Community Knowledge Building And Self Regulated Learning Education Essay

BackgroundIn Hong Kong, it has already been a long clip that schooling puts the chief focal point on persons ‘ abilities, temperaments and chances without profoundly researching the possibility of larning through community interaction. Normally merely formal cognition and incontrovertible accomplishments are taught in traditional schoolrooms. The bulk of this sort of cognition is inert that does non promote deep thought and enquiry. There is no mechanism for pupils to get expert-learning accomplishments. In add-on, informal or silent cognition is by and large ignored in school course of studies, though it is every bit of import as the formal cognition. The acquisition aims are besides crystalline to pupils. Students are occupied with undertakings and activities but they do non hold a clear thought about the grounds why they have to make those undertakings and activities. Problem 2: Pedagogical Paradigm Shift due to the Introduction of the NSS Curriculums Since 2009, the course of studies of most secondary schools have undergone a dramatic alteration due to the acceptance of the New Senior Secondary ( NSS ) course of studies. Two major alterations are the debut of broad surveies and project-based acquisition. The broad surveies subject enables pupils to do connexions among different subjects, examine issues from a assortment of positions, and construct personal cognition of immediate relevancy to themselves in the modern-day universe. On the other manus, project-based acquisition ( PBL ) aims to enable pupils to build cognition through developing their independent acquisition capablenesss, generic and collaborative accomplishments. It is obvious that the new course of studies emphasise on the cultivation of abilities of pupils to incorporate information gathered to build their ain cognition independently and collaboratively. However, most instructors and pupils are still non prepared for this polar alteration and experience perplexed about the new manner of instruction and acquisition. Problem 3: The Problems of the Commonly Used Learning Platforms Even though some Hong Kong schools understand the jobs of the traditional permissive instruction attack, good acquisition platforms that can carry through the demands of this new acquisition environment are rare in the market. Despite that many schools have installed computing machines with Internet entree in schoolrooms, there is no obvious difference in pupil larning quality between this sort of computer-supported schoolrooms and the traditional 1s. Intentional acquisition and expertness development.can barely be fostered in this sort of schoolroom scenes. In order to better larning quality and effectivity, some schools in Hong Kong have been following certain learning platforms for about ten old ages, yet they can merely let pupils to upload their work, download stuffs mandated by instructors, station messages to or read messages from electronic notice-boards, etc.. The platforms merely act like electronic information depositories that can non truly assist pupils to larn and build cognition on their ain or collaboratively, non to advert that the user interfaces are non easy-to-use in general. This sort of larning platforms contradicts the e-learning systems suggested by Angehrn, Nabeth and Roda ( 2001 ) . They claimed that e-learning should be extremely personalised, learner-centric, societal, active, synergistic, connected to scholars ‘ ends, supportive of uninterrupted acquisition and so on. Research of Existing Learning Platforms Supporting Collaborative Learning Sing the issues mentioned above, pupils in Hong Kong need a learning platform that can supply utile and effectual installations for them to pull off and build cognition, and larn collaboratively and continuously. The platform should besides assist them to do better usage of the bing on-line resources and manage and consolidate the information they have obtained for self-regulated acquisition. After researching preliminarily on bing acquisition platforms, there are three major computing machine supported collaborative work/learning ( CSCW/L ) systems available for instruction intents: FLE3, Synergeia and Knowledge Forum. FLE3 ( Leinonen et al. , 2002 ) , which is an unfastened beginning platform developed under the ITCOLE undertaking, entails a depository, a forum and a shared workspace called WebTop tool, Knowledge Building tool and Jamming tool severally. The last tool allows scholars to do usage of all sorts of multimedia digital artifacts. Synergeia ( Stahl, 2004 ) is besides designed within the ITCOLE undertaking that provides free licences for educational establishments. It portions paperss and informations through depositories ( the Basic Support for Cooperative Work system ) and forums ( Instant Messages ) severally in an asynchronous environment. The most singular tool is MapTool that enables a group of participants to make concept map collaboratively and synchronously. The confab tool is besides synchronal. Knowledge Forum was initiated by Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter. They have proposed that schools should be restructured as cognition edifice community based on the thought that larning, expertness cultivation in peculiar, requires enormous attempt and societal support that is non accessible in the first-order school environment. Students should get non-asymptotic acquisition accomplishments, i.e. , learn to continuously accommodate to alterations in the environment caused by others ‘ version. This procedure will invariably do parts to the corporate cognition of a school community, transforming the school into a second-order environment. Multimedia Learning A acquisition platform that can steer pupils efficaciously to build cognition from assorted sorts of information, particularly the multimedia one ( Shank, 2005 ) , is of paramount importance. Van Merrienboer ( 1999 ) proposed some guidelines of bringing of instructions in multimedia acquisition environments. He considered multimedia larning in web-based environments really important in the approaching hereafter as it facilitates distributed distance bringing and combines presentation and communicating installations. He believed that multimedia acquisition can be used to back up competency-based acquisition, and effectual, efficient and appealing collaborative acquisition. The multimedia capablenesss of all of the three platforms literally satisfy the guidelines. Concept Maps The MapTool of Synergeia allows participants to build corporate cognition through pulling construct maps: a graphical artifact that expresses cognition of scholars in a signifier that can be understood easy. The development of construct maps was initiated by Novak and Gowin ‘s ( 1984 ) research refering human acquisition and cognition building. In a construct map, besides called cognition map, a construct is normally placed inside a box or circle that is connected to one or more other constructs via directed discharge, stand foring the relationships between the constructs concerned. The relationships are described by verbs normally. The constructs are contrived hierarchically with the most general constructs at the top of the map. The construction of a construct map is dependent on its context. Concept maps holding similar constructs can change from one context to another and are extremely idiosyncratic. Concept maps can be used to mensurate the cognition of a individual about a subject in a specific context. Therefore, construct maps constructed by different people on the same subject must be different. In the same sense, there is no such a thing as the â€Å" right † construct map about a peculiar subject, as there can be many available right representations of the subject. Concept function has assisted people of different ages obtain cognition in assorted Fieldss. When constructs and associating words are carefully chosen, these maps are powerful tools for detecting niceties of significance. Each construct map allows its Godhead to do usage of a virtually limitless set of associating words to demo how significances can be developed. There are no limitations on what words can be used to organize constructs or associating phrases. Concepts are normally nouns and associating phrases verbs. It is recommended to utilize as few words as possible for constructs and associating verbs. Associating phrases can show any types of relationships and are non limited to a defined set. Knowledge Building Knowledge Forum is designed harmonizing to the 12 Knowledge Building Principles proposed by Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter. It is a collaborative acquisition platform operated in a networked environment. It can work on both wired and wireless webs and users can entree it via the Internet. The model of Knowledge Forum is cross-sector, cross-age and cross-cultural. It has been used in instruction, wellness attention and concern communities in the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, and New Zealand. This reflects that the sociocognitive and cultural procedures underlying cognition acquisition and cognition creative activity are basically the same that are applicable to knowledge builders of all sectors, ages, and civilizations. The 12 Knowledge Building Principles are as follows: Real Ideas, Authentic Problems Ideas are every bit existent as touchable things. Learners are much more interested in existent life jobs than textbook jobs and mystifiers. Knowledge Forum fosters a civilization for scholars to work with thoughts creatively. Improvable Ideas All thoughts are improvable. Learners can actively better their ain thoughts and those in the community if they are encouraged to take hazards without being afraid to attest ignorance and have ague and unconstructive unfavorable judgment. Knowledge Forum allows continual betterment, alteration and theory polish. Idea Diversity Idea diverseness is indispensable to the development of cognition promotion as it creates a rich environment for thoughts to germinate into new and more refined signifiers. Knowledge Forum facilitates associating thoughts in different notes and positions together to advance interaction and productive usage of thought diverseness. Rise Above New syntheses of cognition can be obtained by unrelentingly working with improvable and diversified thoughts. High-order thought can be cultivated. In Knowledge Forum, rise-above notes and positions enable participants to larn accommodating progressive alterations in the environment. Epistemic Agency Learners are responsible for their cognition promotion that can be stimulated by the thoughts of other community members. They learn how to pull off their acquisition by puting ends and programs, inquiring inquiries, and measuring accomplishment. Knowledge Forum offers characteristics like scaffolds that help scholars synthesise high-ranking cognition by utilizing a assortment of epistemic footings such as speculation, admiration, speculate, etc.. Community Knowledge, Collective Responsibility Community accomplishments are valued more than single accomplishments. Participants portion duty for the overall cognition promotion in the community. Knowledge Forum provides an unfastened and collaborative environment that allows community members contribute conceptual artifacts that can be linked together effectual for future mention. Democratizing Knowledge All participants, including the more and less talented, are empowered to prosecute in cognition invention in Knowledge Forum. Every member strive for cognition promotion in a joint venture mode. Symmetric Knowledge Advancement It can be achieved from cognition exchange between members of different sorts of intelligence in a community as to give cognition is to acquire cognition. Knowledge Forum supports practical trials and co-construction of positions across user groups, both within and between communities. Permeant Knowledge Building Knowledge edifice utilizing Knowledge Forum can be carried out in and out of school through the Internet. Constructive Uses of Authoritative Beginnings Authoritative beginnings such as intelligence and multimedia stuffs found on the Internet can be attached to Knowledge Forum that can be acted as the foundation for cognition builders to progress community cognition. Knowledge Building Discourse Knowledge Forum accommodates discourse of cognition edifice communities that refines and transforms knowledge through the dianoetic patterns of the community. Embedded and Transformative Assessment Knowledge Forum allows a community to explicate its ain internal appraisal, which is both more bespoke and flexible than external appraisal Research Focus After comparing the chief characteristics of the three collaborative CSCL/W tools, it is blunt that Knowledge Forum emphasizes deeply on the procedure of community cognition edifice based on rules like improvable thoughts and progressive job work outing. It should be a more executable declaration for instructors and pupils to manage the approaching pedagogical paradigm displacement than the other two. It is perceived that Fle3 is simply designed as a package of depository, forum and shared workspace without important emphasis on the procedure of collaborative cognition building. Refering Synergeia, it is empowered by the notable construct maps that are widely accepted as a really effectual manner for cognition building. Nevertheless, the rise-above and build-on characteristics of Knowledge Forum maximize the learning capacity of each scholar through community attempt that triumph the concept-organising belongings of construct maps. Largely significantly, there are already many instructors rehearsing cognition edifice teaching methods utilizing Knowledge Forum in many topographic points. Apart from Toronto, Hong Kong has the largest instructor community giving excessive attempt to learning pupils collaborative larning accomplishments. However, the instructors who have experience in utilizing Knowledge Forum reported some insufficiency of the acquisition platform. For case, when a instructor wants to read a certain sort of messages, such as inquiries, he/she has to shop through all the notes straight in the present design. It is one of the grounds why it is non really easy to measure pupils ‘ parts. Sometimes a subscriber may desire to hold a list of his/her ain parts so that he/she can size up the acquisition procedure ; however, this map is non available in the current version. Research Aims The aims of this research are as follows: To look into extensively how Knowledge Forum can assist pupils build community cognition. To understand the jobs faced by instructors and pupils in utilizing Knowledge Forum, particularly those refering assessing pupils ‘ acquisition advancement and public presentation. To research a set of appropriate web and database engineering, particularly knowledge and information visual image, that is utile to strengthen the functionality of Knowledge Forum, particularly assessment tools that can avail instructors to measure pupils ‘ parts. To develop a paradigm of back uping tools that can reenforce Knowledge Forum sing appraisal, information storage and retrieval. To measure the quality and public presentation of the paradigm.Relevant Literature and Guiding FrameworkKnowledge Building and Problem Solving through Knowledge Forum Scardamalia and Bereiter believe that a school should be a topographic point for knowing acquisition and expertness cultivation. However, traditional schooling merely tackle seeable parts of cognition, i.e. , formal cognition and incontrovertible accomplishments. These sorts of inert cognition rarely touch pupils ‘ idea and behavior and utile informal/tacit cognition is seldom embraced in traditional school course of studies. Furthermore, in a traditional school, many instructors project their focal point on undertakings and activities without underlying the associated acquisition aims, so pupils are by and large incognizant of cognition aims behind the undertakings and activities they are supposed to make. Scardamalia and Bereiter point out pupils can accomplish knowing larning merely if they actively try to achieve a cognitive aim. Therefore, the current schooling system merely benefits those with high persons ‘ abilities, temperaments and chances, merely those alleged â€Å" bright † pupils are able to prise into the â€Å" secrets † of those undertakings and activities. Expertness cultivation in schools is besides of paramount importance, i.e. , pupils should be able to larn to be an expert-like scholar who processes progressive job work outing accomplishments. It is believed that job work outing accomplishments can be achieved through meaningful acquisition that metacognitive cognition is obtained by agencies of self-acting procedures. Richard and Wittrock put frontward seven instructional methods that stimulate job resolution: load-reducing, structure-based, schema-activation, productive, guided find, mold and learning thought. The first six methods train pupils to be domain job convergent thinkers while the last one enhances their general job work outing capablenesss. There are four characteristics of successful learning believing accomplishments plans: focal point on the most chiseled accomplishments, contextualize the accomplishments within reliable undertakings, personalise the accomplishments through societal interaction and language-based tr eatment of job resolution procedures, and speed up the accomplishments that pupils can larn with lower-level accomplishments. Simply expressed, Richard and Wittrock suggest that general expertness or job work outing accomplishments can be transferred from instructors to pupils based on dogmas similar to those 12s knowledge edifice rules advocated by Scardamalia and Bereiter. However, traditional schooling offers no mechanisms for instructors to reassign their expertness to pupils, so most pupils can non come on into expert-like scholars through reinvestment of mental resources released from following progressive job work outing methods such as form acquisition and automaticity. Scardamalia and Bereiter impulse that, with the drift of engineering, schools should be transformed into cognition edifice communities. The discourse framed by this sort of sociocognitive procedure transcends the barriers of didactic instruction and child/activity-centred cognition development. The advancement of the acquisition accomplished through cognition edifice discourse should be able to be orchestrated and mediated alternatively of the unpredictable acquisition advancement in traditional schooling. In add-on, all members in a school community, including both instructors and pupils, should take up corporate cognitive duty which â€Å" refers to the status in which duty for the success of a group attempt is distributed across all the members instead than being concentrated in the leader † ( p. 68 ) . Every community member should understand the cognition required by the community and do certain others know what they are supposed to cognize. In a cognition edifice discourse, a pupil referee can hold their cognition advanced from groking the parts made by other pupils in the community, so it is one of the inducements for pupils to take part in the discourse. Once a pupil makes a choice part, he/she gets acknowledgment and regard from other community members. The desire of being recognized and respected, together with the craving for doing outstanding impact on the community, may be two of the other motives. A to the full well-designed equal reappraisal system is indispensably required and the discourse should be near to pupils ‘ personal lives: â€Å" pupils work together to do sense of the universe around them and work towards progressing their ain province of cognition and that of the category † . The features of a successful cognition edifice discourse are â€Å" concentrate on jobs and deepness of understanding † , â€Å" decentralized, unfastened cognition environments for corporate apprehension † and â€Å" productive interaction within loosely conceived knowledge-building communities † ( p.274 ) . Technology plays a critical function in carry throughing a successful cognition edifice discourse. Knowledge Forum and its former version, Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment ( CSILE ) , have a community database at the Centre of a schoolroom discourse. Students ‘ thoughts can be extended to a broader cognition edifice community if necessary. In the discourse environment, pupils act as both writers and referees who can lend their thoughts by making text or graphical notes, hunt bing notes, and form notes into more complex informational constructions. Auto-notification through electronic mails will be sent to writers when others comment on their notes. The note-writing environments are specially designed for participants to specify enquiries as jobs alternatively of subjects. Discourses are carried out through saying theories and information for progressing theories. The scaffold map provides participants with phrases refering cognitive procedures, such as â€Å" I need to understand † , â€Å" My theory † , â€Å" A better theory † , â€Å" This theory can non explicate † , â€Å" Put our cognition together † , to call a few, that help participants contour discourses. The frequent usage of these theory-building footings can assist scholars tackle expert-like acquisition accomplishments that can be employed in their day-to-day lives. Knowledge Forum and CSILE besides pinpoint intentionality as scholars deliberately submit jobs of what they require to understand and asseverate justifications for linked attached. The knowing scholars can larn how to do determinations and deploy diag nostic procedures. Knowledge Forum and CSILE render a decentralized and unfastened discourse environment that reverses â€Å" the instructor initiates, pupil responds, teacher evaluates form for unwritten and written discourse † . By using a distributed theoretical account, information fluxing between participants is non audited by a cardinal authorization. Since different pupils possess different sorts of cognition, the cognition exchanges can be really productive. Students of different ages and abilities can take portion in the same discourse. Students with better viva voce or written linguistic communication accomplishments can non rule the discourse as the other pupils can border their thought by pulling diagrams or edifice on information in others ‘ notes or external resources. Those who are non familiar with the subject can lend to the community by inquiring inquiries and composing contemplations. The inefficient turn-tasking job in normal schoolroom treatments is automatically elimi nated as discourses in Knowledge Forum are held asynchronously over a computing machine web or the Internet. Students can compose their statements at any coveted clip and have all the clip they want to explicate the statements, without force per unit area like that happened in an unwritten treatment. This encourages pupils to print independent idea and polish their ain thoughts and those in the community, ensuing in progressive self-acting acquisition and job work outing preparation. Information / Knowledge Visualisation Some users reported that the current design of Knowledge Forum is non really intuitive to utilize, particularly for complex undertakings and ill-structured capable affairs. The new coevals of knowledge/information visual image engineering seems to be an effectual solution. The purpose of information visual image is to supply knowledge-based entree to information resources and aid users in doing sense of the resources they are looking for during information retrieval. On the other manus, the end of cognition visual image is to help pupils in acquisition and job resolution by supplying tools to further externalised knowledge. There are many good practiced information visual image techniques available, such as landscape metaphors, cartograms, ticket clouds, etc.. Some pedagogues claim that these techniques can assist users understand the information better. In the context of cognition building, apprehension of information is non sufficient, pupils need to be exposed to the information in different ways and be able to lucubrate a personal experience from it. Some other similar tools using visual image techniques have besides been developed in recent old ages, like Topic Maps Strand Map, VisIT ( Visualization of Information Tool ) , Model-It, Microworlds, etc.. Some web hunt engines even implement explorative hunts with the aid of information visual image techniques to polish user hunt questions. Users can now transport out explorative hunts on the WWW through consecutive loops on the ocular interfaces of these tools. Examples are KartOO, UJIKO, Crokker, Simploos, Quintura, oSkope, News Map, etc.. It is evident that educational tools using cognition visual image engineering can help pupils in undertaking topics like broad surveies to a great extent as this sort of topics require pupils to larn from resources in assorted subjects and develop capacities to construction and organize their cognition and acquisition stuffs for effectual learning direction, non to advert that cognition from different topics and spheres is complex, interconnected and ill-structured in a complex mode.

An Occurence at owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce Essay

â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge†, is one of the best American short stories and is considered Ambrose Bierce’s greatest work. First published in Bierce’s short story collection â€Å"Tales of Soldiers and Civilians† in 1891, this story is about Peyton Farquhar, a southern farmer who is about to be hanged by the Union Army for trying to set the railroad bridge at Owl Creek on fire. While Farquhar is standing on the bridge with a rope around his neck, Bierce leads the reader to think that the rope snaps and he falls into the river, and then makes an amazing escape and finally returns to his farm, to be reunited with his wife. However the ending of the story is totally different, in fact, Farquhar is hanged and these imaginings take place seconds before his death. Ambrose Bierce’s trick ending succeeds because of the way he manipulated the text by changing the narrative point of view from one type to another. â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek B ridge† is divided into three sections, with each section having a different narrative form. In the first section, the author uses dramatic narration: the story is told by no one. With the disappearance of the narrator, the reader is now the direct and immediate witness to the unfolding drama. The reader views the work from the outside. In the beginning of this story the readers are informed of all the preparations for a man about to be hanged: the set up for the hanging, the characters involved and the surroundings. The narrator gives an incredible and beautiful snapshot of the scene describing the water, the guards, and his restraints. â€Å"†¦Vertical in front of the left shoulder, the hammer rested on the forearm thrown strait across the chest- a formal and unnatural position† (Bierce pg. 90, line 10). This type of narration is the least personal and the reader receives the least information on the character’s thoughts and feelings. Although the author describes details, the reader has to fill the blanks as to what actions and events lead up to the situation. The reason for this type of narration in the first section of the story is to get the readers curiosity going. One wonders what Peyton Farquhar could have done to be hanged; was he alone in what he did, why is he involved in a military issue when he is a civilian? In paragraph six and seven and through the second section, the author changes his point of view to one which is third person omniscient: all knowing. The  omniscient narrator is not a character in the story and is not involved with what happens. He imposes his presence between the reader and the story and controls all the events. From an outside point of view, the narrator provides enough information to summarize, interpret and wonder. As the story evolves, the reader begins to read thoughts of the characters: Farquhar, his wife and the soldiers. The reader becomes involved in Farquhar’s life as the narrator summarizes his situation. The reader is told of him being a planter and owning slaves, that he is a secessionist and devoted to the Southern cause. Nevertheless, the narrator leads the reader to believe Farquhar and his wife are kind people, she fetched the water for the soldier to drink with her â€Å"own white hands† (Bierce pg.92, line 15) instead of ordering one on her colored slaves to do it. Farquhar’s principles and devotion towards the south is explained in this section and the reader gets to know who he really is. This makes the reader feel sympathetic towards him and his wife. The purpose of the omniscient narrator in the 2nd section is to give information of the characters and to get a glimpse into Farquhars life. The reader finds out how devoted his wife is to her husband. The reader can now relate to Farqhuar and understand how and why he got caught trying to destroy the bridge. Section three is intended to create suspense. Bierce wants the reader to believe that what is being described actually happens. In order for the reader to believe that what is being described is actually happening, the story must be narrated from the characters point of view (limited omniscient point of view). With a limited omniscient point of view, the narrator limits his or her ability to penetrate the mind of a single character. The reader may be shown the character’s voice, feelings and thoughts through dialogue, monologue or stream of consciousness. As a result, the reader becomes more and more directly involved in interpreting the story. By using this point of view all of what Farquhar is experiencing seems so real. The advantages of the limited omniscient point of view are the tightness of focus and control that it provides. If the third section was told in an omniscient point of view, the author would have not been able to fool the reader, for he would have â€Å"seen† what was really happening. Seeing the whole action and knowing the soldiers thoughts would have given away the ending. â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† was written in three different sections, with each having a different narrative form. The first, using dramatic point of view, describes where the action takes place. The second, omniscient point of view lets the reader comprehend the victim’s thoughts and actions. And finally, the third section, limited omniscient point of view creates suspense by being only in one mind. With the ability to switch from one form to another, Bierce was able to create a tale of intrigue, captivation and a twist-ending.

Abortion Clinics Should Not be Closed in the U.S.

In 1973, the Supreme Court’s decision made it possible for women to get safe, legal abortions from well-trained medical surgeons, and therefore led to dramatic decreases in pregnancy-related injury and death (abortion). Now there is a new proposal to close abortion clinics. This proposal takes away the privacy rights of American women that are guaranteed by our Constitution. By closing abortion clinics the government is not only taking away women’s rights, but is also punishing those whom want to exercise their right of a pro-choice woman. Plagiarism Detection >Abortion clinics allow thousands of women every year to have abortions. Having the abortion should be woman’s personal choice. By closing these clinics, there will be no providers to perform the operation, so the choice has already been made for them. Closing the clinics will increase the barriers of having an abortion. When there are too many obstacles, the right to make their own choice is taken away fro m them. In 1973 the American Supreme Court ruled that Americans’ right to privacy included: the right of a woman to decide whether to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference (abortion). The Constitution says we have a right to privacy, so taking away a woman’s chance to make decisions about her own body violates that right.The American Civil Liberties Union defends the Constitution and peoples’ rights.ACLU has protected the rights of abortion for women, and in recent years has argued mayor cases opposing restrictions that deny woman access to reproductive health care (ACLU). Policy 263 states: The ACLU holds that every woman, as a matter of her right to the enjoyment of life, liberty, and privacy, should be free to determine whether and when to bear children.(The American Civil Liberties Union)The closure of abortion clinics will be done with the purpose to reduce the number of abortions. This raise s the question whether this will be an effective method or not. Before 1973 abortions were illegal yet the number of women who sought abortions did not decrease (abortion). Before 1973 many thousands of women died or suffered serious medical problems after attempting to perform their own abortions, or going to untrained doctors who performed cheap abortions with uncivilized methods or in unsanitary conditions (The Abortion Law Homepage.). If clinics are closed, women will still continue to attempt, and succeed, in ending unwanted pregnancies just like before 1973. Women will risk their health and possibly even their lives. By keeping these abortions clinics open it ensures a higher probability that the women who do have abortions will be in a safe, sanitary environment, and therefore injuries will be fewer in number.If clinics are shut, the waiting lists of abortion clinics in other countries will be much longer. Women will have to wait longer to get an abortion, and will be treated later in their pregnancy which is much more dangerous for the pregnant women.Pro-life activists claim that the unborn baby is alive and has feelings when the heart begins beating. But, the heartbeat begins between the eighteenth and twenty-fifth day (Fetus). They also say that women who have abortions are murderers. This problem could be solved by keeping abortion clinics open, because then the woman can be treated before the twenty fifth day when the fetus is not yet a living baby. She will not have to wait because of long waiting lists, but instead will have the abortion as soon as possible with as less psychological pain.If a woman has to travel to another country to have a legal abortion, she will have to pay more money. She will now not only have to pay for the abortion itself, but also the traveling costs and that does not include the psychological costs as well. Not all people can afford these costs. So by keeping clinics open more women will have the chance to exercise thei r right and have their desired abortion. If a working woman or student suddenly has to leave the country, this means she will have to think of excuses and lies for an explanation. This is not fair to the woman, she should not have to explain herself to anyone, it is her body and therefore she can do what she wants, she does not need other people’s consult.Abortion clinics are not a butcher’s place where young babies are murdered. They provide a choice for women whether or not to bring a child into this world.What is worse: taking away the life of an unborn child that is not even aware of life itself yet, or a mother bringing an unwanted child into this world, knowing that she will not be able to take care of it, and that her child will have to suffer from the poor circumstances in which she lives. As of now the woman has the ability to make that choice and save the child from poor, possibly abusive or hate filled environment. Personally I feel that living in a circumst ance such as abuse is worse than the abortion of the fetus. Rape victims should also be able to have an abortion because they know that if they were to keep the child, they would cringe when she thought about whom contributed to the other half of the child. The offspring will be a painful reminder to the rape victim. She did not choose to take the responsibility of a child and therefore should not have to pay the consequences. A woman who cannot love her child has no right to have a baby in the first place.One option for women who are not able to take care of their baby is adoption. Yet she will have to carry the baby for nine months and then give it up. Not all women are able to do this physically or psychologically. After the pregnancy she will have to hope that their baby will find a good and loving home. And this is not always the case. The child will possibly have to suffer from living in orphanages waiting to get adopted. Adoption can not always be seen as a good solution to u nwanted pregnancies.The advantage of closing abortion clinics could be that woman will be forced to take the responsibility over their baby, and give their unborn child the right to life. But it can not be seen as something entirely positive. The mother will always regard the child as a mistake and will never love it the way she would have if she had wanted to keep the child. Getting an abortion does not always mean that the woman is only thinking of herself, she also thinks on behalf of her baby. Abortion clinics do not make the choice easier, nor do they force the woman into the surgery. People who are against abortion having the choice not to have one. It is not fair to take away the choice of people who do want one.List of works consulted: Â  Abortion. Encarta Encyclopedia 1999. 1999 ed.ACLU. Encarta Encyclopedia 1999. 1999 ed.Fetus. Encarta Encyclopedia 1999. 1999 ed. Plagiarism Detection >The Abortion Law Homepage. Abortion Law Homepage. 24 November 1996. (11 March 2000). htt p://members.aol.com/abtrbng/index.htmThe American Civil Liberties Union. Abortion Clinic Access Law. 1997. (11 March 2000). http://www.aclu.org/library/aaabort.html

Recognized leadership theory Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Recognized leadership theory - Research Paper Example The objective of the research paper will be therefore concentrated towards observing how a recognized leadership theory can influence the effectiveness of any non-profit organization. Besides, the organizational structure, staffing, construction of board of directors and the mission of such non-profit organizations will also be considered in the discussion henceforth with the intention to observe if these components are impacted by the leadership theory mostly applied in profit oriented business sectors to enhance the overall organizational effectiveness. Role of Leadership in any Non-profit Organization In the modern day context, it has often been observed that non-profit organizations exhibit a private segment approach and seeks independence in relation to its operations. However, unlike profit based organizations, non-profit organizations are not bounded by economic conditions. Although non-profit organizations can earn profits, the profits are not shared to the employees or the b oard members, rather the earned profits are used in the activities and programs strategized by the organization for accomplishing its determined non-profit organizational mission. ... ce the activities of non-profit organizations, nevertheless it is not the mainstream view of public segment businesses that commands the non-profit service delivery activities. Frequently, minority matters become key considerations for non-profit organizations for determining the activities (Riggio & Orr, 2004). The other feature of non-profit organizations can be identified with reference to its leadership approaches where the management generally entices the consideration of public interests being subjected to intentional involvement of people. No other segment, except the non-profit segment depends profoundly on volunteer support. Thus, their interests can impose a substantial impact on the strategies and services of non-profit organizations. These unique features of non-profit organizations call for different leadership theories while designing the organizational structure, mission and policies. It is worth mentioning in this context that key leadership theories can undertake cer tain attentions to the unique abilities of non-profit organizations owing to which, non-profit organizational leaders need to be prudent enough, comparatively more than that witnessed amid profit-centered organizations for putting close attention to the basic characteristics of the organizational culture as a symbolic illustration of the essence and soul of the organization (Riggio & Orr, 2004). Leadership The conceptual background of the term ‘leadership’ possesses several features in today’s modern society. Leadership denotes to the role of executives in order to express the mission of organizations. Correspondingly, leaders provide a vision and superseding objectives to stimulate the followers for enhancing the self-respect of members associated either directly or indirectly with

Describe types of feedback and determine the effects of circuit Lab Report

Describe types of feedback and determine the effects of circuit performance when feedback is applied,Describe the circuit conditions and the methods used to achieve sinusoidal oscillation - Lab Report Example The two types of amplifier are the positive and the negative feedback. The two differ in terms of whether the signal is described as being in phase or out of phase with the input signal. The two types of feedback can also be referred to as regenerative or direct feedbacks. Regenerative feedback or negative feedback occurs whenever a signal is said to be 180 degrees out of phase to the input signal (Musrt 89). A widely cited, negative feedback is appropriate since it helps in creating a practical circuit given that it can create rates and gains. It can also be used in making circuits stable, as well as self-creating and it has an output that can characteristically create equilibrium condition. In an op-amp, a negative feedback is used for purposes of creating a corrective mechanism (Musrt 67). Moreover, it limits the amplifier’s input signal hence improving the fidelity of an amplifier. By and large, it increases the frequency response of any given amplifier through preventing the decreasing in the gain of an amplifier. During the application of an amplifier, the feedback signal reduces with the increasing input signal (Musrt 76). On the other hand, in the positive feedback, the voltage or current feedback is often applied for purposes of increasing the input voltage (Musrt 47). When a positive feedback is applied in an inverting signal circuit, a portion of an output signal is fed back to the input. It is worth noting lacking a positive feedback in any circuit causes a slowdown in the detectors of the open loop. Positive feedback can lead to an increase in the amplifier gain. More often than not, feedback is used in electronic circuits for various reasons. First, circuit characteristics can be controlled and made independent of wide variations in most of the active device parameters (Musrt 34). Second, using feedback, it is possible to make circuit characteristics relatively independent of

International Trade and Financial Markets Assignment

International Trade and Financial Markets - Assignment Example For instance, assume UK can experience vast harvest of grapes as compared to Brazil. On the other hand, Brazil thrives in rubber production than any other country. The concept of comparative advantage, therefore, requires the UK to engage more resources in producing grapes. On the other hand, Brazil would better engage in the mass production of rubber. The two countries would, therefore, export their abundant products to the foreign markets. That is; rubber would be exported to the UK and grapes would be exported to Brazil. The mentioned exchange process is referred to as the international trade, which is regulated by trade policies (Suranovic 2012). Trade policies are rules that regulate the exchange of goods, services and other assets between two or more countries. Trade policies also encompass the tax rules, government incentives, and subsidies. The flow of goods, services, and other assets from one country to another is significant for the following reasons: first, it improves economic and social ties between countries. Second, international trade avails a wide variety of goods and services for the consumers. It therefore, enhances the consumer sovereignty, which is the free will of the customers to consume products and services of their interest. Third, international trade improves a country’s economic performance among other importance. The paper seeks to present a critical evaluation of the appropriateness of the trade policies in the United Kingdom (Trade Policy 2015). The link between the United Kingdom and the international communities, specially the developing countries, is based on the following: the export and import of goods and services between UK and the developing countries, the investments activities in the developing countries, relocation to and from development countries, and offering aid to developing countries. The goods exported to the UK from the developing countries in the year 2014

Metrics Plan Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Metrics Plan - Case Study Example Therefore, the metric is based on % completion. A practice whose percentage completion falls below 70% is considered non compliant, that which falls between 71% - 95% is considered degraded and that above 95% compliant. With the overall practice compliance of 37.79%, the 11th Marine Regiment is considered non compliant in conducting EMS practices. Out of the 8 practices, none was compliant, meaning the scores were below 95%. However, there was 100% compliance in the training of some course such as spill abatement and EMS training. TNA describes procedures for identifying abilities, skills and knowledge necessary to achieve desired performance requirements which is keeping the environment safe (Jean, 2006). There are three elements to the TNA; Demographic Information, Installation Environmental Characteristics, and Quantified Environmental Training Requirements. For the purposes of this Metrics Plan, the Quantified Environmental Training Requirements were used to collect and analyze data. The TNA was used to identify what practices are performed, their location, number of personnel requiring training, and what training is required to enable personnel to perform their activity in an environmentally safe manner. Maintaining environmental compliance is everyone’s responsibility. While working aboard Camp Pendleton, you are required to know and understand how EMS practices impact your work activities and the environment. Environmental compliance means performing all your work tasks in a safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible manner that will protect and prevent harm to human health, natural resources, and the environment. This Metric Plan will help you develop the skills you need to maintain an environmentally friendly work environment and to complete your work tasks in accordance with your installations environmental policy. To fulfill the training requirements of the 8 explicit environmental

Systemic Risk and SIFI and Global Economic Crisis Essay

Systemic Risk and SIFI and Global Economic Crisis - Essay Example However, between 1940s and 1980s, there were less bank runs in USA, mainly due to tight legal framework and due to the transformed atmosphere. However, the banking tighter regulation in U.S.A not proved to be satisfactory as more than 250 banks filed insolvency petitions between 1980s and 1990s. In 1990s, Asian countries witnessed an economic turmoil as a result many banks in those regions failed. The issue started with individual bank and slowly enveloped into the whole banking system of a nation and finally impacted the creditworthiness of such nation itself. Likewise, the subprime mortgage crisis occurred in the 2007 -2008 started with U.S financial institutions and U.S banks and finally impacted many financial institutions around the world. However, bank failures or bank runs are not occurring in all the nations. For instance, there is no bank failure at all in Ireland and in Switzerland. Rochet (2008) is of the view that interferences by politicians can play a significant role i n bank runs. Many frequent bank failures and bank runs urged the need to recognise and deter financial agonies in the future well before they commence. Hence, there is a necessity to establish a well-structured supervision system in the financial sector, and it should be given authority to identify â€Å"systemic risks.† Bini Smaghi (2009) is the first to emphasise the theoretical issues of systemic risk, and the agency established for the same is to be well versed in detection of risks, evaluation of risk, and finally giving warnings about risks. (Eijffinger 2009:44). This research will make an earnest effort to elucidate w what is meant by ‘systemic risk’ and discuss the relevance of ‘systemically important financial institutions’ for policymakers and the ways and means to avoid future bank and financial institution failures. â€Å"What is Systemic Risk?† Systemic risk is a peril that is widespread in a nation or the economy as a whole and cannot be avoid ed by coalescing the assets in well-diversified and large portfolios, and it is also called as non-diversifiable risk. Systemic risk starts off in various sizes, shapes and magnitude. In some countries, systemic risk has occurred due to foreign exchange risks and economic shocks and in some other nations, it has occurred due to internal or external war or due to political instability. In between 1992 to 2002, there were about eight regional / global economic crisis happened in Europe, Asia and U.S.A. In case of banks, the systemic risk area includes forex risk and interest rate risks. The low-quality credit assets will first collapse when the systemic risks deteriorate. A portfolio approach is the need of the hour to recognise such unique and susceptible sectors and credit asset allocations, which may witness a negative effect in various economic conditions. Hence, it is essential to structure the portfolio to be fine-tuned methodologically so that the rigorousness of varying macro- economic crisis is minimised. It is to be noted that systemic risk differs from industry to industry. (Joseph 2007:242). As per G10, a systemic risk is one where an incident will activate a deprivation of confidence or diminution of economic value and may result in vagueness that would compel the major segment of the financial system to destabilize due to negative impact on the real economy. Thus, a systemic risk will have four significant ingredients namely erosion of faith, a sudden spurt of vagueness, major segment of the financial system that might be impacted and poignant negative impact on the real economy.†(Eijffinger 2010 :44).†

Project Management for General Motors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project Management for General Motors - Essay Example Contemporary business produces great stress, so facilities to reduce this stress are required. It would be very functional for leasers to have indoor sporting facilities in the same building they work. This saves their time and provides great opportunity to increase quality of their work. It also provides good choice for the place of various corporate parties. Developing a huge modern office complex with entertainment facilities allows General Motors to enter new market. General Motors is new in the office leasing market, but the originality of the idea may give company profit. One portion of the revenue is supposed to receive from office rooms leasing. It is supposed that small offices will give 35% of the revenue, medium offices will give 40%, and big offices will give 25% of the revenue from the office rooms leasing. The sporting and entertainment complex is supposed to be a source of another portion of the revenue. It is assumed that disco halls will give 10% of the revenue, bars will give 20%, playing machines will give 15%, billiard will give 10%, bowling will give 10%, pool will give 15%, gymnasium will give 20%, shooting gallery will give 5%, and ping-pong hall will give 5% of the revenue. The project is planned to build 40-floors office complex with various office rooms and 10-floors underground parking. ... High-Level Scope The project is planned to build 40-floors office complex with various office rooms and 10-floors underground parking. Offices for small companies will be situated at the lower floors: there should be from 1 to 3 rooms per office. Offices for medium companies will be situated at the medium floors and have from 4 to 6 rooms per office. Offices for big companies will be situated at the higher floors and have more than 7 rooms per office. Some great companies may rent the entire floor. A conference hall and a rest room should be also situated at every floor. There should be dining hall, supermarket, hairdressing saloon, dentist and other services at the ground floor. They should work to 10 pm, so that people could use them after work. Corporate entertainment floor is situated at the 40th floor of the office complex. It includes various indoor sporting and entertainment facilities such as disco halls, bars, playing machines, billiard, bowling, pool, gymnasium, shooting gallery and ping-pong hall. Measuring Success of the Project Useful project success measures are often hard to define. Many of the potential measures such as revenue and cost savings are beyond the direct control of the project team and will not be measurable until long after the project is finished. When this is the case, the project manager must determine what it can influence. (Duncan, 2004) Duncan suggests using the following checklist to help ensure that project measures are good measures. They should be: Complete-anything unmeasured is likely to be compromised. Relevant-variances clearly indicate a need for corrective action. Valid-measuring what you intended

Good Habits Essay Example for Free

Good Habits Essay It is said that early to bed and early to rise makes a man health, wealthy and wise. Early to bed and early to rise is a good habit. A habit means repetition of the same action in similar circumstances. All men have habits. There are good and bad habits. They are of different kinds. Habits are acts which men indulge in to satisfy their needs. These habits are developed or learn from different sources. Drinking water, taking breakfast, lunch and dinner and sleeping at nights are habits, based on instinct. Man has no control over thirst, hunger and sleep. They are therefore inborn habits. There are other habits acquired like brushing your teeth, taking a bath, wearing clothes, combing your hair etc., which help a man to look neat and healthy. A walk in the morning is a good habit for old men. The needs of society develop in men some good habits. Man is a social animal and he can not live in isolation. Respecting elders, wishing ‘Good morning’, ‘Good evening’ and ‘Good night’ are good habits. Serving the cause of poor and needy, and respecting the social laws like observing queue are good habits. Men live in groups. These groups influence some habits. A man laughs when others in the group weep. These are group habits. Man wants happiness and peace. Listening to music and reading a book are good habits, which help a man to spend a peaceful life. Going to a temple or offering daily prayers are habits, which serve the needs of the soul. Education is based on the principle of habit formation. Repetition makes learning easy. Learning a language i.e. speaking, reading and wring is based on habit. Similarly education helps in the development of good habits like punctuality, attention, concentration, cooperation, discipline etc As there are good habits, there are had habits too. We acquire them both from our friends and from the society in which we live. Smoking, drinking alcohol, drugging, speaking untruth, teasing the weak, committing acts of theft may all be considered as bad habits. Habits are easy to acquire but difficult to give up. They have a great hold on people and are not easily broken. So it is better not to acquire a bad habit than try to give it up later. Good habits lead to good manners.

2D Guidance in Minimally Invasive Procedures

2D Guidance in Minimally Invasive Procedures Research Strategy (a) SIGNIFICANCE: The use of two-dimensional (2D) Ultrasound (US) guidance in minimally invasive procedures such as percutaneous biopsies,1,2 pain management,3,4 abscess drainages,5 and radiofrequency ablation6 has gained popularity. These procedures all involve insertion of a needle towards a desired anatomical target. Image-guidance facilitates localization of the needle throughout the procedure, increasing accuracy, reliability and safety.7 US offers several advantages over other imaging modalities traditionally used in interventional radiology such as fluoroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT): It provides real-time visualization of the patients anatomy (including soft tissue and blood vessels) vis-à  -vis the needle, without exposure to ionizing radiation.8 Additionally, being portable and low cost (compared to other imaging modalities) are the added advantages of US imaging. Despite these advantages, the effectiveness of 2D US in needle guidance is highly operator dependent. In the in-plane approach, where needle shaft is parallel to the imaging plane, the needle shaft and tip should ideally be continually visible.9 However, aligning the needle shaft with the scan plane is difficult. Even when the needle is properly aligned, steep orientation (required in most procedures) of the needle with respect to the US beam causes nonaxial specular reflection of the US signal off the needle surface due to a large angle of incidence.10 In this imaging condition, the needle shaft will appear discontinuous and/or the tip will be invisible. This scenario is common with deep targets, for example during liver biopsies and epidural blocks. The challenge of needle visibility at increasing depths is compounded by attenuation of the US signal. Further, high intensity soft tissue artifacts, acoustic shadowing from dense structures such as bone and speckle noise obstruct needl e visibility. To recover needle visibility, clinicians conduct transducer manipulation by translation or rotation, movement of the needle to and fro (pump maneuver),11 stylet movement, needle rotation, and hydrolocation.12 These techniques are variable and subjective. An invisible needle can have detrimental effects on procedures, for example, reduced procedure efficacy, increase in procedure duration, neural, visceral or vascular injury, and infection. Diagnostic accuracy of 90-95% has been reported for US guided breast biopsies,13-15 and 83-95% for US guided liver biopsies.16 It is known that targeting errors due to insufficient needle tip visualization contribute to false negative results.17 In pain management, accidental intraneural injections have been reported in 17% of ultrasound-guided upper- and lower-extremity blocks, even when the procedures were conducted by expert anesthesiologists.18,19 Most of these arise because of poor needle tip localization, which makes it difficu lt to distinguish between subfascial, subepineural, or intrafascicular injections.20 In our ongoing work, we have developed an algorithm for needle enhancement and tip localization in 2D US. This, we achieved by modelling transmission of the US signal.21 We incorporated US signal modeling into an optimization problem to estimate an unknown signal transmission map, which was then used to enhance the needle shaft and tip while considering US specific signal propagation constraints.22 Automatic tip localization was achieved using spatially distributed image statistics limited to the trajectory region. However, incorrect tip localization occurred when high intensity soft tissue interfaces were present along the needle trajectory. The algorithm also required a visible portion of the shaft close to the transducer surface, necessitating proper alignment of the needle with the scan plane. We have also conducted preliminary work on needle detection and enhancement in three-dimensional (3D) US, a modality with potential to obviate the limitations of 2D US in needle guidance. Instead of the latters planar view (one slice at a time), 3D US displays volume data, allowing better visualization of anatomy and needle trajectory at all needle axis orientations. This alleviates the challenge of needle alignment in the scan plane.23 Nevertheless, needle obliquity at steep insertion angles, depth dependent attenuation, as well as acoustic shadowing, imaging artifacts and speckle remain.24,25 Needle visibility is also affected by low dimension of the needle with respect to the US volume. In fact, reported false-negative results for breast biopsies under 3D US show no improvement over those with 2D US.26,27. Consequently, 3D US has not replaced 2D US as the standard of care. To overcome the limitations, researchers have proposed computational methods for needle enhancement and local ization in 3D US. These include: Principal component analysis based on eigen-decomposition,28 the 3D Hough transform,29 the 3D Radon transform,30 parallel integration projection,31 and iterative model-fitting methods such as random sample consensus (RANSAC)32. The accuracy of these methods is affected by attenuation and high intensity artifacts. Besides, computational complexity arises from processing the large amount of volume data.33 Projection based methods fail when a good portion of the shaft is not visible and the tip intensity is low. A more robust needle localization framework based on oscillation of a stylus was recently proposed, although it fails in a single operator scenario, especially for shallow angles.34 All the mentioned methods are based on modeling B-mode image data. The current need, in interventional radiology for needle guidance, is a cost-effective, easy to use, non-radiation based real-time imaging platform with an ability of providing continuous guidance with high accuracy during needle insertion without intercepting the clinical workflow. Our long-term goal of developing a computational 3D US based imaging platform for enhancement and localization of needles is informed by this need. To address this pressing need, we hypothesize that automatic, real-time, accurate, and continuous target identification using 3D radiofrequency (RF) US data is feasible and potentially could be used to provide guidance during interventional radiology for needle insertion.Our preliminary work on modeling US signal transmission in 2D US, as well as needle detection and enhancement in 3D US, are strongly supportive that modeling the RF US signal coupled with advanced reconstruction methods will improve needle visualization and localization in 3D US. The envisaged 3D US reconstruction techniques will incorporate emerging work from machine learning and advanced beamforming to achieve needle enhancement and localization. We envision new pathways of processing and presenting US data, which should make this rich modality ubiquitous to all end-users for needle guidance in interventional radiology. The impact of the proposal will be multiplied since the developed algorithms, using open-source software platform, can also be incorporated as a stand-alone component into existing US imaging platforms. (b) INNOVATION: Previous work on needle enhancement has mostly been focused on enhancement of B-mode images. B-mode images are derived from RF data (the raw signal backscattered onto the US transducer) after several proprietary processing steps. The raw signal is known to contain more statistical information35 which is lost along the processing pipeline. Parallel integral projection in order improve needle visibility in soft tissues using 2D and 3D RF data has previously been investigated although no image visualization, needle enhancement or localization was demonstrated.36 It has been shown that the post-beamformed 2D RF signal allows for a more improved enhancement of local features in US images. 37,38 Image enhancement methods applied to RF signal have also shown to produce improved display of orientation of a biopsy needle.37,38 This study is innovative in three respects: 1) To the best of our knowledge, it is the first to investigate needle enhancement and localization from 3D pre-beamformed RF data (previous approaches were using post-beamformed RF information). 2) The utilization of machine learning approaches, such as deep learning for needle enhancement in 3D US will be a first. 3) Although this pilot will focus on validating the developed framework on pain management and liver biopsy procedures as a case study, the new mathematical and computational approaches proposed in this work will lead to developments that can easily be adopted for enhancement and localization of needles in other interventional radiology procedures. We expect that the achieved results will lead in gradual adoption of 3D US as the standard of care in problematic minimally invasive procedures where 2D US is challenged, thus improving therapeutic and diagnostic value, reducing morbidity and optimizing patient safety. (c) APPROACH: We propose to test the hypothesis that needle detection, enhancement and localization based on the raw 3D RF signal will provide a more accurate and robust platform for needle guidance than current state of the art. The basis for this hypothesis is found by precedent in the use of the RF signal for bone localization,39 and our published21,22 and unpublished work on needle enhancement and localization based on 2D/3D B-mode image data. This preliminary data is presented below. Preliminary work 1 Modeling 2D US signal transmission for Needle Shaft and Tip Enhancement When the US signal pulses are sent by the transducer into tissue, they undergo reflection, scattering, absorption and refraction. These phenomena all contribute to attenuation; the loss in intensity of the US pulses as they travel deeper into tissue. Attenuation is responsible for non-conspicuity of the needle tip and shaft at increasing depths. Previously, we have shown that modeling signal transmission in 2D US based on 2D image data, while considering depth-dependent attenuation leads to enhancement of the needle and more accurate tip localization.21 The modelling framework yields signal transmission maps, which are then used in an image-based contextual regularization process to achieve tip and shaft enhancement (Fig.1). A tip localization accuracy of mm was achieved in ex vivo tissue. However, the localization accuracy is lower when soft tissue interfaces are present along the needle trajectory, and when the needle is not properly aligned in the scan plane. In the context of th is proposal, our objective is to apply similar US signal modeling and contextual regularization, this time based on RF data. Preliminary work 2 Machine learning approaches for needle detection and enhancement in 3D US Since 3D US is multiplanar, the challenge associated with needle alignment in the scan plane is partially eliminated when it is used in needle guidance.   Nevertheless, 3D US is also affected by US signal attenuation. Previous methods proposed for needle enhancement and localization in 3D US did not address this need. In addition, most were computationally demanding because of the requirement to process the entire US volume. In this work (results submitted to 20th MICCAI conference, 2017), we have developed a learning-based method for automatic needle detection in 3D US volumes. The pixel-wise classifier generates a sub-volume containing only slices with needle information. In so doing, computational complexity on the subsequent enhancement and localization algorithms is reduced (Fig.2). The tip is automatically localized in 3D. We achieved 88% detection precision, 98% recall rate, a slice classification time of 0.06 seconds, a localization accuracy of mm, and a training time of 1 5 seconds. Figure 2. Learning based needle detection, enhancement and localization in 3D US. Top row: an example of needle detection. Here, the original volume contained 41 slices, and the classifier identified only 7 containing needle data. Bottom row: The enhancement process on the sub-volume. Left, enhanced intensity projection image. Middle, automatically localized tip (red) displayed on the relevant axial slice. The blue cross is the manually localized tip. Right, trajectory estimation indicated by the green line. Specific Aim 1. To develop RF-signal modeling algorithms for improved 3D US image reconstruction For this aim, we hypothesize that adaptive beamforming methods applied to pre-beamformed 3D RF data will enhance needle visibility and improve quality of US volumes. During the formation of an US image, the reflected US signals are received by the transducer elements at different time points due to varying signal travel distances. Beamforming on each scan line is meant to establish signal synchronism before aggregation. The conventional method of beamforming in both 2D and 3D US is delay and sum (DAS). Here, received signals are electronically delayed, followed by application of a beamformer whose weights are reliant on echo signals, leading to undesirable wide main-lobe and high side-lobe levels resulting in imaging artifacts, thus decreasing the image resolution and contrast. 40 In this architecture, the angular resolution is dependent on the length of the scan aperture and the fixed operating frequency.41 In a fixed hardware configuration, these parameters cannot be increased, hen ce resolution cannot be improved. To overcome this challenge, adaptive beamforming methods based on minimum variance42-45 and multi-beam covariance matrices46 have been proposed. Using adaptive beamformers signal detection can be maximized while minimizing the beam-width and side lobe artifacts.47,48 Recently, phase factor beamforming, where phase variations are tracked across the receive aperture domain, has been shown to improve the appearance of bone surfaces from 2D US data49. Bone features, similar to needle features, are hyper-echoic when imaged with US. Therefore, during this aim we will develop an adaptive phase-factor beamforming method in order to enhance the hyper-echoic targets such as the needle from 3D pre-beamformed RF data. Specifically, adaptive beamformer that combines ideas from Minimum Variance (MV) adaptive beamforming,50 signal regularization based on statistical information in RF data,51 and Toeplitz structure covariance matrices52 to minimize computational co mplexity will be investigated. It is expected that this reconstruction technique will adapt the data to the clinical application of needle enhancement through improving image resolution, contrast, and speckle suppression. The algorithms will be incorporated into an open source imaging platform for real-time data collection and processing.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Overall, we expect that the algorithms developed in Aim 1 will allow enhanced representation of US needle data with increased diagnostic value. The images obtained from this aim will be used as an input to the algorithms proposed in Aim2. Specific Aim 2. To develop methods for needle enhancement and tip localization in 3D US images Our working hypothesis for this aim is that learning based approaches for needle detection coupled with image reconstruction methods in 3D US will achieve improved needle enhancement and tip localization. In our previous work, we have shown that a linear learning based pixel classifier for needle data in 3D US, based on local phase based image projections, improves needle enhancement and reduces computational load.   The detector utilizes Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG)53 descriptors extracted from local phase projections and a linear support vector machine (SVM) baseline classifier. Recently, deep learning (convolutional neural network (CNN)) based image processing approaches have shown to produce very accurate results for segmentation of medical image data54. However, enhancement or segmentation of needles from US data using convolutional neural networks has not been investigated yet.   Therefore, for during this aim we will develop a needle enhancement and segmentation m ethod using convolutional neural networks. Needle images with various insertions angles and depths will be labeled by an expert radiologist. Our clinical collaborator Dr. Nosher and several radiologists from RWJMH will be involved during this labeling process. We will use two different datasets during the labeling process. The first data set will be retrospective US images downloaded from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Hospital (RWJMH) database. Specific focus will be given to liver biopsy and epidural management procedures where US has been used to guide the needle insertion and biopsy procedure. The second data set will involve collecting needle US scans using ex vivo tissue samples as the imaging medium. These scans will be collected at the PIs laboratory using an open source platform US machine with 3D imaging capabilities. The collected ex vivo data will be enhanced using the beamforming methods developed in Aim 1.   Labeling process will involve manual identification of the needle tip and shaft from the two datasets. A fully convolutional neural network54 will be trained using the labeled data. The architecture of this network does not require extensive data sets in order to train the network and yields high segmentation results. Previously this approach was used for segmenting cell structures54. The output of this operation, which will be a fuzzy 3D probability map (high probability regions corresponding to needle interface), will be used as an input to our previously developed needle tip localization method. The automatically identified needle tips will be compared against the manually identified needle tips. More details about the specific clinical data collection and validation are provided in Specific Aim 3 and Protection of Human Subjects. Overall, at the end of Aim 2 we expect to have a system providing continuous real-time monitoring of needle insertion using 3D US for improved guidance in interventional radiology procedures. Specific Aim 3. To validate the developed imaging platform on clinical data To validate the algorithms developed in Aims 1-2, we plan to perform extensive validation on ex vivo and clinical data. No clinical trial will be conducted during this proposal. Our initial validation will be limited to epidural administration and liver biopsy procedures. Ex vivo data: This study will be conducted for validating Aims 1-2. US scans will be collected from two different needles: 1-) A general 17-gauge Tuohy epidural needle (Arrow International,Reading, PA, USA),   and 2-) 18-gauge biopince full core liver biopsy needle (Argon Medical devices, Athens, Texas, USA). The needles will be inserted at varying insertion angles (300−700) and depths (up to 12 cm). Ex vivo porcine, bovine, liver, kidney and chicken tissue samples will be used as the imaging medium. 3Dpre-beamformed RF data will be collected using a SonixTouch US system (Analogic Corporation, Peabody, MA, USA) equipped with the 3D phased array transducer. The US machine, provides an open-source research interface allowing for custom-made applications directly run on the machine, and the 3D transducers. The image resolution for different depth settings will vary from 0.1mm to 0.3mm. In total, we will collect 300 different 3D US scans for each tissue sample (making the total n umber equal to 1500 3D US scans). The collected scans will be enhanced using algorithms developed in Aim1. From the enhanced data, our clinical collaborators will manually identify the needle tips. Three different radiologist, with varying expertise, will be involved during the validation process in order to calculate the inter-user variability error. We will also ask the same users to repeat the needle tip identification process after two weeks to assess the intra-user variability error. The labeled data will be used in order to train the CNN proposed in Aim2. For testing the CNN algorithm, we will collect additional new 500 US scans. The manually identified needle tip locations, from the new dataset, will be compared to the automatically extracted needle tip locations obtained from the algorithms developed in Aims1-2. Euclidean distance error between the two tip locations (manual vs automated) will be calculated for quantitative validation. Clinical data: This study will involve collection of retrospective US data from patients who are enrolled for a liver biopsy or epidural administration as part of their standard of care. Women and minorities will be appropriately represented in the recruited patients. Sex or race will not play a role as an inclusion or exclusion criteria. Specific focus will be given to patients who are 21 years and older and require a liver biopsy or epidural administration. All the US data and the patient information (age, sex, height, weight, and laboratory data) will be assigned a non-identifying alpha-numeric code that will ensure that the risk of re-identification of participants from the acquired data is not possible. Additional information is included in the Protection of Human Subjects. In total, we will collect 1600 different US scans, from 400 patients. For labeling (manual tip and needle shaft localization) in order to train the CNN method developed in Aim2 we will use 1200 scans. During testing, 400 US scans, not part of the training dataset, will be used. Again expert radiologist will be involved during labeling and testing procedures for tip and shaft identification. Error calculations will involve calculating Euclidean distance between the two tip locations (manual vs automated).

Program Music: Richard Strausss Don Quixote Essay -- essays research

Before the Romantic musical age, composers wrote music for the purpose of arranging sounds into the most beautiful way possible. Because of these goals, they followed some very specific ideas and wouldn’t stray from them. Once the Romantic era hit, composers wanted to express a variety of things in their music. This is when the idea of program music appeared. Program music is usually instrumental music without spoken or sung words to explain the story or event that the composer has chosen to describe with his or her music. However, program music relies on a few non-musical things to make sure that the listener is interpreting the correct story. These things are often the title of the piece, a written forward and many times notes written to the performer/director directly in the score. After all, it is easy for a composer to say â€Å"I am sad† in his or her music by just using minor sonorities and dissonances, but it isn’t possible for the composer to say  "I am sad because my mother is about to die of prostate cancer† without the aid of explanatory notes. Program music has become a staple of our modern musical listening diet in almost every genre from full orchestra to wind band to small jazz combo. One of the most prominent examples of program music is Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Quixote. This tone poem tells the story of Miguel de Cevantes Saavedra’s novel The Adventures of Don Quixote. The story of the hero Don Quixote is one of insanity and delusion that Strauss was able to depict very well. Don Quixote was a middle aged man that read too many books about knights and their heroic deeds. This is shown by three different themes given to show Don’s dreams of being a knight. Over time, he read so many books and dreamt of rescuing his ideal woman named Dulcinea from a dragon so many times that his mind was unable to separate his real life from his fantasy world. Strauss chose to depict Dulcinea with a beautiful lyrical melody while the dragon is represented by a loud, low, sustained melody in the tenor and bass tubas. Don’s victory over the dragon is shown by a victory flourish in the flute and oboe. After this melding of his mind occurs, he believ es that he is really the knight Don Quixote de la Mancea. From here, he and his side kick Sancho Panza set out into the world to do chivalrous deeds. From here on out, Don is represented by a solo cello voice. When ... ...with the Knight of the Silver Moon. The knight is really one of Don Quixote’s townspeople that is concerned for Don’s well fare. To save Don, this man plays along with Don and defeats him in a joust. This battle is shown by the solo cello playing Don’s themes playing against all the wind instruments playing the Knight’s themes. This is followed by a dirge-like section which includes the shepherds them. This shows that Don is forced to return home and he thinks about being a shepherd. With all of Don’s dreams of being a knight shattered, he returns home and lives the rest of his life. The final scene is of Don lying in his bed dying. Strauss shows Don Quixote’s final peace in death by using the same two chords that showed his initial desire to be a knight, but this time they are sustained at a pianissimo level. Richard Strauss was known for being able to portray incredible stories with his music incredibly well. Every part of his writing is so descriptive that even Strauss said that he could â€Å"describe a soup spoon† in his music. Program music became so popular and still is for just that reason; a master composer like Strauss can tell any story in a musical format that people enjoy.

AIDS :: Free AIDS Essays

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). "The virus was discovered in France in 1983 and in the United States in 1984. In the United States, it was initially identified in 1981. In 1986, a second virus, now called HIV-2, was also discovered in Africa.(Bookshelves)" Female prostitutes in Africa probably spread it very quickly. AIDS became a huge crisis of major proportions in parts of Africa. It is my own strongly held opinion, and that of most medical and research community world wide, that the AIDS epidemic is a serious problem. It has become the worst plague this species has ever known. Vastly greater sums should be spent on searching for treatments and vaccines. The United States government needs to do more intensive tests and research to help curb this virus instead of waiting for other countries to do so. AIDS is transmitted in one of three ways: From intimate sexual contact without protection, from the mixing of a person’s blood with infected blood, and from an infected pregnant woman to her fetus. Infection can occur from blood transfusions of infected blood, or sharing unclean needles. (Needles already used, in this case, by an HIV positive person and not sterilized.) The HIV-2 virus also causes AIDS. AIDS was first seen as a disease limited gay males in the United States. "This was a result that gay males in this culture before AIDS had an average of 200 to 400 new sexual contacts per year. This figure was much greater than the new sexual encounters among heterosexual (straight) men or women. (Strack,5)" In addition, it turned out that rectal sex was a particularly effective way to transmit the disease. Rectal sex is a common practice among gay males. For these reasons, the disease spread in the gay male population of the United States more quickly than in other populations. It became to be thought of as a "gay disease". As the AIDS epidemic began to affect increasingly large fractions of those two populations (gay males and IV drug abusers), many of the rest of the American society looked on smugly, for both populations tended to be despised by the "mainstream" of society here. It is extremely important for scientists to find a cure for AIDS. It is important because mostly everyone in the world has sex. The safest option regarding AIDS and sex is total abstinence from all sexual contact. For those who prefer to indulge in sexual contact, this is often far too great a sacrifice. The development of a safe and effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection is among the highest priorities for the AIDS research effort. Yet, vaccine research historically has received less funding and attention than other areas of AIDS research. Although this may have been justifiable in the past, the continued spread of the HIV epidemic and recent advances in our knowledge dictate a reassessment of priorities and a

What Really Is A Hacker? :: essays research papers

What Really is a Hacker? There is a common misconception among the general public about what constitutes a hacker and what hacking is. Hacking is defined as "gaining illegal entry into a computer system, with the intent to alter, steal, or destroy data." The validity of this definition is still being debated, but most individuals would describe hacking as gaining access to information which should be free to all. Hackers generally follow some basic principles, and hold these principles as the "ethical code." There are also a few basic "Hacker rules" that are usually viewed by all in this unique group. The principles that hackers abide by are characteristic of most people who consider the themselves to be a hacker. The first, which is universally agreed upon is that access to computers should be free and unlimited. This is not meant to be a invasion of privacy issue, but rather free use of all computers and what they have to offer. They also believe that anyone should be able to use all of a computers resource with no restrictions as to what may be accessed or viewed. This belief is controversial, it not only could infringe upon people's right to privacy, but give up trade secrets as well. A deep mistrust of authority, some hackers consider authority to be a constriction force. Not all hackers believe in this ethic, but generally authority represents something that would keep people from being able to have full access and/or free information. Along with the "ethical code" of hackers there are a few basic "hacking rules" that are followed, sometimes even more closely then there own code. Keep a low profile, no one ever suspects the quite guy in the corner. If suspected, keep a lower profile. If accused, simply ignore. If caught, plead the 5th. Hackers consider a computer to be a tool and to limit its accessibility is

Comparison Between ‘Christabel’ from S.T.Coleridge’s Christabel and Madeline in John Keats ‘the Eve of St. Agnes’

Hameed Khan Topic: Comparison between ‘Christabel’ from S. T. Coleridge’s Christabel and Madeline in John Keats ‘The eve of St. Agnes’ Christabel from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Christabel’ and Madeline from John Keats ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’ have many striking similarities. Throughout both poems, the two women are constantly referred to as pure, innocent, generally good girls. They are praised by the other characters and by the narrators. However, both women engage in behaviour that defies their descriptions.Occasionally, this behaviour even disrupts gender roles, and the position of the girls in their respective texts in question. The topic of concern is with a particular text in question so there is a limit to what extent this topic expands. The comparison is between the two leading females of their respective texts. The similarities that I want to point out to are limited to the leading female characters only and no t to the entire Poems in concern. On the basis of the review of both the poems and a complete study of individual characters, this paper is an attempt to point to the fact that Madeline in The Eve of St.Agnes shows character similarities in nature and behaviour to that of Christabel in Christabel by S. T. Coleridge. When we start analyzing the text of ‘Christabel’ the first thing that we come to know about her character is that there are many instances when Christabel is described as good. First of all, she is constantly called lovely, or referred to as the lovely lady Christabel â€Å"whom her father loves so well† (Coleridge 3). Christabel is adored by her father. The narrator calls Christabel her father’s joy, his pride, â€Å"So fair, so innocent, so mild† (Coleridge 16).Another aspect of Christabel’s goodness is that she is a devout Christian. The girl is described as a â€Å"youthful hermitess†¦ Who, praying always, prays in sleep † (Coleridge 10). There is one instance where â€Å"Christabel devoutly cried/To the Lady by her side,/Praise we the Virgin all divine/Who hath rescued thee from thy distress! † (Coleridge 6). By giving us details that Christabel is a good Christian, the reader can assume that she is a good person in general. Later, after Christabel takes Geraldine back into her room and Geraldine undresses, the narrator yells â€Å"O shield her! shield sweet Christabel! (Coleridge 8). Christabel is apparently not allowed to look at Geraldine’s body, perhaps in fear of corrupting her innocence. Yet the reader sees that Christabel is not as innocent as she is portrayed. Christabel’s behaviour throughout the poem is far from innocent, and at times could be called inappropriate. The reader is first introduced to Christabel as she is sneaking out of the castle. It is said that â€Å"she in the midnight wood will pray† (Coleridge 3). Automatically, there is something st range about her behaviour. Why would a young woman who presumably has a church in her home go outside to pray?Yet the narrator says that she goes â€Å"To make her gentle vows† (Coleridge 9), so she can’t be doing anything too bad. As Christabel is leaving, the narrator mentions that â€Å"She had dreams all yesternight/Of her own betrothed knight† (Coleridge 3). Not much is said about these dreams, but they can be perceived as either innocent or suspicious. As Christabel meets Geraldine, she is afraid but welcoming to the stranger. When Geraldine seems scared, â€Å"Then Christabel stretched forth her hand /And comforted fair Geraldine† (Coleridge 5). Christabel comforts Geraldine and offers to take her to her house and have her father take her home.Yet Christabel stretching out her hand can also be referring to Eve stretching out her hand and taking the apple from the snake. By stretching out her hand, Christabel is perhaps accepting evil and sin. Later , when Christabel is taking Geraldine home, Geraldine seems to faint. Christabel therefore â€Å"with might and main/Lifted her up, a weary weight,/Over the threshold of the gate† (Coleridge 5). This image of one person carrying another over a threshold and into a home is suspiciously reminiscent of a husband carrying a wife into their new life together.As Christabel is the carrier, she takes on the role of the man. Although she does not do it intentionally, Christabel is already crossing some gender boundaries. Once she finally gets Geraldine inside of her room, one of the first things that Christabel does is offer her some wine: â€Å"O weary lady, Geraldine,/I pray you, drink this cordial wine! /It is a wine of virtuous powers† (Coleridge 7). What are Christabel’s intentions here? Is she simply being friendly, or is she perhaps hoping that she can use the alcohol to manipulate her guest? Then, Christabel undresses, sits own, â€Å"And on her elbow did reclin e/To look at the lady Geraldine† (Coleridge 8) as she undresses. This interest in watching Geraldine undress seems quite uncharacteristic of Christabel, and in fact, that is when the narrator promptly jumps in to shield Christabel’s innocent eyes. After a rather questionable evening, where it can be assumed that the two women did more than just sleep, Christabel awakens and â€Å"Grows sad and soft; the smooth thin lids/Close o’er her eyes; and tears she sheds† (Coleridge 9-10). There are many different explanations for why she is crying.Perhaps it is because she knows that she has sinned, which she admits â€Å"’Sure I have sinn’d! ’† (Coleridge 11). These sins can include bringing Geraldine back into the castle, trying to manipulate her, sleeping with her, etc. So she did perform an uncharacteristic deed, but she feels bad about it so she is crying. But at the same time that she is crying, â€Å"she seems to smile/As infants at a sudden light! † (Coleridge 10). The most likely explanation for this unusual conduct is that Christabel is still under Geraldine’s spell.As she begins to cry, the spell kicks in forcing her to smile dumbly. On the next page, Christabel hopes that her sin will stay hidden: â€Å"and having prayed/That He, who on the cross did groan,/Might wash away her sins unknown† (Coleridge 11). Yes she is praying for forgiveness, but she is also praying that no one finds out about what she did. Would this be considered taking responsibility for her actions? Christabel also ponders the idea that her deceased mother is watching over her in Heaven. She asks â€Å"What if she knew her mother near? But this she knows, in joys and woes,/For the blue sky bends over all! † (Coleridge 10). She is both happy and upset that her mother is watching her. She is probably worried that her mother would not approve of her actions and be ashamed by them. Christabel’s mother wa nted her daughter to marry and have children. That was her duty as a woman of that time. Yet Christabel has just had this potentially lesbian encounter. Later, the girls go to see Sir Leoline and Bard Bracy. Bracy says that he dreamt of a dove who he called Christabel with a snake coiled around its neck.This piece of imagery has both the positive aspect of the girl as the dove, and the negative aspect of the dove being possessed by evil. It further adds to the confusion of the conflicting occurrences and mentions of Christabel’s character. This confusion center’s on the juxtaposition of the positive way the narrator describes the girl and her seemingly bad behaviour. The reader receives mixed messages, which are unfortunately not cleared up by the end of the poem. These mixed messages also occur in the poem â€Å"The Eve of St.Agnes. † The main female character, Madeline, is depicted as a good, innocent girl. The first detail that Keats gives the reader is that Madeline is still a virgin. The ceremony that Madeline is performing that night only applies to virgins, so the reader knows that Madeline is not experienced in matters of love making. Next, Madeline is caring and gentle towards her maid, Angela. When Madeline sees that Angela is on the stairs, â€Å"With†¦ pious care,/She turn’ed, and down the aged gossip led/To a safe level matting† (Keats 23).Yet although the girl is performing an action here, and elsewhere in the poem, she does not really speak except for about two stanzas when she is talking to Porphyro. This silence makes her seem quiet and passive. The reader is also allowed access into Madeline’s room, which is described in great detail: â€Å"A casement high and triple-arch’d there was, All garlanded with carven imag’ries Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot-grass, And diamonded with panes of quaint device, Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes, As are the tiger-moth’ s deep-damask’d wings; And in the midst, ‘mong thousand heraldries,And twilight saints, and dim emblazonings, A shielded scutcheon blush’d with blood of queens and kings. † (Keats 23) A person’s room should somehow reflect that person’s personality, and according to Madeline’s room, she is religious, wealthy, feminine, and loyal to her family. She basically sounds like she is everything that a girl in that time period is supposed to be. Later, as Madeline is shown praying, she is described as â€Å"a saint†¦ a splendid angel†¦ so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint† (Keats 24). So Madeline, like Christabel, seems to be a rule-abiding, loyal girl.However, there are things that Madeline thinks and does that makes the reader rethink the praises sung of the girl. On one hand, Madeline is just a curious, naive girl who wishes to dream of her future husband, to have â€Å"visions of delight,/And soft adorings from their loves†¦ Hoodwink’d with faery fancy† (Keats 19). On the other hand, she hopes to dream of more than that: â€Å"Full of this whim†¦ her heart was otherwhere:/She sigh’d for Agnes’s dreams†¦ Anxious her lips, her breathing quick and short†¦ And all the bliss to be† (Keats 19). What kind of dreams is Madeline hoping to have?In the cancelled stanza that Keats was forced to take out, he describes these dreams as consisting of â€Å"More pleasures follow’d in a dizzy stream† (Keats). That is in fact how Madeline’s night ends up turning out, as it is implied that her and Porphyro have sex. But the reader cannot be sure exactly what happens and how it happens. The details are so vague, that it is confusing as to who initiated it, if there was consent, and if the act even did happen. The reader does know, nevertheless, that Madeline thinks Porphyro will leave her: â€Å"Porphyro will leave me here to fade and pine. –/’Cruel!What traitor could thee hither bring? † (Keats 27). By saying this, Madeline entraps Porphyro in a situation where he really has no choice but to stay with her. She even calls herself â€Å"A dove forlorn and lost with sick unpruned wing† (Keats 27), making herself seem helpless. She clearly is able to manipulate the situation so that Porphyro, if leaving was his intention, feels too guilty to go. She then says that she would curse him, but â€Å"my heart is lost in thine† (Keats 27), which suggests that if it were not, Madeline would have cursed him. What kind of a good Christian girl would curse someone?After their interaction, the two lovers flee the castle. Although Madeline is â€Å"beset with fears† (Keats 27) as she is running away with Porphyro, she still consents to go with him. This does show that she is passive and non-confrontational, but if she fully was a pure, innocent character, she would have refused to go with Porph yro and stayed with her family like she was supposed to. However, it can also be interpreted that since she lost her virginity to Porphyro, she must now marry him. Porphyro is therefore like a husband to her, and she must obey her husband. The messages that the author sends in this poem are mixed as well.It is constantly unclear who is controlling the situation in any given moment. In both of these poems, the two leading characters are described by the narrator as being stereotypically female. They obey the rules, they are quiet and passive, and they are lovely and gentle. It is quite a shock, to see how these girls behave; often, their behaviour could even be called stereotypically male. They manipulate and control others, they have thoughts that young girls should not be having, and they are quite independent. But how is the reader supposed to interpret these complicated details?Perhaps the authors are trying to say that women can still be good women even if they do male things, o r have male thoughts. Or maybe they are trying to say that even the most feminine girls have some male aspects, and that is completely natural. Either way, it is clear that both of these authors were progressive men who understood that gender boundaries could be quite flexible. Bibliography: Coleridge, Samuel T. Christabel. 1907. Keats, John. The Eve of St. Agnes. 1885. Rosemarie Maier, The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Vol. 70, No. 1 (Jan. , 1971)