Essay on Wild by Cheryl Strayed - 895 Words

Straying away from life as a whole only to be alone, some may say is the strong way to heal themselves when dealing with extreme grief or a major crisis . In the book Wild, twenty-two year old Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost it all. Dealing with the loss of her mother, her family torn to pieces, and her very own marriage was being destroyed right before her very eyes. Living life with nothing more to lose, lifeless, she made the most life changing decision of her life. Strayed never seems remorseful on her decisions to up and leave everything behind while deciding to flee from it all. This being her way of dealing with life, it shows her as being strong; a woman of great strength and character. She shows personal strength, which is†¦show more content†¦All too often we do not think about our personal strength until a situation arises that causes us to use this natural attribute that we know as strength. Many women have been through incidents where one has had to exhibited personal strength to get through an appalling event or circumstance. Preparing for this journey, Strayed packed a backpack to take along with her on the Pacific Crest Trail. Not knowing what all she needed, she packed unnecessary items such as books, shoes, stoves, and even a twelve pack of condoms, but why? Going into something for the first time not knowing what to expect can be very dangerous. Every night the unexpected happened â€Å"Each night the black sky and the bright stars were my stunning companions; occasionally I’d see their beauty and solemnity so plainly that Id realize in a piercing way that my mother was right. That someday I WOULD be grateful and that in fact I was grateful now, that I felt something growing in me that was strong and real† (Strayed 128). In the Article The Love of My Life written by Cheryl Strayed as well, she cheated on her husband which is stated at the very beginning, â€Å"The first time I cheated on my husband, my mother had been dead for exactly a week.† Many people experience jagged relationships at least once in their lifetime in which it is very unhealthy to stay in. It is a situation where individuals find themselves in, butShow MoreRelatedComparison Of Into The Wild, By Cheryl Strayed And Into The Wild936 Words   |  4 Pageswith the natural world. Although Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer share the same word in their titles, the two are completely different stories with separate narrative purposes. Wild is about the author’s journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance through hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and Into the Wild is the author’s discovery of Chris Mccandless’s natural journey, which ultimately led him to his death. Even though the end ing of Wild leads to Strayed’s renewal of lifeRead MoreThe Memoir Wild By Cheryl Strayed1226 Words   |  5 Pages The memoir Wild, by Cheryl Strayed focused on a woman whose whole life was in turmoil. From the passing of her mother to the divorce of her husband, Cheryl lost sight of her values and viewed her life as one ruined by failure and loss. In desperate need of something new to believe in, Cheryl decided to begin the journey with herself by taking an epic journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. Her beliefs and values transform over the journey from the victim of a bad situation to her belief in herself,Read MoreFeminist Perspective Wild By Cheryl Strayed1261 Words   |  6 PagesFeminist Perspective Theory in Wild by Cheryl Strayed. â€Å"Wild† is a memoir by American author, Cheryl Strayed, documenting her journey of self-discovery as she traverses along the Pacific Crest Trail. In the book Cheryl documents her own personal journey in 1995 after her mother’s death, the book was published in 2012. This paper seeks to explicate the feminists’ perspective in the book, through analysing events, occurrence and thoughts as documented by the author. At the age of 22 Cheryl’s motherRead MoreSummary Of Wild By Cheryl Strayed2201 Words   |  9 PagesWild by Cheryl Strayed, is a true story about how the author decided to drop everything she had left in life to walk about a thousand miles in over a span of three months; and she would be doing it all alone. Cheryl s life fell apart when she was 22; she lost her mother to cancer, got addicted to drugs, and had sex with any guy that wanted to. Even though Cheryl had been married, that soon fell apart too when her husband, Paul, found out about her infidelity. Leading Cheryl to want to find the womanRead MoreWild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed953 Words   |  4 Pages To say that Cheryl Strayed has overcome many things in her life is an understatement. She has an unmistakable amount of courage and bravery. Cheryl goes through a complete transformation within her life. The person she becomes after all of her pain and struggles is unb elievable. During her tough journey through life, Cheryl has truly found herself and becomes the person she knows her mother raised. Cheryl’s journey in life started with struggles at a very young age. From the time sheRead MoreWild, Near The Beginning Of Cheryl Strayed s Adventure On The Pacific Crest Trail1393 Words   |  6 PagesIn the book Wild, near the beginning of Cheryl Strayed’s adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), two of her trail mates quickly became bedridden with a waterborne parasite and had to be taken to the hospital (Strayed 114). This scene reminds us the dangers of drinking water when among nature. Even experienced hikers can spend weeks finding the perfect water filter, only to end their adventure early, crippled by a waterborne disease. Without the safety of civilization, simple things like safeRead MoreLiving Without Living818 Words   |  3 PagesMy mother is dead.† (Strayed). Cheryl Strayed was flooded with an overwhelming amount of grief when she lost her mother to cancer. In her mind she was too young to die, which left Cheryl angry at her mother for dyin g. She lived under the guidance of her mother all of her life, and suddenly it was gone. Many people find themselves crying in bed for days or months, leaning on their family and friends, or exercises more in order to find some outlet for their grief. However, Cheryl found the best copingRead MoreCheryl Strayeds Wild Essay877 Words   |  4 PagesIn Cheryl Strayeds Wild, she gives readers vivid exposure to her turbulent and harsh past. She tells her journey from the beginning of what was the turning page in her life- her mothers death. Strayed goes through a roller coaster with unfortunate events both in her control and out of her control. She makes several poor choices, and she shares all her triumphs with pure honesty. Strayed speaks of her past with a distant remorse, as if she is looking at her past in a movie. She doesnt come acrossRead MoreEssay on Keep Pushing On: Cheryl Strade966 Words   |  4 Pages By hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strade was able to push aside her grief and continue living out her life, pursuing her hopes and dreams. Though she made shameful decisions, making her look even more weak in the darkest moment of her life, in the end, Strade is a strong-minded and strong-willed human being; who shows great strength fighting through her grief. A strong-human being finds a way to keep pushing on, and that is exactly what Cheryl Strayed did. By hiking the PCT, she proved howRead MoreAdmit and Be Shameless861 Words   |  3 Pages In the book, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a women is lost is her mental aspect. She has been threw so much that has been frowned upon. The death of her mother started the roller coaster for her. Cheryl suffered greatly from her the incident as it caused her much grief. Cheryl is a strong woman as she admits have wrongs yet unashamed of what she has been through to get to that point. No matter the how bad the circumstance, some people still believe that it is a character flaw for Cheryl to not feel ashamed

Divine Comedy Dante Puts the Hell in Hellenism Essay

Divine Comedy: Dante Puts the Hell in Hellenism Ever since they were created Greek heroes and their stories have found a perpetual home in the minds and imagination of everyday people. There they grow to new height through art and literature. Dante Alighieri includes famous Greek characters throughout the first book of his Divine Comedy: Hell. From the famed philosophers and personages who fill Limbo to the very last circles of Hell where the giants inhabit, Dante uses as images of different sins, and punishment for individuals sins famous Greek monsters, lovers, and heroes. Throughout history monsters and hideous beasts have been used to terrify men. Dante uses beasts not only to terrify, but to be images of individual†¦show more content†¦Dante places them as guards to the city of Dis and the Heretics inside Dis because of the strong iron will of both. The Heretics prefer their individual judgement to that of the Catholic Church. These Heretics are so sure of themselves that any evidence given, no matter how logical and truthful, is considered wrong because they believe their own opinions to be correct. The Furies, who are stubborn and pursue the guilty along with the innocent, are perfect companions for the torture of Heretics. If the Furies themselves are not bad enough with their vivid green hydras (IX:124, 40) for hair carrying scourges and sickles, they threaten to unleash the hideous Medusa. Dante uses Medusa as an image of vanity and pride. Medusa, once a beautiful maiden, became so hardened with vanity that she claimed to be Athenas equal in beauty. Upon hearing this Athena turned her into the horrible beast that she is well known as. Her hair changed into writhing serpents and her face became so horrible that all who ventured to look upon it were turned into stone. She is the Furies secret weapon, to be unleashed upon only the unluckiest of souls, Dante unfortunately being one of them. Dante uses not only the tormentors but also the tormented to serve as examples of sin. The lovers themselves are symbols of lust and adultery. Among the tortured lovers of Circle II are Paris and Helen for whose sake rolled past long evil years (V:98, 64-65).

Miss Argumentative Essay Example For Students

Miss Argumentative Essay Case Study: Moral IssuesPeople are faced with difficult decisions that affect their lives on a daily basis. Thinking these decisions through and taking full consideration off all aspects should be taken at all times. In the case study, a certain Ms. A, has been diagnosed with carcinoma of the cervix. She has been told that the disease is treatable by performing a hysterectomy, however, the thought of this makes her apprehensive. Consequently, her doctor is now faced with a dilemma, if he tells her the risks having her push back the surgery. So, he wonders if he should tell her husband about all the risks and just tell ms. A that things will go well. He has to weigh out all the consequences before coming to a concrete decision. Thus, if he informs her of the risks and she postpones it she risks the disease getting worse and if he tells only the husband she will be treated immediatelyIf people think in terms of long and short-term happiness than they would have to agree that the act or rule utilitarianism theory would work very well in this case. As the theory states, act to maximize happiness and minimize suffering and prioritize rules over happiness (Thomas and Waluchow 18). The doctor obviously has Ms. As best interests in mind and would want her to have long-term happiness. So, people need to keep the consequences in mind. It would be in Ms. As best interests to have the surgery as soon as possible and not postpone it any further in case the cancer spreads. The doctor needs to have impartiality towards both Ms. As happiness and wellbeing. Thus, it would only make sense that he act in a manner that would benefit Ms. A and at the same time make sure that someone is aware of the risks involved in case something happens. The solution therefore, is to tell the husband of all the risks involved so he is aware of what is going on. However, the doctor should merely tell Ms. A that things would go well with the surgery. Many people would disagree with using the above theory because they feel that Ms. A should be able to make an informed decision about her surgery. According to Kant The morality of an action lies not in the happiness or pleasure it produces, but in the kind of action it is. (Thomas and Waluchow 27). Even though Ms. A has been in formed that there is a ninety-percent chance of complete cure she is still hesitant to have the surgery performed. She does however mention that it would be something that she would have to face, which assumes that she is aware that it is inevitable. Since Kants theory does not take into account the final consequence of peoples actions, the morality of the act then has to be examined. Once again, the doctor must have Ms. As best interests at heart. Since, he knows that she is aware that the surgery is inevitable then by telling her about the risks would cause her to postpone it but only for a certain amount of time until she is comfortable with it. The doctor also knows that the cancer is in the early stages and even though it might not be recommended that Ms. A postpone the surgery, he is able to consider it as well. Thus, the question remains then of what would be the moral decision to make. Agreeing with Kants theory would make it safe to assume that the moral action would be that the doctor should tell Ms. A of all the risks involved and if she chooses to postpone it than it is her prerogative. My initial reaction to the case study warranted telling Ms. A everything she needed to know about the surgery and allow her to make an informed decision. .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 , .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .postImageUrl , .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 , .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6:hover , .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6:visited , .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6:active { border:0!important; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6:active , .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6 .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u178412c1ff24062e8c6c8a7127d2a1c6:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Oppenheimer and The ATomic Bomb Essay However, because the physician mentioned that globally things would probably go well than why should Ms. A postpone the surgery especially due to unnecessary anxiety? If she can be cured of the disease as early as possible than she should have the surgery done. I changed my mind after careful thought and I have to agree that telling the husband of the risks involved would be better than telling Ms. A. Also, another solution, seeing that Ms. A was distraught over the idea, could be telling both Ms. A and her husband together. That way she has the family support she needs, when she needs it. Therefore, it is human nature to have fear, sometimes knowing more about the situation helps, sometimes it does not. The consequences of actions should always be measured highly when taking into account the treatment of a patient. Support should always be available in any case through the physician and family. After examining the theories above, the act/rule utilitarian theory seems to be superior to the theory of Kant. Everyone should be entitled to make informed decisions however at times peoples judgments are clouded by fear, anxiety, or apprehension. It is easy for peoples imagination to take over and create convoluted consequences to something that is routine procedure.

Supply and Demand and Labor Supply Curve free essay sample

Assume that you live in a simple economy in which only three goods are produced and traded: fish, fruit, and meat. Suppose that on January 1, 2007, fish sold for $2. 50 per pound, meat was $3. 00 per pound, and fruit was $1. 50 per pound. At the end of the year, you discover that the catch was low and that fish prices had increased to $5. 00 per pound, but fruit prices stayed at $1. 50 and meat prices had actually fallen to $2. 00. Can you say what happened to the overall â€Å"price level†? How might you construct a measure of the â€Å"change in the price level†? What additional information might you need to construct your measure? Inflation is the increase in the general level of prices for goods and services. The overall â€Å"price level† in this particular situation inflated; increased. You can construct a measure of the â€Å"change in the price level† by looking at the price of the goods each month over the course of the entire year. We will write a custom essay sample on Supply and Demand and Labor Supply Curve or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Take all the data and graph it to determine any trends. The low catch of fish means there is a low supply of fish and therefore the demand increases which accounts for the increase in price. The additional information that is needed to construct a measure is why the meat price decreased. One possible reason is there could have been an influx of meat that forced the price to be lowered because there was simply too much meat at the end of the year the price decreased in order to get rid of the surplus, the demand went down and the supply went up. 1. Define unemployment. Should everyone who does not hold a job be considered â€Å"unemployed†? To help with your answer, draw a supply and demand diagram depicting the labor market. What is measured along the demand curve? What factors determine the quantity of labor demanded during a given period? What is measured along the labor supply curve? What factors determine the quantity of labor supplied by the households during a given period? What is the opportunity cost of holding a job? Unemployment is the number or percentage of people who are unemployed. Everyone who does not hold a job should be considered â€Å"unemployed† because they are not collecting wages for a service. The amount of workers companies will hire is measured along the demand curve and the actors that determine the quantity of labor demanded during a given period are wages and the number of unemployed people who are seeking work. The amount of workers seeking work is measured along the labor supply curve and the factors that determine the quantity of labor supplied by the households during a given period are different wages. The opportunity cost of holding a job is how it makes you feel, empowerment for yourself, and will hel p you understand your career and your life; focus on the bigger picture not financial numbers.

Speaker identification and verification over short Essay Example For Students

Speaker identification and verification over short Essay distance telephone lines using artificial neural networksSPEAKER IDENTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION OVER SHORTDISTANCE TELEPHONE LINES USING ARTIFICIAL NEURALNETWORKSGanesh K Venayagamoorthy, Narend Sunderpersadh, and Theophilus N Andrewemailprotected emailprotected emailprotectedElectronic Engineering Department,M L Sultan Technikon,P O Box 1334, Durban, South Africa. ABSTRACTCrime and corruption have become rampant todayin our society and countless money is lost each yeardue to white collar crime, fraud, and embezzlement. This paper presents a technique of an ongoing workto combat white-collar crime in telephonetransactions by identifying and verifying speakersusing Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Resultsare presented to show the potential of this technique. We will write a custom essay on Speaker identification and verification over short specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now 1. INTRODUCTIONSeveral countries today are facing rampant crime andcorruption. Countless money is lost each year due towhite collar crime, fraud, and embezzlement. In todayscomplex economic times, businesses and individualsare both falling victims to these devastating crimes. Employees embezzle funds or steal goods from theiremployers, then disappear or hide behind legal issues. Individuals can easily become helpless victims ofidentity theft, stock schemes and other scams that robthem of their moneyWhite collar crime occurs in the gray area where thecriminal law ends and civil law begins. Victims ofwhite collar crimes are faced with navigating a dauntinglegal maze in order to effect some sort of resolution orrecovery. Law enforcement is often too focused oncombating street crime or does not have the expertiseto investigate and prosecute sophisticated fraudulentacts. Even if criminal prosecution is pursued, a criminalconviction does not mean that the victims of fraud areable to recover their losses. They have to rely on thcriminal courts awarding restitution after the convictionand by then the perpetrator has disposed of or hiddemost of the assets available for recovery. From the civillaw perspective, resolution and recovery can just be adifficult as pursuing criminal prosecution. Perpetratorsof white collar crime are often difficult to locate andserved with civil process. Once the perpetrators havebeen located and served, proof must be provided thatthe fraudulent act occurred and recovery/damages areneeded. This usually takes a lengthy legal fight, whichoften can cost the victim more money than the frauditself. If a judgement is awarded, then the task ofcollecting is made difficult by the span of time passedand the perpetrators efforts to hide the assets. Oftenafter a long legal battle, the victims are left with aworthless judgement and no recovery. One solution to avoid white collar crimes and shortenthe lengthy time in locating and serving perpetratorswith a judgement is by the use of biometrics techniquesfor identifying and verifying individuals. Biometrics aremethods for recognizing a user based on his/her uniquephysiological and/or behavioural characteristics. Thesecharacteristics include fingerprints, speech, face, retina,iris, hand-written signature, hand geometry, wrist veins,etc. Biometric systems are being commerciallydeveloped for a number of financial and securitapplications. Many people today have access to their companysinformation systems by logging in from home. Also,internet services and telephone banking are widely usedby the corporate and private sectors. Therefore toprotect ones resources or information with a simplepassword is not reliable and secure in the world oftoday. The conventional methods of using keys, accesspasswords and access cards are being easily overcomeby people with criminal intention. Voice signals as a unique behavioral characteristics isproposed in this paper for speaker identification andverification over short distance telephone lines usingartificial neural networks. This will address the whitecollar crimes over the telephone lines. Speakeridentification 1 and verification 2 over telephonelines have been reported but not using artificial neuralnetworks. Artificial neural networks are intelligent systems thatare related in some way to a simplified biological modelof the human brain. Attenuation and distortion of voicesignals exist over the telephone lines and artificialneural networks, despite a nonlinear, noisy andunstationary environment, are still good at recognizingand verifying unique characteristics of signals. Multilayerperceptron (MLP) feedforward neural networkstrained with backpropagation algorithm have beenapplied to identify bird species using recordings ofbirdsongs 3. Speaker identification based on directvoice signals using different types of neural networkshave been reported 4,5. The work reported in thispaper extends the work reported in 5 to short distancetelephone networks using ANN architectures describedin section 4 of this paper. The feature extraction, the neural network architecturesand the software and hardware involved in thedevelopment of the speaker identification andverification system are described in this paper. Resultswith success rates up to 90% in speaker identificationand verification over short distance telephone linesusing artificial neural networks is reported in this paper. 2. SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION ANDVERIFICATION SYSTEMA block diagram of a conventional speakeridentification/verification system is shown in figure 1. The system is trained to identify a persons voice byeach person speaking out a specific utterance into themicrophone. The speech signal is digitized and somedigital signal processing is carried out to create atemplate for the voice pattern and this is stored inmemory. The system identifies a speaker by comparing theutterance with the respective template stored in thmemory. When a match occurs the speaker is identified. The two important operations in an identifier are theparameter extraction and pattern matching. In parameteextraction distinct patterns are obtained from theutterances of each person and used to create a template. In pattern matching, the templates created in theparameter extraction process are compared with thosestored in memory. Usually correlation techniques areemployed for traditional pattern matching. ADC ParameterExtractionPatternMatchingMemoryTemplateOutputDevicemicFigure 1: Block Diagram of a Conventional SpeakerIdentification/Verification System. .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 , .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .postImageUrl , .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 , .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44:hover , .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44:visited , .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44:active { border:0!important; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44:active , .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44 .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u6ac99a9a77b678142032b6a77f6f2b44:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: HIV: The Search For A Vaccine EssayThe speaker identification/verification system overtelephone lines investigated in this paper using artificialneural networks is shown in figure 2. FeatureExtractionNeural NetworkClassificationSpeaker IdentityorSpeaker AuthenticityTelephoneSpeech SignalFigure 2: Block Diagram of the SpeakerIdentification/Verification System using an ANN. In this paper, the speaker identification/verificationsystem reported is a text-dependent type. The system istrained on a group of people to be identified by eachperson speaking out the same phrase. The voice isrecorded on a standard 16-bit computer sound card fromthe telephone handset receiver. Although the frequencof the human voice ranges from 0 kHz to 20 kHz, mostof the signal content lies in the 0.3 kHz to 4 kHz range. The frequency over the telephone lines is limited to 0.3kHz to 3.4 kHz and this is the frequency band of interestin this work. Therefore, a sampling rate of 16 kHzsatisfying the Nyquist criterion is used. The voices arestored as sound files on the computer. Digital signalprocessing techniques are used to convert these soundfiles to a presentable form as input vectors to a neuralnetwork. The output of the neural network identifiesand verifies the speaker in the group. 3. FEATURE EXTRACTIONThe process of feature extraction consists of obtainingcharacteristic parameters of a signal to be used toclassify the signal. The extraction of salient features is akey step in solving any pattern recognition problem. Fospeaker recognition, the features extracted from aspeech signal should be consistent with regard to thedesired speaker while exhibiting large deviations fromthe features of an imposter. The selection of speakeruniquefeatures from a speech signal is an ongoingissue. Findings report that certain features yield betteperformance for some applications than do otherfeatures. Ref. 5 have shown on how the performancecan be improved by combining different types offeatures as inputs to an ANN classifier. Speaker identification and verification over telephonenetwork presents the following challenges:a) Variations in handset microphones which result insevere mismatches between speech data gatheredfrom these microphones. b) Signal distortions due to the telephone channel. c) Inadequate control over speaker/speakingconditions. Consequently, speaker identification and verificationsystems have not yet reached acceptable levels ofperformance over the telephone network. Severalfeature extraction techniques are explored but only thPower Spectral Densities (PSDs) based technique isreported in this paper. The discrete Fourier transform ofthe telephone voice samples is obtained and the PSDsare computed. The PSDs of three different speakers A,B and C uttering the same phrase is shown in figures 3,4 and 5 respectively. 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000-80-60-40-20Power Spectrum Magnitude (dB)Frequency HzFigure 3: PSD of Speaker A0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000-100-80-60-40-20Power Spectrum Magnitude (dB)Frequency HzFigure 4: PSD of Speaker B0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000-150-100-50Power Spectrum Magnitude (dB)Frequency HzFigure 5: PSD of Speaker CIt can be seen from these figures that the PSDs of thspeakers differ from each other. Ref. 5 has reportedsuccess on speaker identification up to 66% and 90%with PSDs as input vectors to multilayer feedforwardneural networks and Self-Organizing Maps ( SOMs)respectively. 4. PATTERN MATCHING USING ARTIFICIALNEURAL NETWORKSArtificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are intelligentsystems that are related in some way to a simplifiedbiological model of the human brain. They arecomposed of many simple elements, called neurons,operating in parallel and connected to each other bysome multipliers called the connection weights orstrengths. Neural networks are trained by adjustingvalues of these connection weights between theneurons. Neural networks have a self learning capability, arefault tolerant and noise immune, and have applicationsin system identification, pattern recognition,classification, speech recognition, image processing,etc. In this paper, ANNs are used for pattern matching. The performance of different neural networarchitectures are investigated for this application. Thipaper presents results for the MLP feedforward networkand the self-organizing feature map. Descriptions ofthese networks are given below. 4.1. MLP FEEDFORWARD NETWORKA three layer feedforward neural network with asigmoidal hidden layer followed by a linear output layeis used in this application for pattern matching. Theneural network is trained using the conventionalbackpropagation algorithm. In this application, anadaptive learning rate is used; that is, the learning rate isadjusted during the training to enhance faster globalconvergence. Also, a momentum term is used in thebackpropagation algorithm to achieve a faster globalconvergence. The MLP network in figure 6 is constructed in theMATLAB environment 6. The input to the MLPnetwork is a vector containing the PSDs. The hiddenlayer consists of thirty neurons for four speakers. Thenumber of neurons in the output layer depends on thenumber of speakers and in this paper it is four. sigmoidal activation functionlinear activation function1st speakerNth speakerVectorof PSDs Figure 6: MLP NetworkAn initial learning rate, an allowable error and themaximum number of training cycles/epochs are theparameters that are specified during the training phaseto the MATLAB neural network program. 4.2. SELF-ORGANIZING FEATURE MAPSThe second type of neural network selected for thisinvestigation is the self-organizing feature map 7. Thisneural network is selected because of its ability to learna topological mapping of an input data space into apattern space that defines discrimination or decisionsurfaces. The operation of this network resembles theclassical vector-quantization method called the k-meansclustering. Self-organizing feature maps are moregeneral because topologically close nodes are sensitiveto inputs that are physically similar. Output nodes willbe ordered in a natural manner. .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 , .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .postImageUrl , .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 , .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15:hover , .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15:visited , .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15:active { border:0!important; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15:active , .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15 .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ue4fbbef56c46457914065d1eaf78aa15:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Research Paper on Chewing Tobacco EssayTypically, the Kohonen feature map consists of a twodimensional array of linear neurons. During the trainingphase the same pattern is presented to the inputs of eachneuron, the neuron with the greatest output value isselected as the winner, and its weights are updatedaccording to the following rule:w t w t x t w t i i i ( ) () () () + = + ;#8722; 1 a (1)where wi(t) is the weight vector of neuron i at time t, is the learning rate and x(t) is the training vector. Those neurons within a given distance, theneighborhood, of the winning neuron also have theirweights adjusted according to the same rule. Thisprocedure is repeated for each pattern in the training setto complete a training cycle or an epoch. The size of theneighborhood is reduced as the training progresses. Inthis way the network generates over many cycles anordered map of the input space, neurons tending tocluster together where input vectors are clustered,similar input patterns tending to excite neurons insimilar areas of the network. 5. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SPEAKEIDENTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION SYSTEMThe work that is being reported in this paper isimplemented in software. The telephone speech icaptured and processed on a Pentium II 233 MHzcomputer with a 16 bit sound card. The telephonereceiver is interfaced to the sound card. Telephonspeech is captured over signals transmitted within 10kilometres of transmission network. Digital signalprocessing and neural network implementations arecarried out using the MATLAB signal processing andneural network toolboxes respectively. This work iscurrently undergoing and an implementation of a realtimespeaker identification and verification system ovetelephone lines on a digital signal processor isenvisaged. 6. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTSThe MLP network is trained with the PSDs of eightvoice samples recorded at different instants of timeunder controlled and uncontrolled speaking conditionsof four different speakers uttering the same phrase at alltimes. Controlled speaking conditions refer to noise anddistortion free conditions unlike uncontrolled speakingconditions which have noise and distortion on thetransmission lines. The number of PSD points for eachvoice sample is about 500. As mentioned in section 4.1,an adaptive learning rate is used for the MLP network. The initial learning rate is 0.01. The allowable sumsquared error and maximum number of epochsspecified to the MATLAB neural network program i0.01 and 10000 respectively. It is found that the sumsquared error goal is reached within 1000 epochs. A success rate of 100% is achieved when the trainedMLP network is tested with the same samples used inthe training phase. However, when untrained samplesare used, only a 63% success rate is obtained. This isdue to the inconsistency in the PSDs of the inputsamples with those used in the training phase. The MLPnetwork is also tested with unseen voice samples ofpeople who are not included in the training set and thenetwork successfully classified these voice samples asunidentified. Four speakers are identified using the self-organizingfeature map like in the case of the MLP network. Aninitial learning rate of 0.01, an allowable sum squarederror of 0.01 and a maximum of 70000 epochs arespecified at the start of the training process to theMATLAB neural network program. The results with theself-organizing feature map shows a drastic change inthe success rate in identifying the speakers as reportedin 5. With PSDs as inputs, a success rate of 85% and90% is achieved under uncontrolled and controlledspeaking conditions respectively. Ref.5 has reported that success rate can be increasedto 98% under uncontrolled speaking conditions byusing Linear Prediction Coefficients (LPCs) as inputs toSOMs which remains to be yet to be tried out in thiswork. Currently, with the PSDs as inputs a lot ofcomputations is involved and the SOM takes a lot oftime to learn. 7. CONCLUSIONSThis paper has reported on the feasibility of usingneural networks for speaker identification andverification over short distance telephone lines and hashown that performance with the self-organizing map ishigher compared to that with the multilayer feedforwardneural network. Different feature inputs to the selforganizingmap remains to be tried out in order toachieve higher identification/verification ratesminimizing the training time and the size of thenetwork. Speaker identification with telephone speechsignals over long distance telephone lines is currentlbeing investigated using similar techniques. This paper has shown that speaker identification ispossible over the telephone lines and thereforetelephonic bank and other transactions can beauthenticated. Hence a technique to combat and/orreduce white collar crime. 8. REFERENCES:1 D.A.Reynolds, Large population speakeidentification using clean and telephone speech, IEEESignal Processing Letters, vol. 2 no. 3 March 1995, pp. 46 48. 2 J.M.Naik, L.P.Netsch, G.R.Doddington, Speakerverification over long distance telephone lines,Proceedings of IEEE International Conference onAcoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP),23-26 May 1989, pp. 524 527. 3 A.L.Mcilraith, H.C.Card, Birdsong RecognitionUsing Backpropagation and Multivariate Statistics,Proceedings of IEEE Trans on Signal Processing, vol. 45, no. 11, November 1997. 4 G.K.Venayagamoorthy, V.Moonasar,K.Sandrasegaran, Voice Recognition Using NeuralNetworks, Proceedings of IEEE South AfricanSymposium on Communications and Signal Processing(COMSIG 98), 7-8 September 1998, pp. 29 32. 5 V.Moonasar, G.K.Venayagamoorthy, Speakeridentification using a combination of differentparameters as feature inputs to an artificial neuralnetwork classifier, accepted for publication in theProceedings of IEEE Africon 99 conference, CapeTown, 29 September 2 October 99. 6 H.Demuth, M.Beale, MATLAB Neural NetworkToolbox Users Guide, The Maths Works Inc., 1996. 7 T.Kohonen, Self-organizing and associate memorySpring Verlag, Berlin, third edition, 1989.

Ruthenium or Ru Element Facts

Ruthenium or Ru Element Facts Ruthenium or Ru is a hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal that also belongs to the noble metals and platinum metals group in the periodic table. While it does not readily tarnish, the pure element can form a reactive oxide that can explode. Here are physical and chemical properties and other ruthenium facts: Element Name: Ruthenium Symbol: Ru Atomic Number: 44 Atomic Weight: 101.07 Uses of Ruthenium Ruthenium is one of the best hardeners for addition to palladium or platinum. It is alloyed with these metals to make electrical contacts with extreme wear resistance.Ruthenium is used to plate other metals. Thermal decomposition or electrodeposition are the most common metals used to make ruthenium coatings.One ruthenium-molybdenum alloy is superconductive at 10.6 K.Adding 0.1% ruthenium to titanium improves its corrosion resistance by a factor of a hundred.Ruthenium oxides are versatile catalysts.Ruthenium is used in some pen nibs. (Dont chew on your pen!) Interesting Ruthenium Facts Ruthenium was the last of the platinum group metals to be discovered.The element name comes from the Latin word  Ã¢â‚¬ËœRuthenia’. Ruthenia means Russia, which refers to the Ural Mountains of Russia, the original source of the platinum metal group ores.Ruthenium compounds are similar to those formed by the element cadmium. Like cadmium, ruthenium is toxic to humans. It is believed to be a carcinogen. Ruthenium tetroxide (RuO4)  is considered particularly dangerous.Ruthenium compounds stain or discolor skin.Ruthenium is the only group 8 element that does not have 2 electrons in its outer shell.The pure element is susceptible to attack by halogens and hydroxides. It is not affected by acids, water, or air.Karl K. Klaus was the first to isolate ruthenium as a pure element. This was an involved process in which he first prepared the salt,  ammonium chlororuthenate, (NH4)2RuCl6, and then isolated the metal from it in order to characterize it.Ruthenium displays a wide range of oxidation states (7 or 8), although it is most commonly found in the II, III, and IV states. Pure ruthenium costs around $1400 per 100 grams of the metal.The element abundance in the Earths crust is estimated to be 1 part per billion by weight. The abundance in the solar system is believed to be about 5 parts per billion by weight. Sources of Ruthenium Ruthenium occurs with other members of the platinum group of metals in the Ural mountains and in North and South America. It is also found in the Sudbury, Ontario nickel-mining region and in the pyroxenite deposits of South Africa. Ruthenium may also be extracted from radioactive waste. A complex process is used to isolate ruthenium. The final step is hydrogen reduction of ammonium ruthenium chloride to yields a powder that is consolidated by powder metallurgy or argon-arc welding. Element Classification: Transition Metal Discovery: Karl Klaus 1844 (Russia),  however, Jà ¶ns Berzelius and Gottfried Osann  discovered impure ruthenium in 1827 or 1828 Density (g/cc): 12.41 Melting Point (K): 2583 Boiling Point (K): 4173 Appearance: silvery-gray, extremely brittle metal Atomic Radius (pm): 134 Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 8.3 Covalent Radius (pm): 125 Ionic Radius: 67 (4e) Specific Heat (20 °C J/g mol): 0.238 Fusion Heat (kJ/mol): (25.5) Pauling Negativity Number: 2.2 First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 710.3 Oxidation States: 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 0, -2 Electron Configuration: [Kr] 4d7 5s1 Lattice Structure: Hexagonal Lattice Constant (Ã…): 2.700 Lattice C/A Ratio: 1.584 References: Los Alamos National Laboratory (2001)Crescent Chemical Company (2001)Langes Handbook of Chemistry (1952)CRC Handbook of Chemistry Physics (18th Ed.)

Compare and Contrast the Relative Contribution of India and South East Essay

Compare and Contrast the Relative Contribution of India and South East Asia to China's Medical Tradition - Essay Example The above view can be made clear through the following fact: Chinese medical tradition has been divided into two, major, parts: ‘the Confucian school of thought and the Daoist context’ (Elm and Willich 2009, p.77). The differences between these two frameworks have been significant, a problem that influenced the development of the country’s medical tradition. Apart from the local culture and scientific development, the Chinese medical tradition has been influenced by the culture and the trends of the South East region and India. The level at which South East Asia and India affected the Chinese medical tradition is difficult to be precisely identified mostly because the views included in the literature published on this issue lead to different assumptions. In any case, it is clear that South East Asia and India influenced the Chinese medical tradition, a fact reflected in the incorporation of many substances, through India and South Eat Asia, in the country’s medical tradition. The specific issue is set under examination in this paper. Emphasis is given on the ways that various medical substances entered China through India and the South East Asia. Particular reference is made to tobacco and opium, two medical substances that have highly affected the Chinese medical tradition, as verified through the studies developed in this field. 2. China’s medical tradition as influenced by India and South East Asia 2.1 The influence of India and South East Asia on China medical tradition The medical tradition of China has been highly differentiated from those of the West; the country’s medical tradition presents also significant references to the similar frameworks of other countries in the South East region. Reference should be made, for example, to the study of Selin (1997). In accordance with the above researcher, food therapy has been a common element of medical traditions in Europe, India and Near East (Selin 1997, p.676). It is noted that in China, food therapy has been related to ‘the yinyang philosophy and the Five Phases theory’ (Selin 1997, p.676). In this context, the medical history of China has been strongly related to philosophy, a trend, which is not, developed in India and the other South East Asia countries. In accordance with a report published by the World Health Organization in 2003, the Chinese medical system has a history of around 5000 years and it is highly based on the use of plants (Singh 2011); in fact, in China more than 7000 species of plants have been identified; most of these are key elements of the country’s medical system (Singh 2011). In the study of Arnold (2000) reference is made to the contribution of India in the development of medicine and other scientific sectors of China, as also in other regions of the South East Asia. It is explained that due to the long presence of British in India, the country’s technology and scientific knowledge was benefi ted, a fact that also influenced neighboring countries, such as China (Arnold 2000). Leslie (1976) notes that the revival of traditional medical system is highly promoted in China today, a trend, which is not reported in other countries of the Near East and the South East Asia, apart from India. From this point of view, the Chinese medical history can be considered as strongly related