Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Roman Statesman

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (c. 519–430  BCE) was a farmer, statesman, and military leader who lived in early Rome. He considered himself a farmer above all, but when he was called to serve his country he did so well, efficiently, and without question, even though a prolonged absence from his farm could mean starvation for his family. When he served his country, he made his stint as dictator as brief as possible. For his faithful service, he became a model of Roman virtue. Fast Facts: Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus Known For: Cincinnatus was a Roman statesman who served as the kingdoms dictator during at least one time of crisis; he later became a model of Roman virtue and public service.Also Known As: Lucius Quintius CincinnatusBorn: c. 519 BCE in the Kingdom of RomeDied: c. 430 BCE in the Roman RepublicSpouse: RacillaChildren: Caeso Early Life Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was born around 519 BCE in Rome. At the time, Rome was still a small kingdom made up of the city and its surrounding territory. Lucius was a member of the Quinctia, a patrician family that produced numerous state officials. Lucius was given the name Cincinnatus, meaning the curly-haired. Historians believe that Cincinnatuss family was wealthy; however, little else is known about his family or his early life. Consul By 462 BCE, the Roman kingdom was in trouble. Conflicts had escalated between the wealthy, powerful patricians and the lesser plebeians, who were fighting for constitutional reforms that would have placed limits on patrician authority. Dissension between these two groups eventually turned violent, weakening Roman power in the region. According to legend, Cincinnatuss son Caeso was one of the most violent offenders in the struggle between the patricians and the plebeians. To prevent the plebeians from assembling in the Roman Forum, Caeso would apparently organize gangs to push them out. Caesos activities eventually led to charges being brought against him. Rather than face justice, however, he fled to Tuscany. In 460 BCE, the Roman consul Publius Valerius Poplicola was killed by rebel plebeians. Cincinnatus was called in to take his place; in this new position, however, he apparently had only moderate success in quelling the rebellion. He eventually stepped down and returned to his farm. At the same time, the Romans were at war with the Aequi, an Italic tribe about whom historians know very little. After losing several battles, the Aequi managed to trick and trap the Romans. A few Roman horsemen then escaped to Rome to warn the Senate of their armys plight. Dictator Cincinnatus was apparently plowing his field  when he learned he had been appointed dictator, a position the Romans had created strictly for emergencies, for six months. He was asked to help defend the Romans against the neighboring Aequi, who had surrounded the Roman army and the consul Minucius in the Alban Hills. A group of Senators was sent to bring Cincinnatus the news. He accepted the appointment and dressed in his white toga before traveling to Rome, where he was given several bodyguards for protection. Cincinnatus quickly organized an army, calling together all the Roman men who were old enough to serve. He commanded them against the Aequi at the Battle of Mount Algidus, which took place in the region of Latium. Although the Romans were expected to lose, they quickly defeated the Aequi under the leadership of Cincinnatus and his Master of the Horse, Lucius Tarquitius. Cincinnatus made the defeated Aequi pass under a yoke of spears to show their subjugation. He took the Aequi leaders as prisoners and brought them to Rome for punishment. After this great victory, Cincinnatus gave up the title of dictator 16 days after it had been granted and promptly returned to his farm.​ His faithful service and lack of ambition made him a hero in the eyes of his countrymen. According to some accounts, Cincinnatus was appointed dictator again for a later Roman crisis in the wake of a grain distribution scandal. This time, a plebeian named Spurius Maelius was allegedly planning to bribe the poor as part of a plot to make himself king. There was a famine going at the time but Maelius, who was in possession of a large store of wheat, was allegedly selling it to other plebeians at a low price to curry favor with them. This worried the Roman patricians, who feared he had ulterior motives for his generosity. Once again, Cincinnatus—now 80 years old, according to Livy— was appointed dictator. He made Gaius Servilius Structus Ahala his Master of the Horse. Cincinnatus issued orders for Maelius to appear before him but Maelius fled. During the ensuing manhunt, Ahala ended up killing Maelius. A hero again, Cincinnatus resigned his post after 21 days. Death There is little information about Cincinnatuss life after his second term as dictator. He is reported to have died around 430 BCE. Legacy The life and accomplishments of Cincinnatus—whether true or merely legendary—were an important part of early Roman history. The farmer-turned-dictator became a model of Roman virtue; he was celebrated by later Romans for his loyalty and brave service. Unlike some other Roman leaders, who plotted and schemed to build their own power and wealth, Cincinnatus did not exploit his authority. After he had performed the duties required of him, he swiftly resigned and returned to his quiet life in the country. Cincinnatus is the subject of several notable artworks, including Riberas Cincinnatus Leaves the Plough to Dictate Laws to Rome. Many places are named in his honor, including Cincinnatti, Ohio, and Cincinnatus, New York. A statue of the Roman leader stands in Tuileries Garden in France. Sources Hillyard, Michael J.  Cincinnatus and the Citizen-Servant Ideal: the Roman Legends Life, Times, and Legacy. Xlibris, 2001.Livy.  Rome and Italy: the History of Rome from Its Foundation. Edited by R. M. Ogilvie, Penguin, 2004.Neel, Jaclyn.  Early Rome: Myth and Society. John Wiley Sons, Inc., 2017.

Effective Communication, An Essential Foundation Of...

â€Å"Communication is a multidimensional and complex process in which, ideas, thoughts, values, knowledge or feelings are shared and interpreted† (Koutoukidis G, 2013). As a nurse, being able to communicate with our clients is imperative to their wellbeing and to the building of our therapeutic relationship. Effective communication is an essential part of nursing and doing it well can be an art, however it can be learned over time and usually gained from education and experience. Linguistically diverse and elderly patients in an acute setting need assistance in communicating and employing an interpreter to help is usually advantageous. Communication can be arduous and can have obstacles which we may encounter. Effective communication with clients is an essential foundation of effective healthcare (Arnold E, 2016). It demonstrates active listening and assists with information giving. As a nurse, communication skills are integral to ensure the proper care is delivered. Many skills in consultation with the client need to be client focused. Effective communication is an art, however the need for education in communication has been recognised worldwide. (Wikstrom BM, 2011) We must assess our audience in order to decide the best method of communication to ascertain all messages are sent and interpreted correctly. In Mrs. Romano’s case being a non-English speaking client we must find the necessary steps in communicating effectively with her. Communication has been identified to beShow MoreRelatedEssay on Personal and Professional Healthcare Communication1456 Words   |  6 PagesPersonal and Professional Health Care Communication Dorcas Gray HCS/350 October 14, 2013 Tracy D. Andrews Personal and Professional Health Care Communication Communication is a skill learned and developed overtime and is used to convey various information, express emotions, and desires. 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What Is Culture and Socialisation Interact in Sociology Free Essays

SLSS102 Explorations in Sociology – Assessment 1 Minor essay Word limit: 1500 words Weighting: 20% Due date: 9am AEDT Monday 1 April Assessment overview Write a 1500 word essay on ONE of the following topics: Topic 1: Which is more important in shaping individual identity: social structure or social interaction? ?OR Topic 2: Explain how culture and socialisation interact in a sociological context? Assessment details In your essay you should: Demonstrate your understanding of themes covered so far in this unit. †¢ Use the three texts listed in the resources box (right) to answer your selected question. †¢ In addition you should use a minimum of TWO references to augment the material in these texts. We will write a custom essay sample on What Is Culture and Socialisation Interact in Sociology or any similar topic only for you Order Now †¢ Support your discussions with examples from the social world. †¢ Use correct Harvard referencing. Criteria for assessment Your essay should clearly address the question and include relevant ideas from the unit and your knowledge and experience. When marking your essay, your eLA will ask: †¢ How well have you used relevant ideas from the unit readings and additional materials to answer the question? †¢ How well have you used relevant examples from your own knowledge and experience to answer the question? †¢ How convincing and coherent is your answer? †¢ How well is your answer written and presented? ?Resources To answer your essay question, use the following resources: Your eText: Henslin, JM, Possamai, A, and Possamai- Indesedy, A 2011, Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach, Pearson Australia, Frenchs Forest. nd the following two ebooks: Plummer, K 2010, Sociology: The Basics, Taylor and Francis Back, L. , Bennett, A. , Edles, L. ,Gibson, M. , Inglis, D. ,Jacobs, R. , Woodward, I 2012, Cultural Sociology: An Introduction, Wiley. Note: These resources are also listed under Assessment1: Minor essay, in the Assessments section in Blackboard. To augment the material in these texts you may use other Sociology t extbooks, articles from the Swinburne library database and current media articles. SLSS102 Explorations in Sociology 1 SLSS102 Explorations in Sociology – Assessment 1 Minor essay Assessment 1: Minor essay submission details †¢ All pages should include your name and student number in the document footer †¢ All references should be appropriately cited using the Harvard style. There is also a link to this guide in Blackboard, under the Assessments section. †¢ Submit your assignment as one Microsoft Word or PDF document †¢ Save your file as follows: [student numberA1. filetype] e. g. 1234567A1. pdf or 1234567A1. doc †¢ Submit your essay via the Blackboard link Assessment Minor essay How to cite What Is Culture and Socialisation Interact in Sociology, Essay examples

Strategic Leadership for Volkswagen Company - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Leadership for Volkswagen Company. Answer: The organization, their primary service is, where they operate, size of business and the key people The Volkswagen Company majorly deals with the manufacture and distribution of automobiles and passenger Motors(Preston, B., 2015, p.35). The companys headquarters is in Germany. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of automobiles has been reporting high profits over the years (Byron, 2016). The company operates in various 27 countries including Europe, USA, and Australia. The manufacturing company serves the whole world. The CEO of the Volkswagen group is Matthias Muller, and the managing director of the company in Australia is Michael Bartsch. The Problem from the Source The problem roots from the fact that the company during the manufacturing process, fitted some devices in the Audi and the Porsche brands that inhibited the regulating authorities from detecting the gases that the cars emitted(Balbi, A., 2015, p.9). When the consumers in the USA realized this, they raised the alarm, and the company pleaded guilty and were required to compensate the owners of the cars(Lucia, 2017). The discovery was covered by the media and the Australian Consumers also demanded compensation for the defective vehicles. Why it is a Negative The company has been dominating most of the automobile markets in the world. It has had a significant number of loyal customers that have been influenced by the good reputation the company had before the scandal(Hakim, D. and Bradsher, K., 2015, p.15). It is imperative to identify that the negative light in the media has created a bad image for the company. There are some of the customers who regret buying the company's cars. It is evident that the sales volume will decline if the companys management does not clear the air in the Australian market. The Risks it Poses to the Corporation, Size Dimension The company has a high possibility of having a permanent negative image. Also, the customer loyalty levels will tremendously decrease with the fact that the Australian consumers think that they are being treated as second-class consumers because they have not been compensated in the same way as the consumers in the USA(Lucia, 2017). The profits of the company will decrease especially in Australia where most of the customers may deviate from purchasing the companys products. The companys market share will be affected negatively. Systems Analysis of Problem The company thinks that it is not answerable to the Australian consumers. The company should thus research more on the extent of the damage that it has caused and strategize a correction approach. For instance, the company may choose first to correct the bad reputation that has been by the media to its customers(Goel, 2015, p.12). It is also important to verify the long-term impact of the negative light to the future markets. It is imperative for the system to devise other better ways of meeting regulations set by various regulators when engaging in acts that have an adverse impact on the explicit goals of the group(Whittall, A., Lucio, M., Mustchin, S., Rocha, F. and Telljohann, V., 2015, p.91). Quantitative Analysis Description of the Research The study was conducted on the social media platforms, for instance, the Twitter, Facebook and Youtube and the web forums in leading news websites that is the Reuters and the ABC news. The research was focused on attaining of information regarding the current situation that is in Australia on the fraudulent scandal associating the emission devices that it fixed on its cars. The research involved customers and ACCC representatives that were the most concerned about the issue in Australia. Description of why it was Chosen The research was necessary for the acquiring of objective information about the major concerns of the customers. Also, there was a need to find out the magnitude of the negative publicity that the scandal had cost the company. It was imperative in that it could aid in formulating of the best steps that the company could take to correct the situation in Australia. The websites and the social media as the primary sources of information were precise because they provided a platform that could be accessed by many consumers. Description the Method in Detail The method majorly involved the taking of statistics on the number of consumers that were pissed off by the company and the consumers that were still positive about the company. The other approach was to analyze the interviews that were carried out involving the ACCC representatives and the Volkswagen group representative on the issue at hand. The whole information was then summed up to come up with the overall percentage of the negative image the company has gathered and the positive comments from the target population. Description of the Results The results of the study showed that about 95% of the customers were dissatisfied by the company and especially its management. Most of the customers were of the view that the company was fraudulent and that they could not make any purchases until the situation at hand was solved promptly. The company on the other side was with the view that it was not accountable because it had not installed the devices in the Australian vehicles and thus it was not guilty of the offense. Analyze the Results against Theory and the Market It is imperative that the company should engage in corporate social responsibility due to the tarnished image of the enterprise. The reputation of the company is at stake, and so are the profits. According to the results, the company needs to engage in socially responsible activities so that it can restore its image and to promote sustainable development(Zerfass, A., Linke, A. and Rttger, U., 2014, p.63).The company, in particular, should engage in the restorative approach of CSR to be able to claim back its market share. Also, the market of the company has reduced in size, and it implies that the competition in the company will increase due to the market players aim to dominate the markets that the Volkswagen was initially serving. The results are a clear indication of what happens in the case that a company deviates from its primary intentions and leads to a contradiction through imposing harm to the society instead of promoting sustainable developments. Detailed Methodology and the Justification of the Choice The methodology includes the sources of data collection which will majorly include the websites for news such as ABC News and Reuters and the Social Media. The method of data collection will be to carry out a survey(Barth, M., Bauer, A., Hughes, E., King, A., and Koerner, H., 2017, p.34). Identification of the target population on the internet.Then a sample size will be determined due to the limited resources and time. The method will involve contacting of the respondents via the email and telephone. Information will be analyzed using probability oriented methods. The methodology will ensure that the information collected is sufficient, precise, relevant and consistent with the objectives of the research. Develop a set of strategic recommendations arising from the findings your primary research. The company should come clean with the matter by stating its position The company should disseminate information to the customers regarding the situation. It is imperative for the customers to be able to be informed in time to reduce the negative impact that is created when the customers acquire information from other sources(Tom, E., 2017, p.231).Information should be outlined through media platforms that can be accessed by most the customers. If the company does not respond to the allegations, then it will imply that it does not care about the concerns of the customers. The company should engage in corporate social responsibility Engagements in socially responsible activities that will help create a positive image for the enterprise. The stakeholders are concerned that their interests will not be achieved and thus the company needs to address this. CSR may include funding of community initiatives, planting trees and removing the alleged device on its products(Georgievski, 2016, p.34) Through the use of the various CSR approaches should engage in socially responsible approach that will entertain sustainable development. The CSR projects to be implemented should be within the companys interests and that of its stakeholders. The company should compensate the consumers that were affected For the company to fully satisfy the customers, it needs to make up for the customers for the damages that it has caused to them. The fact that most of the customers think that they are being treated as second-class consumers it is an indication that customers positive attitude towards the products is damaged and thus the company needs to give an incentive(Jung, J.C., and Park, S.B., 2017, p.27). If the USA consumers were compensated, then the company to exercise fairness should instigate right through applying the same measures to customers that have received the same damages. The company should market its products to create a positive reputation The company should engage in the marketing of its products so as to create a positive image of the products. The company can incorporate promotion activities, and public relations approaches that will instigate the customers to continue with their loyalty to the enterprise. It is relevant for the company to engage in customer relational management that will make the customer feel esteemed and honored by the Corporation. Customer care services can be promoted so that the customer's inquiries and concerns are listened to and addressed in time to reduce the impact of the negative reputation. The Future The future of the company is characterized by a lot of engagement in CSR. The company in the coming days would want to reduce the number of lawsuits against it by the consumers (SCANDAL, 2017, p.122).Have good relations with the government by engaging in activities that do not breach the law in any way(Hakim, D. and Bradsher, K., 2015, p.22). It is also considerable in the future that the company will face stiff competition in the market because the market players will be more keen on bringing the company down due to its tarnished image in the past. Presentation of the Findings The overall sales reduced The results indicate that the overall sales of the company will reduce and this is due to the tarnished image of the company. It is certain that even the USA and the Australians consumers will shy away from the products. The reduced sales will lead to losses both in the long term and the short time of the company. Most of the products of the company do not move in the store as much after the scandal was unearthed. The profits have reduced The profits that the company is reporting are down from the 21.7Billion that it was reported in the year 2016. The reduced profits are attributed to the weak sales due to the reduced customer retention and loyalty of the consumers. The reduced benefits are attached to the added costs that the company is experiencing due to the increased litigations. The company is reporting more expenses. Customers are dissatisfied Clients of the company are dissatisfied majorly as a result of being sold to faulty products. The client's dissatisfaction is high with most of the consumers swearing that they will not purchase the company's product more so those in Australia. The dissatisfaction of the customers is still spreading to other countries, and thus the company's ongoing concern is at stake. The market share has reduced The competition in the market is stiff. The litigations that are involving the company has made the company to be subject to negative light. Its target markets are now being shared by the other market players in the market like the Nissan Company(Siano, A., Vollero, A., Conte, F., and Amabile, S., 2017, p.30). Its market is now limited to the limited number of loyal customers. The customers have since shifted to other brands that are not part of the scandal allegations. Bibliography Balbi, A., 2015. Volkswagen scandal: one of the world's largest automakers has admitted to unethical decision making and is working on clarifying the" inconsistencies. Strategic Finance, 97(6), pp.9-10. Barth, M., Bauer, A., Hughes, E., King, A., and Koerner, H., 2017. Volkswagen Public Relations Plan. Byron, K.., 2016. Australia sues Volkswagen Over alleged Emission Frauds. [Online] Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-australia-idUSKCN11634R?il=0 [Accessed 26 May 2017]. Georgievski, B.a.A.A.., 2016. The Effect of the Volkswagen Scandal (A Comparative Case Study. Goel, A.., 2015. Volkswagen: The protagonist in the Diesel Emission Scandal. Hakim, D. and Bradsher, K., 2015. After Volkswagen Revelation, Auto Emissions Tests Come Under Global Scrutiny. [Online] [Accessed 26 May 2017]. Jung, J.C., and Park, S.B., 2017. Volkswagen's Diesel Emissions Scanda. Thunderbird International Business Review, 59(1). Lucia, S.., 2017. Volkswagen Diesel Scandal: ACCC sues over Doggy emissions Claims. [Online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-08/accc-sues-volkswagen-over-diesel-emissions-scandal/8335506 [Accessed 26 May 2017]. Preston, B., 2015. Volkswagen scandal tarnishes hard-won US reputation as green company. The Guardian, 25. SCANDAL, G.E.., 2017. CHAPTER TWELVE REPAIRING TRUST: A CASE STUDY OF THE VOLKSWAGEN GAS EMISSIONS SCANDAL JUDITH TURNBULL. The Discursive Construal of Trust in the Dynamics of Knowledge Diffusion, p.249. Siano, A., Vollero, A., Conte, F., and Amabile, S., 2017. "More than words": Expanding the taxonomy of greenwashing after the Volkswagen scandal. Journal of Business Research, 71, pp.27-37. Tom, E., 2017. Knowledge management and leadership: the carbon emissions scandal in the automobile industry. Przedsi?biorczo Mi?dzynarodowa, 3(1), pp.229-40. Whittall, A., Lucio, M., Mustchin, S., Rocha, F. and Telljohann, V., 2015. Volkswagen transnational company agreements: The meaning of international corporate regulation at work. The transnational company agreements: Experiences and prospects. Final Report, 2(17-117). Zerfass, A., Linke, A. and Rttger, U., 2014. HE CONTEXT FOR LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC RELATIONS. Public Relations Leaders as Sensemakers: A Global Study of Leadership in Public Relations and Communication Management.

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.

Becoming a Successful Computer Programmer essays

Becoming a Successful Computer Programmer essays The career I choose to research is computer programming. Computer programmers write and maintain detailed instructions used to create software. These instructions, also called code, are made up of different languages that a computer can recognize. Because there are many language a programmer always needs to be able to learn new things. Computers have always been a hobby for me and satisfy many needs that I require in a career. In order to be a successful programmer, there are many skills you must possess. The most important skill is logic. Because of all the detail and explicit instructions required to program software a person must be able to think logically. In high school my strongest class was math. Math is my favorite subject because it deals with breaking things down and simplifying them. This is what programming is all about. Another quality I have that relates to programming is patients. About 80 percent of programmers work time spent debugging. Debugging is the process of finding all the errors in the code and fix them. This requires tons of patients because many of these errors are hard to seek out. Also, I love to solve problems. In high school, my computer science teacher would give us brain teasers, and I would sit up all night until I figured it out. A computer programmer must be able to receive a problem and find the most efficient way to solve it. The three qualities I looked at in choosing a career are salary, interesting work, and being able to see that my work has created something. People say that money isn't everything, but it certainly does help. In 1998 the median of annual earnings for a computer programmer was $47,550. Half of these people earned between $37,000 and $70,500 a year. These numbers are rising due to a growing demand for programmers. Working with computers is almost always fun and exciting for me. There is something about working with one of the greatest inventions of ...

Export Feasibility Analysis of a Consumer Item to a Foreign Country Essay

Export Feasibility Analysis of a Consumer Item to a Foreign Country - Essay Example There are no barriers to exports from the United States of America to Poland. There is however a drop in exports from the United States of America to Poland. The domestic production of telecommunication products is deficient and Poland depends on imports. In 1999 $124 million worth of telecommunication equipment was imported from the United States of America, but in 2000 these exports dropped by thirty five percent because of increasing competition from Western European countries. (Telecommunications. Poland). Competition in the field of cellular communications is fierce and it is this competitive activity that has seen the growth in the use of mobile phones in Poland. (Poland: Telecoms and Technology Background). Indirect competition comes from fixed line telephones and the status of the fixed line infrastructure in Poland is the driving force behind the growth of use of mobile phones and the penetration that is seen in Poland. Though Poland is in the front of the countries in the c entral European region from the point of view of service revenue, the fixed line penetration is just the opposite. The inference that can be easily made from this is that demand far outstrips supply and this situation has developed from the monopoly of TPSA till 2003. Though the situation has changed since then, indirect competition does not seem a stumbling block for the growth in the use of mobile phones in Poland. This is the area of fierce competition that has seen an increase in the potential and penetration in cellular communications in Poland.