How can maths promote cultural development in primary schools Essay

How can maths promote cultural development in primary schools - Essay Example Cultural development has become a critical part of social development for the UK which is why policy makers nowadays are keen on developing it at the grass root level. In education, this refers to activities, curriculum and teaching practices to mediate cultural conflict at the primary school level such as Key Stage 1 and 2. The central role of education in cultural development, according to Ofsted (2004), is inherently linked with enabling the young people to recognize and explore cultural assumptions, values, and traditions, and embrace culture within contemporary values, attitudes and social perspectives. It emphasizes the "appreciation of inter-dependence of different cultures" and thereby helps in mitigating racism challenges.Mathematics, a core curriculum subject in primary school, is a logic based subject which manifests in social interactions, structures and relations. According to Lerman (2001), mathematics develops social consciousness; it promotes interpretation of concept s and knowledge, in a constructive manner. Unlike other subjects, mathematics induces empirical practices. Instruction and development starts from the first day of a child's life, and continues throughout his/her life. Learning situations create practice. From this perspective, cultural tools and meta-cognitive tools jump start development processes. For example mathematics classrooms can be used as the place for introducing values attached to visual structuring (shapes), combining data, and calculating quantity.

Catholic Church and Ultima’s mystical folklore Essay Example for Free

Catholic Church and Ultima’s mystical folklore Essay The novel â€Å"Bless Me, Ultima† by Rudolfo Anaya is pastoral, apocalyptic and, at the same time, tragic story revealing the complex nature of human relations and ambiguity of the world. The novel teaches readers not to interfere with the destiny of any person not to change the cosmic order. However, Ultima dares to influence the destiny and her death at the end of the novel is symbolical representation that every person should be responsible for his own actions. The author describes relations between an old healer Ultima and a young boy Antonio who is seeking for truth. The novel can be defined as apocalyptic as the author illustrates that biculturalism leads to inevitable conflict between cultures and religions. I think that the novel belongs to Chicano literature being rather popular in 1965-1975s. However, it can be seen as cultural novel which tends to explore self-development, personality and ethnic identity in the world filled with race and ethnic discrimination. The novel is rich narrative weaving many themes and sub-themes together allowing readers for different interpretations. Therefore, the objectives of the paper are to analyze author’s writing style, relations between Antonio and Ultima, to identify main themes and symbols, and to discuss the question of autobiography. â€Å"Bless Me, Ultima†: Analysis I think that the novel â€Å"Bless Me, Ultima† can be analyzed from different perspectives and from many angles. The novel is a rich literary work dealing with social changes, cognitive and psychological development of main heroes, religious issues, etc. Moreover, the novel weaves cultural conflicts and formation of ethnic identity into believable and coherent story illustrating the smoothes and roughs of Antonio’s life – the main hero. On the one hand, the novel can be seen as romance novel as it discusses societal period through myth creation. On the other hand, the novel can be seen as cultural novel as it describes historical conflict between villages and opposes race discrimination in the United States. Furthermore, the novel can be defined as Chicano literature as it promotes apocalyptic ideas and moods. The novel presents fertile background for analysis as the author uses rich themes and symbols to show the life pass of a young extraordinary boy. Writing Style The author incorporates powerful and vivid images to present the multiplicity and ambiguity of responses. In other words, Anaya uses prophetic dreams, episodes of horseplay among children, idyllic scenes presenting harmony and natural balance, mystical dynamism, scenes of violence and death as imagery to create strong impression and to make people think whether the world we see is real one and what the destiny of the person is. However, the novel tends to reveal whether it is permissible to change human destiny. Anaya uses strong imagery to show that characters and nature are strongly tied together creating so-called natural continuum. Anaya refers to technique of oppression when writing the novel in order to create multi-level conflict. For example, Antonio’s parents have opposing backgrounds, views and aspirations. Further, religious are opposed in their beliefs, values and demands on the individual. Cosmic forced are apposed as they symbolize eternal struggle between the good and the evil. Finally, the author juxtaposes forms of nature saying they can choose whether to make soil dry or fertile. The novel is based on conflicts – social, psychological, physical and cultural. Antonio’s life is also a conflict. The novel is also based on tripartites. It means that all evens and things are occurring in so-called ‘threes’. For example, there are three cultures in the novel, three Trementina sisters, three brothers, three Comanche spirits, three prophetic dreams, three Ultima’s efforts to identify her ethnicity, and three Ultima’s interference in the life of other people. Numerology is central in structure of the plot. Issue of Autobiography I think that â€Å"bless Me, Ultima† can be defined as quasi-autobiographical novel as the narrator refers to ‘I’ style showing that the novel is generated from personal experience or experience of the younger ‘I’. The novel is told by mature Antonio who shares experiences of being a young boy. Moreover, the experiences are transmitted in childish manner and it may seem that the story is told by a six-year-old boy. One more interesting fact is that the author says that he had to refer to his personal experiences and experiences of other children to construct the story. Despite the fact that the novel is quasi-biographical, the readers aren’t allowed to distinguish the real and imagined events as the author represents everything as fiction. I think that the author does base the story on rich expository of personal experiences, but he skillfully hides this fact. Relations between Antonio and Ultima Antonio is the main hero in the novel who decided to reconcile his conflicting religious and cultural identity. Antonio is only six years old, but he is extraordinary child with questioning mind, appreciation of life, and moral curiosity. Antonio is more serious than other children of his age, he is more sensitive to ambiguity of the world and conflicting cultural traditions. Anaya shows that Antonio is troubled about his uncertain destiny and he is willing to understand the world. After the death of one of the town’s residents Antonio seems to plunge into crisis of the faith and for the first time he doubts validity of the Catholic faith. Therefore, desire to reveal the truth can be defined as one of the strongest components of his character as his desire leads to interest in sin, death, innocence, and the nature of God. Antonio is developing to maturity throughout the novel progression and it is Ultima who teaches how to remain morally independent, to receive knowledge from all available traditions and to refrain from prejudices and limitations. Ultima leads Antonio to his physical and psychological maturity. Ultima helps him to resolve many conflicts and to determine his future. Old healer Ultima represents the moral system which Anaya supports. Relationships between Antonio and Ultima are the most important bond in the novel. Ultima is Antonio’s mentor helping him to overcome difficulties and to cope with anxieties and uncertainties. Relations between main characters can be defined even as spiritual. Ultima presents herself as the keeper of Antonio’s destiny and starts playing central role in his life and psyche. She uses her power of influencing to make Antonio think of himself and create his own sense of morality. Ultima incorporates knowledge of both Catholic and indigenous traditions. She thinks that spirituality and life are tied. Nevertheless, we see that Catholic Church rejects her mystical power, and Ultima respects its wisdom attending mass regularly. Ultima teaches to appreciate equally multiple faith and perspectives as each person is entailed with rights to make independent moral decisions. Ultima instills tolerance, open-mindedness and independence in Antonio’s faith. Ultima treats Antonio with respect and understanding, despite he is a small child. At the end of the novel Antonio is treated as spiritual partner and Ultima asks to bury the owl which symbolizes her own death. Ultima dies, but her spirit continues to guide Antonio throughout his life. Main Themes Firstly, the author stresses the importance of moral independence as no one has the rights to interfere with the destiny of others. Anaya emphasizes rights to think independently and to make up moral decisions. In the novel Antonio’s progress is the sign of maturity and self-development. Antonio constantly struggles to make his own decisions and he realizes that complex experience of religion has forced to change his minds. Antonio is really frustrated when he realizes that the church has failed and pressing questions about human morality emerge in his head. We see that Ultima becomes his guide and teaches about morality and independence. Moreover, Ultima explains ambiguity of life stressing that life can be viewed simply in terms of culture and religion. Cultural and religious traditions are important, but they constrain human abilities to be morally independent. Antonio realizes that he should find answers about evil, good, soul, forgiveness and truth himself. Once Antonio has committed fatal mistake, when he believed that the Communion ritual was able to answer all questions. Instead, Ultima teaches Antonio to make decisions and choices himself. Secondly, the author identifies the influence of culture on identity. In the novel Anaya explores the conflict between cultural traditions which fail to co-exist as one culture tends to dominate others and vice verse. However, in the end we see that the author offers new solution – he argues that several cultural traditions are able to create more adaptable identity. For example, Antonio manages to find answers as his life has been influenced by several constantly conflicting cultures. The first conflict was with his parents as Antonio’s mother wanted him to become a priest, whereas his fathers wanted Antonio to ride the llano. The problem was that parents had different cultural convictions. The next conflict is observed within Antonio’s native town where Spanish culture is struggling with other culture. The conflict is presented in tensions between the Catholic Church and Ultima’s mystical folklore. I think that through such conflicts the author explores the influence of culture on identity formation. Anaya shows that many characters in the story are limited by cultural prejudices and they have failed to look beyond their horizon. For example, when people define Narciso as drunkard they didn’t consider his traumatic experiences in the war, although it is known that war may serious distort human psyche. Ultima teaches Antonio to become free from cultural and religious limitations. Instead, she tends to encourage Antonio to think of all cultural influences as it is the only way to become a descent person. Symbolism â€Å"Bless Me, Ultima† is highly symbolical novel. The author uses different colors, figures, numbers and objects to represent abstract ideas and concepts. In the novel the golden carp, Ultima’s owl and the virgin of Guadalupe are provided with symbolic meanings. As for mea, the golden carp is symbolical representation of magical religious order which is hardly associated with Catholicism. The legend about golden carp offers main characters and readers moral guidance, brand of wisdom and comfort. Golden carp supports author’s idea that cultural traditions are different, but they are equally valid. Antonio firstly rejects the golden carp as he thinks that in such a way he abandons God. However, later he realizes that golden carp can help to weave cultural and religious sources together in creating his won identity. Then, Ultima’s Owl represents religious mysticism and life force. One night the owl sings outside Antonio’s windows symbolizing Ultima’s presence in boy’s life. Moreover, owl is the symbol of protective power of magic. In the end of the novel killing of the bird symbolically represents that Ultima’s life force is destroyed and she will die soon. When Antonio buries the bird, he buries Ultima. Finally, the Virgin of Guadalupe represents symbolically understanding, forgiveness and solution of cultural conflict. The story of the Virgin is definitely reconciliation of Antonio’s indigenous culture and European Catholic Church. When Antonio is frustrated, he often turns to Virgin to find a forgiving god. Conclusion â€Å"Bless Me, Ultima† reveals the ambiguous nature of the world and human relations. The author shows that every person has to make independent choices and to appreciate different religious and cultural traditions as it is the only way to become a better person. Ultima teaches Antonio to create his own sense of morality and to remain independent person. Moreover, she teaches him to avoid prejudices and limitation. But the author shows that no one is allowed to interfere with the destiny of other people. Works Cited Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1994.

Premature Failure Of Road Network

Premature Failure Of Road Network Bahria town ltd started its development works in 1996 as a joint partner with Bahria foundation initially British Columbia were the consultants on the project. The extraordinary progress rate and high quality consultancy work of British Columbia (pvt) ltd was thought to be a big hurdle in the progress rate, eventually the agreement with the consultants terminated and Bahria Town (pvt) Ltd formed its own consultant wing. Unfortunately the consultancy wing failed to develop because of incompetent individuals who can really invest their heart and souls to address core issues .Site management and technical / top supervision issues were ignored .Today Bahria Town is facing problem of premature failure in its road network. Most of the road network has not been under projected traffic for which it has been designed; even then road failures are prominent .Most common failures depictive are settlement of road, flexural cracking, weathering of the road network. The mechanism of road failure is quite complex and it is tedious to identify the root cause of failure. The approach adopted was to analyze road network truly depictive of premature pavement failures, the representative sections were selected from the road network under study .Various field and laboratory test were performed on each section to determine the cause of premature pavement failures. The investigation revealed that mix produced from asphalt plant fails to meet specifications. The compaction of HMA and subsequent road layers is not adequate. The source gradation for aggregate base is improper .The Plasticity of fines is not in tolerance range. Pavement structural design depths were not executed on site besides poor workmanship and improper patching procedures. Keywords: Premature Failure, Flexural Cracking, Weathering, Source gradation. Undertaking I certify that research work titled To investigate the causes of Premature Failure of Road Network of Bahria Town to propose its Remedial Measuresis my own work. The work has not been presented elsewhere for assessment. Where material has been used from other sources it has been properly acknowledged/ referred. Tehseen Ellahi 2k9-MSc-Trans-05 Acknowledgements This research work is obviously a result of the initial encouragement and support in admission to the MS Transportation (Taxila) by Ehsan ul Haq, the Director General Planning and Design, Bahria Town (pvt) Ltd. Extraordinary help and support form Rana Zulfikar Ahmed Khan , Site Manager Bahria Town (pvt) Ltd.Continuous encouragement, and valuable input from Dr. M. A. Kamal, Director Taxila Institute of Transportation Engineering (TITE) and Dean, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Taxila. There guidance, comments and suggestions from time to time, are gratefully acknowledged. 1.2.2 Rigid Pavements In rigid pavements the stress is transmitted to the sub-grade through beam/slab effect. Rigid pavements contain sufficient beam strength to be able to bridge over the localized sub-grade failures and areas of inadequate support. Factors effecting Pavement Performance There are numerous factors influencing the performance of a pavement, the following five are considered the most influential (Transportation research board, England; April 1985) 1.3.1 Traffic Traffic is the most important factor affecting pavement performance. The performance of pavements is mostly affected by the loading scale, arrangement and the number of load repetitions. The damage caused per pass to a pavement by an axle is defined relative to the damage per pass of a standard axle load, which is defined as a 80 kN single axle load (E80). Thus a pavement is designed to withstand a certain number of standard axle load repetitions that will result in a certain terminal condition of deterioration.(Kamal M.A. et al., 2009) 1.3.2 Moisture Moisture significantly reduces the supporting ability of gravel materials, especially the sub grade. Moisture enters the pavement structure through capillary action. The resulting action is the wet surface of particles, excessive movement of particles and dislodgment which ultimately results in pavement failures. (Terrel 1990) 1.3.3 Sub grade The sub grade is the lower layer of soil that supports the wheel loads. If the sub grade is not strong enough the pavement will show flexibility and finally the pavement will fail. Pavement will fail to perform ideally if the variation in particles behavior is not catered for in the design. 1.3.4 Construction quality Pavement performance is affected by poor quality construction, inaccurate pavement thicknesses, and adverse moisture conditions. These conditions stress the need for skilled staff and the importance of good inspection and quality control procedures during construction. Pavement performance is dependent on where, when and how maintenance is applied. No matter how good the pavement is built, it will deteriorate with time based upon the mentioned factors. The timing of maintenance is very important, if a pavement is allowed to deteriorate to a very poor condition, as illustrated by point B, then the added life compared with point A, is typically about 2 to 3 years. This added life is about 10 percent of the total life. The cost of repairing the road at B is four times of the cost required at A. The delay of maintenance hold implications, in that for the cost of repairing one poorly weathered road (Point B), four roads at point A would have to be postponed, which would mean that in a few years the rehabilitation cost could be 16 times as much. Thus, differing maintenance because of budget constraints will result in a significant financial penalty within a few years.(www.nra.co.za/live/content.php) History Bahria town is a modern township planned on an inspiration drawn from the home of American Society of civil engineers i.e the city of Reston, Virginia. The designing of its town ship is based on the most modern and strict criterion. It is located between the GT road and Islamabad Bahria town borders Safari Park on the northern side and is bounded to the south and west by Soan river and the Korang respectively. Town planning for Bahria Town has been done taking full advantage of the layout of the natural ground. Roads have been designed according to the traffic intensity rush hours. They have been standardized as 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 and Main Boulevards with the configuration of Pavement sidewalks and green areas.(www.bahriatown.com/index.php) Problem Statement Bahria Town (pvt) Ltd development represents a unique mark of distinction for Pakistan. Over a period of decade Bahria Town has emerged as Asias largest private property developers. The dilemma is that the capital involved is huge and to meet market demands common Engineering practices quality assurances are being ignored on account of time savings. One of the major problem , that Bahria Town that face today is related to premature failure of road network. Objectives The main objective of the study was to highlight the causes of pavement failures and to propose the remedial measures. Methodology Reconnaissance survey in study area to identify problems. Selection of test sections based upon road classification and distresses for deep testing analysis. Extraction of samples from the test sections for various laboratory testing. Comparison of various parameters between damaged and undamaged portions of test sections. Recommendations on the basis of investigation. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Introduction to Study Area Pavement Evaluation Process Pavement evaluation is the first step in the development of pavement rehabilitation alternatives for the project .It is the process of learning the existing pavement system to understand the extent and the cause of problems prior to developing a rehabilitation plan.(www.pavementinteractive.org) Evaluation at Road Network Level Monitoring of the network is carried out at on a network level to define the status of an entire pavement network as part of the pavement management system .To achieve the said objective the road network of Bahria Town was divided in different zones .Preliminary reconnaissance survey was carried out to access the pavement condition of road network .The object was to confine the study and help prioritize and select the evaluation at the project levels. The road network under study is Safari valley. (Design report on Bahria Town, ESS.I.AAR Consultants) The justification behind selecting this study zone is that this zone is fully developed and in the possession of the residents therefore it is more realistic to study the road network performance of this zone. History The idea of Safari Valley was conceptualized in 2000 confirming to planning parameters of the cities of Ruston, Virginia, USA. Ruston being the American society of civil engineers has been planned in the most beautiful manner, the next year Safari Valley lunched another housing project. One of the aims of lunching this scheme was to provide a modern housing scheme with all the amenities for the general public at an affordable cost. Any middle class person desirous of buying a plot in Islamabad/Rawalpindi could not do so as the price in Islamabad/Rawalpindi is beyond the reach of the common man.. This scheme is planned and designed for the low-income people of the country to provide them affordable housing.(www.bahriatown.com/index.php) Location The Safari Valley is located in Southern part of Rawalpindi City, adjacent to Takht Pari forest on Japan Road. This site falls in Mauza Gali. The main access to this scheme is through Japan Road from G.T. Road, 3 Km from High Court towards Lahore.120 wide newly constructed Bahria Expressway along River Soan is another access to this project which is completed a year ago.(www.bahriatown.com/index.php) Untitled Figure 3: Study area Location in road network Road Network The proposed colony has been planned according to the contemporary principles of planning and design criteria of Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) for private housing schemes. Following three types of roads has been proposed. Primary Roads 120 Feet wide 80 Feet wide Collector Roads 65 Feet wide Streets 40 Feet wide The safari valley has 37.880 km of 40 wide roads, 6.083km of 65 wide roads, 1.23 km of 80 wide roads and 4.0 km of 120 wide roads. General Considerations It is desired by the consultant to provide the sub grade strength of the area in general for the construction of the internal roads. The purpose of the structural design is to limit the stresses induced in the sub grade by the traffic to a safe level at which the sub grade deformation is insignificant whilst at the same time ensuring that the road pavement layers themselves do not fail in any way within a specified period of time .In most design methods it is assumed that the routine and periodic maintenance is carried out during the design period of the road and that at the end of the design period , relatively low level of detoriation has occurred.(Structural design of Pavement at Safari valley, SS Soil explore Consultants) For the design of the flexible pavement the following factors should be kept in mind for guidance Economic Considerations Effect of climate Variability in the material Properties Construction Control Uncertainty in traffic forecasting Variability in material properties and construction control is generally much greater than desired by the engineer and must be taken into account explicitly in the design process. In practice only it is actually the variability of the sub grade strength that is considered and all other factors are controlled by setting out minimum acceptable values for the key properties by means of the specifications. Nevertheless, it is the task of the designer to estimate the likely variations in layer thickness and material strengths so that the realistic target values and tolerances can be set in the specifications to ensure the satisfactory road performances can be guaranteed as far as possible. Design basis The purpose of the structural design is to limit the stresses induced in the sub grade by the traffic. Estimating the amount of traffic and the cumulative number of equivalent standard axles that will use the road over the selected design life assessing the strength of the sub grade soil over which the road is built by selecting the most economical combination of the pavement materials and layer thickness that will provide the satisfactory service over the design life of the pavement when appropriate maintenance is carried out. In following paragraphs the component layers of a flexible pavement are referred in these terms: Surfacing This is the upper most layer of the pavement and will normally consist of bituminous surface dressing or a premixed bituminous material .When premixed materials are laid in two layers these are known as wearing course and base course (or binder course) Road Base This is the main load spreading layer of the pavement .It will normally consist of crushed stone or gravel ,or a gravelly soil ,decomposed rocks, sand and sandy clays stabilized with cement ,lime or bitumen. Sub Base This is the secondary load spreading layer underlying the road base .It will normally consist of material of lower quality than that used in the road base such as un processed natural gravels ,gravel-sand or gravel-sand-clay. This layer also serves as a spreading layer preventing contamination of the road base by the sub grade material Capping Layer Where very weak soils are encountered capping layer is sometimes necessary. This may consist of better quality sub grade material imported from elsewhere or existing sub grade material improved by mechanical and lime stabilization. Sub Grade This is the upper layer of the natural soil, which may be undisturbed local materials or may be soil excavated elsewhere and placed as fill. In either case it is compacted during the construction to give it adequate stability. Traffic In the present case no definite traffic pattern can be estimated as the construction period extends to a longer span .During the construction stage, the maximum traffic even over loaded trucks carrying mostly the construction material would apply. After the construction phase .the internal roads of the proposed project are subjected only to the light car traffic, which have very little destructive effect. The Sub grade Condition Following is the recommendations for the structural design of the bituminous surfaced roads for the proposed project. The existing sub grade at the site comprises of A 4 soil with PI range of 5 to 8.Determining the sub grade strength is necessary for the road construction and required by the design engineer for the internal light traffic roads, which are required to carry up to (assumed traffic) 0.5 million cumulative equivalent standard axles in one direction for the design life of 10 Years. Field investigation and Sampling All the field tests necessary for the design of the flexible pavements have been carried out .Test pit locations were selected so that overall picture of the sub surface can be examined .To do this samples from the different locations collected for the classification and California bearing ratio (CBR) .Following field and laboratory tests have been carried out in the detail Field density and moisture content Gradation analysis Sieve analysis Hydrometric analysis Hydrometric analysis AASHTO Soil Classification Laboratory compaction test Laboratory CBR on soaked conditions Appreciation of the sub grade condition The strength of the sub grade is commonly assessed in the form of California bearing ratio of the sub grade soil and is dependent on the type of the soil, its density and its moisture content The likely in situ strength of the sub grade is difficult to assess directly but its value can be obtained from the relationship between CBR, density and moisture content which must be measured in the laboratory for the soil in question, and form the knowledge of in situ density and equilibrium moisture content of the soil under the road. The density of the sub grade soil can be controlled under the road within limits by compaction at suitable moisture content at the time of the construction. The equilibrium moisture content of the sub grade soil is governed by the local climate and the depth of the water table below the road surfaces. For designing the thickness of the road pavement, the strength of the sub grade should be taken as that of the sub grade soil at the moisture content equal to the wettest moisture condition likely to occur in the sub grade after the road is opened to traffic. In the present case, field as well as the laboratory testing of different locations was carried out for gradation index and strength parameters and soaked CBR etc. The result of these tests are attached at the end of the report The CBR test shows the value of 3.5% having the representative design value of 90% and 95% modified by the AASHTO density .CBR value is considered to be unsatisfactory for the design of the flexible pavement .Therefore it is strongly recommended to provide capping layer over the existing sub grade soil to provide structural support and improve drainage conditions at the site. The thickness comes out to be 8 inches. Design Recommendations The pavement design of the internal roads of safari valley was calculated using the AASHTO Interim guide .Details of which are below: Method # 01 Out of the different methods available for calculating the road design, which cater for the repetition of the standard axle loads during the design life of the various traffic configurations expected on the road .This method caters for the site conditions and type of traffic likely to use the roads after the construction. The pavement design has been worked out as per Overseas Road Note No 31 (Transport and road research Laboratory, TRRL; Road note 31) The Local soil is moderately plastic for which average soaked CBR value was calculated to be 3.5 % and the same has been incorporated in the design calculations .In case of borrow /selected fill material is to be used for the making of the roads .The Laboratory CBR for that soil should not be less than 3.5 % against 96 hrs soaking. Method # 02 The pavement design of the internal roads of different categories is calculated using the simplified method as given in civil engineering handbook by Leonard Church Urquhart of which is given below. Design Procedure Using the graph (annexure A) against the clayey silt conforming to A-4 Soil and CBR of 3.5 % the total thickness of pavement above sub base is 15 inches. Keeping a minimum thickness of 8 inches for the base course and the wearing surface the sub base is required to be 7 inches. Since method 1 gave higher values method 1 was adopted. Flexible Pavement Distresses Roads have become important in our lives as a sole mean of communication. Modern roads are smooth, so people can travel easily from one place to another. Maintenance of road network is very important to ensure its continued efficiency and reliability. Normally roads are damaged due to environment affects, vehicular loadings and moisture.(Asphalt Institute , MS 16) Asphalt pavement distresses can generally be classified as one of the following type: Cracking Distortion Disintegration Skid hazard Surface treatment distresses Distresses caused can be related to: Wheel loads Environment Poor drainage Material deficiencies Construction related deficiencies External causes(Utilities) Cracking Cracking takes many forms .To make proper repairs, it is first necessary to determine the cause of cracking .Maintenance procedures generally depend upon the cause of distress, the crack width and the amount of cracking in the affected area. Reflective cracks These are cracks in asphalt overlays that reflect the crack pattern in the pavement structure underneath. The pattern may be longitudinal, transverse, diagonal or block. Reflective cracks are caused by vertical and horizontal movements in the pavement beneath the overlay, induced by expansion and contraction with temperature or moisture changes. They can also be caused by traffic or earth movement or by loss of moisture in sub grade by high clay content. Edge cracks These are longitudinal cracks 30 cm or so .They are caused due to lack of lateral support, settlement or yielding of the material beneath the cracked area .This may be the result of poor drainage ,frost heave or shrinkage from drying of the adjoining earth. They may be accelerated by concentration of heavy traffic near the edge of the pavement as well as heavy vegetation near the pavement edge. Block Cracking They are series of interconnected cracks forming the series of large blocks, 1 to 3 m. Frequently they are caused by volume change of the fine aggregate asphalt mix that have a high content of low penetration asphalt and adsorptive aggregate ,daily temperature cycles and aged asphalt. Block cracking is not load related. Alligator Cracking They are cracks that constitute to form series of blocks .They can be caused by various reasons such as excess deflection, sub surface moisture conditions, thin asphalt surface, excessive overloading, in adequate pavement design. If the asphalt surface is thin alligator cracking can quickly develop into potholing. Slippage Crack They are crescent shaped cracks resulting from the horizontal forces induced by the traffic. They result from the lack of bond between the surface layer and the courses beneath. The lack of bond may be due to dust, oil, rubber, dirt water or other non adhesive materials between the two courses. The Slippage cracks may result from the mixtures having a high sand content, as well as due to improper compaction. Linear Cracking This category includes categories such as joint cracks, construction joints, shoulder joint cracks and diagonal cracks. Transverse and diagonal cracks can result from low temperature contraction of the pavement or from the shrinkage of the cement bound base or sub grade soils .Longitudinal cracks in the wheel path may be fatigue related and eventually progress into alligator and a random occurring Longitudinal crack can be indicative of the sideways yielding sub grade or fill area. The cause of joint cracks (thermal and longitudinal) can be related to the thermal stresses or insufficient compaction. They can also be caused by a weak bond in the joint. Distortion Pavement distortion is the result of asphalt layer instability or granular base and sub base weakness. Distortion takes a number of forms: rutting, shoving, corrugation, depression and up heave. Rutting Ruts are channelized depressions in the wheel tracks of the pavement surface. Rutting results from consolidation, lateral movement of the sub grade, aggregate base or asphalt layers under traffic load. Rutting may occur in the sub grade and sub base due to insufficient design thickness, lack of compaction or weakness caused by moisture infiltration, down ward and lateral movement of the weak asphalt mixture under heavy wheel loads. Corrugations and shoving Corrugations and shoving are form of plastic movement typified by ripples across the asphalt pavement surface. They occur in the asphalt mixes that lack mix stability. It may also be caused due to excessive moisture in the granular base, contamination due to oil spillage or lack of aeration when placing mixes using emulsified and cut back asphalts. Settlement or grade depression Depressions are low areas of limited size that may be accompanied by cracking. They may be caused by traffic over loading or by consolidation, settlement or failure of the lower pavement layers. Up heave or swell Up heave is the localized upward displacement of the pavement due to the swelling of the sub grade. Up heave is most commonly caused by the expansion of ice in the lower courses of the pavement or sub grade. It may also be caused by the swelling effect of the moisture on the expansive soil. Utility cut or patch failure This is the failure of the utility installation or of a repaired area in the existing pavement. They usually are caused by lack of adequate compaction of the back fill, base or asphalt patch materials. Patch failures may also result from poor installation techniques, inferior materials or failure of the surrounding materials or under lying pavement. Disintegration Disintegration is the breaking up of the pavement into small, loose fragments. If the problem is not addressed the pavement disintegrates further until rehabilitation is required. Raveling/Weathering This is the progressive separation of the aggregate particles from the pavement surface downwards and from the surface inwards. Raveling usually occurs in wheel paths while weathering is found in non traffic zones and it extends over all surface. Raveling is caused by lack of HMA compaction, construction of thin lift during the cold weather, dirty or disintegrating aggregates, too little asphalt in the mix or over heating of the asphalt mix. Raveling almost always requires the presence of both water and traffic to occur. Potholes Potholes are bowl shaped holes resulting from the localized disintegration. Most potholes occur in the pavements having thin asphalt concrete surface on an untreated aggregate base. Thin surfaces showing severe alligator cracking begin to lose the pieces of the asphalt out of the cracked area creating potholes. Skid Hazards One of the most common cause of the skid hazards in the asphalt pavement is a thin film of water on the pavement surface another is the thick film of water on the pavement surface that causes a high speed vehicle to hydro plane. Slipperiness may also develop from the surface contamination such as from oil spillage or certain type of clay etc. Bleeding or flushing Bleeding or flushing is the upward movement in the asphalt pavement. This results in the formation of film of asphalt on the surface. Bleeding is identified by the pavement surface with a stick, glassy appearance that may be sticky to touch and usually occurs in hot weather .The most common cause of bleeding is excess asphalt in one or more of the pavement courses .Also traffic may cause the over compaction of the asphalt layers, forcing the binder to the surface. Polished aggregate These are the aggregate particles on the surface of the pavement that have been polished smooth. Some aggregates, particularly lime stone become polished rather quickly under traffic. Some type of gravel are naturally polished and if they are used in the pavement surface without crushing they will be a skid hazard. These polished aggregates are quite slippery when they are wet. Surface Treatment Distresses Because of the construction procedures being used, surface treatments may develop some defects that dont occur in other type of pavement surfaces. These include loss of aggregate cover and streaking. Some of the asphalt pavement distresses such as corrugations, depressions, up heave, potholes and raveling occur most frequently in the pavement constructed with surface treatments. Loss of cover aggregate This distress is identified by the whipping off of aggregate by traffic from a surface treated pavement. Several things can cause loss of aggregate cover including weather too cool, fast traffic permitted on the new surface treatment too soon, a surface absorbing part of the asphalt, aggregates that are too dusty or too dry etc. Longitudinal / Transverse Streaking Longitudinal streaking is alternate lean and heavy lines of asphalt and/or aggregate running parallel to the center line of the road .Transverse streaking is the same phenomenon except that the direction is running transverse across the road way. Several things can cause longitudinal streaking including: improper height of the spray bar, incorrect asphalt pump speed, asphalt too cold, incorrect pump pressure etc. Transverse cracking is caused by spurts in the asphalt spray from the distributor spray bar. These spurs may be produced by improper pump speed, pulsation of the asphalt pump etc.

PCI Compliance Essay -- PCI DSS Credit Card Fraud Security

What is PCI Compliance? PCI Compliance is maintaining adherence to the PCI DSS standard that was developed by major credit card companies as a â€Å"guideline to help prevent credit card fraud† ("PCI DSS"). Credit card fraud has taken the spotlight in the past several years due to the massive growth of e-commerce and online transaction processing. With the proliferation of e-businesses, it has become easier than ever to commit fraud over the internet. Major credit card issuers such as MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, and JCB International joined together to create a standard known as PCI DSS or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. In order to process credit card payments merchants and vendors are required to be compliant with the standard based on the Merchant Level of the organization. This standard was created in response to a dramatic rise in credit card data breaches at many high-profile organizations. This standard defines a set of twelve requirements for compliance. In order to validate a company is in compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard, large organizations are audited by external auditors that are PCI Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs). Smaller companies that process less than 80,000 transactions per year are allowed to perform a self-assessment questionnaire, which determines if the merchant is within compliance. Who owns the PCI Data Security Standard? In June of 2005, these five major credit card issues came together and founded the PCI Security Council. The main purpose of the PCI Security Council was to create, own, and manage the PCI Data Security Standard for credit card data. However, the PCI Security Council is not a policing organization and does not enforce PCI... ...g merchant account is PCI DSS compliant? Is sensitive information being stored? How safe is your data? Works Cited "An Introduction to PCI Compliance." PCIComplianceGuide.org. 2008. PCI Compliance Guide.org. 17 Apr 2008 . McCarthy, Caroline. "T.J. Maxx parent company sued in credit card hack probe." CNET News. 21 Mar 2007. CNETNews.com. 17 Apr 2008 . "PCI DSS." Wikipedia. 5 Apr 2008. Wikipedia. 5 Apr 2008 . Vijayan, Jaikumar. "Minnesota becomes first state to make core PCI requirement a law." ComputerWorld.org. 23 May 2007. Computer World.org. 4 Apr 2008 .

Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan is an apt representation of the theory of epic theater

Brecht’s Epic Theatre is a theatre of destroyed illusions and a wide awake audience which took birth from the theory of Korschian Marxism which saw ideology as a material force that served as an important tool of dominance. It is a theatre of instruction and hence is also termed Didactic theatre and because of the binary opposition present in its themes it is also known as Dialectical Theatre. The biggest aim of Brechtian plays is to alienate the audience to bring about an understanding which can affect change, Brecht terms this phenomenon as the Verfremdung’s Effekt (Alienation Effect or the A-effect), which comes from the Chinese play tradition. The audience is never one with the actor, they are always aware that the play is not real and that whatever is being presented on stage is not reality but a depiction of a certain reality. The ‘A-Effect’ is also known as the technique of defamiliarization wherein the familiar is made strange through alienation tropes such as addressing the audience directly, changing clothes in front of the audience, use of songs etc, which ensures that the audience is at all times rational, intellectual, and act as scientific observers so that they are able to question the industrial world and its authoritarian structures. As Walter Benjamin while summarizing Brecht’s theatre said â€Å"for its public the stage is no longer ‘the planks which signify the world’ (in other words, a magic circle), but a convenient public exhibition area. For its stage, the public is no longer a collection of hypnotized test subjects, but an assembly of interested persons whose demands it must satisfy. For its text, the performance is no longer a virtuoso interpretation, but its rigorous control. For its performance, the text is no longer a basis of that performance, but a grid on which, in the form of new formulations, the gains of that performance are marked†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 1 and so Bertolt Brecht’s theory of Epic Theatre transforms into its praxis in his play The Good Person of Szechwan. The Good Person of Szechwan is a purely Marxist play that deals with the social conditions of its milieu and how the people who are put in those situations react to it and towards one another. The major theme being that of survival in a world that is ruled not by goodness of character but by the evil and corruption of the society. The juxtaposition of poverty with plentitude is a leit motif in the play. Wang’s ‘The Water Seller’s Song In The Rain’ brigns forth this juxtaposition beautifully when he laments, â€Å"I sell water. Who will taste it? -Who would want to in this weather? All my labour has been wasted Fetching these few pints together. I stand shouting by my Water! And nobody thinks it Worth stopping and buying Or greedily drinks it. †2 Since its rainy season and there is plenty of water no one bothers buying the water from Wang and this plentitude becomes poverty for Wang. We start to pity Wang’s character when we realize that he is a proletariat and is burdened by poverty, but Brecht alienates us from Wang’s character by showing us his cheating and swindling side so that we rationalize his character and see him as the representative of the proletariat ideology of swindling and cheating. There is no Bourgeois enemy present in the play. The problem is within the proletariat and not amongst the proletariat and bourgeois. The problems that Shen Teh or the other characters face are due to their social conditions. The province of Szechwan can be seen as a microcosm of what is happening all over the world. Throughout the play there is constant reference to â€Å"hunger. † Hunger is seen as annihilating honor. Shen Teh’s hesitancy to take the God’s in is because she has an empty stomach. She says â€Å"†¦I’m afraid that a rumbling stomach is no respecter of persons. 3 The motif of hunger and poverty can also be seen in Brecht’s other play The Life of Galileo. The play starts with Galileo saying â€Å"Put the milk on table†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 4 and Andrea replying â€Å"Mother says we must pay the milkman, if we don’t he’ll be describing a circle round us, Signor Galilei†5 and later on when Galileo says â€Å"†¦an d I like to eat decently. It’s when I’m eating I get most inspiration. A rotten age. They haven’t paid me as much as the man who drives their wine-carts. †6 We are always reminded of the juxtaposition of plentitude with poverty. The play is dialectical in its split between Shen Teh’s self fulfillment and Shui Ta’s self preservation. It is the â€Å"inevitable clash between desire and fact and as the paradox of ends and means. These are two sides of the same coin. Shen Teh’s wish to be generous must employ Shui Ta’s profiteering meanness, or else she would be deprived of her charitable self. †7 Prosperity is associated with lack of goodness and â€Å"social conditions twist the natural goodness of human beings into opposites†8 and hence if Shen Teh wants to prosper then she needs to give into Shui Ta’s calculating nature. In The Good Person of Szechwan we have constant interruptions that are brought about by the musical interludes and all these songs work to alienate the audience from the play and to make them question the situation being presented in front of them. They are made to question the worth of Shen Teh’s goodness as it leaves her not ennobled but economically emaciated. Walter Benjamin says that, â€Å"the interrupting of action is one of the principle concerns of epic theatre. Therein lies the formal achievements of Brecht’s songs with their crude, heart rendering refrains. 9 and hence ‘The Water Seller’s Song In The Rain’ comes just after the love scene between Shen Teh and Yang Sun, disrupting the audience from getting involved in the play and again bringing their attention to the dialectics between poverty and plentitude. Brecht says that â€Å"in the epic theatre moral arguments only took second place. Its aim was less to moralize than to observe. â € 10 So we see that Shen Teh’s goodness is constantly thwarted by the social circumstances and harsh necessities of survival in a competitive world but no moralizing comments are made. The play begins on a note of despair and ends with one. For Shen Teh to survive it is necessary that Shui Ta also survives. The God’s in the play are ignorant, humanized and a satire on the hegemony in Christianity, questioning the absolutism of Christianity in the early twentieth Century. Instead of one god head we are presented with three Gods and none of them can do anything to lift Shen Teh out of the drudgery that she is a part of even though she is good. In the trial scene the gods are seen as nothing but impostors, their omniscience and all powerful stature is questioned. The idea of justice is questioned, deconstructed and done away with. Neither is virtue rewarded nor vice punished, instead vice is seen as a means to an end. Shui Ta is not punished for any of the crimes and Shen Teh is not rewarded for her goodness. Brecht here blends divine justice with legal justice by making the Gods don on the attire of the magistrate to mock at divine justice. It is a Marxist onslaught on the institutionalization of religion. In his other play The Caucasian Chalk Circle we have the character of Azdak whose method of delineating legal justice is more serious in purpose and intent as compared to the three Gods here who appear as mere fools. One is forced to question if justice is being delayed or if there is no concept of justice in an industrial world. The open ended-ness of the trial scene erodes the moralistic nature and it prises upon the mind of the audience and affects change. Brecht in all his plays comments on â€Å"Jetztzeit†, a term that Walter Benjamin coined for the presence of â€Å"now† in Brechtian plays. According to Walter Benjamin, â€Å"history for Brecht was an ever present arena, never as with Lukacs a thing of past† and hence we see that Mother Courage and her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan or The Life of Galileo all have topical references in the World War I and II, the failure of the Russian Revolution/Communism/Dictatorship and questioning of the viability and feasibility of science in a post Hiroshima-Nagasaki world, respectively. Also epic theatre is literarized. â€Å"The literarization of theatre by means of verbal formulas, posters, captions, is intended to, and will, make what is shown on the stage unsensational. 11 The performance is not aimed to draw the audience into the play but to make them stand at the periphery so that they question the bourgeoisie ideology and break free from it, so that the proletariat is emancipated and socialism can be constructed. Brecht believes that society can be changed through intellectual action and that is the reason t hat his plays are so highly dialectical. We see the dialectics between Good and God when Shen Teh as Shui Ta sings the ‘Song of the Defencelessness of the Good and The Gods’ â€Å"The good Cannot remain good for long in our country Where cupboards are bare, housewives start to squabble. Oh, the divine commandments Are not much use against hunger. So why can’t the god’s share out what they’ve created Come down and distribute the bounties of nature And allow us, once hunger and thirst has been sated To mix with each other in friendship and pleasure? †12 Gods here are seen as privileging the aristocrats and Christianity is seen as a perpetrator of class difference. The motif of hunger is again visible in the song. Hunger can not be satiated by following the commandments, one need to have money to buy food and that money comes not from praying but by being economically independent and well of. When the audience hears the song they realize the futility of religion in an economic world. It brings to the forefront the debate between spirituality and materialism. It makes the spectators question both the value of a bourgeoisie society and that of religion. Being but a Marxist play every theme is given a Marxist interpretation, even the idea of love and marriage. Shen Teh has to choose between Yang Sun and Mr. Shu Fu. It is as Shui Ta that she favors Mr. Shu Fu for he can provide her with a future but as Shen Teh her emotions sway her towards Yang Sun. In a direct address to the audience Shen Teh sings; â€Å"I would go with the man whom I love. I would not reckon what it costs me. I would not consider what is wiser. I would not know whether he loves me. I would go with the man that I love. †13 â€Å"As Shui Ta she knows the worthlessness of her charming but rascally lover Sun. But with her emotional feminine self, as Shen Teh, she cannot give up the physical passion and tenderness that bind her to him. In Shen Teh’s love the drive for self-fulfillment and the need for self preservation clash in hopeless combat that can never be decided. 14 Brecht in The Good Person of Szechwan presents us with a Marxist theme, a dialectical debate between poverty and plentitude, goodness and god, religion and materialism etc, all of which is made apparent to the audience by the alienation effect brought about by the musical interludes that are present through out the course of the play, Shen Teh’s changing clothes in front of the audience, direct address to the audience; in an attempt to make sure that the play raises questions in the minds of the audience and breaks their identification with the bourgeoisie ideology. In totality Brecht’s play The Good Person of Szechwan is an apt representation of his epic or intellectual theatre that is built on the concept of critical theory translating into intellectual action on stage wherein Brecht seeks to illumine historically specific features of a milieu in order to show how that milieu influenced, shaped and often battered and destroyed the individual. Instead of focusing on the universal elements of human situations and fate, Brecht on the other hand is interested in depicting the attitude that people adopted towards each other in a specific historical situation or context.

How to Measure Employee Business Writing Skills

How to Measure Employee Business Writing Skills One of the challenges of improving business writing in an organization is actuallymeasuringbusiness writing skills. "Good business writing" is a coveted skill for every analytical and collaborative employee. But, "good business writing" is also an fuzzy concept and tough to codify and measure. How then, can we measure "good business writing" skills? STEP ONE - Separate the measurement of content and analysis (the substance of a document) from thelanguageof the document (the syntax). Substance and syntax must be measured separately, because they are two distinct aspects unique to business writing. Business writing requires a keen analysis of the audience and decisions about matching the right document content to that particular audience. If this is wrong,syntax improvements will never correct content gaps or repetition or jumbled content. If the content is wrongly matched to audience needs, polish alone will never fix it. So, to first measure business writing skills, we have to separate the substance of documents from the syntax. STEP TWO - Analyze the substance of typical employee documents to measure what is working and what is not. Define the goals of the documents your employees need to write. What do you want a reader to know or do after reading this document? Then assess the skills required to achieve the document purpose. Every business document requires five core requisite skills. The first four are related to substance, while the last is related to syntax: Audience awareness Appropriate content Content logically categorized Content logically sequenced Syntax and grammar that is clear and correct and interesting The key is to identify the desired business outcome of key documents, and then break down the writing skills into measurable components. This will give you the content measurements you need to truly measure what is working, and not working. CLIENTS ONLY: Please contact us for templates you are welcome to use for your assessments. STEP THREE - Working with the same representative documents, next analyze the syntax. Good news. Syntax is much easier to evaluate than substance. And, syntax errors are very easy to fix. Typically, strong analytical employees, who likely work in finance, business analysis, technology, engineering, and energy, may not love business writing as part of their work only because they didn't write much in college. They preferred other courses. So, they may mistakenly feel their writing skills are weak. In fact, they possess the critical analytical skills so important for substance. I'm guessing you didn't hire a financial analyst for his or her ability with commas. You hired him or her because of keen analytical ability in finance! hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(41482, '934718b3-251a-45d6-8853-a7f94e43b92c', {}); Here are 2 resources to help you assess syntax in your employees' documents: 1. Syntax Measurement Resource #1 Microsoft's Readability Index. Run the documents through this tool, which will provide actual measurements for passive vs. active voice, and simplicity of sentence structure. This is an excellent tool to assess the all-important element of clarity since it reports on: 1. Words per sentence (average) 2. Percentage of passive sentences 3. Flesch Reading Ease score 4. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Words per sentence - In general, the longer the sentence, the harder it becomes for your reader to follow along. That's not to say you should always write in short sentences. Instead, strive for a variety that makes for lively reading. Percentage of sentences written in the passive voice measures the readability of your text as the ratio of passive sentences over active sentences. The lower the score, the better. Active sentences are nearly always easier to read and understand, making your message clearer and more persuasive. Aim for a score less than 20%. The Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) is the standard test of readability used by the U.S. Department of Defense for its documents and forms. The results can be between 0 and 100. The higher the score, the easier it is to understand what you have written. For example, a typical issue of Reader's Digest earns an FRE score of around 65 while Time Magazine scores in the low 50's. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address scores a 74.2. One way to score higher is to use shorter sentences. The results can be interpreted as following: * 0-29 - very confusing hard to read * 30-49 - difficult to read * 50-59 - fairly difficult * 60-69 - standard * 70-79 - fairly easy * 80-89 - easy * 90-100 - very easy Recommendation: A score of 60 or more. Higher is better. Even for business documents, a score of 60 is very achievable and it takes only a few edits to obtain it. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL)translates the Flesch Reading Ease measure to a grade level. The grade level means the number of years of education generally required to understand the document. For example, a score of 9.4 would indicate that the text is expected to be understandable by an average student in the 9th grade. Most newspapers in the U.S. are written at a seventh to eighth grade level. Recommendation: 8.0 to 10.0 is a good target, but lower is better because it reflects language clarity, not content complexity. Remember: these measurements only assess the syntax of documents, not content. But, they will provide useful snapshot measurements to diagnose the clarity and syntax in employee documents. Here are the Readability Scores for the article you are reading now: Passive voice is very low, so that's good. The Flesh Reading Ease score is just a bit above standard, which is fine since this is a complex topic and you, my fine readers, are smart business leaders! The Flesh-Kincaid grade level score assures me that even though the concepts in the article are complex, the language is easy to understand. 2. Syntax Measurement Resource #2 Microsoft's Grammar Check. It is not infallible, but you can use simple Grammar Check to discover the actual grammar errors presenting in employee documents. Then, summarize those errors. It's ineffective - and let's admit it's boring - to present general grammar training. Instead, address the actual errors presenting. This is much more productive. Consolidate and Analyze Your Measurements See where the gaps in content are occurring. The usual gaps for content are in audience targeting and content. We all tend to write a subject from our understanding, instead of what our reader needs. Categorizing content logically is another very common issue in analytical writing. The usual gaps in syntax are clarity and engaged tone. Grammar errors vary across organizations. Knowing what is working, and not working, in your employees' business writing is the first step in truly improving business writing. Armed with real measurements, you can then provide employee feedback and request business writing training that addresses actual gaps.

The Basics of String Theory

The Basics of String Theory String theory is a mathematical theory that tries to explain certain phenomena which is not currently explainable under the standard model of quantum physics. The Basics of String Theory At its core, string theory uses a model of one-dimensional strings in place of the particles of quantum physics. These strings, the size of the Planck length (10-35 m), vibrate at specific resonant frequencies. Some recent versions of string theory have predicted that the strings could have a longer length, up to nearly a millimeter in size, which would mean theyre in the realm that experiments could detect them. The formulas that result from string theory predict more than four dimensions (10 or 11 in the most common variants, though one version requires 26 dimensions), but the extra dimensions are curled up within the Planck length. In addition to the strings, string theory contains another type of fundamental object called a brane, which can have many more dimensions. In some braneworld scenarios, our universe is actually stuck inside of a 3-dimensional brane (called a 3-brane). String theory was initially developed in the 1970s in an attempt to explain some inconsistencies with the energy behavior of hadrons and other fundamental particles of physics. As with much of quantum physics, the mathematics that apply to string theory cannot be uniquely solved. Physicists must apply perturbation theory to obtain a series of approximated solutions. Such solutions, of course, include assumptions which may or may not be true. The driving hope behind this work is that it will result in a theory of everything, including a solution to the problem of quantum gravity, and to reconcile quantum physics with general relativity, thus reconciling the fundamental forces of physics. Variants of String Theory The original string theory focused only on boson particles. Superstring theory (short for supersymmetric string theory) incorporates bosons with another particle, fermions, as well as supersymmetry to model gravity. There are five independent superstring theories: Type 1Type IIAType IIBType HOType HE M-Theory: A superstring theory, proposed in 1995, which attempts to consolidate the Type I, Type IIA, Type IIB, Type HO, and Type HE models as variants of the same fundamental physical model. One consequence of the research in string theory is the realization that there is an immense number of possible theories that could be constructed, leading some to question whether this approach will ever actually develop the theory of everything that many researchers originally hoped. Instead, many researchers have adopted a view that they are describing a vast string theory landscape of possible theoretical structures, many of which do not actually describe our universe. Research in String Theory At present, string theory has not successfully made any prediction which is not also explained through an alternative theory. It is neither specifically proven nor falsified, though it has mathematical features which give it great appeal to many physicists. A number of proposed experiments might have the possibility of displaying string effects. The energy required for many such experiments is not currently obtainable, although some are in the realm of possibility in the near future, such as possible observations from black holes. Only time will tell if string theory will be able to take a dominant place in science, beyond inspiring the hearts and minds of many physicists.

Seven Steps to a Better Logo

Seven Steps to a Better Logo Whether youre a novice designer or a branding veteran, logo design remains a deceptively difficult practice. What looks like a simple icon to the general public took a designer or team hours of concepting and revising to execute. The most effective logos take the heart and soul of an organization and summarize that essence in a distinct, easily-recognizable visual. Its easier said than done, and it takes a lot of practice to successfully develop great logos, even under tight deadlines or limited budgets.In my experiences as a freelance designer, Ive discovered that the best tool for developing logos, whether for a huge corporation or a small local business, is devising your own process. This process can be used as a guideline to help steer you in the right direction for the logo youre designing. However, dont be too worried about rigidly sticking to the process as flexibility can allow for more creative concepts to arise.Below is my own personal process for logo design which Ive deve loped through my freelance practice along with some agency experience. Ive discovered that utilizing this process as a guideline has been extremely helpful no matter what kind of organization Im working with or what deadline I have. Spending time on each step has helped me to focus on creating a logo that my client will be thrilled to use.My basic process for designing a logo.Step 1 - Do your homeworkBefore you start picking typefaces, sketching, or looking for inspiration, you need to know for whom youre designing. This first step seems obvious, but its a crucial step that many designers forget. To make a logo truly represent an organization, you need to understand what the organization does and who it does it for.For example, lets say youre designing a logo for a restaurant. When did the restaurant first open? What type of food do they serve? How many people do they employ? What kind of people generally eat there? What are the restaurant owners goals for the business? Directly as k clients these types of questions if you can, and scour their website or promotional materials to get to know their current brand. You just may learn something during your research that will completely change the visual choices you make. If you find out that the restaurant is popular among young people but the owner wants to start appealing to families, then youll want to design a logo that is more appropriate for a family-friendly place rather than for a hip new cafe. This will not only help you create a more effective logo, but it will also make clients happier because you took their goals and needs into consideration.Step 2 - Complete a wide visual auditAfter researching the organization, look at the competition. Start with a narrow focus and widen as you go - this will help you have context for what already exists. In our restaurant scenario, first look at the branding of restaurants in the neighborhood, the city, and surrounding areas. If the restaurant serves Japanese food, what do other nearby Japanese restaurant logos look like? What local restaurants are the most popular - and what does their branding look like?After you look locally, explore relevant branding on a wider scale - this is the ideal time to look for restaurant branding or logos in general that inspire you. By collecting these logo ideas, youll not only have a visual bank of inspiration, but youll also avoid designing anything too similar to what already exists. You may notice that many logos you find in your audit are very similar or employ the same overused clichà ©s - a quick Google search for Japanese restaurant logo reveals pages of logos with red circles, chopsticks, and brushed calligraphy. Being aware of common visual tropes can help you develop a logo that stands out among the competition while still feeling appropriate for its context.A Google search is a quick way to reveal what designs have been overdone.Step 3 - Mood boardsAfter youve researched the company and the co mpetition, its important to sum up everything youve learned into something you can build on visually. I like to do this by choosing a handful of specific words or phrases that describe the brand to create a foundation for the rest of the process. If your client has given you any style requests for the logo, be sure to include those words here too. If youre a literal thinker, then doing an image search can help you find pictures of things that connect with your words - these can be abstract or literal. For example, if you find that one key aspect of the restaurant is fresh, then searching this word results in numerous pictures of water, organic forms, and the color green. You may not use these images in a literal sense for your logo, but theyll give you a starting point to start sketching from.A snapshot of an example mood board which uses words and images that describe the brand.Step 4 - Turn off your computerWhen youre on a tight timeline, it can be tempting to open Illustrator a nd start working digitally right away. Taking the time to sketch with a real pen and paper, however, helps you to produce ideas quicker and gives you more immediate freedom to explore. When sketching, think about the visuals you found in Step 3 and use them to generate ideas. At this stage, dont worry too much about making the most perfect mark or finding the solution right away–the point is to make various marks that you can refine later.Step 5 - The fun partNow that you have a few pages of sketches, pick a couple of your favorite ideas to build digitally. Some designers find it helpful to scan in their sketches, but I prefer to eyeball them and tweak as I go. Just like sketching on paper, dont be afraid to make lots of digital iterations. You may end up with something completely different than your original sketch, but thats okay! Stay open to the process, and try doing something new. If you get stuck, print out your digital logos and view them on paper. Cut them out, draw on them, or fold them. Refer back to your mood board. At this point in the process, theres no right or wrong way to develop ideas.As you start to refine your logomarks, here are a few tips to keep in mind:Remember that your logo needs to look good at all sizes and dimensions, so try enlarging and shrinking the marks to see what happens to their visibility.Avoid using very thin strokes or fine details, as these might get lost if the logo is printed from low-quality printers.Your client will most likely be using the logo both printed and on-screen, so make sure it plays nicely in both realms.Generally, the simpler the logo, the better - if you can draw the mark from memory, youre on the right track.Step 6 - Add color and typeOnce you have developed a few marks, move on to type and color. These two aspects are their own disciplines, but a few rules of thumb can help you find what works best for your logo and the brand it represents. For color, keep it simple - use as few colors as possible in the logo. You might be tempted to use a plethora of bright hues, but this can result in a logo thats hard to use across different applications. Lots of color can also distract from the effective mark youve already developed, and since the logo has to work in a single color, dont make color the backbone of your concept.For type, Ive found that picking typefaces that contrast with your mark can create a nice balance. For example, if your mark is built with organic shapes, try a sharper, more rigid typeface. If the mark is intricate and complicated, choose a simple sans serif. Make sure that the type and logo look harmonious together, and give each enough breathing room by sizing each element so neither feels too overwhelming. Choose colors and typefaces that feel relevant to current design trends without being too trendy - think about how your logo might look in five or ten years. A good logo is an investment for an organization, and if a logo is timeless enough to stick around, its going to create a lot of equity for the brand it represents. This process will take a bit of trial and error, so give yourself enough time to refine each concept before you present it to the client.Step 7 - Be boldDeciding on how many concepts to present to a client can be difficult. Ive found that this depends on the client, the timeframe, and the budget. Presenting too many options can overwhelm a client, while presenting only one or two may result in many revisions if the client doesnt see what he or she wants. However many concepts you choose, make sure that each one looks distinct and independent. Presenting a diverse array of concepts can help you to get a better feel for what a client likes and doesnt like, and in this situation its usually easier for a client to have strong feelings towards a single concept. And, dont be afraid to present an option thats a little bit more out there - while a safe, expected logo may initially satisfy a client, presenting a bolde r approach can inspire the client to envision something bigger and better for his or her organization, and it can foster a more comprehensive understanding of the importance of good branding.Finally, letting clients see a little bit of your process and explaining the thoughts behind each concept can create more meaningful interaction with them and spark real interest in the work. Speak to how each concept relates to the goals of the organization and how it fits into the context of the research you conducted in the first two steps. And, be enthusiastic! Show the client that you care enough about your work to put some thought behind it. Regardless of what concept they choose, carefully considered work goes a long way in an industry where careless design is all too common.Its easy to get overwhelmed by the mere idea of creating a brand-new logo from scratch, but following a few guidelines can be a huge help in designing a great idea. And lastly, dont put too much pressure on yourself t o create the best, most clever logo the world has ever seen. After all, as the legendary Paul Rand once said, Dont try to be original. Just try to be good.

Management Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 3

Management Portfolio - Essay Example The ability to understand and coordinate with numerous a numbers of disciplines and functions within a civil engineering domain is clearly portrayed in the essay. Finally adopting the techniques related to innovation within the limits of framework leading to sustainable construction and effective quality management for understanding the requirements of end users. Major focus areas of civil engineering study demands the conceptual understanding about the complexity of infrastructure with more components like Operations Research, Maintenance of men, machine and materials, Adaptation & Conversion and Refurbishment & Renewal. The next critical factor will be the factors like project size and environment. Project size can range from small to medium and the type could be large scale creation and type of built environment for example regeneration. There are cross functional processes adding more value to the civil engineering through effective concept and design of values leading to full fledged functionality of civil engineering. Major focus areas requiring attention apart from construction mechanism are All the above determinants help us to understand the intrinsic aspects of civil engineering and also derive the correlation between civil engineering with the specific functions. In addition to the above determinants, there is strong need for designing an effective document control process to ensure accuracy and compliance on the management portfolio with relevant data management processes. The entire portfolio is presented with effective case studies, schematic diagrams and data tables for better understanding and application. Let us review the relation of civil engineering with various domains and their advantages and disadvantages using different case studies of construction companies for more practical understanding and application. The Case

Evidence-Based Nursing and Research in Global Health Care Essay

Evidence-Based Nursing and Research in Global Health Care - Essay Example The essay dwells on expounding on the importance of this practice from different quarters and provide some evidence of how this may be put into use for the benefit of the clients. It is imperative that nurses embrace evidence-based practice in their work. This allows for every individual to be conscientious, explicit and judicious in the use of what they can get on the case they are handling from the past and the present to make decisions. This will allow them to integrate individual clinical and educational skills with the very best available external clinical evidence. Evidence-based practice opens up the decision-making process, allows for wider consultations and provides precise treatment for the patients to utilize. It will also enable the nurses to include their opinions, scientific proof and patient perspectives to provide high-quality services to reflect the interests of not only the clinicians but of their clients as well. As such, the use of this evidence-based practice (EB P) will also allow each nurse to incorporate different views into the diagnosis, thus, offering a wider array of options through which the client can successfully attain better health if they follow the advices given. The report looks at the significance of this approach and personal views regarding the same. Part A will deal with personal views on why the nurses need to use EBP in their everyday prognosis. Part B will discuss the significance of having research methods as part of a nurse’s training and its benefits to the nurse. ... Nurses who have embraced this type of practice always find it easy to deal with the patients since they are already aware of the prejudices that may impede communication between them (Huang, Hepburn and Espiritu, 2003). therefore, nurses find it easier to deal with different patients within different scenarios since they are already prepared following their extensive reading and research habits. As a result, each treatment session brings out new methods, symptoms and learning opportunities that the nurse could have only heard about from the research. However, putting this into practice allows the nurse to confidently reproduce the best results that are already researched upon from the past studies and testing (Penz and Bassendowski, 2006). EBP is important in improving the patient outcome since the clinician has already attained better skills, techniques and strategies that may have been lacking before. As a result, practitioners interact and exchange ideas that in broader context, a llows for the core components of the larger intervention to be carried out (Huang, Hepburn and Espiritu, 2003). Consequently, it is important that nurses embrace this as a way of gaining the upper hand in ensuring that their patients achieve the best. Patients will also gain confidence in the health system and prefer them for their treatment rather than engage in over-the-counter medications. It will also improve the nurse's ability to select an intervention and evaluate their performance based on past and present research methods that have been certified by medical practitioners elsewhere (Penz and Bassendowski, 2006). Part B Nurses need to embrace this method in their practice. EBP offers a chance for each nurse to understand what past

The Best Form of Governmen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Best Form of Governmen - Essay Example In this form of government, the rule is for needy people. Under conditions of law or aristocracy, the ruler is interested in the outcome of his actions in the name of his country (Mindell 1996; Randall, 1960; Robinson, 1995). Aristotle on government Government should develop virtue and common good. The rulers are interested in people with enough knowledge, power and time to follow their ideas. Nowadays there is a need to promote the development of the best ruler. The politics must be open for the â€Å"ready† rulers, who are focused on their own ideas and the developments in the name of the virtue. The politicians should not cash in on the misery of their citizens; they must develop their policies in the name of the common good. The rulers have to invest their money into the development of the common virtue, because the laborers are too busy and they will not be able to contribute much into a common good. In his Book III we can read: â€Å"†¦a state is a body of citizens sufficing for the purposes of life† (Aristotle 1997, p. 43). Concerning the negative forms of the government, Aristotle claims that under conditions of tyranny, the interests of the monarch are supported. In terms of oligarchy, the interests of wealthy people are taken into account. ... It is a kind of a mixture of democracy, monarchy, and oligarchy. I think that in the modern context it is possible to apply the ideas of Aristotle successfully. In case the modern rulers do not consider democracy as the most successful form of the government, there is a need to implement the mixed forms of ruling (Jackson, 2001). Aristotle justifies his choice of a mixed government employing the example of the social roles: for instance, a father shows different roles in his relations with his children and his wife: in the first case these rules are royal and in the second case these rules are constitutional ones. Moreover, we can analyze the following quote by Aristotle: â€Å"†¦but in most constitutional states the citizens rule and are ruled by turns, for the idea of a constitutional state implies that the natures of the citizens are equal, and do not differ at all. Nevertheless, when one rules and the other is ruled we endeavour to create a difference of outward forms and n ames and titles of respect† (Aristotle 1997, p. 185). Consequently, we can claim that rules of governing are changing during a certain period of time. The constitutional government implies relations of a wife and a husband. There are permanent inequalities within the governmental structure. In their essence, these relations are equal, but in fact there is always a kind of difference in the relations between wives and husbands. Consequently, â€Å"polity† is the best form of the government, as Aristotle claims. Every citizen has a right to rule. Ruling is a complex activity and there are many social layers involved in the process of governing. Therefore, an option of a social control over different forms of the government place both rich and

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Assignment - Essay Example Through the trial and error of experience society has a system of allowing us to find which system works for us. For example going to college right after high school or getting a job both systems yields results. We decide which is best for us as individuals. 2. Guided by the discipline’s three major theoretical approaches come up with sociological questions about (a) television, (b) war, and (c) colleges and universities. How has television changed in the approach to children’s programs? Well children’s programming is becoming more and more adult in nature. Sexual implications are now acceptable content for children’s animations and cartoons even some language has become acceptable. Children should not be exposed to such things. Children copy what they see. A child should behave as a child not an adult. How has war (unable to resolve conflicts) affected our society? Well war to me is any unresolved conflict whether or not it’s a battle in the field or in the office the results during and after war are pieces trying to come together. The situation in Libya is an unresolved conflict over government regime. That unresolved conflict has resulted in the rising of gas prices.

OPM300 - Intro. to Operations Mgmt. CA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

OPM300 - Intro. to Operations Mgmt. CA - Essay Example uch, Event O is the most likely candidate because crashing Event O will result to a compensation of two weeks, which is just sufficient to compensate for the weeks lost in extending Event B. The key player in the success of a project is undoubtedly the project manager. Their roles include managing the project throughout the project cycle, balancing technical, schedule, and cost performance, solving problems expeditiously as they arise, and inspiring and motivating the entire team (Forsberg, Mooz, & Cotterman, 2005). With a project as extensive and large scale as the one described above, a project manager needs to have the right skills and tools in facing and overcoming the many different challenges that such a project can produce (Elearn Limited (Great Britain), 2005). One such challenge would be that project teams may be geographically dispersed. Since projects are usually collaborative efforts, different team members may be physically located in locations that may cause logistic challenges (Kerzner, 2009). Thus, a project manager must know how to ensure that logistic considerations are put in place when scheduling required events. Another problem that a project manager may face is the challenge of overbooked and mismanaged resources. Due to certain shortcoming, project teams may not have accurate information about their resources and what they are working on (Archibald, 2003). Some project teams may have more demand for projects than they have team members to execute the projects. Thus, a project manager has to be aware of these limitations and be alert enough to compensate

Management Strategy ( Boeing Corporation) Reseach Case Essay

Management Strategy ( Boeing Corporation) Reseach Case - Essay Example Unfortunately, its test run which was scheduled in this year had to be postponed indefinitely due the supply chain inefficiencies prevalent in the organization. Before the test drive itself, it has 903 orders in hand. (Maynard. M. 2008). On the Military defense front, the company was stripped off many crucial contracts owing to the unethical behavior of the employed staff and is expected to regain its right to bid for future contracts from 2010 onwards. (Wayne. L. 2008). In the cargo flight provider section, the 747 and 777 are the largest available products and the company can bank on this specialty that it can implement the Product Proliferation strategy wherein the customers have a greater cargo space availability facility and as such would be interested in paying the extra price in comparison to the smaller cargo flights. In the commercial vehicle sector, the market leader status which remained till 1993 was lost against Airbus in that year due to the technological advancement of the Airbus’s A-380. (Kotler, Keller, 2006). Added to this, the current economic slowdown is taking its toll on the aviation sector. Hence, great importance has to be given to the pricing of its existing products and especially the new launch – the 787. 787 comes under the prestige product segment but care has to be taken that the company follows the value based pricing strategy as depicted by the organization in the case of its earlier launches so that its customers have to be rest assured of better value for lower price in comparison to its rival’s product. As it is, 787 have an advantage of fuel efficiency which can be taken into consideration while pricing. However, care should be taken that, in the run to gain the market share, it should not quote any bottom level prices that it may have to face supp ly chain difficulties as the product is technically highly

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Assignment - Essay Example Through the trial and error of experience society has a system of allowing us to find which system works for us. For example going to college right after high school or getting a job both systems yields results. We decide which is best for us as individuals. 2. Guided by the discipline’s three major theoretical approaches come up with sociological questions about (a) television, (b) war, and (c) colleges and universities. How has television changed in the approach to children’s programs? Well children’s programming is becoming more and more adult in nature. Sexual implications are now acceptable content for children’s animations and cartoons even some language has become acceptable. Children should not be exposed to such things. Children copy what they see. A child should behave as a child not an adult. How has war (unable to resolve conflicts) affected our society? Well war to me is any unresolved conflict whether or not it’s a battle in the field or in the office the results during and after war are pieces trying to come together. The situation in Libya is an unresolved conflict over government regime. That unresolved conflict has resulted in the rising of gas prices.

Management Strategy ( Boeing Corporation) Reseach Case Essay

Management Strategy ( Boeing Corporation) Reseach Case - Essay Example Unfortunately, its test run which was scheduled in this year had to be postponed indefinitely due the supply chain inefficiencies prevalent in the organization. Before the test drive itself, it has 903 orders in hand. (Maynard. M. 2008). On the Military defense front, the company was stripped off many crucial contracts owing to the unethical behavior of the employed staff and is expected to regain its right to bid for future contracts from 2010 onwards. (Wayne. L. 2008). In the cargo flight provider section, the 747 and 777 are the largest available products and the company can bank on this specialty that it can implement the Product Proliferation strategy wherein the customers have a greater cargo space availability facility and as such would be interested in paying the extra price in comparison to the smaller cargo flights. In the commercial vehicle sector, the market leader status which remained till 1993 was lost against Airbus in that year due to the technological advancement of the Airbus’s A-380. (Kotler, Keller, 2006). Added to this, the current economic slowdown is taking its toll on the aviation sector. Hence, great importance has to be given to the pricing of its existing products and especially the new launch – the 787. 787 comes under the prestige product segment but care has to be taken that the company follows the value based pricing strategy as depicted by the organization in the case of its earlier launches so that its customers have to be rest assured of better value for lower price in comparison to its rival’s product. As it is, 787 have an advantage of fuel efficiency which can be taken into consideration while pricing. However, care should be taken that, in the run to gain the market share, it should not quote any bottom level prices that it may have to face supp ly chain difficulties as the product is technically highly

Innocence and Experience Essay Example for Free

Innocence and Experience Essay In Encarta Dictionary the meanings of the word ‘innocence’ are absence of being guilty of crime or offence, freedom from sin, lack of worldly experience The meanings of ‘experience’ are knowledge and skills and the sum total of things that have happened to a person and of his or her past thoughts and feelings. This essay states that innocence and experience are two states of human being. At some point of time, the child in us makes the journey from innocence to experience. We lose innocence by gaining experience through knowledge and real life incidents. The experience we gain is inevitable, whether good or bad. This is explained through two literary works: Thomas Hardy’s novel ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ and Blake’s two poems,’ The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’. In ‘Tess of d’Urbervilles’, the innocent girl Tess gains experience by losing her virginity. By killing Alec D’Urbervilles, her seducer, she loses her innocence completely and gains the experience of a criminal. She pays the price of experience by her death. Hardy’s inclusion of elements of ‘coincident’ and ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ shows the inevitability of such experiences and the resulting tragedy in the novel. Blake in his poem ‘The Lamb’ the meek and mild lamb is the symbol of innocence and Tyger in his poem’ The Tyger’ is the symbol of experience. Through these poems Blake wants to convey that innocence and experience are â€Å"two contrary states of human soul† with respect to creation. In ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’, Tess is an innocent country girl who is unaware of the evils of society. Her parents as well do not advise her about the danger in men-folks so she is easily seduced by Alec. Hardy writes: â€Å"Why it is that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as a gossamer and practically blank as a snow as yet, there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as it was doomed to receive†. Again, after her loss of virginity, she gains experience and matures as a woman, her beauty is enhanced. Angel notice her and they fall in love with each other. She enjoys happiness and bliss for the time being. His love for Tess is abstract, as he calls her â€Å"Daughter of Nature† or â€Å"Demeter. † Tess is more an archetype or ideal to him than a flesh and blood woman with a complicated life. Therefore he cannot accept that Tess is not chaste, as a result he abandon hers. He realizes his mistake too late. She takes the aid of Alec after misfortune befell her family. She loses her innocence completely when she commits the crime of murdering Alec and as a result she is hanged. Hardy’s writing style of using elaborate descriptions, long sentences, elements of coincidence, fate and destiny shows Tess’ inevitable journey from innocence to experience and the resultant doom. In Blake’s poem ‘The Lamb’, Lamb symbolizes Jesus and the child is also associated with Jesus. So the lamb and child in Jesus symbolizes innocence. In The Lamb the style of repetition in the first and last couplet of each stanza helps to give the poem its song-like quality. The flowing ls and soft vowel sounds add to this effect, and also imply the bleating of a lamb or the lisping character of a childs song. In Blake’s poem ‘The Tyger’, Tyger is the symbol of experience. It is strikingly beautiful at the same time undeniable because of the underlying evil and violence. To describe the Tyger, Blake uses the imagery of ‘fire’, which is destructive at the same time illuminating. The ‘Tyger’ presents evil in society, something that cannot be denied. The style of regular and rhythmic meter of the quatrains; its hammering beat suggests the work of the creator, which is the poems central image. Blake believed that a person has to pass through a state of innocence, the Lamb as well as understand the contrasting conditions of experience, Tyger, to reach a higher level of consciousness. Blake’s vision of a creative force in the universe which makes a balance of innocence and experience is at the heart of the poem. The two literary works Hardy’s ‘Tess of d’Urbervilles’ and Blake’ ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’ show that Innocence and Experience, both exist in human life and society and experience is an essential part of human existence whether good or bad. Work Citation: â€Å"The Tyger†. 8 October 2007. http://www. cs. rice. edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/66. html â€Å"’Songs of Innocence and Experience’: ‘The Tyger’ by Blake†. 8 October 2007. http://www. sparknotes. com/poetry/blake/section6. rhtml â€Å"’Songs of Innocence and Experience’: ‘The lamb’ by Blake†. 8 October 2007. http://www. sparknotes. com/poetry/blake/section1. html