Why we should have a Black President Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Why we should have a Black President - Essay Example The United States should have an African, or Black President, because it's the only way to demonstrate principles of equal human rights in actual fact. All the history of the United States has never been anything but a chain of white male presidents. Oddly, little has been said about this embarrassing subject. Of course, America probably has to break a few more social barriers before a black president could be elected. To be frank, a lot of people are not ready to have a black man or woman as President. On the other hand, there are a lot of progressive people, black and white, concerned that democratic principles should be implemented in the real life indeed.Electing of African President in 2008 will help to attract an attention of publicity to the problems of black community, such as educational, health, social, political and other issues. According to the recent Gallup Survey on "Black-White Relations" cited in Cronc, seven out of ten whites believe that blacks are treated equally in their communities: an optimism with which only 40 percent of blacks agree. Eight in ten whites say blacks receive equal educational opportunities, and 83 percent say blacks receive equal housing opportunities in their communities. Only a third of whites believe blacks face racial bias from police in their areas. If a Black President is elected in the United States in 2008, these problems will more likely to be solved. (1999)I think that the main benefit of Black President is providing the United States with the real equality in all areas of life. Also it will show to every black person that there is nothing impossible for him or her in self-development. Self-confidence of colored people will serve as a powerful tool for further development of democracy in the United States. Also, Black President will stimulate black people to get involved in the political process. If we have a black woman as a President, feminist's movement will also become more politically active and more significant. The idea of America having its first Black president has resonated with many African-Americans over the years, especially with the emergence of Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Obama is the third African American since the Reconstruction Era to serve in the United States Senate. He is also the only African American currently serving in the Senate. Obama showed he had national appeal last year, when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Though he was not even elected into office yet, dreams of a black President popped into the heads of many African Americans who watched as Obama electrified an audience of all races. Obama is not the first African American to show national appeal as a potential presidential candidate. The Rev. Jesse Jackson ran twice in the 1980s, and though he did not win the White House Jackson showed that he had enormous appeal outside of the African-American community. Jackson managed to attract 6.9 million votes from Urban Blacks, Hispanics, poor rural whites, farmers, factory workers, feminists, homosexuals and white progressives. One more step to an African President is Bill Clinton, who often is referred to as the "black president" because he was so receptive to the needs of African Americans and because he worked to include them in the political process more than any other president. Reasons cited here for Clinton's popularity among blacks include his poor Southern upbringing and underdog status, the fact that he appointed more blacks to his cabinet and other federal posts than any other president, and good timing (he came into office after three consecutive Republican administrations). But perhaps the biggest factor discussed is the genuine ease with which Clinton relates to black Americans. Blacks trust him to consider their perspective and do not view him as just another white politician who appears only during election years. This is not to say that Clinton always did their bidding; he often disappointed them. But they also shared common enemies and a common outlook that brought

Skin Cancer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Skin Cancer - Essay Example Skin cancer is a term used to defined carcinomas which rise from the skin and can invade different parts of the body. These include squamous cell cancer, melanoma and basal cell cancer. A culmination of factors have led to an increase in the prevalence of skin cancer and these include damage to the ozone layer by industrial activity and the new methods that have been created for tanning such as tan salons or even spending excessive amounts of time under the sun (Zhang et al., 1588-1593). There should be studies that are aimed towards the regulation of events that are damaging to the ozone layer and the different methods that are used to improving tanning in the community to ensure that these methods are either eliminated or minimized. Tanning has become a summer fashion and many people use tanning salons which predisposes them to many types of skin cancer. However, many studies have found that spending long hours under these lamps predisposes individuals to squamous cell cancer which is one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer. Tanning beds are machines that utilize 3% UVB and 97% UVA to artificially produce sun tans for cosmetic purposes (Dore et al., 30-37). There are many different variants of these machines and can also be in the form of high pressure beds. The cultural history of tanning is something that has changed throughout the years and in the early 1900s when the benefits of sunlight were documented, sun bathing can back into fashion and was considered an upper class activity (Dore et al., 30-37). It was further popularized by Coco Chanel 1920s after a vacation. The tanning beds entered the American community in 1979. However, the World Health Organization and other health institutions have labeled these beds a health risk and have included it among other dangerous radiation substances such as plutonium. According to

North Miami Council Meeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

North Miami Council Meeting - Essay Example In this report, the meeting I attended was held in Miami city. The city council government organized the meeting among another stakeholder of the regional government. The meeting majorly put more emphasis and addressed some of the major problems affecting its citizens. The meeting was conducted on Tuesday 9th June 2015 in the evening exactly 7.00. as it is the order of every meeting, a role call was briefly performed to ascertain the members who were present and those who are not. The list of those who were absent with apology was noted and at the same time those without apology (Burrill, 1962). Pledge of allegiance by detective Rocio, who works with North Miami police, was conducted, and after that Pastor Gregory Toussaint, who led the tabernacle of glory, put members through invocation. Oath of office administration was the section that carried more attention of the meeting. Dr. Dorothy Bndross Mindingall assisted by the school board manager in District 2 conducted it. Other events preceded this main event. The order of the business has a breakdown of subsections. These subsections were additions and deletions, amendments and deferrals (Burrill, 1962). The meeting had more issues that were to be discussed. Among the questions comprised in the order of the business, individual presentations, city events, hurricane preparedness and consent agenda. The questions that the officials put more emphasis and discussed are the certification and of the results that were returned during the runoff election process. Pursue of this was retrieved from the previous meeting that was held at the same venue. As a council, they proposed the purchase of the order one of new transit to issue in by the police department at the agreed cost. Equipment that was brought up was scheduled to be purchased separately by the council for enforcing the law (Burrill, 1962). Another proposal that was passed

Costco Wholesale in 2012 Essay Example for Free

Costco Wholesale in 2012 Essay Analysis and Evaluation Since the inception of Costco in 1983, one of its drawbacks is, they have 4,000 selections of merchandise compared to their competitors. In addition, customers can only purchase merchandises in bulk. Consumers who shop at Costco do not have the choice to pick up one single item, for instance a can of soup. Although Costco prices are low and the consumers get more for their money, more consumers are wasting food because they no longer have the big families. Costco needs to look at the demographics and re-evaluate their business model, as this could be detrimental to the company. In today’s society, more families are getting divorce and are becoming single parents. The big families are almost none existent; therefore, most consumers do not need to purchase in bulk. Many consumers want to have choices when it comes to the amount of food they purchase. One may say there are other shopping establishments a consumer may visit to get exactly what they want; however, that is beside the point. Giving consumers the choice to purchase individual merchandise will not only bring in more business but also an increase in cash flow, which will also increase profits for Costco. On the other hand, Costco competitors such as Wal-Mart stocked up 40,000 to 150, 000 items for shoppers to choose from and Sam’s Club have over 16,000 items. Sam’s Club have the treasure-hunt items but tend to be less upscale and carry lower price tags than those of Costco. Both Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club give shoppers more choices than Costco even though Costco offers a cheaper price on their merchandise. Costco spends very little in advertisements and they totally rely on their name and word of mouth by their customers. Compared to Sam’s Club they spent about $50 million annually advertising and direct mail promotions. Furthermore, Costco does not have a Public Relation department, which is not good business practice, even though they have been around for years and they are doing well financially. However, there are many opportunities for one of its competitor to come in take away their market share. Costco does not attract people who are below the poverty line; they cater to the business consumer and urbanites that have an annual income of $100,000; therefore, people who are impoverish cannot afford the membership fees and bulk purchase. In addition, Costco membership fee is more expensive compared to Sam’s Club. Recommendation Costco needs to improve the variety of choices by giving the consumer more than 4,000 items to choose from while their competitors are actually giving customers what they want. Costco needs to take into consideration the economy; people have lost their jobs and the recession, as customers are looking for cheaper prices and ways to saving money. Furthermore, if Costco does not come up with new and innovative strategies to entice low income and single household family to their establishment they are giving their competitors the upper hand. Costco should also focus on the advertisement because number of its rivals is already doing intense advertisement. In today’s global and technological world, many businesses are being aggressive and are taking advantage of investing heavily on the marketing. Costco cannot continue to use the concept of sitting back and waiting for their customers to spread the word by mouth. Costco needs to move in the direction of the 21st century by being more proactive by utilizing technology and a PR department for marketing purposes. It is true that company like Costco are doing good in economic downturn but competitors like Sam’s club is outperforming Costco in pricing which could be biggest threats to the Costco even though Costco keeps relatively branded and qualitative product than that of Sam’s Club The Five Forces Model of Competition Substitutes Strong threat Good substitutes everywhere Price not significantly higher Comparable product features More variety of features Low switching cost Potential new entrants Low threat Small pool entry candidates High barriers to entry Expanding market Attractive profits Buyers Weak bargaining power Some switching cost Large membership base Costco has the best value Suppliers Weak bargaining power Many suppliers Low switching cost Many substitutes exist Large quantities are needed Competing sellers Fierce Competition Costco is on top Quality is slightly better Buyer demand is growing Buyers switching cost is low SWOT Strength| Weakness| Low product and services†¢ Strong brand†¢ Excellent merchandise†¢ Exceptional employees†¢ 54 million members†¢ Economics of scale†¢ Efficiency| James Sinegal is 79†¢ Maintain high wages†¢ 42% higher than Sam’s Club†¢ Comparatively less attractive store layout for luxury items†¢Ã‚  Declining or inconsistent profit margins†¢ Primary focus on business customers rather than individual customers| Opportunities| Threat| Recession- Easier to find bargain luxury-items- Increased popularity of Costco†¢ Expanding foreign markets- Europe- China India †¢ Positive image in terms of employees pay and social responsibility†¢ Increasing brand awareness| Fierce competition†¢Costco cannot attract people who are below poverty line due to its membership fees and bulk purchase†¢High competition from Sam’s Club and BJ†¢Political problems in other countries| References Thomspson, A. A., Peteraf, M. A., Gamble, J. E., Strickland III, A. (2012). Crafting Executing Strategy (19th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irvin.

The Butler S Lifecycle Model

The Butler S Lifecycle Model Balearic Islands consist of four island which are A, B, C and Mallorca. Mallorca is the largest island of the Balearic archipelago which accounts for nearly three quarters of the land with 80% of its population in Balearic Island (Bull 1997, 140). It area has covered about 3640 kilometer per square with the 555 km of the total coast length of the island (Garcia and Servera 2003, 288). The climate of Mallorca is typically Mediterranean with moderate average temperatures. During the summer, the dry and warm season takes place. The annual rainfalls are 625 mm, with average temperature 16 celcius and 18 celcious except in the high mountain. With its favorable climate, extensive coastline and attractive beaches have lured visitors for many centuries. The butlers lifecycle model (1980), describes the growth, stagnation and decline phases of a tourist destination can be best apply in the destination of Mallorca from the growth stage to post-stagnation stage. In the period of exploration and involvement stages of Butlers model which started in 1930s tourism takes place in Mallorca act merely as an instrument for stimulating cultural and intellectual activity (Bull 1997, 141). Early development stage 1955s When it comes to 1955 Mallorca Island is in development stage where mass tourism started to grow during that period. There was a re-establishment of the tourist board that have significantly change the tourism on the island whereby the tourism become more closely associated with the development of package holidays and mass tourism from the growing markets in western and northern Europe (Pearce 1991 and Williams 1997). However in 1959, Spanish government took the initiate to simplify the procedure of visiting the country in order to modernize the Spanish economy through tourism by gaining overseas revenue (Stabilisation Act of 1959). The numbers of visitors started to growth constantly in early 1960s, majority of the visitors were dominated from UK and Germany in large volumes concentrated especially during summer season (Clark 1988) (Figure 1). Consolidation stage-1980s-1990s Between 1960s-1980s the consequences from the boom of international tourism to Mallorca, it led to an intensive resort development of the along the coastline. Most of the island originated from the rapid growth of cheap package holidays in the 1960s. However in the late of 1970s, many buildings, resorts and apartments were built in order to cater large numbers of visitors and growing number of the populations. Majority of these early resorts were portrayed by standard high-rise architecture, short of proper infrastructure and lack of planning, which are typical of the consolidation stages of Butlers model. Buswell (1996, 321) has described the growth of tourist resolution on Mallorca as unplanned and piecemeal, even chaotic. After that resorts have been subject matter to stricter planning laws which set up in the 1980s and 1990s. Subsequently Mallorca has maintained its popularity with tourists, particularly from UK and Germany moreover constantly attracts more than 10 m visitors per annum (Buswell 1996 and Government Balear 2003) Stagnation and Decline stage-1990s-2000s In late 1990s, environmental pressures begin to emerge in Mallorca regarding to the issue such as water shortages, climate change, overcrowding, and over commercialization as well as anti-social behavior by its visitors. This eventually causes an overall of decline in number of visitors arrive to its destination. In provisions of destination life cycle dynamics, the tourism product of Mallorca was beginning to stagnate and decline and required management planning and policy intervention to bring about its rejuvenation (Butler, 1980). Development of Mass tourism in Calvia, Mallorca Calvià ¡ is a municipality of Mallorca which is also one of the largest tourism receiving areas. It accounted about one third of the total flow of tourists to Balearic Islands. It covers 145 km ² and has a coastal strip of 56 Km of beaches and cliffs which make it as absolutely suitable destination for mass tourism. It offers accommodation for 120,000 bedspaces and with approximately up to 1.6 million visitors a year (Aguilo, Algere and Sard, 2005). Furthermore, with its location in tiny distance from the airport of Palma creates an easily accessible to the visitors. The population of the resident increased from 3000 in habitants during 1960 up to 30,000 in the late nineties (Dodds 2007). Since 19th century, tourism began to be as main economic activity of its island (Ministerio de Economia y Hacienda, 2005). Tourism development in Calvià ¡ boomed in the 1960s and has been based on short-term economic gain. As Aguilo et al. (2005) states, it was one of the first municipalities to experience negative effects of mass tourism. Lack of planning regulations resulted in urban sprawl and lack of environmental regard, similar to many Mediterranean resorts. The model of tourism development in Mallorca has been based on short-term interest, unlimited building out of tune with local conditions, and an unsustainable exploitation of exceptional natural resources. Tourist development took place in 1960s to 1980s and was hasty and unplanned. Economy In economic point of view, tourism is important as it create job opportunities, infrastructure development as well as foreign exchange. The unemployment rate is much lower than national average (Ministerio de Trabajo 2005) as there are about 31,793 people employed in restaurant-bars, 2057 in means of transportation rental, 483 in supermarkets, 398 people employed in souvenir shops and another 1,684 work in other tourist facilities. Meanwhile 1,402 involved in beach business and 18,003 are involved in providing tourist activities. It has been estimated that Calvià ¡ owns a total number of 61749 vacancies providing tourist activities (Molz 2004). It has 30% higher income per capital of national and 5% higher of E.U. levels (Ministerio de Economia y Hacienda 2005). Looking at these figures it becomes absolutely obvious 85% of Balearic Islands GNP is from tourist industry, and tourism is the major source of income for the municipality of Calvià ¡. Therefore its economy is entirely reli ant upon it. From the statistics numbers given, it can be conclude that there is high number of labour force joining the labour market, the tourist monoculture especially during the peak seasonal pattern, labour with a low salary system, and pressure of work during high season (Local Agenda 21 2001). Socio culture impact While tourism provides certain economic benefits to a region at least in the short term, it also causes disturbance to the local way of life. For the locals the concerns may derive due to the unfulfilled promises, destruction of an older and simpler way of life, inadequacy of employment opportunities or dissatisfaction with the economic changes which came with mass tourism development. Before tourism takes place, Calvià ¡ was fundamentally a poor and rural area with little outside contact and general history of emigration with its own language and culture of Catalan roots (Ruzza 2004). However tourism has wholly altered these features; a vast number of immigration from the Spanish peninsula arrived to fulfill the demand for labour created by the growth of mass tourism, particularly in the building industry and the hotel business. Consequent to that the temporary immigrant population, has gradually turn into resident, eventually this causes the loss of cultural identity, conflict over language issues, and lack of social integration within local and immigrant population and tiny participation in local social life. Although Calvià ¡ is Spains richest municipality and one of the richest in Europe, it has the lowest level of education in Spain which itself the lowest in Europe (Ayuntament de Calvià ¡ 1995). Besides, majority of employment are for waiters and house cleaner which are lack of trained skilled professionals. Consequences of too many visitors Reason tourist choose Calvià ¡ as holiday destination The persistence of the sun and sand model (2005, 222), describes that the reason induces tourists to choose the particular sun and sand destination include the climate of 76.2%, the beaches (51.2%), the price (36.4%), and the quality of the hotels (22.2%). Among all, climate is the fundamental reason followed by the beaches which induces tourists for choosing such destination. As a result Calvià ¡ received a growing number of visitors who travel to a mass tourism holiday destination attracted by the sun, beaches and the climate. Calvià ¡ were seen as a model based on value, in terms of price competition it has lure many visitors especially from UK and German with it standardization of the holiday experience (CIITIB, 2002). Social impact For the local point of view, visitors seem to utilize the physical environment from the local however the profit that generated from the visitors are not share with the local community. Thus it create adverse impacts on livelihoods and lack of benefit sharing with the local people who will bear tourism related costs to both the human and natural environment. Eventually conflicts arise between local populations with vast number of visitors as they need to compete for limited use of resources such as water, sanitation, energy and land uses. For tourists the view is often recapitulate with the statements such as this used to be a paradise but now it is ruined because of overcrowding, over commercialization or overdevelopment. The mass tourism tackiness and the variety of problems experienced in Calvià ¡ have too often created blemish alongside beautiful natural scenery; crowded with large numbers of tourists as if they were many cattle; ruined traditional cultures and occupational patterns by creating a insidious tourism industry characterized by low paying service jobs and manipulative values; and ignored the needs of local citizens and the community values that were inconsistent with pragmatic economic requirements of the tourism industry. Environmental impact The risen numbers of visitors and residents have immense environmental pressure in Calvià ¡. As mentioned in butlers life cycle, Mallorca was in the period of stagnation in 1990s may lay on the line by emerging environmental pressure particularly water shortages and climatic change. Inadequate water supply The issue of inadequate water supply especially during peak period and summer season, water supplies is exacerbated by visitors flows for use in hotels, swimming pools and golf course. According to the statistic documented in 1995, the water consumption by visitors amounted of 160 liters per day whereby resident is only 130 liters. High demand in energy consumption Annual consumption of primary energy in Calvià ¡ amount to 72,000 TEP per year of which only 2% is renewable. However, the consumption per day was 6.47 kwh and visitors consumption amounted to 2.14 kwh per night stay in a hotel (Dodds 2007). Pollution by Transports The emissions of carbon dioxide equaled 1,400,000 tones which 58% is due to transporting tourist in and out of Mallorca. In Calvià ¡ 1995 statistic,70 million journeys per year where 50 million where from visitors which are a major cause of traffic congestion. Urban waste In 1995 Calvià ¡ produced 41000 tones of urban waste with approximately 1.25 kg per resident / day however 1kg per visitors per day. Moreover the options for disposal were limited. The production of wastewater and solid waste in visitor areas often surpass the carrying capacity of local infrastructure due the high seasonal demand. Deterioration of the Land use Building development in Calvià ¡ has been excessive with mass occupation of sandy beaches and important enclaves along the rocky coastline. With over 60% of Calvià ¡ territory was affected by soil erosion. There was continuous land occupation by urbanization and development of new infrastructure damage caused by quarries and waste dumps and devastation by forest fire. According to an accounting of the distribution of the entire area of Calvià ¡ made by Schmitt () in 1991 the build-up-area has quadrupled in the years from 1968 to 1991 (+311.6%). However 57% of archaeological heritage were at high risk of deterioration. Overcrowded beach Almost 80% of the analyzed cases show overcrowding despite an urban beach or natural beach. There is a strong seasonal concentration of visitors between June and September because of the demand for sun and beaches. Subsequently this led to overcrowded beach with less than 6 m ² of beach surface per person with increasing anthropogenic pressure over the coastal zone (Garcia and Jaume 2003, 287). Solution Calvià ¡ is an example of a mass tourism destination which, from a result of tourism pressure in the late 1980s, faced significant economic, social and environmental decline. As mentioned by Butler (1993) tourism is an activity because of its reliance upon the maintenance of natural environment and natural processes, should lent itself toward sustainable development. In the case of Calvià ¡ the decrease of tourism numbers and Balearic Island as a whole driven regulations and efforts to move towards addressing the problems of the degradation of the environment, deterioration of social systems and facilities and the threat of further tourism decline. Definition of Planning and Policy The definition of planning is extremely ambiguous and difficult to define. Chadwick (1971, 24) states that planning is a process of human thought with an action based upon the thought in point of fact, forethought, thought for the future, nothing more or less than this is planning. Meanwhile Hall (2008, 90) supported Chadwicks ideas to conclude that most important aspect of planning is that it is directed towards the future. However, planning cannot be accomplished without policy because it is closely related terms. Wilkinson (1997) linked planning and policy by stating planning is a course of action, whereas policy is the implementation of the planned course of action. Planning and policy in the case of Calvià ¡ Calvià ¡ Plan for tourist Excellent 1990 The plan was developed in 1990 as to target the threat of decline. It comes along with the Balearic Autonomous community in cooperation with the municipalities as to modernize, improve and diversify the tourism. This plan included building clearance to regain open space, try to counterbalance the seasonal nature of tourism and training and employment. However this plan is mainly focused on the industry supply side instead of sustainability of the destination and host community did not involve at all. As a result, it did not attempt to overcome the growing issues that have arisen. Calvià ¡ Local Agenda 21 (LA21) 1995 At the end of 1994, the Town council of Calvià ¡, together with a range of working groups, drew up the Local Agenda 21 for Calvià ¡ as a long term strategies integrated with economic, social, territorial and environment actions. In formulating LA21 in 1995 and Action Plan in 1997, the Municipality of Calvià ¡ actively involved the support of local community, all the stakeholders, NGO as well as national and EU governments. The key objectives for LA21 Calvià ¡ concentrating on entering a new culture based on sustainable and participatory urban and tourism planning; emphasize environmental management of the destination, look for for agreement and consensus with social representatives, control development and act for more stable employment in the area. (Calvià ¡ Agenda Local 21, Mallorca, Spain 2004). In 1998 New Balearic Law in Calvià ¡ was set out as to limit accommodation growth, restore existing hotels and to protect 40% of natural areas. The objectives of the LA21 comprises of 10 strategic lines of action and 40 initiatives. Key results that have been achieved since the implementation of Calvià ¡s 1997 plan The LA21 Action Plan which were set out in 1997 were seems to have improvement in a general movement toward sustainability within the region and as Calvià ¡ is fairly autonomous, it was able to adopt and implement many initiatives without the need for collaboration from higher government. Among those key results that have been achieved since the implementation of the LA21 action plan are stated below: Planning and Regeneration Zero increase in number of hotels and apartments as well as drop of 200 beds 1993-2002-about 30 building clearance plan actions were carried out including actual building demolition and the purchase of urban plots to prevent further construction. Demolished buildings of the entire surface area reaches more than 13,500m ². Upgraded area in Magaluf Palma Nova tourist area by creating pedestrian zones and planting tree as to improve the overall quality of the area. 32 km cycling and walking path was built in Paseo de Calvià ¡ Environmental instruments Tax on water for conservation and awareness campaigns promoting its use and conservation established Recycling urban waste reduction plans to ensure 70% of all urban waste is separated at origin, facilitating reducing cost of recycling effort, minimizing land fill. Termination of sea dredging previously used to generate beaches and more environmentally friendly measures put in place to minimize erosion New regulating for limiting anchor damage harbor congestion caused by boats Establishment of marine park terrestrial protected areas as to protect wildlife ecosystems Economic instruments Impose an eco-tax in 2002 by Balearic Government; the funds were used to carry out Calvià ¡ council rehabilitation and regenerative projects. Voluntary instruments Renovation programmes for hotels, tourist accommodation and tourist facilities established to upgrade quality and attract a higher yield tourist Socio cultural instruments Programmes to combat crime, housing and other social issues Multi-cultural and social programmes such as dance, underwater photography and language classes established to help integrate immigrants into Mallorquin culture. Calvià ¡ has been recognized internationally for its efforts conclusion Calvià ¡ 2.0 The development of mass tourism in Calvia, Mallorca. 2.1 Definition of Mass Tourism Over the last decades, tourism has increasingly playing a vital role as a source of economic sector despite for many developed and developing countries. The tourism industry has given an opportunity to millions ofpeople to travel internationally, as travel and recreation are becoming more accessible to people,it is knowable to be the world leading economic sector during this decade.

Speech Recognition using Epochwise Back Propagation

Speech Recognition using Epochwise Back Propagation International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume *– No.*, ___________ 2013 Speech Recognition using the Epochwise Back Propagation through time Algorithm Neelima Rajput S.K.Verma Department of C.S.E. Department of C.S.E. GBPEC, Pauri Gharwal, GBPEC, Pauri Gharwal, Uttrakhand, India. Uttrakhand, India ABSTRACT In this paper, artificial neural networks are used to accomplish the English alphabet speech recognition. The challenging issue in the area of speech recognition is to design an accurate and effective speech recognition system. We implemented a new data classification method, where we use neural networks, which are trained using the calculated epoch values of audio signal. This method gave comparable result to the already implemented neural networks. In this paper, Back propagation neural network architecture used to recognize the time varying input data, and provides better accurate results for the English Alphabet speech recognition. The Epochwise Back Propagation through time (BPTT) algorithm uses the epoch values of input signal to train the network structures and yields the satisfactory results. Keywords Artificial Neural Network, Back Propagation Neural Network, Epoch, Speech Recognition. I INTRODUCTION Speech recognition system enables the machine to understand the human speech and react accordingly. It allows the machine to automatically understand the human spoken utterances with the speech signal processing and pattern recognition. In this approach is the machine converts the voice signal into the suitable text or command through the process of identification and understanding. Speech recognition is emerges as a vast technology in current time. It also plays an important role in information theory, acoustics, phonetics, linguistics, and pattern recognition theory and neurobiology disciplines. speech recognition technology become a key technology in the computer information processing technology as there is rapid advancement in the software, hardware and information technology. The features of input audio signal are compared with the voice template stored in the computer database in speech recognition system by using the computer systems. Recognition results are mainly depends up on the matching techniques used for matching the audio signal characteristics. To improve the recognition rate and better recognition results neural networks are used. A neural network is a powerful tool which used to adapt and represent the complicated input outputs. Neural nets are basically interconnected networks of relatively simple processing units, or nodes that work simultaneously. They are designed to mimic the function of human neuron biological networks. The processing units of neural networks are termed as neurons. A neural network provides better results over the existing approaches in speech recognition systems [1]. 2 BASICS OF NEURAL NETWORKS The basics of neural networks are discussed as follows. There are many different types of neural networks, but they all have four basic and common attributes: †¢ Processing units †¢ Connections †¢ Computing procedure †¢ Training procedure . Processing Units A neural network contains several processing units, which are roughly analogous to neurons in the human brain. All these units activate in parallel and perform the task simultaneously. Processing units are responsible for the overall computation; there is no any other unit for the corporation of their activity. Each processing unit computes a scalar function of all its local inputs at every moment of time and then further broadcast the result to their neighboring units [2]. The units in a neural network are basically classified into input units, which used to receive data from the outside; hidden units, used to internally transform the data; and output units, which serve decisions or target signals. 2.2 Connections All processing units in a neural network are organized in to a defined topology by a set of connections, or weights, shown as lines in a diagram. Each weight consist a real value, which ranging from ∞ to + ∞. The value of a weight represents how much impact a unit has on its neighbor units a positive weight causes one unit to excite another, while a negative weight causes one unit to inhibit another. Weights of the processing units are usually one-directional (from input units towards output units), but it may be two-directional sometimes, especially when there is no distinction between input and output units. Figure 1.Neural network topologies: (a) unstructured, (b) layered, (c) recurrent, (d) modular [3]. The above figure shows the topology of different neural networks. Unstructured Neural Network is mainly used in processor which is operated in parallel to provide the computational power for the speech recognition system. Layered neural net algorithms are self-organizing and their internal speech model maximizes the performance and produces better results comparable to existing systems. Recurrent Neural network are mainly used in pattern sequencing as it follows the sequences changes time to time. Modular neural network are used in designing of complex systems by using simple components. Neural nets offer an approach to computation that mimics biological nervous systems. Algorithms based on neural nets have been proposed to address speech recognition tasks which humans perform with little apparent effort. 2.3 Computation Procedure Computation of neural networks begins after applying an input data to the input units of the network. Then the activation function of all the units is calculated either simultaneously or independently depends upon the structure of the neural network. The computation process in the unstructured network is termed as spreading activation and in layered network is known as forward propagation as it proceed from the input units to the output units. First we compute the net input of the processing unit and then we compute the output activation function of the net input to update a given processing unit. 2.4 Training Procedure Training a network means enable the connections adaptive so that the network shows the actual computational behavior for all the input patterns. In training process usually weights are updated but sometimes the modification of network topology also takes place, i.e., addition and deletion of connections from the network topology [4]. Modification of weight is easy and beneficial than topology modification as a network with bulk connections able to set any of its weight zero, which is equivalent as deleting such weights. 3. RELATED WORK The past research concluded that the use of the neural networks in the speech recognition system provides the better recognition result compared to the other existing approaches. The latest study of neural networks actually started in the 19th century, when neurobiologists first introduce the extensive studies of the human nervous system [5]. Cajal (1892) determined that the nervous system is comprised of some basic units i.e. discrete neurons, which communicate with the other neurons by sending electrical signals down their long axons, which ultimately activated and touch the dendrites(receptive areas) of thousands of other neurons, transmitting the electrical signals through synapses (points of contact, with variable resistance). Firstly, the different kinds of neurons were identified, and then analyze their electrical responses, and finally their patterns of connectivity and the brain’sgross functional areas were mapped out. According to the neurobiologists study the functi onality of individual neurons are quite simple and easy. Whereas to determine how neurons worked together to achieve high level functionality, such as perception and cognition are very difficult.[6] In 1943 McCulloch and Pitts proposed the first enumeration model of a neuron, named as binary threshold unit, whose output was either 0 or 1 depending on whether its net input exceeded a given threshold. There are various approaches proposed by the researchers to design an accurate speech recognition system for various purposes. In [7] Al-Alaoui algorithm is used to train the neural network. This method gives the comparable better results to the already implemented hidden markov model (HMM) for the recognition of the words. This algorithm also overcomes the disadvantages of the HMM in the recognition of sentences. An algorithm based on neural network classifier [8] for speech recognition used a new Viterbi net architecture which is recognized the input patterns and provided an accuracy of recognition rate more than 99% on a large speech database. This system is used for isolated word recognizer. In [9] author accomplishes the isolated word speech recognition using the neural network. The methodology of this approach is to extract the feature of speech signals using the Digital Signal Processing techniques and then classification using the Artificial Neural Network. This algorithm concluded that the better accurate recognition results are obtained from the probalistic Neural Network PNN. In [10] author implemented a pre- trained deep neural network using the hidden markov model (DNN-HMM) hybrid architecture which is used to train the DNN to produce the better recognition results of large vocabulary speech database. 4. PROPOSED WORK Speech recognition using the Epochwise Back propagation through time algorithm is proposed in this paper.In the proposed system neural network training is based on the calculation of epoch of the audio signal and then used these epoch value for the training of the neural network. The input data sets used to train the neural network can be partitioned in to the independent epochs. Each epoch representing a temporal value of the input data. Back propagationneural network used in the system in following steps. First choose and fix the architecture for the network, which will contain input, hidden and output units, all of which will contain sigmoid functions. Assign the weights between all the nodes. The assignments of weights usually between -0.5 and 0.5. Each training example is used, one after another, to re-train the weights in the network. After calculating each epoch for input audio data, a termination condition is checked. In neural network architecture the weights of input and hidden layers are adjusted according to the target output values [11] The input data is considered as E which is propagated through the network so that we can record all the observed values Oi(E) for the output nodes Oi. At the same time, we record all the observed values hi(E) for the hidden nodes. Then, for each output unit Ok, we calculate its epoch as follows: (1) The epoch terms from the output units are used to calculate epoch terms for the hidden units. In fact, this method gets its name because we propagate this information backwards through the network [12]. For each hidden unit Hk, we calculate the epoch as follows: (2) Here, we take the epoch term for every output unit and multiply it by the weight from hidden unit Hk to the output unit. We then add all these together and multiply the sum by hk(E)*(1 hk(E)). Having calculated all the epoch values associated with each unit (hidden and output), we can now transfer this information into the weight changes Δij between units i and j. The calculation is as follows: for weights wij between input unit Ii and hidden unit Hj, and summation of all units are as: (3) Back Propagation Neural Network architecture is shown in below figure Fig.2 Back propagation Neural Network The main steps of this system are defined as follows. Read the input audio Signal. Extract the epoch values Train the neural network on the basis of epoch values. Applied the back propagation neural network for the classification. Matching the input data with the trained data. Recognized the input. The data flow diagram of the proposed system represented in given figure C Figure 2 Proposed approaches for Speech Recognition 5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The experiment conducted on the audio database of English alphabets. Matlab R2010a (Math works) in Windows 7 was used to implement the proposed algorithm. The input signal is used to calculate the epoch values and then by using calculated epoch values the neural network is trained.The epoch rate of multi-layered networks over a training set could be calculated as the number of miss-classified data values. There are many output nodes, all of which could potentially misfire (e.g., giving a value close to 1 when it should have output 0 and vice-versa), we can be more sophisticated in our epoch evaluation. In practice the overall network epoch is calculated as: This is not as complicated as it first appears. The calculation simply involves working out the difference between the observed output for each output unit and the target output and squaring this to make sure it is positive, then adding up all these squared differences for each output unit and for each input signal. The calculated epoch values for audio signal A is listed in tabular form. Table: 1 Calculated Epoch values for input data Then epoch values are basically instant of significant excitation of the vocal-tract system during production of speech. Table 1 represented the Epoch values for the input English alphabet A in terms of time in mili seconds. These epoch values are stored in the computer for the further matching by using the neural networks to the recognition purpose. Similarly, epoch values are calculated for each input English alphabet and then train the network through these input patterns and stored in the system for recognition Figure 3 Performance graphs of epoch values. The figure 3 shows the performance of the system based on epoch values. The best validation performance epoch value is selected from the different epoch on the basis of Mean Square error. The graph is plotted on epoch and means squared error values. Table: 2 Performance of the proposed system In Table: 2 the recognition rate is calculated for five input English alphabet which is 98.8%. The new proposed Epochwise Back propagation through time algorithm yields the satisfactory results. 6. CONCLUSION In this paper, we implemented the Epochwise Back propagation through the time varying epoch calculation. The experiment is conducted on the small set of English Language alphabet to calculate the recognition rate of the system. Some different sound samples (i.e., with different sampling frequency) of each alphabet are taken and used for testing the system. The above results show the performance of our proposed algorithm in speech recognition. 7. REFERENCES Jianliang Meng, Junwei Zhang,Haoquan Zhao, â€Å"Overview of the speech Recognition Technology†, 2012 Fourth International Conference on Computational and Information Sciences. L. Fausset, Fundamentals of Neural Networks. PrenticeHall Inc., 1994, ch 4. Jiang Ming Hu, in the Yuan Baozong, Lin Biqin. Neural networks for speech recognition research and progress. Telecommunications Science, 1997, 13(7):1-6. H. Boulard and N. Morgan, â€Å"Continuous speech recognition by connectionist statistical methods,† IEEE Trans. Neural Netw., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 893–909, Nov. 1993. Mohamad Adnan Al-Alaoui, Lina Al-Kanj, Jimmy Azar, and Elias Yaacoub, â€Å"Speech recognition using Artificial Neural Network and Hidden Markov Model†, IEEE Multidisciplinary Engineering Education Magazine Vol. 3, No.3, September 2008. RICHARD P. LIPPMANN, â€Å"Neural Network Classifiers for Speech Recognition† The Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Volume 1, Number 1 (1988) Gulin Dede, Murat Husnu SazlÄ ±, â€Å"Speech recognition using artificial neural network.† Digital signal processing  © 2009 Elsevier Inc. George E. Dahl, Dong Yu, Li Deng, Alex Acero,† Context-Dependent Pre-Trained Deep Neural Networks for Large-Vocabulary Speech Recognition† , IEEE Transaction on Audio, and Language Processing, Vol. 20, No.1, January 2012. H. Paugam-Moisy, ‘Parallel neural computing based on network duplicating’,in Parallel Algorithms for Digital Image Processing, Computer Vision and Neural Networks, ed., I. Pitas, 305–340, JohnWiley, (1993). Stefano Scanzio, Sandro Cumani, Roberto Gemello, Franco Mana, P. Laface, â€Å"Parallel implementation of Artificial Neural Network Training for Speech Recognition.† Pattern recogonition letters,  © 2010 Elsevier B.V. N. Morgan and H. Bourlard, â€Å"Continuous speech recognition using multilayer perceptrons with hidden Markov models,† in Proc. ICASSP,1990, pp. 413–416. Y. Hifny and S. Renals, â€Å"Speech recognition using augmented conditional random fields,† IEEE Trans. Audio, Speech, Lang. Process., vol.17, no. 2, pp. 354–365, Feb. 2009.

Those Winter Sundays Essay -- Literary Analysis, Robert Hayden

Distance is a problem in many homes whether it be through emotional distance or physical Distance or it may just be that the word love is not spoken enough, in both Robert Hayden’s poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† and Rita Dove’s â€Å"Daystar† is a distant parent are they selfish or mean or is the love they do show just not understood? In Robert Hayden’s poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† show that children have a hard time understanding why a parent is distant the speaker says â€Å"Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on/ in the blueblack cold,†(Line 1-2) the father even gets up very early on Sundays as in the â€Å"blueblack cold† the speaker seems to not understand why the father does this why does he get up so early day after day? He seems to ask himself. The speaker observes that â€Å" †¦With cracked hands the ached from labor in the weekday weather/ banked fires blazed†(Line 3-5) the father works hard for his family his hands are cracked and sore and he still gets up earlier then the rest of his family and makes the fire blaze to warm the house for them. Distant parents even if they mean well and try to convey their love to their families through actions or deeds as the speaker states â€Å"No one ever thanked him† the father not seen as loving to the child. (Line 5) The speaker says â€Å"I will rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house,† there is usually a lot of tension and fear in a house hold with bad communication skills, the mother and father may fight or argue often or the distant parent if not both of them may be angry that the child does not understand their love and compassion The children grow to be uncaring and unresponsive to the actions that the parents do for the family as the speake... ...e that was hers for an hour†(Line 16-20) when they are making love she day dreams of her time with her self and the only thing she has is her thoughts she has no desire to love her husband as the speaker explains she thinks of the place â€Å"where she [is] nothing, pure nothing, in the middle of the day.†(Line 20-22) In Robert Hayden’s poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† there is a father who loves his cild and does kind things for his family he works hard getting up early everyday and â€Å"No one ever thanked him† (Hayden Line 5) and in Rita Dove’s â€Å"Daystar† there is the mother who is deeply depressed and is not happy with the life she has she is unhappy was being a mother and goes through the motions of everyday life because she has to as a mother. Children never benefit from distance in the home they rarely understand it and they never feel loved.