Hazards in Placentia essays

Hazards in Placentia essays Earthquakes are probably the number one hazard that affects my area. I live about six to seven miles from the Whittier Fault and about 16-18 miles from the Newport Inglewood Fault. Just about a week or two ago, we experienced an earthquake around 2:30 a.m. Though nothing was damaged, I still noticed some effects from it. The ceiling fan was shaking around a lot and some car alarms were sounding. If a big earthquake were to hit Placentia, I think my house would be prepared. Sure, some things would fall, but nothing extreme. The water tank is secured and we would remember to turn off the gas, or anything else that could possibly cause a disaster. There isn't a threat for mass-wasting in my area. Placentia is almost all flat land; no hilly areas susceptible to down slides. But the neighboring cities, Yorba Linda and Brea could possibly experience some affect. I believe there are a few debris-flow basins in those areas. The only chance for liquefaction in my area is towards the Brea/Yorba Linda city boundaries. Possible landslides are more likely to happen in Brea than in Placentia. When it rains hard, sometimes, I can notice the streets have some affect to them. But unless it pours endlessly, there is really no threat of flooding in my area. The hazards I'm most concerned with are earthquakes. Since I live relatively close to a fault, I'm concerned that a big quake will hit. But I feel prepared for it. ...

Motivational Quotes for Teens

Motivational Quotes for Teens Great thinkers throughout history have imparted insights that can provide inspiration for teens. From the value of hard work and optimism to the importance of time, itself, these quotes can help motivate any teenager. Hard Work Theres no substitute for hard work. -  Thomas Edison It took Edison more than 1,000 unsuccessful attempts over the course of a year before he produced the worlds first commercially viable light bulb. So, the next time your teen wants to give up, tell her about the persistence and work ethic of one of our greatest inventors. There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. -   Author unknown Like Edison, this unknown author is talking about the importance of perseverance and putting in the effort to succeed. Thats an important motivational thought for any teen. Optimism There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist. -  Mark TwainThose who wish to sing, always find a song. -  Swedish Proverb A teen can find plenty of inspiration from Twains eternally optimistic characters, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. And, there are plenty of references to singing in Twains The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- an optimistic trait the Swedish proverb alludes to.   Time Time is free, but its priceless. You cant own it, but you can use it. You cant keep it, but you can send it. Once youve lost it, you can never get it back. -  Harvey MackayTime ripens all things, no man is born wise. -  Miguel de Cervantes The importance of using your time wisely can be a great motivational thought for teens. MacKay  wrote such well-known business books as Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive,  which explained how to use your time to outsell- and outperform- others, while Cervantes, Spains greatest author, wrote about the ever-optimistic Don Quixote, a character who used his time to try to save the world. Character, Change, and Discovery To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue... gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness. -  ConfuciusThere is nothing permanent except change. -  HeraclitusThere are two  great days  in a persons  life- the day we are born and the day we discover why. -  William BarclayThere are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. -  John Adams Confucious, Chinas greatest philosopher; Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher; Barclay, a Scottish theologian, and Adams, our second president, who also helped sustain the Revolution with his brilliant negotiating skills, all talked about how life is an adventure- ever-changing, yet always providing an opportunity to learn, discover and strive to be your best self. That is certainly an important and serious thought to light a fire under any teen looking for motivation.

Production Efficiency under the impact of Employee Training Research Proposal

Production Efficiency under the impact of Employee Training - Research Proposal Example Researches reveal that production efficiency (referred to as efficiency further on in this assignment), is significantly influenced by the variation in employee training, attitudes, and wages that employees receive. Conveniently concluding the discussion, as analyzed from the various literatures, it will not be wrong to suggest that: Over the years, researches reveal that these variables though are effective in enhancing the production efficiency, but each has a particular threshold level, beyond which, the concepts of diminishing returns start taking over. As this literature review moves on, it can be seen how valid this argument is prior to proceeding with the primary research about the same. It is worth mentioning here that the three impacts under consideration have been title of various human resource management books, which goes to show the depth of matter available on these; however, this research, due to constraints of time and other resources, has tried to gather a crux of these literatures.   2.2 Impact of Employee Training on Production Efficiency abc   2.3 Impact of Employee Attitude on Production Efficiencyabc 2.4 Impact of Employee Wages on Production Efficiencyabc   

Harvard Business Review Website Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Harvard Business Review Website - Essay Example Harvard Business Review Website The website provides an avenue where readers can access the articles on different business topics. Additionally, readers can follow their favorite topics on the platform quickly using the search button on the website. The online version of the Review provides readers and contributors with an interactive avenue. The users can interact with the contributors of specific articles by writing the reviews of the articles. On the other hand, the contributors can expound on particular aspects of their work to the readers through the comments and reviews section. The website allows users to access different numbers of articles based on their level of subscription. For example, new users on the site have access to only fifteen articles on monthly basis free of charge. Contrarily, subscribers to the website have unlimited access to various articles depending on their area of interest. The subscribers also have the freedom to comment on different articles by asking questions to the contributors. The Harvard Business Review website also allows users to specify the topics they can access. The specific content and updates on the website include sharing and saving capabilities, ability of following specific content and personalized recommendations. The site is designed to accommodate different devices such as tablets and mobile platforms, which provides users with a broad choice of reading platforms. The use of various devices allows users to access the website from various locations across the world.

Effects of Commercialization Essay Example for Free

Effects of Commercialization Essay Effects of Commercialization Commercialization is often confused with sales, marketing, or business development. â€Å"The rise of commercialization is an artifact of the growth of corporate power† (Gray Ruskin and Juliet Schor 487). Ruskin and Schor states that â€Å"corporations fostered the anti-tax movement and support for corporate welfare, which helped create funding crises in state and local governments and schools, and made them more willing to carry commercial adverting (487). Open-source communities have learned over time to integrate commercial interests into their development ranks without capitulating to those commercial interests. â€Å"Economists often assume that markets are inert, they do not affect the goods being exchange (Michael J. Sandel 492). Commercialization process has three key aspects: The Funnel it is essential to look at many ideas to get one or two products or businesses that can be sustained long-term, stage-wise process, and each stage has its own key goals and milestones, and vital to involve key stakeholders early, including customers. There are so many outlooks of commercialization. The effects of commercialization are black Friday, attack on family values, and environment. The rise of commercialization is an artifact of the growth of corporate power† (Ruskin and Schor 487). Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Black Friday is the following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Black Friday is not a holiday. Black Friday has become popular. Better than last minute Christmas sales. Retailers put their items on sale on Thanksgiving Morning. We realize the importance of Black Friday to retailers. It’s the day that the yearly sales finally move from the red deficit column into black profit. But its impetus, the blood sport of bargaining hunting, overshadows the meaning and the reason for Thanksgiving. Instead of giving thanks for what we have, too many salivate over what can be acquired. â€Å"Economics was becoming an imperial domain. Today, the logical of buying and selling no longer applies to material goods alone† (Michael J. Sandel 494). The family is the most  fundamental of society’s institutions, for it is within the family setting that lifetime behaviors and beliefs are established and values nurtured best in children including adolescent behavior. â€Å"The mother of the household says having less means her family appreciates p ossessions more† (Anna Quindlen 502). One key form of capitalist attack on the family lies in a process called commodification, in which capital seeks to undermine the natural forms of human interaction in all spheres of life and exchange them with commercial relations. In particular, capital strives to turn loving family relations. Healthy families are a challenge to capitalism. Family values and family ties are important institutions which, among others, affect numerous economic decisions. An historical perspective reveals that the conflict over the family may only be beginning and that we may be on the verge of a wider confrontation that will decide not only the survival of the family but fundamental questions about the scope and nature of the modern state. Political attacks on our families involve so many issues, there are many ways you can begin to talk to your child about them. â€Å"We did not arrive at this condition through any deliberate choice. It is almost as if it came upon us† (492). There is a massive environmental impact just in the sheer activity level of the community. The commercialization environment, the microeconomic and strategic conditions facing a firm that is translating an idea to a product, determines the most effective commercialization strategy, the process for bringing innov ation to the marketplace. â€Å"As corporations consolidate their control over governments and culture, we don’t expect an outright reversal of commercialization in the near future† (491). The crucial element of a firm’s commercialization strategy is whether it competes or cooperates with established firms. Commercialization strategy is thus one of the most crucial decisions a firm makes in terms of its ability to profit from technologies developed within the firm. Effective commercialization strategy results from careful analysis of the commercialization environment. Considering the benefits and costs of other strategies for securing profits and competitive advantage through innovation. â€Å"We live in a time when almost everything can be bought and sold (492). In conclusion, commercialization is often tangled with sales, marketing, or business development. Black Friday is one of the largest shopping days of the year. Black Friday is the following Thanksgiving Day in  the United States. The family is the most fundamental of society’s institutions, for it is within the family setting that lifetime behaviors and beliefs. There is a considerable environ mental impact just in the complete activity level of the community. Many technologies begin in the laboratory and are not practical for commercial use in their infancy. Works Cited Quindlen, Anna. â€Å"Stuff is Not Salvation.† Perspective on Contemporary Issues: Reading Across the Disciplines. Rd. Katherine Anne Ackley 7th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. 2015 502-04. Print. Ruskin, Gray, and Schor, Juliet. Every Nook and Cranny: â€Å"The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture.† Perspective on Contemporary Issues: Reading Across the Disciplines. Rd. Katherine Anne Ackley 7th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. 2015 487-91. Print. Sandel, Michael. â€Å"What Isn’t for Sale?† Perspective on Contemporary Issues: Reading Across the Disciplines. Rd. Katherine Anne Ackley 7th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. 2015 492-97. Print.

Dispute Resolution Processes Essay -- Legal Process

Introduction This paper will examine when it is appropriate to attempt alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes for disputes and conversely when it is fitting for matters to be decided in a courtroom with black-robed judges and well dressed lawyers. Complementing the correct ‘intervention [courtroom, facilitative ADR or another form of ADR] at the right time, price and place with the right disputants’ is not necessarily an easy task (Wade 2010, p. 13) and the line separating alternative dispute resolution processes and judicial intervention can be blurred especially as judicial officers conduct, refer or mandate parties to participate in ADR (Sourdin, 2009, p. 190). Proof that fine panelled courtrooms may not be the answer to dispute settlement is the move towards the ‘mandatory’ use of alternative methods prior to hearings (Ardagh and Cumes, 2007, p. 206). Do most people with problems want pain relief quickly and inexpensively? Yes most people in pain want relief quickly and inexpensively but they often want other things too. They want to be heard, they want to heal the hurt and they want a ‘satisfactory [and]†¦ enduring’ outcome (Moore, 2004, p. 2). They also want to change from having ‘a destructive interaction to a constructive one’ (Ardagh, 1999, as cited by Spencer and Hardy, 2009, p. 165). There are differing views about the suitability of facilitative ADR approaches for various types of conflict. Some believe that this type of ADR is more appropriate for addressing ‘interest disputes than rights disputes’ (Boulle & Nesic, 2001 as cited by Van Gramberg, 2006, p. 121). Van Gramberg states that ‘personal grievances’ may be adequately resolved by facilitative processes but where a law or legal right has been b... ...negotiation or mediation; this case needs a judge: When is litigation the right solution? Mediation Quarterly, Vol. 18, Iss. 3, pp. 259-280. Retrieved 12 December 2010 http://works.bepress.com/john_wade/8/ Wade, J. (2009). Negotiating with Difficult People. Professor John Wade, Faculty of Law, Bond University, August. Retrieved 12 December 2010 from http://epublications.bond.edu.au/drcn/35/ Wade, J. (2010). Matching disputes and responses: How to diagnose causes of conflict, and to respond with appropriate interventions and/or referrals. Law papers. Paper 319. Retrieved 12 December 2010 from http://epublications.bond.edu.au/law_pubs/319 Wilkins, F. (2002, January 18). Disputed territory – mediation and other ADR processes. Lawyers Weekly, pp. 14, 15. Zehr, H. (1985). Retributive justice, restorative justice, (15 pages). US Office of Criminal Justice.

Addressing Gary’s Aggressive Behavior in School

From The Four Mistaken Goals of Children’s Misbehavior – Diagnosis and Remediation (cited from Dreikurs and Soltz, 1987), these goals are seeking undue attention, power, revenge, and inadequacy (PSYCHOTHERAPY INSTITUTE). Gray’s case falls in the goal seeking undue power. In this type of mistaken goal, there are still 2 types: the active power and the passive power. The active power is the one which the child sees himself and acts like a boss to other people around him.On the other hand, passive ones would refer to those that do not allow themselves to under the authority of other people. Basically, being a new student in Ms. Adams fifth grade class, Gary’s primary response is to be defensive of his own self. People like Gary creates the I’m-in-charge atmosphere and, feeling that they are the boss, they refuse to cooperate with other people. According to the Psychotherapy Institute the effective way to deal with this kind of behavior is for Ms. Adams to not to tolerate Gary’s behavior.Primarily, she should listen first to Gary. There should have a communication between them as to why the child misbehaves himself and its effects to other people. Choices must be also available for Gary. When he misbehaves, he should be redirected to a similar yet pleasing manner (University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, 2002). Bargains should be made such that the child is not acknowledged of his misbehavior instead made to do something more agreeable.In here, some privileges too can be suspended due to his misdemeanor (Keep Kids Healthy, 1999). Schools have different strategies in dealing with student misdemeanors. To deal with them is one of the major aspects in classroom management in which educators, administrators and parents are to provide a safe, compassionate and well motivated environment for everyone especially the children (Blomberg, 2004).Misbehavior in School ReferencesBlomberg, N. (2004). Effective Discipline for Misbehavior: In School vs. Out of School Suspension. Villanova University: Department of Education and Human Services.Dreikurs, R. and Soltz, V. (1987). Children: the Challenge. OK, USA: Plume.

Ikea Advertising Appeals

STUDY ABOUT 360-DEGREE EVALUATION: THE PROS AND CONS OF MULTI-SOURCE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL INTRODUCTION: In an organization employees are the important asset and play a significant role in the progress of an organization. Nowadays firms usually focus on the human capital in the form of the employees by giving them training, assisting them in career development and also work on performance management in order to keep the employees motivated and dedicated by giving them feedback through performance appraisals.Through these performance appraisals the employees are informed about their strengths that they can enhance and about their weaknesses that they can improve in the future. Multi-source performance appraisal or 360-degree evaluation is basically a process in which the feedback is collected from different people that interacts with employee like his supervisors, coworkers, bosses, can be stakeholders etc.It is an important tool for Human Resource Management as the feedback is collec ted through the questionnaires in which the employees are asked to rate the particular employee in his performance and behavior. Its main purpose is to provide a healthy feedback to the employee that can highlight his strong and weak points and also helps in the development and the training of the employee. The feedback that is collected from different people is discussed between the manager and the particular employee.In this performance appraisal method the identity of a person who is filling the survey form is not shared with that particular employee. It also gives an impression to the employee that what other people think of him as in traditional appraisal method only the supervisor of particular employee gives the feedback about his performance but now due to involvement of people from different departments and different levels make the assessment less subjective and may be more accurate and honest.If one person says something about the employee then their can be chances of bia sness but if many people says the same thing and without the influence of someone then we can say that their might be something wrong or something good about that particular person. As nothing is perfect in this world, which means that there are some pros and cons of 360 degree evaluation method. This paper highlights the advantages and disadvantages of multi-source performance appraisal and also mentions some recommendation that can be used while implementing this performance appraisal method.The main importance is given on the pros and cons of this method that can help the organization to decide whether to continue with the traditional appraisal method or to go with 360-degree evaluation method. ANALYSIS: The multi-source performance appraisal method plays a vital role for employees. It makes the employees to think about their attitude and behavior and about others perception about them. It also identifies the areas in which a particular employee performed well and also where he c ould not come up to the expectations.There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages of multi-source performance appraisal which are as follows: ?Advantages of Multi-Source Performance Appraisal Method: The main advantage of this method is that it provides feedback from different levels of organization and it is not restricted to supervisor or the manager as in the traditional performance appraisal method, as shown in the Appendix-I. In this method the employee is the centre of attention of all the people and the main goal of this method is to make the performance of that employee better than before as shown in Appendix-II.Due to the use of rating from different people, 360 degree evaluation method enhances the quality of the performance procedures and gives a detailed view. This method is useful to the supervisor as it can provide more authentic assessment of the performance of the employee and can help to eradicate the chances of biasness due to which it becomes easier for the sup ervisor to come to a certain conclusion related to that particular worker. Another advantage of this method is that through this feedback the top managers can make decisions related to the promotion or sometimes extermination of an employee.It also helps to highlight those areas in which the employee can be trained and it is also beneficial in the employee development. This appraisal method can be beneficial for those people who are in inferiority complex and underestimate themselves, to change their mindset and remain motivated after getting a positive feedback from their co-workers, bosses etc. One of the major benefits of this method is that it reduces the chance of discrimination as the feedback is collected from a very diverse group of individuals.It is an important tool to bring a change in the performance of an employee that result in organizational effectiveness. It is also beneficial in making the performance of the employee parallel with business values. Customer service m ay be improved by the front line employees by getting feedback from the customers through this method as this provide the opportunity to the employees to think on those areas where they are not performing well. Due to above advantages of multi-source performance appraisal method many big companies like Johnson and Johnson Limited, IBM , Xerox etc. se this method and are very successful in today’s competitive world as this method is more accurate and gives more reliable information than the traditional performance appraisal methods. ?Disadvantages of Multi-Source Performance Appraisal Method: This method had a lot of advantages but there are some disadvantages that may create doubt of whether to opt for this method or not. This method is quite complex and time taking and also very costly as it involves a lot of hassle to make the survey form filled from different people and conclude the ratings.This method can be dangerous and can produce very destructive results if it is not conducted properly and also if it is not done correctly then it can become a huge waste of time. This process can become difficult to handle and manage if there are too many people involved. One of the major disadvantages is that sometimes there are questionnaires in which the comments are not clearly understandable and needs some further explanation from those people who filled that form but due to anonymous feedback it is extremely difficult to trace out those people as a result of whom the results may not be so accurate or authentic.Human beings are major part of this method as every individual have personal preferences so there are chances that some people may rank a person in such a way so that an employee looks good or sometimes bad and may also some people got together and form a group and gave evaluation in favor or against of someone. This will probably occur in those conditions when there is no proper checking or supervision that how the questionnaires are being filled. RE COMMENDATIONS:Due to disadvantages of this method it can be difficult for an organization to select this performance appraisal method. So there are some recommendations that can help to control the pitfalls of this method. 360-degree evaluation method should be conducted carefully so that accurate results could be obtained. The managers who are supervising this whole procedure should identify those areas on which they want to collect information for a particular employee like questions related to leadership skills may be asked, or may be related to employee behavior with his subordinates etc.It should also be considered that the questionnaire should not be so long that it consumes a lot of time and the employees utilize most of their work time in filling the survey form. Employees should be trained in such a way that the people who are giving the feedback remain positive and practical rather than considering personal grudges and also those who received the feedback should take it in a constructive way even if it indicates some of the weaknesses of an employee.An employee can be given an option to choose the people from whom feedback he wants but the management has to make sure that they are not his friends or not so close to him. The manager or the supervisor who will communicate the feedback to the particular employee should deal him like a psychologist and should have some training that how to share the feedback with the employee so that he does not react very badly and not become demotivated from the feedback.There are some people who do not want to change themselves so if the appraisal is related to those employees then the supervisor should be careful in communicating the feedback and also try to share the feedback in such a way that he tries to change himself. The identities of the appraisers remain confidential but there should be some source of identification through which the management can identify the person if there is some problem in understanding the comments in their filled form. The employee whose performance is being measured should be treated with great respect and esteem.As the world is changing with the evolution of information technology and organizations are improving their technology in order to remain competitive, this performance appraisal method should be moved from the paper to the computerized system. Software should be installed in order to get online feedback of the multi-source performance appraisal, in this way employees can fill the form online and it will reduce the hassle and also lessen the time of conducting whole procedure. The feedback system should be aligned with the culture of an organization and also the rating instruments should be reliable so that accurate results could be obtained.CONCLUSION: The 360-degree feedback is used by many organizations as this process has become very famous in today’s’ world. This method involves the feedback from different people which can make the fe edback more reliable and authentic. Due to a lot of popularity of this method many organizations are now trying to adapt this method so that they could become more competitive in today’s global world. This tool should be used with a lot of care and responsibility so that the results that will be obtained should be authentic.

Music of new millenium essays

Music of new millenium essays Competencies are one of several factors, including performance results in determining annual pay adjustments. Valuing the how (high impact behaviors) of performance as well as the what (results). Reinforcing high impact behaviors through pay delivery. Critical to success, but a bad place to start; a good place to continue. Necessary for Top Performance but not Sufficient to Guarantee it Personal Attributes and Behaviors that Predict Longer-Term Success Job measurement is designed to calibrate organization roles. One compared to another. Focus is on the job, not the person in the job. The person is very important to us, but how the person is performing in the job comes later. The most critical feature of a job is what are its outputs. What are we asking the job to do for the organization. Compensation system design is not just about how much you pay but the relative relationship between roles and pay. When it comes to compensation, individuals are rarely objective about the impact of their own role or performance in that role. People, by nature, like to keep track of their career progress. Titles are important. Organization status is important. Pay is important. It is how we keep track. There is never enough money to go around. Compensation management is about balancing the allocation of a very scarce resourc ...

Intonation Contour in English Speech

Intonation Contour in English Speech In speech, intonation contour is a distinctive pattern of pitches, tones, or stresses in an utterance. Intonation contours are directly related to meaning. For instance, as Dr. Kathleen Ferrara has demonstrated (in Wennerstroms Music of Everyday Speech), the discourse marker anyway can be analyzed as having three different meanings, each with its own distinctive intonation contour. (See Examples and Observations, below.) See also: Intonation and Intonation PhraseEmphasisParalinguistics, Phonetics, and PhonologyProsodyRhythmSegment and SuprasegmentalStress Examples of Intonation Contours Suppose a secretary would like to know if his or her boss has completed drafting up an important report. He or she might ask, Finish that report? or perhaps the same secretary is telling the boss the list of things he or she planned to do next. He or she might say, Call Frankfurt. Write the memo to Purchasing. Finish that report. Now, perhaps, the secretary is talking to his or her assistant who is word processing this same report. He or she might say, Finish that report.In all three cases, this same string of words, Finish that report, would be said with quite different overall tone contours. In the first case, it would be given a questioning intonation; in the second case, it would be said with a non-emphatic final intonation contour; and in the third case, it would be said with an emphatic intonation contour indicating an imperative. Any native speaker of English would recognize the difference in meaning among these three intonation patterns, though the exact description of such c ontours is far from being a simple matter. . . .The reason intonation contour is so important to spoken discourse cohesion is that participants use their reading of intonation contours in deciding whether or not it is their turn to take over the floor.(Ron Scollon, Suzanne Wong Scollon, and Rodney H. Jones, Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach, 3rd ed. Wiley, 2012) The Problem of Terminology One immediate difficulty in consolidating the literature on intonation is the lack of agreement on terminology. If I wish to talk about syntax, I can feel confident that most audiences will understand words such as noun and verb. However, with intonation, terms such as stress, accent, tone, and emphasis may mean different things to different people. Not only are the lay terms different from the linguists terms, but linguists themselves disagree on terminology. To make matters worse, there are even different schools of thought on what counts as a unit in an intonation analysis. Should the intonation contour of an entire phrase be interpreted as a single, meaning-bearing unit? Is it possible to identify smaller units as meaningful? Where exactly does a unit start and stop?(Ann K. Wennerstrom, The Music of Everyday Speech: Prosody and Discourse Analysis. Oxford University Press, 2001)A well-canvassed discrepancy between an American predilection for levels and a British preference for tu nes is only one aspect of the differences that exist concerning how the utterance should be segmented for the purpose of describing its intonation. There is a rough similarity between the categories referred to in the literature as sense units, breath groups, tone groups, and contours, but the similarities are deceptive; and the various ways of further segmenting into nucleus, head, tail, tonic, pre-tonic, etc., compound the differences. The important point is that, whether this is explicit or not, each formulation amounts to a starting assumption about how the underlying meaning system is organized.(David C. Brazil, Intonation. The Linguistics Encyclopedia, ed. by Kirsten Malnkjaer. Routledge, 1995) Intonation Contours in Text-to-Speech Systems In text-to-speech systems, the goal of the intonation component is to generate an appropriate intonation contour for each spoken phrase. An intonation contour is the underlying fundamental frequency (F0) pattern that occurs over time in speech phrases. Physiologically, F0 corresponds to the frequency at which the vocal folds are vibrating. Acoustically, this vocal fold vibration provides the energy source that excites the vocal tract resonances during voiced portions of speech . . .. Listeners perceive an intonation contour as a pitch pattern that rises and falls at different points in a phrase. The intonation contour emphasizes certain words more than others, and distinguishes statements (with falling intonation contours) from yes/no questions (with rising intonation contours). It also conveys information about syntactic structure, discourse structure, and the speakers attitude. Behavioral scientists have been instrumental in basic research demonstrating the importance of intonation in the perception and production of speech, and in developing and evaluating intonation algorithms.(Ann K. Syrdal, Text-to-Speech Systems. Applied Speech Technology, ed. by A. Syrdal, R. Bennett, and S. Greenspan. CRC Press, 1995) Intonation Contours and the Brain There is evidence that intonational contour and patterns are stored in a distinct part of the brain from the rest of language. When someone experiences brain damage to the left side of the brain that seriously affects their linguistic abilities, making them unable to produce fluent or grammatical speech, they often maintain the appropriate intonation patterns of their language. Also, when right-hemisphere damage takes place, the result may be that the patient speaks with a monotone. And when babies who have not yet acquired any words begin to babble at around 6 months of age, they often utter nonsense syllables using the appropriate intonation pattern of the language they are acquiring.(Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck, Linguistics for Everyone. Wadsworth, 2010) Also Known As: intonational contour

Argentinas economic status Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Argentinas economic status - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that with 23 states and also an autonomous city, Argentina had been the second largest country in Latin America. Covering a total area of 2766890 square kilometers the country stands as the eight largest nations measured 30th in terms of population. The country had a fairly high per capita income in 1920 but suffered from severe political instability during the 80s due to the  economic crisis. The country was under 22 years of military rule and after that changed 25 presidents. Currently, the country is recovering from a severe downturn that it suffered owing to the 2001-02 economic crises. Reportedly the country has defaulted on debt in 2005 and then made a debt repayment of $9.5 million to IMF in January 2006. IMF even questions Argentina’s accounting measures and credibility of data especially the one concerned with inflation. Keeping this at backdrop the paper intends to present a study of Argentina’s economic status by looking upon its past history of economic crisis and also examining the extent of recovery from such a crisis currently. The country of Argentina situated in Latin America had been going through a political turmoil for many years along with disastrous economic conditions. Economic crisis followed by debt crisis has been piling up one after another. Currently, the country is facing the problems of high prices and persistent double-digit inflation.... To test such a hypothesis we first consider a brief history of the past economic problems and then address the current economic problem through various findings and analysis. We also look upon the technical and financial assistance provided by the developmental organizations World Bank and IMF. Literature review Several economists have analyzed and performed research studies on Argentina’s economic condition. A research study has been performed to get an idea of poverty prevailing in Argentina due to such economic conditions. The data has been collected from EPH which is the main household survey of Argentina. Real income has been taken as an indicator of poverty and inequality. Fall in real income (8%) for the years 1992-96 comes along with the increase in GDP (8.9%) for the same years. Such a discrepancy reveals an overestimation of GDP in the data provided by local Argentinean surveys. Some unaccounted income such as rent and capital income might also be a cause for such a dubious result (Gasparini). Growth incidence curves have also been used for studying the changes in income pattern. The curves have been below the horizontal axis and positively sloped. High inequality in income is revealed from such a study of income changing patterns (Gasparini). Poverty status of Argentina has been studied using poverty lines with three poverty indicators namely the headcount ratio, the poverty income gap and FGT. Value of poverty lines have been expressed in local currency units. The data has collected for the period 1992-06. Such a study has shown that although Argentina has somewhat recovered from the 2001-02 crisis it has not been able to eradicate poverty. With the crisis there has been