic Language Translator Japanese to Chinese Automatic Language Translator Japanese to English Automatic. Language Translator Japanese to Malay Association of Machine Translation in the Americas Automatic Spelling Checker Checker AeroSpace and Defence American Translators Association British American Scientific International, Commercial Bilingual Evaluation Understudy Buro voor Systeemontwikkeling Computer-Aided Translation Constructors, Atoms and Translators Campagne d’Evaluation de Systemes de Traduction Automatique Caterpillar Fundamental English Central Intelligence Agency Center of International Cooperation for Computerization Corpus Resources and Terminology Extraction Caterpillar Technical English Chinese University. Language Translator Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Dialogue-based Machine Translation Distributed Intelligent Processing of Language for Operational Machine Aided Translation Distributed Language Translation Descriptive Translation Studies Expert Advisory Group on Language Engineering Standards Effective, Affordable Reusable Speech-to-Text European Defence Industries Group xvi List of Abbreviations xvii. ELDA ELRA ENGSPAN ENIAC EURODICAUTUM EUROSPACE EUROTRA EVALDA EWG FAHQT/FAHQMT FEMTI GENETER GETA HAMT HICATS HT HTML IAMT IATE INTERSECT ISI ISLE ISO JEIDA JEITA JICST-E KAMI KANT KGB LDC LISA LMT LTC LTRAC MAHT MANTRA MARTIF Evaluations and Language resources Distribution Agency European Language Resources Association English Spanish Machine Translation System Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. European Terminology Database Aerospace  and Defence Industries Association of Europe European Translation Infrastructure d’EVALuation a ELDA Evaluation Working Group Fully Automatic High Quality (Machine) Translation A Framework for the Evaluation of Machine Translation in ISLE Generic Model for Terminology Groupe d’Etude pour la Traduction Automatique Human-Aided/Assisted Machine Translation Hitachi Computer Aided Translation System Human Translation HyperText Markup Language International Association of Machine Translation Inter-Agency Terminology Exchange International Sample of English Contrastive. Texts International Statistical Institute International Standards for Language Engineering International Organization for Standardization Japan Electronic Industry Development Association Japan Electronics and Information Technology Association Japan Information Center of Science and Technology Kamus Melayu-Inggeris (Malay-English Dictionary) Knowledge-based Accurate Translation Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti Linguistic Data Consortium Localisation Industry and Standards Association Logic-based Machine. Translation Language Technology Centre Language Translation Resources Automatic Console Machine-Aided/Assisted Human Translation Machine Assisted Translation Machine Readable Terminology Interchange Format xviii List of Abbreviations  MASTOR MAT METAL METU MLIR MT NAATI NIST OASIS OCP OCR OLIF OS OSCAR PaTrans PAHO PDA PESA RDF RFC SALT SGML SPANAM SUSY SYSTRAN TAP TAUM TBX TEMAA TGT-1 THETOS TMF TMX TOLL TONGUES TS TTS Multilingual Automatic Speech-to-Speech Translator Machine-Aided/Assisted. Translation Mechanical Translation and Analysis of Language Middle East Technical University MultiLingual Information Retrieval Machine Translation National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd. National Institute of Standards and Technology Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards Oxford Concordance Programme Optical Character Recognition Open Lexicon Interchange Format Operating System Open Standards for Container/Content Allowing Re-use Patent. Translation Pan-American Health Organization Personal Digital Assistant Portuguese-English Sentence Alignment Resource Description Framework Request for Comments Standards-based Access to Lexicographical Terminological Multilingual Resources Standard Generalised Markup Language Spanish American Machine Translation System Saarbrucker UbersetzungsSYstem System Translation. Think-Aloud Protocols Traduction automatique a l’Universite de Montreal TermBase eXchange Testbed Study of Evaluation Methodologies: Authoring Aids Text-into-Gesture Translator Text into Sign Language Automatic Translator for Polish Terminological Markup Framework Translation Memory eXchange Thai On-Line Library Act II Audio Voice Translation Guide Systems Translation Studies Theoretical Translation Studies List of Abbreviations xix. WebDIPLOMAT WebOnt WWW W3C XLIFF XLT XML Web Distributed Intelligent Processing of Language for Operational Machine Aided Translation Web Ontology World Wide Web WWW Consortium XML Localisation Interchange File Format XML Representation of Lexicons and Terminologies Extensible or Extensive Markup Language. This page intentionally left blank Introduction For over half a century, the demand for a variety of translations by different groups of end-users has enabled many types of translation tools to be developed. This is reflected in the systems that will be discussed in this book, ranging from machine translation systems, computer-aided translation tools and translation resources. The majority of books and articles on translation technology focusing on the development of these systems and tools have been written from the point of view of researchers and developers. More recent publications written with translators in mind have focused on the use of particular tools. This book is intended as an introduction to translation technology for students of translation. It can also be useful to professional translators and those interested in knowing about translation technology. A different approach is taken in that descriptions of particular tools are not provided, and the development of different machine translation and computer-aided translation tools and their uses are discussed. Programming details and mathematical equations are not considered, except in the discussion of the statistical approach to machine translation where minimal essential formulae are included. Descriptions are given to allow readers to further investigate specific approaches or issues that might interest them, using references cited throughout the book. It is also important to note that no particular approach or design is deemed to be better than any other. Each and every one has their strengths and weaknesses. In many cases, readers will find that examples of systems and tools are given but this does not suggest that they are the best; they are simply examples to illustrate the points made. 1 2 Translation and Technology. While researching this book, I discovered that the majority of publications from the literature on translation technology are about the development of machine translation systems, primarily involving experimental systems developed or being developed at a number of universities and large commercial corporations across the globe. The book will show that many of these systems never achieved their commercial potential and remained as experimental tools, while some others served as tools for other natural-language processing applications. By contrast, not much literature seems to be available on computeraided tools such as translation memory systems. As we shall see in this book, most computer-aided translation tools are developed by commercial companies and, as a result, progress reports on these tools are rarely published in the public domain. Furthermore, to cater to different needs and demands, a tool like a translation memory system comes in many versions from the most basic to the most advanced. Insights into the use of these tools can be found in translator magazines and occasionally also posted on the World Wide Web (WWW). The evaluation of translation tools falls into a field that is wellresearched. Again we will see that most of the literature focuses on the evaluation of machine translation systems. Furthermore, the extensive use of translation tools and translation processes involved in the localization industry tend to be discussed separately, giving the impression that they are not related to translation. These two areas are, however, directly relevant to translation technology. Hence they are also included in this book. Essentially, the book contains what is felt should be included in order to provide an overview of translation technology. In order to keep the book at the given length, the topics have been carefully selected with some described in greater detail than others. In some chapters, an abbreviated historical background has been deemed necessary in order to provide a better understanding of the topics discussed, especially in the description of the development of machine translation systems and their evaluation. However, in all cases, references have been provided which readers may choose to pursue at a later time. Suggestions for further reading are provided at the end of every chapter (Chapters 1 to 6). The first chapter discusses the definitions of terms referring to the use of computers in translation activities. Some of the terms can be confusing to anyone who is unfamiliar with translation tools. In some cases, the same translation tools are given different names depending on what they are used for; in other cases, a tool may be differently classified depending on the perspective of those who have developed that tool. Introduction 3 The aim in this chapter is therefore to clarify these terminological and related matters. An alternative perspective to the four basic translation types – fully automated high-quality machine translation, human-aided machine translation, machine-aided human translation, and human translation – first proposed by Hutchins and Somers (1992) is introduced to reflect current developments in translation technology. This will be explored in more detail in the final chapter where the four translation types are reviewed in relation to topics described in the book. The second chapter discusses technology within the larger framework of Translation Studies as a discipline, focusing on the relationship between the engineering of translation technology, on the one hand, and Translation Studies including translation theory, on the other hand. The relationship between academic and professional groups involved in translation is also examined. This in turn leads to a discussion of the involvement of a particular approach in linguistic theories – known as ‘formalisms’ in natural-language processing – especially in the design of machine translation systems. A different perspective on the translation process involving pre- and post-editing tasks using a special variety of language called ‘controlled language’ is also presented. This translation process is described using the translation model proposed by Jakobson (1959/2000), a translation model that differs significantly from the one proposed by Nida (1969). The third chapter gives detailed descriptions of different machine translation system designs also known as ‘architectures’. The development of machine translation over several decades, its capabilities and the different types of machine translation systems, past and present, are also included. Both experimental and commercial systems are discussed, although the focus is on the experimental systems. Even though machine translation has been well-documented elsewhere, a discussion is deemed to be important for this book. It is felt that modern-day professional translators should be informed about machine translation systems because there is every reason to believe, as we shall discover in Chapter 6, that future trends in translation technology are moving towards integrated systems where at least one translation tool is combined with another, as is already the case in the integration of machine translation with translation memory. The fourth chapter describes the architectures and uses of several computer-aided translation tools, such as translation memory systems, as well as resources such as parallel corpora. Unlike machine translation systems, which are largely developed by universities, most computeraided translation tools are developed by commercial companies. Thus, 4 Translation and Technology information about such tools is harder to obtain. This chapter will also show that computer-aided translation tools are becoming more advanced and using different operating systems, and so ‘standards for data interchange’ have been created. Three different standards are described. Currently available commercial translation tools are also discussed. In addition, this chapter presents an overview of other commercially available tools such as those used in the localization industry. The fifth chapter touches on the evaluation of translation technology. The discussion focuses on different groups of stakeholders from research sponsors to end-users. Also included in the discussion are the different methods of evaluation: human, machine, and a combination of human and machine as evaluator. The choice of method used depends on who the evaluation is for and its purpose. It also depends on whether an entire tool or only some components are evaluated. Also described in this chapter is the general framework of evaluation offered by various research groups in the USA and Europe. The literature on evaluation concentrates on the evaluation of machine translation systems either during the developmental stage or after the process of development is completed. Less information is available on the evaluation of computeraided translation tools. What is available is found mainly in translation journals, magazines and newsletters. The sixth chapter presents some recent developments and shows the direction in which translation technology is heading, in particular regarding the future of machine translation systems that are now incorporating speech technology features. The integration of speech technology and traditional machine translation systems allows translation not only between texts or between stretches of speech, but also between text and speech. This integration is proving to be useful in many specific situations around the globe especially in international relations and trade. This chapter also looks at research projects in countries that are involved in the development of translation tools for minority languages and discusses the problems encountered in developing machine translation systems for languages that are less well-known and not widely spoken. Another form of technology called the ‘Semantic Web’ that has the potential to improve the performance of certain machine translation systems is also described. Included in this chapter, too, are issues such as linguistic dominance and translation demands on the WWW that are already shaping parts of the translation industry. The book concludes by presenting an expanded version of the four basic classifications of translation types as suggested by Hutchins and Somers (1992) and introduced in Chapter 1. It is concluded that the Introduction 5 one-dimensional linear continuum originally proposed is no longer able to accurately reflect current developments in translation technology. Translation tools today come in different versions and types depending on the purposes for which they are built. Some are multifunctional while others remain monofunctional. An alternative way must therefore be found to depict the complexities and multidimensional relationships between the four translation types and the topics discussed in this book. It is not possible to put every single subject discussed here into one diagram or figure, and so, in order to gain a better understanding of how the issues are related to one another, they are divided into groups. Topics or issues in each group have a common theme that links them together, and are presented in a series of tables. However, it is important to bear in mind that not all topics can be presented neatly and easily even in this way. This clearly shows the complexity and multidimensionality of translation activities in the modern technological world. At the end of the book, several Appendices provide information on the various Internet sites for many different translation tools and translation support tools such as monolingual, bilingual, trilingual and multilingual dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri and encyclopaedia. Only a selected few are listed here, and as a result the lists are not exhaustive. It is also important to note that some Internet sites may not be permanent; at the time of the writing, every effort has been made to ensure that all sites are accessible. 1 Definition of Terms In translation technology, terms commonly used to describe translation tools are as follows: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ machine translation (MT); machine-aided/assisted human translation (MAHT); human-aided/assisted machine translation (HAMT); computer-aided/assisted translation (CAT); machine-aided/assisted translation (MAT); fully automatic high-quality (machine) translation (FAHQT/FAHQMT). Distinctions between some of these terms are not always clear. For example, computer-aided translation (CAT) is often the term used in Translation Studies (TS) and the localization industry (see the second part of this chapter), while the software community which develops this type of tool prefers to call it ‘machine-aided translation’ (MAT). As the more familiar term among professional translators and in the field of Translation Studies, ‘computer-aided translation’ is used throughout the book to represent both computer-aided translation and machine-aided translation tools, and the term ‘aided’ is chosen instead of ‘assisted’, as also in ‘human-aided machine translation’ and ‘machine-aided human translation’. Figure 1.  1 distinguishes four types of translation relating human and machine involvement in a classification along a linear continuum introduced by Hutchins and Somers (1992: 148). This classification, now more than a decade old, will become harder to sustain as more tools become multifunctional, as we shall see in Chapters 3, 4 and 6. Nevertheless, the concept in Figure 1. 1 remains useful as a point of reference for classifying translation in relation to technology. 6 Definition of Terms 7 MT CAT Machine Fully automated high quality (machine) translation (FAHQT/ FAHQMT) Human-aided machine translation (HAMT) Machine-aided human translation (MAHT) Human Human translation (HT) MT = machine translation; CAT = computer-aided translation Figure 1. 1 Source: Classification of translation types Hutchins and Somers (1992): 148. The initial goal of machine translation was to build a fully automatic high-quality machine translation that did not require any human intervention. At a 1952 conference, however, Bar-Hillel reported that building a fully automatic translation system was unrealistic and years later still remained convinced that a fully automatic high-quality machine translation system was essentially unattainable (Bar-Hillel 1960/2003: 45). Instead, what has emerged in its place is machine translation, placed between FAHQT and HAMT on the continuum of Figure 1. 1. The main aim of machine translation is still to generate translation automatically, but it is no longer required that the output quality is high, rather that it is fit-for-purpose (see Chapters 2 and 3). As for human-aided machine translation and machine-aided human translation, the boundary between these two areas is especially unclear. Both classes are considered to be computer-aided translation as indicated in Figure 1. 1 (Tong 1994: 4,730; see also Slocum 1988; Hutchins and Somers 1992). However, in Schadek and Moses (2001), a different classification has been proposed where only machine-aided human translation is viewed as synonymous with computer-aided translation. Human-aided machine translation is considered as a separate category. The reasoning behind the view offered by Schadek and Moses is not difficult to understand. At least theoretically, the difference between the two is obvious. For human-aided machine translation, the machine is the principal translator, while in machine-aided human translation it is a human. In practice, however, it may be less easy today to draw a distinguishable boundary between them. The blurring of boundaries is further complicated when human-aided machine translation is considered as a subclass of machine translation, an approach chosen by Chellamuthu (2002). Since human-aided machine translation has 8 Translation and Technology the machine as the principal translator –

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Easy And Difficult Works In Ed :: essays research papers

According to the article "When Does Education Stop?" it stated that a young man interviewed the author, James Michener, and bellyaching about writing a three thousand words paper which is about James’ book. Because the young man sounded whimpering, James started to talk about his own experience of writing millions words paper. He mentioned that young people should realize that they have to put many efforts in order to achieve their goals. Also, men and women should know that they would face the difficult tasks before they success. Besides, no college can educate people with all they want, and all they need in the future. Although people study literature, logic or history probably have a fewer job opportunities, these fields actually have more wide job opportunities in the future. In addition, the schools are not a relax place. In stead of it, these schools are the places to train people. Therefore, if professors do not give many works for students to study, they s hould quit those professors or schools and seek others who have harsh teaching rules. The changes of the social structure caused people tend to learn the high technology instead of studying arts or literature. Some scholars think that people don’t know how to write a good paper, or a nice article because people think it’s too tedious that takes a lot of time to write, to research, and to edit. People love to look for material satisfaction, or participate with things which they are interested in. Therefore, they probably don’t want to spend much time to devote in studying. In my opinion, either having a lot of works or less works has it’s own advantages and disadvantages which depends on person’s own interests. People usually get different kind of benefits from various things, and it’s hard to determine which is better or not. According to the author, people avoid doing difficult tasks; instead, they just complain about those works. The hard works can develop people’s own knowledge, and that can train their brains to think deeper. People will have better abilities to face the future problems. The more experience people have in college, the better performances they can achieve in the society; for example, the biology students have to do a lot of lab works before they become a medical student even a doctor. If they don’t make any experiment before they become doctors, they probably will make many mistakes during the operation.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Fantastik All-Purpose Cleaners

Case: fantastik All-Purpose Cleaners Key Decision: Develop a brand strategy to increase fantastik’s sales and maintain its leadership position in the increasingly competitive all-purpose cleaner market. Problem/Opportunity: fantastik has limited financial resources to promote and develop its brand. Also, other heavy price discounting and new higher-priced cleaning products have threatened fantastik’s market leading position. Thus, fantastik needs to lower its retail price or innovate product categories to attract and maintain customers.Stakeholders: Johnson family benefit from the profits earned and success of the business. Customers need the strong cleaning function provided by the cleaners. Employees need a stable and safe working environment and expected salaries. Analysis: Internal: fantastik has leading brand equity in industry and strong social responsibility that commit to communities and the environment, thus customers who pursue green lifestyle could be loyal t o fantastic. Moreover, fantastik’s retail price $3. 9 is relatively high compared with its competitors, thus it may lose customers who are price sensitive. External: Consumers are moving towards environmentally friendly products, it gives fantastik a good opportunity and competitive advantage to compete with other competitors. Consumer Analysis: The target market is women aged from 25 to 49 who are responsible for the cleanness at home and has upper household income. They are concerned about quality of life, thus they prefer to purchase product with high quality.Competitive Analysis: The competitors are other all-purpose cleaners such as Lysol, Easy Off Bam, Mr. Clean, Vim, Hertel and private label. Those competitors offer lower retail price than fantastik and have strong cleaning function. Especially, private label products have the advantage of high margin for retailer and good shelf space. Alternative Marketing Strategies: Decision criteria: 1. Maintain competitive market share 2. Commit to environment 3. Allocate limited financial recourses successfullyAlternatives: 1. Develop new form of product and consistent with environmental responsibility. 2. Reduce retail price to remain competitive in the market. 3. Develop new scent of fantastik. It will cost too much to do market research and test and it’s easy to be copied by competitors. Recommendation: Decision: fantastik should develop new form of product and be consistent with environmental responsibility to attract more customers and improve household penetration, thus it can extend its product life cycle.Implementation Plan: Marketing Strategy: Target women aged from 25 to 49 who are responsible to do the cleanness of home and position high quality and functional benefit of product. Marketing Mix: Produce higher quality and new function product and commit to environment responsibility to earn brand equity from customers, and use higher retail price to indicate its high quality and make profit through high margin in the beginning.Moreover, company should use personal selling, product show and shelf advertising as promotion strategy. Finally, company can choose convenience stores nearby community as distribution centres in addition to major grocery, drug and mass merchandisers. Expected Results: fantastik can increase its dollar share by 4% in 2007 and keep its market leading position through implementing the marketing strategy.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

The Causes of Commercial Bribery Crime

(1) From a historical point of view, in traditional Chinese culture, â€Å"human† is the social causes of commercial bribery. As everyone knows, China is a exquisite â€Å"courtesy demands reciprocity† state, courtesy demands reciprocity core is advocating â€Å"human intercourse†, in other words, Chinese person standards require that human relations between people..This traditional culture extends to business, evolved into â€Å"If you want to profit from the others, it is necessary to give people the appropriate return† business philosophy. This way, â€Å"If you want to earn more profits from the others, you should give greater reward† is taken for granted. (2) From the reality of power distribution situation, there has too much monopolistic industry in China, some of the management and the staff has too much power, which gives commercial bribery great road system laid the Foundation.Western economists had made the† Rent-seeking theory† to explain to the public rights advocates have with its control power for chip seek for their own economic interests phenomenon; According to the â€Å"power rent-seeking† theory, the power of the party will be looking for opportunities through the rent his power gain benefits, and possession of money but no dominant power a side is naturally will use their own money in exchange for power.There is no scientific and effective democratization and legalization power restriction mechanism premise, this inevitably appear using trading. (3) from actor inner point of view, the pursuit of maximization of interests huge internal power is the psychological causes of commercial bribery. The disadvantages is instinct. Each person can choose for their own works. In the business field, people tend to think hard to pursue the biggest profit.So, in this kind of mentality, because of the doer in order to obtain the biggest commercial interests, of course, will by hook or by crook – including the use of bribery and corruption means. (4) from the market the demand and supply of resources allocation to see, relation between supply and demand imbalance is the production of commercial bribery market economic conditions.Because the cause of the natural or man-made reasons, some material may be rare materials, will be in need greater than supply state; Some products and will appear supply is greater than demand state. Therefore, in the circulation of commodities in the process, in order to promote surplus commodities or buy shortage of goods, with excess goods party or need commodities in short supply party will by hook or by crook. Therefore, take commercial bribery seek market supply and demand balance of resource allocation is the unavoidable.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

The History of Mechanical Clocks

The History of Mechanical Clocks During most of the Middle Ages, from roughly 500 to 1500 A.D., technological advancement was at a virtual standstill in Europe. Sundial styles evolved, but they didnt move far from ancient Egyptian principles.   Simple Sundials   Simple sundials placed above doorways were used to identify midday and four tides of the sunlit day in the Middle Ages. Several types of pocket sundials were being used by the 10th century one  English model identified tides and even compensated for seasonal changes of the suns altitude.   Mechanical Clocks In the early to mid-14th century, large mechanical clocks began to appear in the towers of several Italian cities. There is no record of any working models preceding these public clocks that were weight-driven and regulated by verge-and-foliot escapements. Verge-and-foliot mechanisms reigned for more than 300 years with variations in the shape of the foliot, but all had the same basic problem: The period of oscillation depended heavily on the amount of driving force and the amount of friction in the drive so the rate was difficult to regulate. Spring-Powered Clocks   Another advancement was an invention by Peter Henlein, a German locksmith from Nuremberg, sometime between 1500 and 1510. Henlein created  spring-powered clocks.  Replacing the heavy drive weights resulted in smaller and more portable clocks and watches. Henlein nicknamed his clocks Nuremberg Eggs. Although they slowed down as the mainspring unwound, they were popular among wealthy individuals because of their size and because they could be placed on a shelf or table instead of hung from a wall. They were the first portable timepieces, but they only had hour hands. Minute hands didn’t appear until 1670, and clocks had no glass protection during this time. Glass placed over the face of a watch didn’t come about until the 17th century. Still, Henleins advances in design were precursors to truly accurate timekeeping.   Accurate Mechanical Clocks   Christian Huygens, a Dutch scientist, made the first pendulum clock in 1656. It was regulated by a mechanism with a natural period of oscillation. Although Galileo Galilei  is  sometimes credited with inventing the pendulum and he studied its motion as early as 1582, his design for a clock was not built before his death. Huygens pendulum clock had an error of less than one minute a day, the first time such accuracy had been achieved. His later refinements reduced his clocks errors to less than 10 seconds a day.   Huygens developed the balance wheel and spring assembly sometime around 1675  and it’s still found in some of todays wristwatches. This improvement allowed 17th-century watches to keep time to 10 minutes a day. William Clement began building clocks with the new anchor or recoil escapement in London in 1671. This was a substantial improvement over the verge because it interfered less with the motion of the pendulum.   In 1721, George Graham improved the pendulum clocks accuracy to one  second a day by compensating for changes in the pendulums length due to temperature variations. John Harrison, a carpenter and self-taught clockmaker, refined Grahams temperature compensation techniques and added new methods of reducing friction. By 1761, he had built a marine chronometer with the spring and a balance wheel escapement that had won the British governments 1714 prize offered for a means of determining longitude to within one-half  a degree. It kept time aboard a rolling ship to about one-fifth of a second a day, nearly as well as a pendulum clock could do on land, and 10 times better than required.   Over the next century, refinements led to Siegmund Rieflers clock with a nearly free pendulum in 1889. It attained an accuracy of a hundredth of a second a day and became the standard in many astronomical observatories. A true free-pendulum principle was introduced by R. J. Rudd around 1898, stimulating the development of several free-pendulum clocks. One of the most famous, the W. H. Shortt clock, was demonstrated in 1921. The Shortt clock almost immediately replaced Rieflers clock as a supreme timekeeper in many observatories. This clock consisted of two pendulums, one a slave and the other a master. The slave pendulum gave the master pendulum the gentle pushes it needed to maintain its motion, and it also drove the clocks hands. This allowed the master pendulum to remain free from mechanical tasks that would disturb its regularity. Quartz Clocks   Quartz crystal clocks replaced the Shortt clock as the standard in the 1930s and 1940s, improving timekeeping performance far beyond that of pendulum and balance-wheel escapements.   Quartz clock operation is based on the piezoelectric property of quartz crystals. When an electric field is applied to the crystal, it changes its shape. It generates an electric field when squeezed or bent. When placed in a suitable electronic circuit, this interaction between mechanical stress and electric field causes the crystal to vibrate and generate a constant frequency electric signal that can be used to operate an electronic clock display.  Quartz crystal clocks were better because they had no gears or escapements to disturb their regular frequency. Even so, they relied on a mechanical vibration whose frequency depended critically on the crystals size and shape. No two crystals can be precisely alike  with exactly the same frequency.   Quartz clocks continue to dominate the market in numbers because their performance is excellent and they are inexpensive. But the timekeeping performance of quartz clocks has been substantially surpassed by atomic clocks.   Information and illustrations provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Bang & Olufson Marketing Analysis

Bang Olufson Marketing Analysis The aim of this report is to critically assess the marketing strategies of â€Å"Bang & Olufsen† considering their business in United Kingdom. It comments on the B2B and B2C products in brief. The report comments on the following: The macro business environment Organisation’s Marketing Mix Organisation’s segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies. Based on the findings and observations, some recommendations are put forth at the end of the report. Company Background Bang & Olufsen manufactures a highly distinctive and exclusive range of televisions, music systems, loudspeakers, telephones, and multimedia products that combine technological excellence with emotional appeal. Founded in 1925, by â€Å"Peter Bang†Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  and  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Svend Olufsen† in Struer, Denmark, Bang & Olufsen a/s is world renowned for its distinctive range of quality audio, video and multimedia products that represent their vision: â€Å"Courage to consta ntly question the ordinary in search of surprising, long-lasting experiences†. Bang & Olufsen employs over 2,550 staff members and had a turnover of DKK 4,092 million (EUR 5486 million) in the 2007/2008 financial year. (Bang & Olufsen) The Macro Business Environment Most of the B&O products are manufactured in Denmark. Considering the business in UK, it has to understand the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological environment in UK. Since Denmark and UK are the members of European Union (EU), there are some advantages for the organisation. Political The European Union (EU) allows the free movement of goods and services between almost 500 million consumers in 27 EU member states. Due to this, import duty is not payable on goods sourced from Denmark, being one of the EU member states. (Business Link UK) There could be changes in the VAT and service taxation policies with the formation of new government. Economic The economic crisis and recession had affected the bu siness of B&O as people and businesses are more likely to hold on to their cash and not to spend it on high priced consumer goods. Due to the fall in share prices and real estate markets, the consumers of the high end products, like B&O, will be less likely to spend as earlier. Another economic factor faced by the B&O is currency exchange rates. As large part of the products produced in Denmark and with the Danish Krone (DKK) pegged to Euro, devaluation of GBP to the Euro has affected sales in UK which is one of the largest markets of the company. Socio-cultural B&O has adopted the philosophy of Danish Design, which is renowned for its high class design and quality. The products of this class are considered as status symbols and products of pride. Technological Competitors like Bose, Loewe who are also known for their design, quality with the high prices are coming up with new products with the same functionalities as B&O with equal or slightly lower prices. Due to the advancements in the technology, components are getting cheaper which may help companies like Sony, Samsung etc. with range of products in various qualities, targeting customers spanning across price conscious segments to quality focused segments. Legal The company has to ensure the protection of the trademarks of the brand. The logos and other trademarks should be registered in UK.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Training paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Training paper - Essay Example lags behind many Asian countries. Why has the U.S. been able to maintain a competitive advantage as a global leader in science and technology? How can training and development and organizations’ business strategies contribute to maintaining a competitive advantage in science and technology in the future? The U.S. has been able to maintain its competitive advantage as a global leader in science and technology because of the huge budget awarded by the government to fund basic research and education in all fields of science and engineering including those conducted in American colleges and universities (National Science Board , par 3). Training and development and organization’s business strategies can contribute to maintaining a competitive advantage in science and technology in the future by allocating a portion of their earnings to funding research and development. The management of organizations should be supportive of â€Å"ongoing learning and application of trained skills† (Strategic training 7). Companies must also encourage their employees to pursue further studies in their field or attend seminars and conferences to update themselves of the latest trends in the industry. It would also help if the organization can hire consultants who are experts in their field who can train their employees. Research has shown that tuition reimbursement programs have a positive effect on employee turnover. A study by Pattie, Benson and Baruch showed that tuition reimbursement reduces the turnover intention of employees (2006). However, they also mentioned that if the degree that the employee is pursuing is not related to his current job position, then the likelihood that the employee will leave the company is high. This finding is in agreement with Becker’s Human Capital Theory