Culture of Sri Lanka Essay

Ceylon Tea The culture of Sri Lanka has been influenced by many factors, but has managed to retain much of its ancient aspects. Mostly it has been influenced by its long history and its Buddhist heritage. The country has a rich artistic tradition, embracing the fine arts, including music, dance, and visual arts. The Sri Lankan lifestyle is reflected in the cuisine, festivals, and sports. South Indian influences are visible in many aspects. There is also some influences from colonization by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British. Sri Lankan culture is best known abroad for its cricket, food, holistic medicine, religious icons like the Buddhist flag, and cultural exports such as tea, cinnamon and gems. Sri Lankan culture is diverse, as it varies from region to region. Sri Lanka has had ties with Indian subcontinent from ancient times. Demographics: Sinhalese 74.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 9.23%, Indian Tamil 4.16%, Sri Lankan Tamil 11.21%, Other 0.6%. History Main article: History of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka boasts of a documented history of over 2000 years with the first stone objects dating back to 500,000 BC mainly due to ancient historic scriptures like Mahawansa Several centuries of intermittent foreign influence, has transformed Sri Lankan culture to the present outlook. Nevertheless ancient traditions and festivals are celebrated by mostly conservative Sinhalese people of the island, together with other minorities that make up the Sri Lankan identity. Visual arts A royal palace in Polonnaruwa. Frescoes at Sigiiriya. Architecture Main articles: Architecture of Sri Lanka and Architecture of ancient Sri Lanka See also: List of Sri Lankan architects The architecture of Sri Lanka displays a rich variety of architectural forms and styles. Buddhism had a significant influence on Sri Lankan architecture, since it was introduced to the island in 3rd Century BCE. However techniques and styles developed in Europe and Asia have also played a major role in the architecture of Sri Lanka. Ritigala Arts and crafts Gilded bronze statue of the Bodhisattva Tara, from the Anuradhapura period, 8th century. Many forms of Sri Lankan arts and crafts take inspiration from the Island’s long and lasting Buddhist culture which in turn has absorbed and adopted countless regional and local traditions. In most instances Sri Lankan art originates from religious beliefs, and are represented in many forms such as painting, sculpture, and architecture. One of the most notable aspects of Sri Lankan art are caves and temple paintings, such as the frescoes found at Sigiriya and religious paintings found in temples in Dambulla and Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy. Other popular forms of art have been influenced by both natives as well as outside settlers. For example, traditional wooden handicrafts and clay pottery are found around the hill country while Portuguese-inspired lacework and Indonesian-inspired Batik have become notable. Its has many different and beautiful drawings. Performing arts Traditional Sri Lankan harvesting dance. People in Sri Lanka love the performing arts. The main style of performance is Bollywood. Dance Main article: Dances of Sri Lanka See also: Kandyan dance Sri Lanka is famous around the Indian ocean for Kandyan dancing. Music Main article: Music of Sri Lanka The two single biggest influences on Sri Lankan music are from Buddhism and Portuguese colonizers. Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka after the Buddha’s visit in 300 BC, while the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century, bringing with them cantiga ballads, the ukulele, and guitars, along with African slaves, who further diversified the musical roots of the island. These slaves were called kaffrinha, and their dance music was called baila. Traditional Sri Lankan music includes the hypnotic Kandyan drums – drumming was and is very much a part and parcel of music in both Buddhist and Hindu temples in Sri Lanka. Most western parts of Sri Lanka follow western dancing and music. Cinema Main article: Cinema of Sri Lanka The movie Kadawunu Poronduwa (The broken promise), produced by S. M. Nayagam of Chitra Kala Movietone, heralded the coming of Sri Lankan cinema in 1947. Ranmuthu Duwa (Island of treasures, 1962) marked the transition cinema from black-and-white to color. It in the recent years has featured subjects such as family melodrama, social transformation, and the years of conflict between the military and the LTTE. Their cinematic style is similar to the Bollywood movies. In 1979, movie attendance rose to an all-time high, but recorded a gradual downfall since then. Undoubtedly, the most influential and revolutionary filmmaker in the history of Sri Lankan cinema is Lester James Peiris, who has directed a number of movies which led to global acclaim, including Rekava (Line of destiny, 1956), Gamperaliya (The changing village, 1964), Nidhanaya (The treasure, 1970), and Golu Hadawatha (Cold Heart, 1968).There are many cinemas around Sri Lanka in city areas. Media and technology Radio and TV See also: Telecommunications in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka was introduced with many technologies. Lifestyle Cuisine Main article: Sri Lankan cuisine Kiribath with lunumiris The cuisine of Sri Lanka draws influence from that of India, especially from Kerala, as well as colonists and foreign traders. Rice, which is usually consumed daily, can be found at any special occasion, while spicy curries are favourite dishes for lunch and dinner. A very popular alcoholic drink is toddy or arrack, both made from palm tree sap. Rice and curry refers to a range of Sri Lankan dishes. Sri Lankans also eat hoppers (Aappa, Aappam), which can be found anywhere in Sri Lanka. Much of Sri Lanka’s cuisine consists of boiled or steamed rice served with spicy curry. Another well-known rice dish is kiribath, meaning milk rice. Curries in Sri Lanka are not just limited to meat or fish-based dishes, there are also vegetable and even fruit curries. A typical Sri Lankan meal consists of a â€Å"main curry† (fish, chicken, or mutton), as well as several other curries made with vegetable and lentils. Side-dishes include pickles, chutneys and â€Å"sambols† which can sometimes be fiery hot. The most famous of these is the coconut sambol, made of scraped coconut mixed with chili peppers, dried Maldivian fish and lime juice. This is ground to a paste and eaten with rice, as it gives zest to the meal and is believed to increase appetite. In addition to sambols, Sri Lankans eat â€Å"mallung†, chopped leaves mixed with grated coconut and red onions. Coconut milk is found in most Sri Lankan dishes to give the cuisine its unique flavor. As noted above many of Sri Lanka’s urban areas are host to American fast food corporations and many of the younger generation have started to take a liking to this new style of cuisine although it is rejected by many, particularly the more traditional elder members of the commu nity. Spices Sri Lanka has long been renowned for its spices. The best known is cinnamon which is native to Sri Lanka. In the 15th and 16th centuries, spice and ivory traders from all over the world who came to Sri Lanka brought their native cuisines to the island, resulting in a rich diversity of cooking styles and techniques. Lamprais rice boiled in stock with a special curry, accompanied by frikkadels (meatballs), all of which is then wrapped in a banana leaf and baked as a Dutch-influenced Sri Lankan dish. Dutch and  Portuguese sweets also continue to be popular. British influences include roast beef and roast chicken. Also, the influence of the Indian cooking methods and food have played a major role in what Sri Lankans eat. Sri Lankans use spices liberally in their dishes and typically do not follow an exact recipe: thus, every cook’s curry will taste slightly different. Furthermore, people from different regions of the island (for instance, hill-country dwellers versus coastal dwellers) traditionally cook in different ways. Sri Lankan cuisine is known to be among the world’s spiciest, due to the high use of different varieties of chili peppers referred to as amu miris (Chili pepper), kochchi miris, and maalu miris (Banana pepper) (capsicum) and in Tamil Milakaai, among others. It is generally accepted for tourists to request that the food is cooked with a lower chilli content to cater for the more sensitive Western palette. Food cooked for public occasions typically uses less chillie than food cooked in the home, the latter where the food is cooked with the chilli content preferable to the occupants. Tea culture Tea plantation near Kandy Being one of the largest producers of tea in the world, Sri Lankans drink a lot of tea.There are many tea factories around mountainous areas. Many Sri Lankans drink at least three cups a day. Sri Lanka is also one of the best tea-producing countries in the world and the Royal Family of the United Kingdom has been known to drink Ceylon tea. Tea is served whenever a guest comes to a house, it is served at festivals and gatherings or just for breakfast. Festivals and holidays New Year Main article: Sinhala and Tamil new year The Sinhala and Tamil new year (â€Å"Aluth Avurudhu† in Sinhala, â€Å"Puthiyathandu† in Tamil) is a very large cultural event on the island. The festival falls in April (also known as the month of Bak) when the sun moves from the Meena Rashiya (House of Pisces) to the Mesha Rashiya (House of Aries). Unusually, both the end of one year and the beginning of the next occur not at midnight but at separate times determined by astrologers with a period of some hours between (the â€Å"nona gathe† or neutral period) being a time where one is  expected to refrain from all types of work and instead engage solely in relaxing religious activities and traditional games. During the New Year, festivities both children and adults will often don traditional outfits. But the clothes must be washed and very clean because it should be southam (pure). List of holidays January Tuesday Duruthu Full Moon Poya Day (In honour of Lord Buddha’s first visit to Sri Lanka) *† # January Tamil Thai Pongal Day *† # 4 February Monday National Day *† # February Navam Full Moon Poya Day (The Buddha proclaims for the first time a code of fundamental ethical precepts for the monks) *† # March Thursday Maha Sivarathri Day *†  March Thursday Milad-Un-Nabi (Muhammad’s birthday) *†  March Medin Full Moon Poya Day (Commemorates the visit of The Buddha to his home to preach to his father King Suddhodana and other relatives) *† # March Friday Good Friday *†  13 April Day prior to Sinhala and Tamil New Year Day (the month of Bak) when the sun moves from the Meena Rashiya (House of Pisces) to the Mesha Rashiya (House of Aries) Sri Lankans begin celebrating their National New Year) *† # 14 April Sinhala and Tamil New Year Day *† # April Friday Additional Bank Holiday †  April Bak Full Moon Poya Day (commemorates the second visit of The Buddha to Sri Lanka) *† # 1 May Thursday May Day *† # May Vesak Full Moon Poya Day (The Buddhist calendar begins) *† # May Day following Vesak Full Moon Poya Day *† # June Poson Full Moon Poya Day (Commemorates the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka) *† # July Esala Full Moon Poya Day (Commemorates the deliverance of the first sermon to the five ascetics and setting in motion the Wheel of the Dhamma by Buddha) *† # August Nikini Full Moon Poya Day (conducting of the first Dhamma Sangayana (Convocation)by Buddha) *† # September Binara Full Moon Poya Day (Commemorates The Buddha’s visit to heaven to preach to his mother and celestial multitude) *† # October Wednesday Id-Ul-Fitr (Ramazan Festival Day) *†  October Vap Full Moon Poya Day (King Devanampiyatissa of Sri Lanka sending envoys to King Asoka requesting him to send his daughter Arahat Sanghamitta Theri to Sri Lanka to establish the Bhikkhuni Sasana (Order of Nuns)) *† # October Monday Deepavali Festival Day *†  November Il Full Moon Poya Day (Celebrates the obtaining of Vivarana (the assurance of becoming a Buddha)) *† # December Tuesday Id-Ul-Adha (Hajj Festival Day) *†  December Monday Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day (Sanghamitta Theri established the Bhikkhuni Sasana (the Order of Nuns)) *† # 25 December Saturday Christmas Day *† # * Public holiday, †  Bank holiday, # Mercantile holiday All full-moon days are Buddhist holidays referred to as Poya. The actual date on which a particular Poya day will fall changes every year. Religion Main article: Religion in Sri Lanka See also: Hinduism in Sri Lanka, Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Islam in Sri Lanka A Hindu temple in Colombo Sri Lanka’s culture also revolves around religion. The Buddhist community of Sri Lanka observe Poya Days, once per month according to the Lunar calendar. The Hindus and Muslims also observe their own holidays. Sri Lankans are very religious because the history of the island has been involved with religion numerous times. There are many Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka associated with ancient times. The religious preference of an area could be determined by the number of religious institutions in the area. The North and the East of the island has several notable Hindu temples due to majority Tamil population reside in those areas and ethnic conflict has severely affected other communities living on these areas during the times of LTTE strife. Many churches could be found along the southern coast line because of former Roman Catholic or Protestant colonial heritage. Buddhists reside in all parts of the island especially down south and in upcountry and western seaboard. They are the largest religious group in Sri Lanka. Languages of Sri Lanka Main article: Languages of Sri Lanka While the Sinhalese people speak Sinhala as their mother tongue, the Tamil people speak Tamil. English is also widely spoken. Sinhala is spoken by about 16 million people in Sri Lanka, about 13 million of whom are native speakers. It is one of the constitutionally-recognized official languages of Sri Lanka, along with Tamil, which originates from South India. Sports Main article: Sport in Sri Lanka Cricket in Sri Lanka Sports plays a very big part in Sri Lankan culture, because the society was quite rich in educated people, therefore the people had found playing a sport is an important thing in life. Sri Lanka’s main sport is cricket. But after the age of Englishman’s cricket, being the most popular sport event in Sri Lanka. Every child in Sri Lanka knows how to play cricket, and there are many cricket fields scattered across the island for children and adults to play the sport. The biggest pastime of the Sri Lankan population, after cricket, is watching the Sri Lankan national team play cricket. It is common for businesses to shut down, when very big matches are televised. This was the case in 1996, when the Sri Lankan team beat Australia in the finals to win the Cricket World Cup. The whole country was shut down, although there was a curfew imposed upon the whole island. Cricket Main article: Cricket in Sri Lanka Cricket is the most popular sport in Sri Lanka. After the 1996 Cricket World Cup, triumph of the Sri Lanka national cricket team, the sport became the most watched event in the country. But in recent years, the politicians and the businessman getting into the sport has raised many concerns. Volleyball Volleyball is not a popular in Sri-Lanka, because Cricket is one of the popular sport in Sri-Lanka. Rugby Main article: Rugby in Sri Lanka National symbols Main articles: Flag of Sri Lanka, Coat of arms of Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan anthem This section requires expansion. (January 2012) Tourism Main article: Tourism in Sri Lanka This section requires expansion. (January 2012) World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka Anuradhapura Central Highlands Galle and its Fortifications Golden Temple of Dambulla Kandy Polonnaruwa Sigiriya Sinharaja Forest Reserve Sri Lankan people Sri Lankan literature Henry Parker (author), British engineer who studied and compiled the oral tradition of Sri Lanka. References 1. http://www.statistics.gov.lk/abstract2010/chapters/Chap2/AB2-13.pdf 2. http://bookonsrilanka.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/growing-up-white-in-south-asia.pdf 3. http://mahavamsa.org/ 4. â€Å"LANKALIBRARY FORUM †¢ View topic – Home and family in ancient and medieval Sri Lanka†. Lankalibrary.com. 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2012-06-29. External links [1] Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 of â€Å"Village Folk-tales of Ceylon† by Henry Parker (Public Domain) Sri Lanka a cultural profile Sri Lanka culture Cultural Festivals and Public Holidays in Sri Lanka

Benefits of a particular spreadsheet Essay

Benefits Potential Refinements In the spreadsheet there are a few refinements that could be changed in the spreadsheet including the graph, but then these are also little minor refinements that can be changed to make this spreadsheet more potentially better. First off all the graph could have been changed or even a new graph could be added in on the spreadsheet. Maybe some people can’t see the difference in a bar graph or can’t tell what the information can tell, so maybe another graph could be added like a pie chart or a line graph. This way people can tell which coach is better in price. Also the graph could have the number of coaches needed and how many coaches are available at that time of the day. Finally the graph can also have the details of the coaches, so when the user decides on which coach to use they can contact them and confirm their details. So over all the spreadsheet has many benefits than potential refinements that need doing, but on the over hand the refinements are not major errors on the spreadsheet.

Henkel

Bob Simmons – Strategic Transformation Case Summary: Henkel was a German manufacturer of laundry products. Went public in 1985. In 2008 it was 14 Billion pounds in 125 countries. Majority in EMEA. Most of exe team were German. Organized into three major business units: Adhesive Technologies 48%(glue stick), Laundry and Home Care 30%, Cosmetics/Toiletries 22%. Industry leader in adhesives. Rorsted took over as CEO in 2008. Henkel was reporting comfortable growth and profits with 8% growth.Second half of 2008 global financial crisis and economic slowdown had negative effect on Henkel’s key markets. Shrinking demand and rising costs caused business untis to fall in second half of 2008. Rosted vowed to transform Henkel into a leaner, more performance driven company. â€Å"staying where we are is no longer an option. We either move up or move down: we either become relevant or we will be made irrelevant. â€Å" This case illustrates the transformation of a CEO-led organiza tion driven stretch goals, performance measurement and accountability.Kasper Rorsted become CEO of Henkel, the German personal care, laundry, and adhesive products manufacturer, in 2008, he was determined to transform the â€Å"good enough† corporate culture focused on to win in the fierce competition in the market. In history, Henkel is a comfortable, stable workplace. Many employees have never received a negative performance feedback. To overthrow a generally complacent attitude, Rorsted implementation of a multi-step change initiatives, aimed at establishing a â€Å"winning culture. First, in November 2008, in 2012 he announced a series of ambitious financial goals. With the financial crisis to disrupt the global economy, he reiterated his commitment to these goals, sent a clear signal, Henkel employees and external stakeholders an excuse is no longer acceptable. Rorsted duties launch a new set of five values replace the previous 10 values, these employees can recite the first memory an emphasis on the customer. He also set up a new, streamlined performance management system for evaluating management performance and progress of a four-point scale of potential.The system also includes a forced ranking requirements, requiring a defined percentage of the various business units and company-wide staff was named the top, strong, medium, or low performance. These ratings significantly impact management’s bonus compensation. In this case, where it is needed at the end of 2011, when Henkel is a good way to achieve its 2012 target. Shed nearly half of the senior management team, as the site of many products and brands, Henkel seems to be a leaner, more competitive, â€Å"win† the organization. Hide This case illustrates a CEO-led organizational transformation driven by stretch goals, performance measurement, and accountability. When Kasper Rorsted became CEO of Henkel, a Germany-based producer of personal care, laundry, and adhesives products, in 2008, he was determined to transform a corporate culture of â€Å"good enough† into one singularly focused on winning in a competitive marketplace. Historically, Henkel was a comfortable, stable place to work. Many employees never received negative performance feedback.Seeking to overturn a pervasive attitude of complacency, Rorsted implemented a multi-step change initiative aimed at building a â€Å"winning culture. † First, in November 2008, he announced a set of ambitious financial targets for 2012. As financial turmoil roiled the global economy, he reaffirmed his commitment to these targets, sending a clear signal to Henkel employees and external stakeholders that excuses were no longer acceptable. Rorsted next introduced a new set of five company values-replacing the previous list of 10 values, which few employees could recite by memory-the first of which emphasized a focus on customers.He also instituted a new, simplified performance management system, which r ated managers' performance and advancement potential on a four-point scale. The system also included a forced ranking requirement, mandating that a defined percentage of employees (in each business unit and company-wide) be ranked as top, strong, moderate, or low performers. These ratings significantly impacted managers' bonus compensation. In late 2011-the time in which the case takes place-Henkel is well on its way to achieving its 2012 targets.Having shed nearly half its top management team, along with numerous product sites and brands, Henkel appears to be a leaner, more competitive, â€Å"winning† organization. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales. [email  protected] com to buy additional rights. http://www. ft. com/cms/s/0/6a85b182-1128-11e2-a637-00144feabdc0. html#ixzz2ODYNf8Gg The story.In 2008, Henkel, the German group with well-known brands ranging from Persil to Loctite, had reported comfortable growth and earnings. But its new chief executive, Kasper Rorsted, a Dane who had made his career in big IT companies, thought the 132-year-old, family-controlled company needed to shake off some of its complacency if it was to safeguard its success. * * * * More On this story * Case Study How a publisher exploited a bestseller * Case Study How an outsider institutes change * Case Study If P&C’s improved staff performance Case Study Microsoft Lync’s bottom-up restructure * Case Study How to build a low-cost brand The challenge. Henkel faced several serious issues. For instance, while reporting solid sales, it was less profitable than its industry peers – by a margin of up to 10 percentage points. But the majority of employees did not see any need for change. In fact, one analyst commented that it was characterised by â€Å"complacency and lack of competitive spirit†. Mr Rorsted determined to change the way the company was run and to create â€Å"a winning culture†.The strategy. Mr Rorsted and his new, young team set about introducing changes that would include both tangible financial and performance targets, and an overhaul? of? company? culture. ? Ambitious targets. In November 2008, Henkel announced challenging targets for 2012 that would improve performance but would also energise the organisation by creating a sense of urgency. Targets included an increase in pre-tax profit margins to 14 per cent; in earnings per share; and in sales, to above the market average.In addition, the share of sales in emerging countries would be required to rise from 33 per cent to 45 per cent by 2012. ? Efficiency and focus. With more than 1,000 brands, at least 200 production sites globally, and three separate business units, Henkel was ripe for proposed efficiency measures. These included cutting the number of brands in order to put more m arketing resources behind its strongest labels; consolidating manufacturing sites; and shifting tasks to shared service centres. ? New vision and values.Henkel had a vision statement and a set of company values. But they were neither well-known nor relevant to either day-to-day decision-making or evaluation of employee performance. In 2010, Henkel replaced the original list of 10 values with five new ones – such as: â€Å"We put our customers at the centre of what we do. † To make sure these were communicated to the 48,000 employees, more than 5,000 workshops were held in which managers and teams discussed how the new values could apply to their work and how they could build a more positive company culture. Performance management. Henkel introduced a process to evaluate consistently the performance and potential of all management-level employees. They would be ranked on relative performance, which significantly affected managers’ bonuses. Each individual is revi ewed in â€Å"development roundtables†, interactive meetings where managers review and evaluate their direct reports across teams to create a broader perspective on their achievements, development needs and promotability. What happened.For fiscal 2012, Henkel’s global sales are forecast to exceed â‚ ¬16bn ($20bn), a rise of more than â‚ ¬2bn since 2008, and reach its profit margin target of 14 per cent. Emerging markets now represent 43 per cent of global sales, and more than 50 per cent of employees work in those territories. The number of brands is less than 400 and manufacturing sites have been consolidated by around 25 per cent. Key lessons. To boost performance across a company, communicate a clear strategy that is backed up by setting ambitious targets.Simplify your vision and values, and take time to communicate them to all employees to ensure they provide practical guidance, especially when tough decisions may be needed. To focus everyone on successful ex ecution, use performance management systems that link the evaluation and compensation of key employees to achievement of the new strategy Write down in a sentence or two your definition of a winning culture. What are the things that you like about Rorsted’s approach? What are the risks? Assuming that the 2012 EBIT margin goal is achieved, how should Rorsted

Emerging Political Tensions between Israel and Palestine Research Paper

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Marketing - Essay Example Additionally, employees have the opportunity to take early retirement, meaning that they can take one day off during the week in exchange of promise to work for one day a week after their retirement. The employees are granted an opportunity to appraise and rate their bosses twice yearly and bosses who consistently exhibit poor performance are squeezed out. SEMCO have policies that ensure openness of the financial statements that enable low level employees such as secretaries, receptionists and factory workers understand the financial performance of the company. The salaries of employees are available to the public unless the concerned employee is willing to maintain his or privacy. SEMCO has allowed all employees to set their own individual production quotas, thus motivating employees to voluntarily work overtime. The company has implemented a profit sharing policy that includes all workers even the factory workers and senior managers are not entitled to large bonuses. The company ha s implemented six types of rewards that include commissions on the gross margin, stipends, bonuses, profit sharing and royalty on sale of profit. A classical organisation with a traditional approach to industrial relationships is Interserve plc of the United Kingdom. ... Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) is the only trade union that caters for only the needs of construction workers in the UK. Its membership spreads across Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. Construction industry in the UK has continued to exploit the workers through low wages, dubious employment agencies and poor working conditions (Dunlop, 1993 p. 50). Industrial relations can be defined as the institutions and processes that establish and foster rules and regulations in the workplace. Industrial relations dates back to the industrial revolution era that was characterized by low wages, limited markets and capitalist thoughts of business owners (Batstone, 1988 p. 10). According to human resource management perspective, industrial relations involve employment contracts, government agencies, and conflicts that arise due to interactions in the workplace. According to Bean (2004), industrial relations refer to the nature of relationships among employ er, employees, the trade unions, and management p. 47). Industrial relations established democracy in the organisation and improves the morale of employees. Industrial relations will also foster enactment of sound labour laws, ensure fair employment practices and ensure efficient use of human capital in the organisation (Harcourt and Wood, 2006 p. 100). Industrial related conflicts result from diverse social economic, political and psychological factors. There are different approaches to industrial relations in an organisation. One of the approaches is the psychological approach that asserts that perceptions of workers, management and trade unions contribute to job related conflicts in the organisation (Salamon, 2000 p. 41). For instance, the beliefs and

INDUSTRIYAL ANALYSIS-SWOT ANALYSIS-COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS Research Paper

INDUSTRIYAL ANALYSIS-SWOT ANALYSIS-COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS - Research Paper Example The growth data that was compiled by Datamonitor in 2010 approximated that in 2014, the US film market had a value of roughly $48.2 billion, which was an increase of around 0.3% since the year 2009 (Highbeam Business, 2009; Redwood Capital, 2014 ). The industry has also increased its economy of scale. For instance, after Marvel was bought by Disney in 2009, it expanded both in the animation as well as the movie sector. The revenue has also increased and in 2013 it was roughly $36 billion with North America having the largest share of $11.8 billion. It is projected that the global proceeds will continue to grow, reaching approximately $44 billion in the year 2017. There has also been an increase in online ticketing with major players such as Fandango whose tickets cover over 22,00 screens in diverse nations across the US as well as Europe. In 2005, there was purchase of 1.38 billion tickets and in 2006 the bought tickets were 1.68 billion in Canada and the US. The online film ticketing is projected to reach around $13.7 billion by the year 2017. From the figures, it is evident that the movie industry will continue to expand and generate increased revenue in the coming years (Redwood Capital, 2014). Movie related theatres come in diverse sizes as well as shapes and developing one at the heart of Winston Salem in North Carolina is important since the region has only five theatres unlike other regions such as Charlotte that has 14. The region is perfect sine there will be an opportunity for a new experience and local competition will be low. The theatre will be developed in an old warehouse that is located in Winston Salem. In finding a suitable place, one of the main challenges will be to access its suitability. There will also be a need to ensure that the building meets reasonable legal standards of health as well as safety for all persons. Therefore, the management will need to come up with a safety guideline, covering issues such as fire, conservation of

Critical Paper Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay Example for Free

Critical Paper Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est is a forlorn poem of his experience in the First World War. Owen recounts his story as he and fellow infantrymen march ‘knock-kneed, coughing like hags’ across the wasteland that is the battle front(line 2). Most of the focus is on the exhaustion from battle, but changes attention when ‘hoots’ of gas-shells rain down on their position. Weariness quickly turns to ‘An ecstasy of fumbling’ (line 9) as the soldiers fit their gas masks, but one soldier is not fast enough. Owen then relates his first hand tale and demise of the footman chocking to death from mustard gas. The reader is forced to witness this horrid death and ask ourselves; ‘Dulce et descorum est,/Pro patria mori’ (line 27-28). Lines 1-8 are used to describe a scene of war-torn men on a forced march across a wasteland. Such phrases as, ‘old beggars’, and ‘coughing like hags’ gives the reader an idea of what condition that the infantrymen are in. Such phrases denote a negative image as to associate the infantrymen as vagrants in poor physical condition. With those who ‘lost their boots’ now find themselves ‘blood-shod,’ rather than being bare foot. The word shod is an old English term for shoeing a horse, again negative connotation of the infantrymen as sub-human beings. Lines 5 and 7 give depth to the state of despondency that general infantrymen are in. Owen chooses the phrase ‘Drunk with fatigue’ to show the depth of exhaustion the infantrymen are experiencing. To be drunk, as to be intoxicated with the absolute exhaustion; denoting fatigue as some drug that overwhelms the senses and coordination. They do not give credence to the reality they are in until a gas shell sends them into an ‘ecstasy of fumbling’ for a gas mask. Ecstasy’ is used not to give the connotation of delight and happiness, but rather the stark contrast of frenzy. Lines 9 and 11 end with ‘fumbling’ and ‘stumbling’, respectively, to give depth the infantrymen’s state of condition. Later, in lines 14 and 16, an association is draw between the engulfing gas and a man drowning. Owen depicts a ma n in a green sea drowning (line 14) to be later plunging at him (line 16); both giving the allusion between being engulfed in water or noxious gas. Again, in line 17, Owen asks the reader to ‘pace.. in some smothering dream’; a reoccurring theme of being deprived of air. The second stanza utilizes the most guttural connotation of such words as to describe the corpse. From the ‘gargling†¦froth-corrupted lungs’, to the ‘vile, incurable sores’, Owen wants to galvanize the true wickedness of war. The reader is told of how gas can ‘corrupt lungs’ and put ‘sores on innocent tongues’. This contrast is vital because it depicts how war can taint that which is most holy. In saying that the corpse’s face hung ‘like a devil’s sick of sin,’ gives yet another reference between evil and war, but it has another meaning. To imply the devil would be overwhelmed with such amount of evil implies that one cannot grasp the horrors of war. The poem then ends with a sort of thesis statement that to die for one’s country is neither right nor sweet. Dulce begins as a slow trudge of despondent soldiers, to a fanatic race for safety, then a slow, visceral portrayal of life being wrenched away from man, opposed to the titles suggestion for war hysteria and propaganda. But the main theme is not to just illustrate the dregs of war but to give the reader the truth of war. He makes the reader place themselves on the front line to look death and despair in the eye.

Emotion Recognition System for Affective Text

Emotion Recognition System for Affective Text K.Thendral, Dr.S.Chitrakala, S.P.Surendernath ABSTRACT: Mining social emotions deals with a new aspect for categorizing the document based on the emotions such as happy, sad, sympathy, etc., theyhelp online users to select related documents based on their emotional preferences. Aiming to find the connections between social emotions and affect terms and thus predict the social feeling from text content mechanically. Joint emotion-topic model by augmenting Latent Dirichlet Allocation with an additional layer for emotion modelling initially generates a group of latent topics from emotions, followed by generating affect terms from every topic. The techniques involved in this are emotion term model, topic model and emotion topic model. The emotion-topic model utilizes the complementary advantages of both emotion term model and topic model,and is not only effective in extracting the meaningful latent topics, but also improves the performance of social emotion prediction. Keywords – Affective Text,Emotion-topic model, Latent Dirichilet Allocation. 1. INTRODUCTION: An emotion is a Meta communicative pictorial representation of a facial expression which in the absence of body language and probably draw to serve a receiver’s attention to the tenor or temper of a sender’s nominal verbal communication, changing and improving its interpretation. It expresses-usually by means of punctuation marks – a person’s feelings or mood and can include numbers and letters. The interrelation of text and emotions has been a captivating topic for centuries. What makes people feel what they read? How is the writer’s emotion conveyed in a text? How can we write to communicate an emotional message more clearly? A number of researchers have attempted to obtain answers to these questions for a long time and there is an enormous amount of literature on techniques and devices for emotion detection. (Bloom, Garg, Argamon, 2007;) Two attempts to measure emotions are based on two different models: dimensional and categorical. In the categorical model emotions are labelled, say that a person is â€Å"happy† or â€Å"sad†and people get a sense of what others mean. In the dimensional model the representation is using multidimensional scaling (e.g. â€Å"pleasant-unpleasant†, â€Å"excitement†, and â€Å"yielding-resisting†). In the affective computing domain, supervised learning techniques are preferred due to strong performance. However, a challenge to using supervised techniques is the need for corpora with text that has been annotated with emotion labels. These are time consuming and expensive to produce. Unsupervised techniques do not have these requirements but are often less precise. 2. RELATED WORK Many methods have been proposed to mine emotions from the text and social networks. Affective text mining deals with mining emotions from affective words. SemEval introduced a task named â€Å"affective text† in 2007 [2], aiming to annotate short headline texts with a predefined list of emotions and/or polarity orientation (positive/negative).There is a large body of previous work on mining affective content from text documents, product reputation mining [10], customer opinionextraction/summarization[11], [12], and sentiment classification [13]. However, none of these studies explores the connection between social emotions and affective terms. An online system Mood Views has also been developed for tracking and searching emotion annotated blog posts [12], [13], [14], [15]. The posts are published with an indicator of the â€Å"current mood† of the blogger, at the time of posting the blog. Mood-Views is a platform for collecting, analyzing, and displaying aggregate moods in the blog space. Launched in mid-2005, Mood Views continuously collects these emotion indications, as well as the blog posts themselves, and provides a number of services. Despite the success of previous work on emotion prediction, existing approaches usually model documents under the â€Å"bag-of-word† assumption, so that the relationship across words is not taken into account. This also prevents us from further understanding the connections between emotions and contents in the topic level, because it is arguable that emotions should be linked to specificdocument topics. D.M. Blei, A.Y. Ng, and M.I. Jordan [8] proposed Latent Dirichlet Allocation generative probabilistic model for collections of discrete data such as text corpora. LDA is a three-level hierarchical Bayesian model, in which each item of a collection is modelled as a finite mixture over an underlying set of topics. Each topic is, in turn, modelled as an infinite mixture over an underlying set of topic probabilities. In the context of text modelling, the topic probabilities provide an explicit representation of a document. Joint latent topic model for text and citations [8].The Pairwise-Link-LDA model combines the ideas of LDA [4] and Mixed Membership Block Stochastic Models [1] and allows modelling arbitrary link structure. However, the model is computationally expensive, since it involves modelling the presence or absence of a citation (link) between every pair of documents. The second model solves this problem by assuming that the link structure is a bipartite graph. As the name indicates, Link-PLSA-LDA model combines the LDA and PLSA models into a single graphical model. I. Titov and R. McDonald [8] proposed statistical model which is able to discover corresponding topics in text and extract textual evidence from reviews supporting each of these aspect ratings – a fundamental problem in aspect-based sentiment summarization. Achieve high accuracy, without any labelled data except the user opinion ratings. Rosen-Zvi et al. [3] merged author factors with document generation to jointly estimate document contents as well as author interests. From the perspective of model generation, their author variable shares some similarity with the emotion variable in this model. The key difference lies in different sampling distributions. Their author variable is chosen uniformly from a set of authors while emotion variable is sampled from multinomial distributions by the emotions contributed by web users. 3. PROPOSED SYSTEM An online text collection D is associated with a vocabulary W,and a set of predefined emotions E. Comparing the extracted and optimized content with the already founded latent topics that relating to the extracted and optimized content with the already founded latent topics that relating to each emotion. Based on the result we are finding which emotion the particular content represents. Based on the user emotion requests the categorized content will display. Objective is to accurately model the connections between words and emotions, and improve the performance of its related tasks such as emotion prediction. Both the emotion –term model and emotion-topic model can be applied to emotion prediction by estimating their probability to evaluate their prediction performance.In this paper, proposing a joint emotion-topic model for social affective text mining, which introduces an additional layer of emotion modelling into Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Proposed model follows a three-step generation process for affective terms, which first generates an emotion from a document-specific emotional distribution, then generates a latent topic from a Multinomial distribution conditioned on emotions, and finally generates document terms from another Multinomial distribution based on latent topics. Because its exact inference is intractable, developing an approximate inference method based on Gibbs sampling. For social emotionprediction, the proposed model outperforms the emotion term model, term-based SVM model, and topic-based SVM model significantly. 3.1 EMOTION TERM MODEL Emotion-term model,follows the Naive Bayes method by assuming words are independently generated from social emotion labels. It generates each word wi of document d in two sampling steps, i.e., sample an emotion ei according to the emotion frequency count d, and sample a word wi given the emotion under the conditional probability P (w|e). The model parameters can be learned by maximum likelihood estimation. It can be formally derived based on the word and emotion frequency counts. To use the emotion-term models for predicting emotion on a new document d, apply the Bayes theorem (1)under the term independence assumption. P (e|d) = P(d|e) ÃŽ ± P (d | e) P(e)(1) P(d) where P(e) is the a priori probability of emotion e. It can again be calculated by maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) from the emotion distribution of the entire collection. 3.2 TOPIC MODEL Many topic models have been proposed and well-studied in previous work, of which, LDA [8] is one of the most successful models. LDA addresses the over fitting problem faced by other models like pLSI by introducing a Dirichlet prior over topics and words. Although LDA can only discover the topics from document and cannot bridge the connection between social emotion and affective text, for the ease of understanding in the following description, a simple review of LDA is here. In the first study of LDA, proposed a convexity-based variation inference method for inference and parameter estimation under LDA. P(zi=j|z-i,w)ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ² + ÃŽ ± (2) + | W | ÃŽ ² +|Z| ÃŽ ± where n-i means the count that does not include the current assignment of zi, is the number of times word w has been assigned to topic j, and is the number of times a word from document d has been assigned to topic j. Fig.1. Proposed System Architecture 3.3 EMOTION TOPIC MODEL Emotion-term model simply treats terms individually and cannot discover the contextual information within the document. While topic model utilizes the contextual information within the documents, it fails to utilize the emotional distribution to guide the topic generation. In this paper, proposing a new approach called emotion topic model. The importance of this latent topic generation in the affective text mining is very much Likewise, different latent topics are discovered based on the emotions involved in it. Those latent topics should be collected together as a whole so that whenever needed it can be referred. After collecting each and every topic, it should be categorized on the basis of the different emotions such as love, happy, sad, sympathy, worry etc..They are used to select the document based on the preference assigned to the emotions. Relate the social emotions with an affective term that predict the emotions automatically from the text. After collecting and categorizing each latent topic based on different emotions, are stored to check with the extracted content. Then the topics are compared with the extracted content as a result of which it will generate topics and get processed. For each word the posterior distribution on emotion â€Å"Æ Ã¢â‚¬  and topic â€Å"z† based on the following conditional probabilities which can be derived by the following equations (3). P(Æ i=e|ÃŽ ³, Æ -i, z, w;ÃŽ ±,ÃŽ ²) ÃŽ ± ÃŽ ±+* ÃŽ ³ di,e(3) |z|ÃŽ ±+ÃŽ ³di,eà ªÃ… ¾Ã…’ Where e and z are the candidate emotion and topic for sampling.di D indicates the document from which current word wi is sampled.is the number of times topic z has been assigned to emotion e. 4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS This section presents the experimental results on both joint emotion topic modelling and its application to emotion prediction .News articles were collected from the news portal and the input data’s are pre-processed to remove stem and stop words and perform tagging to extract the explicit words.Word frequency, document frequency were calculated. Emotion term model performs calculating word frequency and the emotion frequency count and the corresponding terms and emotion were obtained. (a) Topic modelling which generates set of topics for the input documentConsists of the word and associated topic. (b) Emotion topic model bridges the connection between words and the emotion with the associated topic. (c) The standard parameters which are used for experimental evaluation are precision,recall and accuracy.Precision is defined as number of retrieved relevant documents divided by total number of retrieved documents and the recall is the number of retrieved relevant document divided by total number of relevant documents in the database. Accuracy can be calculated as relevant document retrieved in top T returns divided by T. Precision = Number of retrieved relevant document Total number of retrieved documents Recall = Number of retrieved relevant document Total number of relevant documents Accuracy = Relevant documents retrieved in top T T (d) Emotion Distribution (e)Precision, recall and f-score Fig.2.(a)Emotion term model (b) Topic model (c) Emotion topic model(d) Emotion distribution(e)Precision, recall 5.CONCLUSION This paper, presents and analyse a new problem called social affective text mining, which aims to discover and model the connections between online documents and user-generated social emotions. To this end, proposing a new joint emotion-topic model by augmenting Latent Dirichlet Allocation with an intermediate layer for emotion modelling. Rather than emotion term model that treats each term in the document individually and LDA topic model that only utilizes the text co-occurrence information, emotion-topic model allows associating the terms and emotions via topics which is more flexible and has better modelling capability. REFERENCES [1] R. Cai, C. Zhang, C. Wang, L. Zhang,  Music Recommendation Using Emotional  Allocation,†Proc. 15th Int’l Conf. Multimedia, pp. 553-556, 2007. [2] C. Strapparava and R. Mihalcea,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Semeval-2007 Task 14: Affective Text,†Ã‚  Proc. Fourth Int†¢fl Workshop Semantic  Evaluations (SemEval‘07), pp. 70-74, 2007. [3] C. Yang, K.H.-Y. Lin, and H.-H. Chen,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Emotion Classification Using Web Blog  Corpora,† Proc. IEEE/WIC/ACM Int†¢fl  Conf. Web Intelligence (WI ‘07), pp. 275-  278, 2007. [4] C.O. Alm, D. Roth, and R. Sproat,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Emotions from Text: Machine Learning for Text-Based Emotion Prediction,† Proc. Joint Conf. Human Language Technology and Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (HLT/EMNLP ‘05), pp. 579- 586, 2005. [5] C. Strapparava and R. Mihalcea,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Learning to Identify Emotions in Text,†Ã‚  Proc. 23rd Ann. ACM Symp. Applied  Computing (SAC ‘08), pp. 1556-1560,2008. [6] A. Esuli and F. Sebas,â€Å"Sentiwordnet: A Pub-Licly AvailableLexical Resource for Opinion Mining,Proc. Fifth Int’l Conf. Language Resourcesand Evaluation (LREC ‘06), 2006. [7] C. Strapparava and A. Valitutti,â€Å"Wordnet-Affect: An Affective Extension of Wordnet,†Proc. Fourth Int’l Conf. Language Resources and Evaluation  (LREC ‘04),2004.   [8] D.M. Blei, A.Y. Ng, and M.I. Jordan,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Latent Dirichlet Allocation,† J. Machine  Learning Research, vol. 3, pp. 993-1022,  2003. [9] C.P. Robert and G. Casella, Monte Carlo Statistical Methods, seconded. Springer Publisher 2005. [10] Mihalcea, R. and Strapparava. C. (2006). â€Å"Learning to laugh (automatically)†: Computationalmodels for humour recognition. Computational Intelligence, 22(2), pages 126–142. [11] A.-M. Popescu and O. Etzioni, â€Å"Extracting Product Features and Opinions from Reviews,† Proc. Joint Conf. Human Language Technology and Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (HLT/EMNLP ’05), pp. 339-346, 2005. [12] B. Pang, L. Lee, and S.Vaithyanathan, â€Å"Thumbs Up? Sentiment Classification Using Machine Learning Techniques,† Proc. Conf. Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP ’02), pp. 79-96, 2002. [13] M. Rosen-Zvi, T. Griffiths, M. Steyvers, and P. Smyth, â€Å"The Author-Topic Model for Authors and Documents,† Proc. 20th Conf. Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI ’04), pp. 487-494, 2004. [14] Alm, C.O., Roth, D. and Sproat, R. (2005). â€Å"Emotions from text: machine learning for textbased emotion prediction†. In Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Human LanguageTechnology / Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing. [15] Mihalcea, R. and Liu, H. (2006). â€Å"A corpus-based approach to finding happiness†, in the AAAI Spring Symposium on Computational Approaches to Weblogs, Stanford, California, USA. [16] M. Hu and B. Liu, â€Å"Mining and Summarizing Customer Reviews,† Proc. 10th ACM SDIGKD Int’l Conf. Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD ’04), pp. 168-177, 2004. [17] G. Mishne, K. Balog, M. de Rijke, and B. Ernsting, â€Å"Moodviews: Tracking and Searching Mood-Annotated Blog Posts,† Proc. Int’l AAAI Conf. Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM ’07), 2007. [18] K. Balog and M. de Rijke, â€Å"How to Overcome Tiredness: Estimating Topic-Mood Associations,† Proc. Int’l AAAI Conf.Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM ’07), 2007. [19] K. Balog, G. Mishne, and M. Rijke, â€Å"Why Are They Excited? Identifying and Explaining Spikes in Blog Mood Levels,† Proc. Ninth Conf. European Chapter of the Assoc. for Computational Linguistics (EACL ’06), 2006. [20] Mihalcea, R. and Liu, H. (2006). â€Å"A corpus-based approach to finding happiness†, in the AAAI Spring Symposium on Computational Approaches to Weblogs, Stanford, California, USA. [21] G. Mishne and M. de Rijke, â€Å"Capturing Global Mood Levels Using Blog Posts,† Proc. AAAI Spring Symp. Computational Approaches to Analysing Weblogs (AAAI-CAAW ’06), 2006. [22] I. Titov and R. McDonald, â€Å"A Joint Model of Text and Aspect Ratings for Sentiment Summarization,† Proc. 46th Ann. Meeting of the Assoc. for Computational Linguistics (ACL ’08), June 2008. [23] Mihalcea, R., Corley, C., Strapparava, C. (2006). Corpus-based and Knowledge-basedâ€Å"Measures of Text Semantic Similarity†. Paper presented at the Proceedings of theNational Conference on Artificial Intelligence. [24] Lichtenstein, A., Oehme, A., Kupschick, S., Jà ¼rgensohn, T. (2008). Comparing TwoEmotion Models for Deriving Affective States from Physiological Data. Affectand Emotion in Human Computer Interaction, 35-50. [25] H. Liu, T. Selker, and H. Lieberman, â€Å"Visualizing the AffectiveStructure of a Text Document,† Proc. CHI ’03 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems Conf., 2003. [22] T. Hofmann, â€Å"Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing,† Proc. 22ndAnn. Int’l ACM SIGIR Conf. Research and Development in Information  Retrieval (SIGIR ’99), 1999. [23] M. Rosen-Zvi, T. Griffiths, M. Steyvers, and P. Smyth, â€Å"The Author-Topic Model for Authors and Documents,† Proc. 20thConf. Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI ’04), pp. 487-494,  2004. [25] X. Wang and A. McCallum, â€Å"Topic over Time: A Non-Markov Continuous-Time Model of Topical Trends,† Proc. 12th ACM SIGKDD Int’l Conf. Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD ’06), pp. 424-433, 2006. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, K.S.R. College of Engineering (Autonomous), Tiruchengode-637215

Structural Biology in Pharmaceutical Research

Structural Biology in Pharmaceutical Research INTRODUCTION Molecular biology plays a key role and contributes a lot in determining the 3D structure of a molecule be it proteins, nucleotides or any other biological macromolecule. It also helps in finding the target sites when it comes to drug designing. Many structural biology techniques are used in the field of pharmaceutical research. These mainly include X-ray crystallography and NMR Spectroscopy. However, structural biology also includes the help of bioinformatics. Structure based drug design plays a major role when it comes to pharmaceutical research and also it has advanced a lot over the years. The remarkable discovery of peptidomimetics and nonpeptides proves this. This was done using techniques like X ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy as well as other computer based methods. One of the widely used tools in structural biology is X-ray crystallography. This is used to determine the atomic as well as the molecular structure of a crystal where the crystalline atoms cause diffraction of X-rays in many specific directions. It is a form of high resolution microscopy. Using this technique, visualizing protein structures at the atomic level becomes easier and helps in understanding its functions. It also gives information about how proteins react with other molecules and undergo changes in their conformation. As well as the process of catalysis with respect to enzymes. All this knowledge is necessary for designing drugs which are meant to ta rget specific sites or are used for industrial processes. Crystallography, being the most widely used technique may not be successful at all times. With this, NMR comes to the rescue. It helps in elucidating 3D structures of target ligand complexes. With advances in genome sequencing, protein expressions, crystallography and NMR; these have helped in using protein 3D structure for fast discovery of drugs. The role of structural biology and bioinformatics in this is that they help in the manufacturing of drugs that are target specific and well optimized. Also, due to the determination of structure, fragment binding becomes possible. For a drug to work efficiently, it needs to bind to the specific site or the target proteins. Using computer for this is a very good technique which finds and optimizes target proteins that are required. For a substance to bind a target it has be extremely specific like a lock and a key. Structural biology methods and molecular modeling are tools that are used in the developments of such molecules. In the process of drug discovery, computational chemistry proves to be a tool of great help. After the molecule has binded to the desired molecule and the binding properties are known, the suitability of the compound can be improved using the computer. The drug’s binding affinity can be calculated digitally using the computer. Also, using these methods it is also possible to calculate if the changes in the structure would lead to any undesirable or toxic properties. These methods save a lot of time as compared to lab work especially in the early stages of drug designing. Due to this, an increase in the success rates can be observed. Fig 1: Drug Discovery Process Courtesy: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1609333/figure/fig1/ X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHY In order to determine the precise molecular structure of the target protein, X-ray structure analysis is used. In this, the crystal lattice structure of the protein diffracts the X-ray beam in a typical way. The diffraction pattern can be analyzed and due to this, the density of electrons can be read which are present in the parts of the target protein. This in turn, helps in determination of the position of the atoms. Several repetition of this process and refining the image is done till the researchers obtain a 3D structure of the target molecule. Usage on X-ray crystallography in drug discovery has been present since a long time where 30 years ago the 1st three dimensional structure of proteins were determined. However, not all the pharmaceutical companies resort to this technique as it is considered time consuming and too expensive. A total change in drug design has occurred in the past years, thus using 3D structures in the designing processes. For structure that were not available with X-ray crystallography, other methods were used which included comparative models based on homologues. Crystal structures of key drug targets are now available like AIDS drugs such as Agenerase and Viracept were developed using the crystal structure of HIV protease and the influenza drug Relenza was designed using the crystal structure of neuraminidase.Drugs originating from structure based design have entered clinic trials and some of them have even been marketed as drugs now. Knowing the protein structure is a key component in the process of drug design. It is used in lead optimization which is a process that revolves around the usage of structure for guiding chemical modification of the molecule of lead for giving the perfect fit with respect to shape, bonds and other interactions. Protein structure is also used in target selection; this involves homology recognition but with the recent advances in structural genomics this has become easier. X-ray crystallography is also used in the direct screening of chemical fragments. Astex Technology has developed â€Å"Pyramid†, where fragment libraries are screened in cocktails using X-ray crystallography. Fragment hits that are derived from Pyramid are optimized in order to maintain good ligand efficiency. NMR NMR spectroscopy was the first structural technique to be made full use in fragment screening. Target Immobilized NMR Screening (TINS) Usage of NMR spectroscopy on targets that are immobilized helps in binding of small molecules. A process called as Target Immobilized NMR Screening (TINS) has ennumerable advantages; one of them being that a minimum quantity of the non isotopically labeled protein is needed. This method helps in binding in the range of KD values of 100nM to 20mM. If the reference protein is selected carefully, the number of false positive hits that one may get can be avoided. Due to this, maximum valid hits are ensured. These hits can be treated with biological assays. A variety of soluble proteins as well as membrane proteins have been screened. The combination of target immobilization and small screening of fragments using NMR proves to be of immense help in Early Drug discovery. STEPS IN DRUG DISCOVERY PROCESS TARGET IDENTIFICATION FROM SEQUENCE STRUCTURE HOMOLOGY RECOGNITON Structural bioinformatics is a backbone for the identification of new members of supefamilies. Protein structures impart a major information about the families and super families. The proteins that have evolved would be having some common structures or features that they would be exhibiting thus leading to the importance of â€Å"homology recognition†. An example of this was the recognition of HIV proteinase which belonged to be a member of the pepsin/renin superfamily. Recognition of distant homologues can be done using methods like sequence-structure matching that are classified as profile methods or threading. Profile methods involve the sequence comparison algorithms using traditional methods. Computer programs like FUGUE aid in this and helps in the recognition of homologues. Another method used is Threading which fits a probe sequence and evaluates compatibility between the sequenced and the structure that is proposed. This method is powerful for fold recognition. Example of a computer based program is GenTHREADER. After the homologue of the structure is known and identifies, it can be modeled using a variety of procedures. Although structural bioinformatics is helpful, it is necessary to have an accurate experimental structure. Target validation and the identification of ligand binding regions Structures defined by structural genomics programs are mainly of proteins that do not have a known function but they have been identified as proteins only on the basis of their gene sequences. Hence, the need for the development of computerized based methods arises which would identify sites which are involved in the interactions. PROSITE, a sequence motif database identifies the specific residues that have functions. Several attempts have been made to predict the interaction sites using computerized based methods either by identifying high-energy conformations or identifying clefts that can accommodate ligands. LEAD DISCOVERY The trait of a target is based on the number of drug like ligands for a target class. Classification of the targets into families has helped in designing compound libraries for particular families. Screening of a small fragments or molecule is needed and this can be done using biophysical assays. Ligand docking is a method that helps to find the best binding position and orientation. The best docking programmes are successful in dockin 70-80% of ligands in the ligand-protein complexes. A major drawback of this method is that there are difficulties in predicting affinities of different compounds. CONCLUSION Knowledge of the three-dimensional structures of protein targets plays a major role in all stages of drug discovery. Its place in lead optimization is well established with large teams of structural biologists recruited into all major pharmaceutical companies. The success of the method is evident from drugs in use and new ones reaching the market. But structural biology and bioinformatics show that many key targets for drug discovery are multidomain and multiprotein complexes. Such systems pose significant challenges not only for characterization using structural techniques but also because the inter-protein surfaces are usually poor in distinguishing features. BIBLIOGRAPHY RESEARCH PAPERS: Blundell, T., Sibanda, B., Montalvao, R.W., Brewerton, S., Chelliah, V., Worth, C., Harmer, N., Davies, O.,1 and Burke D(2006) Structural biology and bioinformatics in drug design: opportunities and challenges for target identification and lead discovery. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 361(1467): 413–423. Congreve, M., Murray CW., and Blundell T(2005) Structural biology and drug discovery. Drug Discov Today. 2005 Jul 1;10(13):895-907. BOOK: Structural Genomics and High Throughput Structural Biology(2006)edited by Michael Sundstrom, Martin Norin, Aled Edwards. WEBSITE: http://www.pharmaceutical-business-review.com/suppliers/zobio/products/nmr-based-structural-biology http://www.bayerpharma.com/en/research-and-development/technologies/research-technologies/computational-chemistry-structural-biology/index.php

The Ethical Considerations of Genetic Screening :: Science Genes Biology Papers

Ever since Watson and Crick deciphered the biological code of life, scientists have been busy unraveling the mysteries of life. A recent development in the area of genetic research has been the Human Genome Project (HGP). The HGP is a massive international effort to map and sequence the entire human genetic code. The primary goal of this research is to link certain diseases with abnormal genes that may be possessed by certain people. This would allow researchers the ability to screen individuals for certain diseases. This has already been a success with a number of conditions. PKU is a condition that causes severe retardation in children if nothing is done to prevent it, but by genetically screening the infants, doctors are able to tell who has the disease (Davis 1990). By simply altering the diet of these children, the mental retardation effects of the disease can be prevented. In addition, diseases such as Huntington’s disease, breast cancer, and muscular dystrophy are prese ntly being screened for in humans (Jaroff, 1996). How researchers are able to screen for genes New developments have given researchers the ability to decipher the genetic code of organisms. Some of the techniques that researchers use are RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) analysis and DNA probes. RFLP analysis utilizes enzymes from bacteria that are thought to be used as defense mechanisms against invading viral DNA. The enzymes fragment foreign DNA at specific locations depending on the base sequence (Griffiths, 1996). In order to analyze an organism’s genome a researcher will add a certain restriction enzyme to DNA. This produces small restriction fragments of DNA that vary in length. Electrophoresis is then used to separate out the various fragments of DNA. This is accomplished by subjecting the fragmented DNA to an electrical charge after it has been placed onto an agarose gel plate. Due to differences in length, the DNA restriction fragments will be separated in the gel plate. Another useful tool for scientists has been the DNA probe. A DNA probe is a piece of DNA that binds to certain sequences of the hosts DNA (Devore, 1998). The probe is able to do this because the DNA strand of the probe only binds to the appropriate DNA with a complementary sequence. Scientists label the probe with florescent markers or radioactive markers so that the gene of interest can be visualized. Often probes are used in conjunction with RFLP. After the organisms genome has been fragmented and electrophoresed, an absorbent membrane is placed over the gel and the DNA bands are "blotted" onto the membrane (this technique is called Southern Blotting).

Victim in Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles Essay -- Tess dUrbervil

Victim in Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles      Ã‚   Tess Durbeyfield is a victim of external and uncomprehended forces. Passive and yielding, unsuspicious and fundamentally pure, she suffers a weakness of will and reason, struggling against a fate that is too strong for her. Tess is the easiest victim of circumstance, society and male idealism, who fights the hardest fight yet is destroyed by her ravaging self-destructive sense of guilt, life denial and the cruelty of two men.      Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is primarily the death of the horse, Prince, the DurbeyfieldÕs main source of livelihood, that commences the web of circumstance that envelops Tess. Tess views herself as the cause of her families economic downfall, however she also believes that she is parallel to a murderess. The imagery at this point in the novel shows how distraught and guilt ridden Tess is as she places her hand upon PrinceÕs wound in a futile attempt to prevent the blood loss that cannot be prevented. This imagery is equivalent to a photographic proof - a lead-up to the events that will shape TessÕs life and the inevitable Ã’evilÓ that also, like the crimson blood that spouts from PrinceÕs wound, cannot be stopped. The symbolic fact that Tess perceives herself to be comparable to a murderess is an insight into the murder that she will eventually commit and is also a reference to the level of guilt that now consumes her. Ã’Nobody blamed Tess as she blamed herself... she regarded herself in the light of a murderess.Ó Â   Her parents, aware of her beauty, view Tess as an opportunity for future wealth and coupled with the unfortunate circumstance of Prince's death urge Tess to... ...ill and reason are undermined by her sensuality. Tess herself sums up her own blighted life best; "Once a victim, always a victim - that's the law!"    Works Cited Casagrande, Peter J. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Unorthodox Beauty. New York: Twayne, 1992. Claridge, Laura. "Tess: A Less Than Pure Woman Ambivalently Presented." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 28 (1986): 324-38. Hall, Donald. Afterward. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. By Thomas Hardy. New York: Signet, 1980. 417-27. Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. 1891. New York: Signet Classic, 1980. McMurtry, Jo. Victorian Life and Victorian Fiction. Hamden: Shoe String, 1979. Mickelson, Anne Z. Thomas Hardy's Women and Men: The Defeat of Nature. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1976. Weissman, Judith. Half Savage and Hardy and Free. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 1987.

Our Daily Bread Essay

Our Daily Bread, as the title suggests this is not about bread, as I hoped it was. Rather it’s about people earning their bread, their livelihood. The term ‘bread’ is derived from the larger term ‘bread-winner’ as the one who is the primary provider of the household, and the ‘daily bread’ is simply referring their daily livelihood. As my time spent in the US, I often used to wonder how the different food companies were able to produce mass amount of food to keep the population fed. This movie is the answer and the revelation of how food is produced in Europe and the Western hemisphere. The film starts off as we get a glimpse of daily sanitation rituals being carried off at a meat farm. The different scenes show us to transportation of livestock, machine assisted watering of plants, and a conveyor belt at a poultry farm where they separate the males from the female chickens (I know this as I have seen this done before in a different settin g). The machinery at poultry farm shows precision and efficiency as it sorts the young chicks into moving bins. The vaccination routine is also machine assisted which increases efficiency and production for the poultry farm. After few seconds, the young chicks have grown and we are shown the worker feeding them. The shot transitions into a break room where the worker is on a break with bread and tea, all alone. Next, we get the scene from a vegetable farm. A tractor picks the potatoes from the ground. Next shot, the workers prepare and wear protective gears to apply pesticides and fertilizers to the plants. But most of the work is done by machine assistance, needing almost no human intervention. It seems as the vegetables are being grown inside a greenhouse setting which allows vegetables to be grown all year long, without any weather restrictions. The only human labour being done is picking of the ripened vegetables. After work, the worker seem to be enjoying a small break, again alone. Now we see a bull and a cow where it seems breeding is in process. A closer look and we find that the workers are actually collecting the sperm. We find the sperm is transferred to medical examinations, I don’t kn ow exactly why but possibility could be to efficiently use the sperms to fertilize every fertile egg they can afford without any loss. And of course, we see a healthy calf being born. But it is pretty amusing to see how the cow was cut open and the calf was pulled out, how could that really be possible? How much medication could the animal be on since it wasn’t moving or making any noise as such? And are there any advantages of this type of birth for animal? Next, we see a series of shots of men in tractors who are doing farm work with machine assistance. This shows the efficiency that is earned by machine which helps humans achieve more with less time spent and more time to spend on luxury, or more work. We return back to the poultry farm, the egg farming room to be exact. The eggs are hatched and due to the design, they are conveniently accessible by the farmers to pick. A worker is shown to be holding a chicken as he walks around the egg farm, possibly to warn other hens who don’t lay eggs. In actual note, he maybe was checking for chickens which are dead. In the next shot, the workers are transported to a huge plantation to harvest crops growing under the ground, only time where tractors aren’t used. This is possibly the first time where machine use is limited to just watering the plants. Now we are shown our way to a pig farm. They are transported on a line into a machine where they are slaughtered by a machine. The human labour is limited to keep the line moving and in order. The machines are also used for most of the heavy work as boiling the skin and dissecting the pigs open. The human job is limited to cleaning up whatever else the machines may have left out and separating internal parts. We are also shown the marvel of modern technology with a biplane is used to fertilize the crops. There are also shots of heavy machinery usage in farms. Then we see a moving harvest truck where the outside workers are picking the vegetables and inside simply packaging them . Now we move to a cow-ranch. The cows are milked by machines in a rotating carousel. The cows don’t seem to mind so much, as it seems to be part of their daily routine. Next, a visit to the deep underground salt mines where machines are used to do most of the heavy work such as carrying out the salt from place to place and outside the mine itself. A transition moves from underground to underwater as we see a fish-farm where hundreds and hundreds of fishes are seen in a small area. This also makes it easier for the huge pipe to suck out the fishes from the water and into the boat. They are transported to a factory where humans align the fishes to feed into the machines. Apparently the machines haven’t learned to distinguish the fish head from the tail, yet. The fishes are cut and cleaned by series of machines and then moved onto another human where he puts them on another machine to move them to another section. Here, the worker seems pretty bored of the routine task he h as, perhaps feeling like the machine at this point because of his job task. Next we see bunch of workers cleaning the fish for final prep before shipping them out. Now we come to a pig-farm. The two series of shots seems interesting as the first represented insemination of pigs by tube and next shows the piglets born in captivity, just like ‘The Matrix’. Just like in the movies, they grow up and the next shot seems as if the male pigs were being castrated. One can only understand why so, as they don’t want to overproduce and give out the employees any bonuses. Or maybe not. The next series of shots show how chicken and cattle are prepared for consumption; as they are killed by the machines with little or less human effort required in the process. The final shot shows the end of the day routine- how everything is cleaned and sanitized for the next day of work. Despite all this, the workers in all places couldn’t wait for their daily bread, their hard earned break from their work. Perhaps the routine manner of their tasks has become so innate to them that they don’t seem to mind how their own food is being produced. For me, it was a bit amusing and shocking to see the conditions of animals but maybe after a few more views, I wouldn’t mind it either. This movie shows the heavy usage of machinery used in the production of food, be it salt, pigs, chicken, vegetables, fish, or pigs. It was also amusing, in a way, to see how breeding had gone into the next level by scientific usage to effectively get their result financially and also in economic ways to feed the ever growing world population. It seemed as almost if humans were not the only ones alienated from nature, but also the animals which were being artificially inseminated and mutilated against their wills. The workers didn’t seem to care much for what they were doing either, as long as it made their breads. It seemed as they had been trained to do this for so long that they were used to it- like machines with machine hearts and machine minds. In another view, the unnatural size of the bulls in the breeding house seemed as if they were so-much genetically engineered to produce the maximum amount of meat possible. Perhaps they had mixed something in the dry grass that was being blown into their small cages they were put-in. The growing population also has seemed to affect the unnatural process by which plants were grown with usages of pesticides and fertilizers. The use of greenhouses portrays, in a way, the plant’s alienation from nature as it was now possible to grow all plants in any weather or conditions. The absence of narration or subtitles leaves the movie-watcher to make their own conclusion and perspective. The filmmaker, as I understand, doesn’t want to change our habits but simply be aware of the ways in how the planet is being fed. If anything, this should be seen by as many people as possible to make them aware of the status of food production and the status of the subjects which are involved in the food production i.e. humans, plants and animals alike. I must say some of the scenes in the movie are quiet disturbing but that is the current status of our population and food production required to feed them.

What is Freedom? Essay

Freedom is something that is viewed in many ways. Freedom can be something you earn, something you experience, or it can be something you think. People long ago had to work very hard for their freedom. Slavery was one of the times that freedom was given to nobody, and played a major role in the United States history. Slavery began around 1619, when the first African slaves were brought to the United States, they were workers without rights. (Slavery in America, 2014) They were told that if they worked for seven years, they would earn land and freedom. Abraham Lincoln once said, â€Å"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.† (Lincoln) In 1641 slavery was legalized, and the U.S. was against itself. In 1660 King Charles II established the Royals African Company, calling them black gold, where more African Americans had their freedom taken away. In 1860 more than a million African Americans were taken from their homes and sold off. By 1865 slavery was final ly abolished and they had their freedom to read and write, and their behavior and movement was no longer restricted. Freedom is based off your view and thought of the value it has to you, no one definition can relate to everything that freedom can mean. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, freedom is â€Å"the quality of being free† but what exactly does that mean? Does it mean you can do whatever you wish? Or does it mean everything you need is free? Jim Morrison once said, â€Å"The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.† (Morrison) Freedom within yourself can be to accept you for who you are, not be restricted on what you can do with yourself, let your imagination be free and soar outside the limits. Let your thoughts go where they wish and keep your mind set. Don Miguel Ruiz wrote in his book The Mastery of Love, â€Å"If you spend too much time judging yourself, you won’t have any time to love yourself or anyone else.† I believe this quote relates to freedom because like I said before, you need to let your mind be free to be able to live with freedom. Along with having internal freedom, you can experience and be rewarded with freedom. Experiencing freedom is not something everyone has. As a young kid, my parents always told me â€Å"Once you lose our trust it’s hard to gain it back.† And with this always being said to you, you learned to respect the freedom that you received, and wait until you are rewarded with more. As you get older and learn to drive you are given a whole new type of freedom. There are no words to explain the type of freedom you experience, and no emotion that is any greater. Someone once said â€Å"Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.† (teenage drivers, 1998- 2014) And this saying means to respect what freedom you have because some people have less and would give anything for your freedom. So what exactly is freedom? Well, Bubr (Bubr is someone who chose not to give their real name) once said start with the possibility to do whatever you want. You may want to share your freedom with other people, right? Then accept the fact that other people doing whatever they want are limiting your own freedom. Then, you come to the conclusion that you may not have freedom at all, if the freedom is a measure of the length of a leash. (Bubr) But, many other people have different views of freedom and it is not just what laws limit you too. Jarod Kintz said â€Å"Nothing, Everything, Anything, Something: If you have nothing, then you have everything, because you have the freedom to do anything, without the fear of losing something.† Freedom is not limited to just one person’s idea of it, their experiences, feelings, thoughts, and love towards freedom. â€Å"Freedom is the right to live as we wish. Nothing else.† (Epictetus, 2001-2014) It is not being limited with your rights and not being restricted with reading, writing, behavior and movement. It is not constantly being told what to do and limiting your mind to please others, first give yourself freedom then help others with theirs.

Mayan Art Architecture Essay

Art for the Mayans was a reflection of their lifestyle and culture. For the Mayans art took several forms including: painting paper, plaster, carvings in wood and store, clay, stucco models, and terra cotta figurines from molds. Metal was very scarce and so it wasn’t commonly used. Mayan Art during the period, 200 to 900 has been considered the most sophisticated and beautiful of the New World. There is few remaining Mayan Art, which includes funerary pottery, ceramics, a building in Bonampak (which is around Chiapas, Mexico), has several murals. What is interesting is that Mayan art gave almost free reign to the artist. The artist was not required to produce a work that fit any particular rules. The art usually didn’t depict anonymous priests and unnamed Gods. Some archaeologists believe that art was only produced by the wealthy. Most of the people who lived were farmers who had to work hard to make a living. It is presumed that most of the art was done by sons of kings, and the artworks made were given as gifts or sold to other wealthy landowners. An interesting fact is that Mayans were one of the few civilizations that the artists signed their name to their work. ARCHITECTURE The Mayan architecture is the method the men spoke to the gods. The first Mayan pyramid was said to be built in Uaxatan, Guatemala, just before the birth of Christ. The Mayan architecture is one of the most recognizable. Each pyramid was dedicated to a deity whose shrine was at the peak. At the height of the Mayan civilization, cities like Chichen Itza, Tikal, Uxmal were created. URBAN DESIGN Mayan cities were spread all throughout Mesoamerica. Locations of cities were  not planned to a great extent. In fact, most cities seem to be placed haphazardly. The Mayans easily adapted their cities to their surroundings. Cities that were in northern Yucatan existed on flat limestone plains, while cities built in the mountains or on hills such as, Usumacinta, used the topography to raise their towers and temples very high. At the centre of all Mayan cities were large plazas, which held governmental and religious buildings such as the pyramid temples and ball-courts. Although it seems that most planning was done in a haphazard manner, the Mayans placed very special attention to the directional orientation of temples and observatories. They were always constructed in accordance with Maya interpretation of the orbits of the stars. Outside of ritual centers were the formation of lesser nobles, smaller temples, and individual shrines. These less sacred structures had much more privacy. Outside of the urban core were the less permanent and modest homes of common people. In essence, it was the most sacred and noble buildings in the centre and the further one got from the center the lower of importance the dwelling was in the Mayan hierarchy. In the classic Era the Mayans focused on great monuments (such as temples), public plazas. Interior Space was entirely secondary. In the later-post classic era the Greater Mayan cities developed into more fortress-like defensives structures that lacked plazas. The Mayans actually developed several unique building innovations, including the corbel arch which was a false arch achieved by stepping each successive block, from opposite sides, closer to the center, and capped at the peak. MATERIALS The Mayans lacked many construction technologies. They didn’t have metal tools, pulleys, and even the wheel – or at least they didn’t use the wheel as a means to help in work. Mayan architecture was based on manpower. All  stone was taken from local quarries, and they mostly used limestone. It wasn’t only used because there was an abundance of it but because it was easy to be worked with. The mortar generally consisted of crushed, burnet, and mixed limestone that is similar to cement, and it gave a stucco finishing. PROCESS The King or priests would supervise the labour of the common people. The peasants would work on the construction projects as a method to pay homage to the king and the state, and the construction typically took place when they were unable to do their agricultural work. The laboureres would carry loads of materials on their backs of roll them on logs to get them from the source, usually a quarry, to the site. The Mayans also had specialized workers such as architects who would oversee the construction of the buildings. STYLE Mayan architects did not build in right angles. They relied on bilateral symmetry meaning if you were to cut the building right down the middle, each half would look like a mirror image of the other side. They would also build temples on top of temples. This is one method on how they made some pyramids so large. COMMON STRUCTURES Ceremonial Platforms These were made of limestone, and less than 4 meters in height. Public ceremonies and religious rites were performed here. The buildings were often accented by carved figures, altars and sometimes a tzompantli. A tzompantly is a stake used to display the heads of victims, or defeated Ball game opponents. The word comes from the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, however,  it has been applied to many other civilizations. The general interpretation is skull rack or wall of skulls. Palaces Needless to say, palaces were large and highly decorated. They were usually located at the center of the city and housed the city’s elite. Often, they were one-story and consisted of many small chambers and at least one courtyard. Sometimes, palaces were home to various tombs. E-groups Still a mystery today. The appeared on the western side of a plaza and they are a pyramid temple facing three smaller temples across the plaza. Some believe that these E-Groups are observatories due to precise positioning of the sun through the small temples when viewed during solsites and equinioxes. Pyramids and temples Most religious temples say atop very high Maya Pyramids – one theory stating that it was the closest place to the heavens. Most temples had a roof comb which is a superficial grandiose wall, they say the temples served as a type of propaganda. It was very occasional that these walls would exceed the height of the jungle. The roof combs would be carved with representations of rulers that could be seen from vast distances. Beneath the temple were a series of platforms split by steep stairs that would allow access to the temple. Observatories The Maya were very intelligent people, and they were keen astronomers, they had mapped out phases of planets. The method they learned about this is through their observatories. The Mayans had these round temples, often dedicated to Quetzalcoatl or what they called him Kukulcan, and if you go on tours many guides will say that they are observatories but realistically  there is no evidence to prove this. Ball Courts An integral part to any Mesoamerican lifestyle. This ins’t specific to just the Mayans but to basically every Mesoamerican civilization. Enclosed on two sides by stepped ramps that led to the platforms. The ball court was found in all but the smallest of Mayan cities. Explanation of The Game It was the first team sport in history and began over 3,500 years ago. The game wasn’t just for competition, the survival of the players and the spectators depended on the outcome.

Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads

Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the continuous journey of life; there exists not a path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to advance. In his poem, â€Å"The Road Not Taken†, Robert Frost exhibits insight and perception in using poetic techniques to communicate this message. The piece depicts a man’s regret at not being able to travel two roads, and having to make a choice between the two. The importance of making decisions is disclosed in the narrator’s assertion that his choice â€Å"has made all the difference.†The first few lines of the poem introduce the elements of Frost’s primary metaphor and symbol, the diverging roads. The use of the road suggests that life is a journey that the narrator is traveling. The â€Å"two roads diverged† symbolize the points in this journey where one must make choices. As the narrator contemplates his decision, wishing that he could take both paths at the same time wh ile knowing there is no possibility in that, the reader is able to glimpse the strength of Frost’s symbolism- every person must make decisions with the knowledge that going back and changing them is impossible, because one has already traveled too far down the chosen path to turn back.The setting, along with imagery, assists in developing the key symbols of the poem. The piece opens with the narrator taking a walk in the woods during the autumn season, when he is suddenly confronted with a diverging path. The central image of â€Å"two roads diverged† helps to convey the theme of having to make choices in life. The â€Å"yellow wood† corresponds to the autumn season, a period that is often related to the end of the annual cycle in flora and foliage. Autumn may be perceived as a state in limbo between the vivacity of summer and the chill of winter.The speaker examines one path to the best of his ability: â€Å". . . and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth†. His vision, however, is limited because the path bends, and a certain amount of undergrowth obscure the destination of the road. The description of the paths indicates that although the speaker would like to acquire more information, he is prevented from doing so because of the nature of his environment. The road that will be chosen leads to the unknown, as does any choice in life. The concept of â€Å"two roads diverged in a yellow wood† illustrates an interval between two phases in life, and helps convey the theme of one having to inevitably choose between digressing paths.The ironic tone is inescapable: â€Å"I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence.† The speaker anticipates his own future insincerity. He knows that he will be inaccurate, at best, or hypocritical, at worst, when he holds his life up as an example. In fact, he predicts that his future self will betray this moment of decision as if the bet rayal were inevitable.This realization is ironic and poignantly pathetic. But the â€Å"sigh† is critical. The speaker will not, in his old age, merely gather the youth about him and say, â€Å"Do what I did, kiddies. I stuck to my guns, took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.† Rather, he may say this, but he will sigh first; for he won't believe it himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind will remain the image of yellow woods and two equally leafy paths.Ironic as it is, this is also a poem infused with the anticipation of remorse. Its title is not â€Å"The Road Less Traveled† but â€Å"The Road Not Taken.† Even as he makes a choice (a choice he is forced to make if does not want to stand forever in the woods, one for which he has no real guide or definitive basis for decision-making), the speaker knows that he will second-guess himself somewhere down the line–or at the very least he will wonder at what is irrevocab ly lost: the impossible, unknowable Other Path. But the nature of the decision is such that there is no Right Path–just the chosen path and the other path. What are sighed for ages and ages hence are not so much the wrong decisions as the moments of decision themselves–moments that, one atop the other, mark the passing of a life. This is the more primal strain of remorse.It is observed that the title of the poem, â€Å"The Road Not Taken,† may be intended to serve as a subtle hint, an insinuation of the narrator’s dissatisfaction with the decision he made. What about â€Å"the one less traveled by†? Neither of the roads was less traveled than the other. He less traveled both roads because this was the first time the narrator had come upon these paths. Leaves covered the ground, and since the time they had fallen no one had yet to pass by on this road; both were worn about the same â€Å"in leaves that no step had trodden black.† Nevertheless , the speaker is unhappy that he took the path that he chose, and yearns to go back and take â€Å"The Road Not Taken.† Time, however, does not allow second chances.â€Å"The Road Not Taken† is an ironic commentary on the autonomy of choice in a world governed by instincts, unpredictable contingencies, and limited possibilities. It parodies and demurs from the biblical idea that God is the â€Å"way† that can and should be followed and the American idea that nature provides the path to spiritual enlightenment. The title refers doubly to bravado for choosing a road less traveled but also to regret for a road of lost possibility and the eliminations and changes produced by choice.â€Å"The Road Not Taken † reminds us of the consequences of the principle of selection in al1 aspects of life, namely that al1 choices in knowledge or in action exclude many others and lead to an ironic recognitions of our achievements. At the heart of the poem is the romantic myt hology of flight from a fixed world of limited possibility into a wilderness of many possibilities combined with trials and choices through which the pilgrim progresses to divine perfection.The reader finds, at the literal level, the narrator expressing his regret at his human limitations, at not being able to travel two roads; he must make a choice. The choice is not easy, since it took him a long time to come to a decision: â€Å" . . . long I stood and looked down one as far as I could†. He examines one path â€Å"to where it bent in the undergrowth†, but his vision is limited because the path bends and is covered over. He describes the second path as â€Å"just as fair† as the first rather than more fair, and that the paths are â€Å"really about the same†.This ambiguous evaluation of the paths reveals his search for a clear and logical reason to decide on one path over another– only that reason is unavailable. When the narrator finally makes h is decision, he tries to persuade himself that he will eventually satisfy the desire to travel both paths, while simultaneously admitting that such a hope is unrealistic:  Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.  At the end of the poem, in the future, the narrator will claim that the paths were actually different from each other, and that his choice â€Å"has made all the difference.†The last lines of the poem suggest that life would have been different had the speaker taken the other path: â€Å"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.† The fact that the speaker says the entire last stanza â€Å"with a sigh† works together with the title to show that the speaker is disappointed with the choice he made. Once the entire poem is read, it may be realized that this is not an inspirational piece about why one should be different from everyone else. Rather, it re minds the reader of the consequences that follow a decision, and the manner in which one choice can shape one’s life.In his poem, Robert Frost conveys his notion of life as a journey that every person must travel, a journey laden with diverging roads, many decisions, and occasional sighs; the piece demonstrates the poet’s belief that it is the road that one chooses that makes him or her the person who he or she is. â€Å"The Road Not Taken† leaves its readers with many different interpretations. In any case, however, it is Frost’s clever use of poetic techniques to express the theme that opens the door for analysis, and allows all readers from different backgrounds to relate to the poem.