The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill

Introduction The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill is a New Jersey training centre at Commerce University, with Deborah Jacovelli being the dean of the university who observed that there were many innovative methods for energizing the company’s employees that had been developed. For example, people wore Halloween costumes and embellished their cubicles, which was not a usual behavior initially for the bank staff.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The commerce bank was founded by Hill in 1973 and there very high expectations from all people that he would make it an exceptional bank. He reasoned that the bank should not be just like any other financial institution. He initiated a society bank with only $1.5 million in Southern New Jersey and since had developed it, without acquisitions, into Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. Additionally, he created a retail business that had outlets, and operating from 7.30am-8.00pm during the week while Saturdays and Sundays have modified hours. The company had come up with a ’10-minute rule’ which demanded that the branches be opened 10 minutes earlier and 10 minutes after the normal closing hours. The SWOT of Commerce Bank Strengths These refer to the strong points of the company; some of the highlighted strengths include the following. Customer care -There is excellent customer care service whereby making them happy is the bank’s top priority. In addition, there are ways of strengthening customers relationship that were put in place by Jacovelli and her co-workers which consisted of an internal system of incentives and cultural training. Moreover, awards, commendations, and compensation were accorded. According to Commerce Chairman and CEO, Vermon, delivering above customers expectations was their core objective. Retail Experience – According to Hill, retail ope rations pay off much better than the banking sector as exhibited by the escalating stock price at commerce bank since 1990. Although many other banks have tried to push away customers out of the branch since it is the high-delivery channel, the commerce bank decided to retain them. Other banks wanted to push their clients online, but commerce bank rejected.Advertising Looking for article on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More On the contrary, commerce bank gives customers the best of every channel knowing that they are going to utilize them all. While the big banks attitude sees customers as a liability or cost, commerce bank sees them as revenue generators, it does all it can to retain them. Good infrastructure – commerce bank provided good service infrastructure like ATMs, call centers, branches and internet. The payment mode was facilitated through electronic transfers and cheques, which made the who le process much easier and faster. In addition, Commerce bank offered deposit and loan products, which earned them more income from the accrued interest. Moreover, the bank provided a wide scope of checking accounts, which were differentiated from others by offering minimum balance required to avoid charges, checks that attracted no fees and overdraft protection. Moreover, almost all the banks were automated such that they had call-centers operating 24/7 as well as a Voice Response Unit (VRU). More development was reached when internet banking was invented in 2002, thus increasing operations. Growth – There was increase in both deposits and loans between 1998 and 2001 of over 20%. In the year, the bank loaned more than 90% of its deposit in 2001, which was an exceptional achievement as most of the larger organizations achieved above average growth through mergers and acquisitions. Primarily, the company grew through two important phases i.e. cross selling of customers’ products and growth towards fee revenue or non-interest income. Hill embraced very unique ways of attracting customers like investing back on the customers from the returns gained after offering their services unlike other banks that focused on developing themselves; to commerce bank, the customers were key. Additionally, the employees were also put into consideration as the management always ensured they were enthusiastic.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Weakness Despite having strength in various operation units, the bank is never devoid of weaknesses that need to be improved upon. First, the bank is embracing a wrong method of ‘cross-selling’ its products. Comparably, most of the other institutions recovered a much higher return than the average of 1.5-2.5 products that was gained by the commerce bank. Second, the Commercial bank l acked a good criterion of distinguishing the services to be provided to customers depending on individual customer’s profitability. This led to very poor outcome concerning customer satisfaction where only the customers from the smaller credit unions got satisfied by the service provided. As a result, the bank lost up to a third of its potential customers on yearly basis due to attrition. Indeed, the largest documented decline or destruction of active customers occurred in the first year of the bank’s operations, which saw up to 34 percent leave the company out of dissatisfaction with steep fees and sudden fees, poor service and mistakes. Most of these customers left because of limited bank branches while others were attracted to better services provided elsewhere. Opportunities These refer to good prospects or chances that are available for the firm in the near future, which are yet to be tapped. Incentives and training – There were several ways of ensuring tha t the customers were always satisfied. For example, when most operations of the bank became automated, the bank strongly advertised the advantages of using these self-service channels, gave monetary rewards for adopting these channels while penalizing those who continued using the expensive channels like being attended to by a teller. Indeed, these automated services promised better, faster and more convenient services.Advertising Looking for article on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The bank provided an opportunity for growth to its employees by offering in-house training. Some of the training entailed bank’s specific policies and procedures as well as deposit and loan accounts features. The bank’s potential market is very promising given that there are quite a number of potential customers that are yet to be provided with banking services. In order to ensure this is achieved, the bank upped its customer service to attract more customers as well as retain the existing ones. For example, the bank introduced free gifts to customers whenever they opened account, which encouraged them to return, in addition to offering many forms of entertainment thus creating more opportunity for personal growth. Threats These refer to the dangers, risks, or limitations that are at hand or are likely to be experienced. One of the threats the bank may be facing is that, with New York being the highest over-banked state, the commerce bank faced a tough competition to b e able to cause a positive impact to the country. For instance, commerce bank pumped in the largest amount of money on advertisement way above the other banks during its establishment. Hill purposed not to join the other companies that cut their cost of expenses through mergers and acquisitions but rather start from the scratch, which must have been a great challenge to keep up on top of the others. The bank therefore took a long period to achieve its goals. In terms of competition, it was discovered that some competitors imitated the Commerce Bank’s extra service features like weekend and evening hours. Conclusion The Commerce Bank has achieved a lot during the time it has been in existence. In analyzing the bank through SWOT, it has been established that the bank has strengths in customer care, delivery channels, infrastructure, and human resources. However, the bank is weak in cross selling and differentiation of products. In the external environment, the bank sees opportu nity in expansion, as there is a large untapped market; however, the bank is threatened by stiff competition to an extent that there is imitation of its strategies by competitors. This article on The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill was written and submitted by user Eli Reyes to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

lotf essays

lotf essays William Golding has portrayed the characters from the beginning into very different people as the book has gone on. In particular, there have been major contrasts between the character and major changes within the characteristics after each chapter, especially involving Jack, Ralph and Simon. Chapter 1 is the basic introduction to the main characters, meeting each other on the island for the first time and how they have learnt to cope without the supervision of the adults. The first two characters to meet are Piggy and Ralph and due to the descriptive characteristics of the two characters there are already signs that the two of them are completely different people. Piggy is definitely the more reserved and disabled of the two as it says on p.13: My auntie told me not to run, On account of my asthma. Ass-mar? This shows that Piggy probably has a better education than Ralph and that Ralph hadnt been taught as well. P.15 also shows that Ralph is probably a lot more confident kinaesthetically and this can be seen in one incident where it says: He undid the snake clasp of his belt, lugged off his shorts and pants, and stood there naked, looking at the dazzling beach and the water. This suggests that Ralph is showing signs that he is enjoying the idea of freedom, now that there are no rules applied. Piggy being the more intelligent however manages to find the other boys on the island when he tells Ralph that he might able to find the others by blowing the conch. In doing this 4 other characters appear on the scene, Jack and his choir, Sam, Eric and Simon. There is a lot of friction between Ralph and Jack due to the fact that Jack already is leader of his own group and now that all the other children have been found Ralph as been made overall chief on the island. This is displeasing to Jack; however, Ralph tries to show he wants a mutual friendship and says on p.31, The choir belongs to ...

Report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Report - Assignment Example This in turn would aid in taking decisions in an organization effectively. Discussion Combination of Both, the Text Chapter and Journal In today’s competitive business world, it is vital for every association to analyse the external along with internal settings before making any final decision. With reference to the book i.e. ‘Organisational Behaviour, An Introductory Text’ by Huczynski and Buchanan it can be viewed that the writers have underlined the significance of studying an environment in an business as it aids in making decisions that do help in mitigating a risk arising situation. This in turn facilitates to make effective strategies and policies to deal with any future risks. Moreover, the writers have also helped in understanding that conducting study to implement certain policies within a business may fail at times as it would not provide a detailed analysis of the outer world which comprises the changing trends, demands and all those factors that may a id a business to achieve its desired goals. The aspect of impression management has also been delineated as a crucial element as establishing a brand image has become vital for every organisation to maintain a substantial customer retention rate (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2001). With reference to the journal i.e. ‘The Interorganizational Virtual Organisation’ by Kasper-Fuehrer and Ashkanasy, it can be viewed that the author here explains the importance of establishing virtual organisation (VO) in today’s commercial world. Additionally, the journal mainly highlights the importance of establishing interrogational forms that focus on establishing a cooperative purview to attain individual organisational goals. However, the journal article has also stated the importance of intra-organisational form. The main reason behind selecting this journal is that it has not only facilitated in understanding the different forms of virtual organisation but has offered evidences regar ding the way in which the establishment of VO can aid an organisation in every sphere (Kasper-Fuehrer & Ashkanasy, 2003). Self-Reflection With emergence of globalisation and the rapid technological proliferation, today’s businesses are growing at a rapid speed. It has therefore become vital for every business corporation to understand the external environment as it helps in making effective decisions along with enabling to identify techniques and potential impacts of the external trends. This external force mainly includes change in demand, change in technology, increasing competitiveness of the competitors, environmental policy and laws among others that have a direct influence on the internal operational characteristics of an association (Marcin & Wojciech, 2013). In this context, I would like to state that I have been a part of an organisation that mainly emphasised following contingency theory as an integral part of the operational activities. On close analysis, I have co me know that the main reason behind following the theory within the organisation has been owing to its acceptance factor that facilitates a business to analyse the environment along with making its sure that the proposed plan meets all the current requirements of the environment.

Legal, Environmental and Social Constraints Essay

Legal, Environmental and Social Constraints - Essay Example The regulation aimed at controlling the most polluting processes such as at power stations. The following hydrocarbon processes, as prescribed by The Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations 1991 (SI 1991/472), require authorization if they are likely to release prescribed substances." (Environmental legislation applicable to the offshore hydrocarbon industry (England, Scotland and Wales) The proposed expansion of Stansted Airport faced a lot of controversy. A preservation group protested and stated that the expansion could lead to the destruction of many historic buildings. Although the Government assured that the listed properties could be rebuilt outside the new boundaries but the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings kept the stance that the airport expansion will lead to maximum damage to the country's heritage including two important monuments Waltham Manor and The Grange. The controversy also directed towards the lack of planning in order to deal with the increasing demand of future air travel. The pressure groups warned for the legal action against the airport authorities that presented the proposal to build another runway on Stansted Airport. The group took the stance that the costs attached to the expansion of the Stansted Airport are lot more than the benefits attached to the plan. Reference SSE News Archives, 27 December 2003 http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/news_archive06.html Q 3. Explain what is covered by EMC legislation, What part was played by the EU in this piece of legislation. "The word EMC does not include the influence of electromagnetic waves (either desired or undesired) on biological systems. This is a much larger field and is covered by the expression "EMCE" ("E" is for environmental), which is not the topic here and is also not the field in which EM TEST works." (Mohr) The EMC makes sure that all the electrical products shall work in their environment and will not generate electromagnetic disturbances, which can effect the performance of other products. The EMC also covers the

Computational modeling of cerebellar model articulation controller Dissertation

Computational modeling of cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) and it's application - Dissertation Example It will address simulations of the cerebellum and neural networks to accomplish biped robot leg and control leg swing in environments with obstacles, in multi output, non-linear systems. According to Miller, Glanz, & Kraft, the cerebellar mode articulation controller (CMAC) can serve as a substitute method to back propagation (Miller, Glanz, & Kraft, 1990). The method includes a footstep planning strategy that is based on the Q-learning concept for biped robot control in dynamical environments. The effectiveness of major problem solving methods in control robot technology research is also of central focus. Predictable and unpredictable dynamic obstacles encountered in the system, such as memory usage, are discussed and a strategy to overcome these obstacles is presented. The empirical analysis includes identification of likely Cerebellum Model Articulation Controller (CMAC) problems in specific environments, inputs and outputs, and viable solutions. The aim of this research is to pre sent a HCAQ-CMAC model that provides memory size and footstep planning solutions for the biped robot in a dynamic environment. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...2 ABSTRACT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....3 Contents†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 List of Figures†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦6 List of Tables†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦..9 Chapter 1 Overview†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..10 SECTION 1.1 Timeline of development†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦10 Section 1.2 The cerebellum†¦...12 subsection 1.2.1 INPUTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ .14 subsection 1.2.2 OUTPUTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.14 subsection 1.2.3 CEREBELLAR CORTEX†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.15 CHAPTER 2 Brain Computer Interface (BCI) INPUT AND OUTPUT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...16 Section 2.1 Neural Networks †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦19 Section 2.2 Q-Learning AND FUZZY CMAC†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.22 Chapter 3 theory†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦. 28 Section 3.1 The cerebellar mode articulation controller (CMAC)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 28 Section 3.2 CMAC Hierarchically Clustered Adaptive Quantization†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.34 subsection 3.2.1 Mossy Fibers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.36 Section 3.3 CMAC for design of Biped Robot†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 38 subsection 3.3.2 heuristics†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦40 CHAPTER 4 fOOTSEP pLANNING; fUZZY q†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â ‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦44 section 4.1 Control Strategy for obstacle Avoidance †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦

Criminal Justice Organizations And Challenges Faced

Criminal Justice Organizations And Challenges Faced In the world of criminal justice organizations, leaders are facing challenges that have become a part of the daily routine. Criminal justice organizations consist of corrections, courts, and the police. These organizations each have an important role in the criminal justice system that results in the leadership of each organization. This paper will explain some of these challenges of the leaders and steps that can be taken to affect change for the future. Leadership The ability to effectively lead a group of followers making the organization and the followers successful is leadership. An individual must have dedication, commitment and not be afraid of taking in leadership. In leadership, learning and communication skills are important in the accomplishing these tasks while still being able to maintain valid ideas and principles. To ensure their success, leader must know how to treat the followers. In addition, leaders should know how to motivate others and stay consistent their values, morals and ethical standards (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, Uhl-Blen, 2010). Challenges There are many challenges that leaders face in criminal justice organizations. Some of these challenges include increased criminal activity, staffing, budgeting, legal and political, terrorism, conflict and power, communication, and ethical and moral issues. Most of these challenges relate to other challenges. Resolving one challenge may help resolve another challenge. Criminal activity increases as the population increases. Police officers, the courts and other criminal justice organizations are not able to protect and serve the public and ensure safety because of the shortage of professionals. Hiring additional staff or introducing more community programs is necessary to help reduce criminal activity. The question of additional staff brings another challenge of budgeting. Leadership in criminal organizations is battling shortfalls in the budget which brings about staffing and equipment shortages. Politically, state judges and prosecutors are in position from election votes. When applicable the election can bring in new appointments and result in a number of changes within criminal justice organizations. In terms of legal challenges, the changing of laws, policies and procedures can be become a challenge in enforcement and being aware of political alliances (Duelin, 2010). Conflict and power are two other challenges that leaders face in the criminal justice agencies. The conflict occurs among the variety of agencies inside the criminal justice system. An example is between the courts and the police. The police have a job to uphold protection and safety, so they may make arrests charging individuals with crimes with the hope that these individuals are prosecuted and punished for these crimes. On the other hand, the courts decide what the punishment should be and how it is carried out. These two agencies do not have the same goals and this becomes a conflict. The police and courts have a substantial amount of power with these responsibilities. Leadership for these criminal justice agencies must balance this power with fairness (Duelin, 2010). Another leadership challenge is communication. The barriers of communication are individual and organizational. Individual barriers relate to how an individual interprets a conversation or message. Organizational barriers relate to the culture of an organization. Leadership includes being an effective communicator. An effective communicator will have the ability to handle these barriers. Within the criminal justice system, organizations have different jargon which is a part of their culture. This can make it very difficult to communicate with other organizations. Another communication barrier is between the professionals in the criminal justice organizations and the public. With the increasing population, our society includes many races, nationalities, cultures and languages. The ability to communicate with the public is essential. Other important leadership challenges are ethical and moral standards. Ethics allows us a way to make moral choices at times when we are uncertain of what to do in a situation involving moral issues. In the criminal justice system, ethics is important in management and policy decisions that relate to punishment and the rationality in making decisions. These decisions regarding punishment are to rehabilitate, deter or impose imprisonment. A criminal justice organization consists of professionals that carry power and authority over others and in some case have authority to use force and physical coercion against others. Ethical rules and responsibilities are given to these professionals as the law or accepted standards of behavior that require them to be aware of these ethical standards while performing their duties. To avoid any attempt to abuse power, ethics are crucial in decision making that involves discretion, force, and due process. Domestic terrorism is the greatest challenge for criminal justice organization. Since 9/11, safety and security is a top priority. Every role in the criminal justice system is affected by terrorism. Although a number of new policies and procedure have been put into place to help ensure the safety of all, terrorism is an ongoing challenge. Employees from many criminal and correctional agencies are away from their regular jobs and are serving active duty for the military regarding the war on terrorism. This means these departments are suffering and have a lack of security. Other employees such as the local police and persecutors have to take more prominent roles in the investigation and prosecution of crimes that would normally be the responsibility of federal law enforcement (Daniels, 2002). Affecting Change for the Future Criminal justice professionals can affect changes in the future by reducing the opportunity for crime, changing peopleà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s fundamental values, nurturing these values into the youth, and motivating the people responsible for crime will reduce the likelihood of future criminal behavior. Continuing to use the advancement of technology such as DNA analysis, forensic testing, surveillance, stoplight cameras, biometrics, and radio frequency identification microchips will continue to enhance crime solving and prevention. Also increasing the intelligence of databases for use by the general public in addition to the use by analysts and police officers will help educate and make the public aware of criminal activity. A current example of this is the sex offender registries and access to inmate information (Ritter, 2006). In terms of improving communication and information-sharing, the Office of Justice Programs is working together with the FBI to widen access to the Regional Information Sharing System and the FBIà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s Law Enforcement Online system to combine the operations of the two systems. This will allow the RISS program to network a variety of different federal and state law enforcement information-sharing to create a secure network that can share information at levels of the government in law enforcement (Daniels, 2002). In order to facilitate change, hiring additional criminal justice professionals and providing excellent training skills will be a necessity. The training should consist of ethical and cultural standards, policies and procedures, weapons, equipment, and communications skills. The Police Service program has volunteers and the program works to increase the citizen volunteers in law enforcement agencies. This allows the law enforcement professionals to be available to perform their front-line duties. In additions, it allows the law enforcement agencies to enhance existing programs and start new programs while expanding ways to use citizen volunteers (Daniels, 2002). In terms of terrorism, criminal justice organizations must stay alert in linking terrorism to other crimes. These crimes include cybercrime, drug trafficking and identity theft. In the 9/11 situation, drug trafficking was the source of finance for the terrorists, the hijackers stole the identity of innocent victims to start and build credit and bank accounts to cover terrorist activities. Law enforcementà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s determination of cybercrime was found. The terrorists were using computers to attach banking networks, and defense system computers. The internet is the method chosen by terrorist organizations to communicate with members by e-mail and to raise funds. A balance between neighborhood security and national security must be made. In creating this balance maximizing our resources will allow the continuation of making advances on both sides. This means that criminal justice organizations at every level will have to work together to resolve the terrorism challenge. Conclusion Leadership is an important aspect in criminal justice organizations. Challenges arise on a daily basis. Addressing organizational change including more cooperation between the community and law enforcers, and the institution and advancement of technology in law enforcement, and more training will help alleviate some of the current challenges and help with future challenges.

Ray Bradbury :: History

Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920. He was the third son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury (a telephone lineman for Waukegan Bureau of Power & Light [Wolfe 62, http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm]) and Esther Marie Bradbury (a Swedish immigrant [Snodgrass 73]). Ray lived in Waukegan, Illinois for six years until his family left to Tucson, Arizona in 1926. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm. When Ray Bradbury was eleven, he would be writing stories on butcher. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) Ray was very much into science fiction, horror movies, books, comic books, and magic acts. (Snodgrass 73) At age 12, Ray read a newspaper headline reading "World Would End Tomorrow". (Tucson 1932) Young Ray was all excited about this event so he and his brother packed a lunched and camped out on a ridge to see the end. They waited for some time and nothing happened. Disappointed, he and his brother left the ridge and went home. From that point on, Ray vowed to separate from religion. Why? Because he doesn't like a god who likes to see his people run in pseudo-terror. (Vollmer) In 1932, - after his father, Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, was laid off work because of the depression - his family moved to Los Angeles, California. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) In 1935, at the age of fifteen, Ray would continue writing stories. Every once in a while he would send them to national magazines for print. (Wolfe 63) None of his work, at this time, was printed. Even though his work was never published, that didn't dispair him from his love of science fiction. With that, he joined the Los Angeles Science-Fiction Society. (Snodgrass 73) Later in the same year, Ray printed out his own magazine called Futura Fantasia. Futura Fantasia only consisted of Ray Bradbury's work. The magazine lasted for only four issues. (Snodgrass 73) In 1938, Ray Bradbury finished High School at Los Angeles High School in Los Angeles, California. (McNelly 918) Nearly four years of trying to have one of this stories being published, Ray has his fist printing with Imagination! Magazine and the story called Hollerbochen's Dilemma. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) This was a big break for Ray. He had never had a piece of work of his being printed. Some of Ray's influences have been "†¦ L. Frank Baum's magic land of Oz, the never-never Africa of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes, and Barsoom, Burroughs' impossible, romantic Mars†¦". (McNelly 918) But with even these writers, his biggest influence was not of a writer, but of a magician act of a passing circus.

Feedback in learning Essay

1.0What is feedback?:â€Å"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great inspires† William Arthur Ward A teacher carries a big responsibility in area of learning. Some people believe a teacher’s job is to teach and a student’s job is to learn. In today’s classroom, the role of teacher is totally different. Teacher as a facilitator of learning, mentor for learner and classroom supporter. The excellent teacher will take various actions in way to help their students to be successful in their life. So that, one of the action is teacher should provide assessment feedback in way to enhance the learning. Feedback is normally something which happens as a result of cycle teaching and learning action. It can give either before, during or after the learning had been occurs. Generally, what is feedback? Is it guidance, evaluation or praise? As mentioned by Ramaprasad (1983), feedback is information about the gap be tween the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way. Furthermore, the definition by Ramaprasad also supported of new research by Shute (2007) that define the feedback as represent information communicated to the learner that is intended to modify the learner’s thinking or behaviour for the purpose of improving learning. Hence, in learning, feedback should usually presented as information to a student in response to some action on the current level of performance and help them to be better. Correspondingly the educationist agree that assessment feedback is an important part of learning cycle but nowadays students frequently express disappointment and frustration in relation to the conduct of the feedback process. Students may complain that feedback on assessment is unhelpful or unclear and not provide any tips to them to improve their current performance. As a result, students will always repeat the mistake until they get to know the correct answers. Studies of the impact on student learning achievement indicate that feedback has the potential to have a significant effect on student learning achievement (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Feedback should give immediately during the learning process. That can really help student to do self-reflection on their quality of learning. They can figure out did he/she in the right track and how to improve their understanding. Types of feedback: Main focus of given assessment feedback is to describes qualities of work in relation to the learning target. Teacher should give attention to the quality of their written feedback. There are two types of feedback, evaluative feedback and descriptive feedback. Evaluative feedback refers to a summary of student current achievement or performed on the particular task. This feedback is often come out with letter of grades, numbers, check marks, symbols and generals comment such as â€Å"good†, â€Å"excellent† and â€Å"need help†. While, descriptive feedback is specific or detail information in the form of written comments or conversations that help the student understand what he/she needs to do in improve their level of understanding. There are several examples of evaluative and descriptive feedback: Evaluative Feedback Descriptive Feedback â€Å"Try harder next time† â€Å"Your topic discussion is clear and have good examples, your next step might be to check back your grammatical errors† â€Å"90%! A+! Excellent Work! Keep it up!† â€Å"You’re made some simple mistakes in your calculation, remember back the formula use. Please check back the first step until the last step in your calculation for question 10.† Table 1: Examples of Evaluative and Descriptive Feedback Based on examples given, evaluative feedback more to provide a judgement on the quality of the learning task that student did while descriptive feedback focus on helps the student understand what he or she needs to do to improve their current achievement. Besides that, evaluative feedback shown to us those teachers only tells learner or students how they compare to others and descriptive feedback will provide specific information in the form of written comments or conversations more help learner. Regardless of the types of feedback given, either evaluative or descriptive, effective feedback needs to be informative, prompt and guiding. Informative feedback highlights strengths and weaknesses, giving specific examples or explanations. Prompt feedback is returned to students within an agreed timescale for the work submitted. Guiding feedback offer suggestions about how students can improve their learning. All of that combining together to help students to do better the next time. This statement also have support  by Hattie and Timperley (2007), they mention that the most improvement in student learning takes place when students got information feedback about the task and how to do more effectively. Below are examples of evaluative and descriptive feedback given by teachersFeedback as teaching style of scaffolding: As we already know, feedback provides information and guide to students by teachers about learning. That is one criteria of scaffolding. Scaffolding is the core of traditional apprenticeship. It is refers to given support that provides by expert or teacher as steps to improve their learning. It helps to reduce the gap between the student current level of understanding or performance and a desired goal. According to Hattle and Timperley (2007), they mention that depending on the nature and delivery of the feedback, it can have powerful positive effects on student learning and engagement. Beside that in the research by Assessment Reform Group (2002) , also mention that feedback as coaching and scaffolding students. The given feedback is an essential practice of assessment for learning. The process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learner and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there by helping of teachers. That the main reason why the teacher’s feedback important, providing the support necessary for student to proceed towards the next stage or level and achieving the learning goal. Student will view the feedback as improving tips in which students receive information and construct meaning to close the gap. The students need to do something based on the guided giving in the feedback. Scaffolding instructional originated from Vygotsky’s ideas on learning. Vygotsky’s comes out with two levels of learning development. The first level is Actual Development that what learner has already reached. It is the level which the learner is capable of solving problems independently. The second level is called Potential Development which the learner not capable of doing the moment but have potential to do so. Between the actual and potential levels, Vygotsky said that there was what was called a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Proximal means next. In context of feedback, it should act as scaffold by providing tips and support necessary for student to proceed the next stage or level. Without the support students may be unable to accomplish the target. As the result, students will extend their understanding and make improvement. Figure 3: ZPD (Zone of Proximal  Development) Diagram When teacher incorporate scaffolding in feedback, they become more to mentor and facilitator of knowledge rather than the dominant content expert. This teaching style that include with scaffolding will make student active role in class to achieving learning goal. Besides that, it also provides a welcoming and caring learning environment. â€Å"I take care of you and I hope you will be success in future†. Expiration in feedback on student assessment will make them realize that even they did wrong is not means he/she is stupid student. They have room to improve. As conclusion, the best assessment feedback, scaffold student to achieve the higher performance in learning target. Feedback as affective domain in learning: Since 1950’s, research have been done in cognitive theory and educationist had use the Bloom’s (1956) taxonomies of learning. Bloom has mentioned that in learning should have three learning domains. The cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor domain. Feedback is referring to affective domain. In affective domain includes feeling, emotion, attitudes, values and motivation. As students that receiving the feedback, they need all of the aspect that include in affective domain. Teacher should play with all of these aspects. Teacher must provide clear understanding. Feedback should be brief, concise statements, in student-friendly language that describe what students are to know and be able to do at the end of feedback. Feedback can be one of the ways to encourage positive motivational belief and self-esteem. There are some ideas for motivating students. Teachers can start the feedback with praises like good job, excellent job, great, brilliant idea, â€Å"You are starting to understand this but†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"This is quality work because†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"Two things you really did well are†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and many more on what they do well. Praise the work or process that focus in achieving the learning goal. Second step, teachers proceed with intervention that tells the student what needs improving and give enough information in way to help them to do better. It can sound like â€Å"Your thinking shows†¦.†, â€Å"One thing to improve on†¦..†, â€Å"You need more†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ , and many more. Next step, teachers share the improvement strategies such as â€Å"Your next steps might be†¦..†, and â€Å"You might try†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The ways that teachers give the  feedback have relationship with the flow of affective domain as described by Krathwohl et.al (1964). They start with receiving, responding, valuing, organizing and ended with acting. Students will receiving the feedback as their new information of mark, wrong answers and the current level that he/she mastering the knowledge. Am I really understood or I just understand little bit? Step 2, responding. Students will respond on feedback given by teacher. They being actively participating bas ed on feedback given to achieve learning goal. Step 3, valuing. They attaching worth to feedback given and try to do correction on the task. After they do the correction, they will organize the new concept and change their existing understanding. The last is characterization. They have the correct understanding and will apply the concept in correct way without misconception. It is the effective way that feedback can help students learn better in positive environment in implement the affective domain. Feedback will demonstrate appropriate ways of enhancing the performance on the task and offer strategies that invite more learner responsibility to improve. â€Å"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire† William Butler Yeats Feedback as reflection on learning process: Reflection needed students to capture back on their performance in the task given. It also needs students to have clear comparison about their previous performance and current performance. There are three types of reflection that suite with the feedback: reflection on your process, comparison of your performance to that of others and comparison of your performance to a set of criteria for evaluating performance (Schon, 1983). How feedback can be as reflection on learning process? Firstly, reflect on the feedback process. By feedback, students are encourages to look back at how they react and given answer on the task. Teachers will describes the qualities of work in relation to the learning targets. That can make them see how they might have done better and what they need to improve. That is the first step as feedback starter, reflect on achievement. Second, compare of student performance with others. These types of reflection are referring to evaluative feedback. In evaluative feedba ck teachers will give grades, numbers, check marks, symbols and generals comment such as â€Å"good†,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"excellent† and â€Å"need help†. Based on the feedback, students analyze by comparing their performance with friends in hope he/she will motivate to achieve better. The final types of reflection are comparison of student performance to a set of criteria for evaluating performances. These are focus on intervention and improvement that include in feedback. Teachers will share idea on what students needs to improve and gives enough information so the students will knows what the next step to apply. That really show the function of feedback as reflection, facilitates the development of self-assessment in learning.Conclusion: Assessment feedback should play as important role in teaching and learning. Firstly, feedback is a way that teacher can use to determine and analyse how far your student gain the knowledge and what should you suggest to them in helping them success in mastery the knowledge. Secondly, assessment feedback will attract low achievement students to be active learner and more motivated to achieve the learning goal. Overall, assessment feedback should take as important aspect in learning process. Teacher need to apply and change the feedback given in way to help student to be success in future.

Reducing Out-Group Bias in Huntingtons Disease Patients

Reducing Out-Group Bias in Huntingtons Disease Patients Free Online Research Papers Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic condition, which results in a variety of physical and psychological symptoms. The disease leads to loss of neurons in the striatum, with more severe neuronal loss as the disease progresses. The present study aims to investigate how such degeneration may affect social stereotyping. Perspective taking has been used by numerous authors to try and reduce stereotypes, and bias against groups outside of one’s own. It was hypothesised that due to degeneration of brain areas thought to be key to the process of perspective taking and reducing bias, that HD patients would be unable to use a perspective taking task to reduce their in-group bias. The participants for this study were nine HD patients attending the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital HD clinic, and fourteen control participants, matched for educational background. A number of measures were used, including a relative positivity scale andtrait overlap to measure in-group bias, and tests of prefrontal cortex function. Analysis showed no support for the hypothesis, with no significant differences found on the measures of relative positivity and trait overlap. However, a number of methodological problems are discussed, along with directions for future research. Introduction Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited, degenerative illness, thought to affect between four to ten individuals of Caucasian origin in every 100 000 (Reddy, Williams and Tagle, 1999). The disease results in a variety of motor and psychiatric symptoms. These symptoms usually begin around the age of 40 to 50 years. In the early stages of the disease, these symptoms include fidgeting, clumsiness, dance like movements referred to as chorea, absentmindedness, depression, apathy, irritability and psychosis. As the disease progresses, these symptoms worsen, with speech deterioration, facial grimacing and the development of an inability to swallow. There is also a decline in cognitive functions, especially spatial deficits, and executive function (Brandt, Leroi, O’Hearn, Rosenblatt and Margolis, 2004). In its juvenile form, the age of onset is much earlier, and the symptoms more severe. The disease eventually leads to death. Snowden, Gibbons, Blackshaw, Doubleday, Thompson, Crauford, Foster, Happe and Neary (2003) also reported some social cognition deficits in patients with HD. In their study, HD patients were found to have deficit compared to controls in the comprehension and understanding of humourous cartoons and story vignettes, although these deficits were more pronounced in patients with frontotemporal dementia, another disorder affecting the frontostriatal systems. HD is an autosomal dominant genetic condition. The disease has been linked to a mutation of the IT15 gene on chromosome 4 (the Huntington’s Disease Collaborative Research Group, 1993). The mutation of this gene causes the polymorphic trinucleotide repeat of the sequence CAG, which codes for the huntingtin preotein, to expand to over 36 repeats. This in turn causes the protein Huntingtin to fold abnormally (Li and Li, 2004), initiating a protective cellular response meant to prevent the build up of the Huntingtin protein. However, this response puts the endoplasmic reticulum of the mitochondria under stress (Rao and Bredesen, 2004), affecting mitochondrial homeostasis (Bezprozvanny and Hayden, 2004). This eventually leads to cell death. The number of CAG repeats is inversely proportional to the age on onset that the symptoms of the disease begin to manifest themselves (Andrew and Hayden, 1995). It has been suggested that the number of CAG repeats also correlates to psych iatric symptoms experienced by HD sufferers, however studies have failed to find any such correlation (Berrios, Wagle, Markova, Wagle, Ho, Rubinsztein, Whittaker, Ffench-Constant, Kershaw, Rosser, Bak and Hodges, 2001). Although the IT15 gene is found in many body tissues, the primary site of degeneration is the brain (Reddy at al, 1999), in particular the striatum. In the early stages of the disease, the dorsomedial striatum is affected, then as the disease progresses, there is more pronounced degeneration of striatal neurons, with damage spreading to the cerebral cortex. The localised pathological changes found in HD patients account for the symptoms it produces. The degeneration of the basal ganglia, in particular the striatum, affects all five of the frontal subcortical neural circuits, which have been summarised by Cummings (1993). These circuits begin in the frontal cortex, which then project to regions of the striatum, the globus pallidus and the thalamus (Tekin and Cummings, 2002). The disruption caused to the motor circuit accounts for the movement disorders seen in HD, the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit the executive function problems, the orbitofrontal circuit the depression, and the anterior cingulate circuit the apathy (Tekin and Cimmings, 2002). Cummings (1993) also reported HD patients with antisocial personality disorder, and suggested a link between HD and obsessive compulsive disorder, thought to be due to the degeneration of one of the frontal subcortical neural circuits. Previous work has highlighted the role of the prefrontal cortex in the capacity to attribute thoughts and feelings to others, therefor it is plausible that HD patients may have a problem in doing this. Ruby and Decety (2004) used a perspective taking task in their neuroimaging study to highlight the importance of the frontalpolar, the somatosensory cortex and inferior parietal lobe in distinguishing the self and the other. Furthermore, Ehlers and Bratt (1996) showed that patients with serious injury to the frontal lobes had a general lack of empathy and inability to see situations from a perspective other than their own. The ability to see the perspective of others and the reduction of stereotypes has long been discussed in social psychology. Dasgupta and Asgari (2004) cite the early writings of Allport in 1935 and his opinion that attitudes are ‘rigid’, and unlikely to be changed or modified unless ‘under the provocation of serious affective disorganisation’. However, recent theories have taken the view that attitudes are more fluid and subject to change (Dasgupta and Asgari, 2004). Being able to take the perspective of another (perspective taking) is essential for avoiding the over use of social stereotypes. Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000) investigated perspective taking in normal subjects. They found that perspective taking was an effective strategy for reducing bias against members of a social group outside of the participants’ own. Research using caregivers of cancer patients has also shown that perspective taking ‘helped to prompt adjustments down from a self orientated viewpoint’ (Lobchuk and Voruer, 2003). Davis, Conklin, Smith and Luce (1996) have also looked at perspective taking in normal participants. In their study, it was found that the use of perspective taking resulted in the participants attributing traits to novel targets that they had previously used to describe themselves. In the second part of their study, the participants were given a memory task as a distracter while completing the original perspective taking task. In this condition, it was found that there was a reduced overlap between traits assigned to self and the novel group. This would imply that persepctive taking is only effective if the perspective taking task is remembered clearly. Memory is an executive function. Using the assumption of executive function being controlled by the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit as proposed by Cummings and Tekin (2002), is it possible that damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit, such as that caused by HD, could cause some patients to also have a reduced overlap in t raits assigned to a novel group and the self? Galinsky (2002) suggests that bias between out-groups and the self may be due to internal psychological processes, in particular categorisation and egocentrism. Work conducted by Filoteo, Maddox and Dais (2001) has shown that patients with HD perform poorly on categorisation tasks, such as simple line stimuli categorisation into one of two groups, leading them to conclude that HD causes deficits in learning categorisation rules. Furthermore, a neuropsychological theory of categorisation published by Ashby, Alfonso-Reese, Turken and Waldron in 1998 highlights the role of caudate nucleus, anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortices in category learning. . A similar category learning deficit has also been found in patients with Parkinson’s disease (Ashby, Noble, Filoteo, Waldron and Ell, 2003), which has similar pathology to HD, affecting the brain areas involved in frontal subcortical circuits. The above evidence has illustrated a number of deficits and potential deficits in HD patients, linked to the degeneration of the striatum and frontal subcortical circuits. Given this evidence, the present study aims to investigate the potential deficits in ingroup bias and the effect of perspective taking to reduce in group bias in patients with HD. It is hypothesised that due to the degeneration of the striatum and associated prefrontal dysfunction caused by HD, and the loss of psychological functions associated with the damaged frontal subcortical circuits, HD sufferers will be unable to use a perspective taking exercise, similar to that used by Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000), to reduce their ingroup bias. This hypothesis will be tested using asylum seekers as an out group, as it is unlikely any of the participants will have had any direct contact with members of this group. Trait lists containing positive and negative items will be used to measure any bias. Method Participants Information packs about the study were sent to all patients attending the Huntington’s Disease clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, whom the Clinic Consultant deemed able to participate in the study (a copy of this pack can be found in Appendix A). All of these patients had a confirmed diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, via genetic testing. Of these, eleven patients volunteered to participate in the study. Two patients’ data was excluded from the data analysis due to failure to complete the experimental protocol. The remaining nine participants were four males and five females, with a mean age of 52.4. These participants were at various stages of the disease, however, due to time constraints, no formal measure of the severity of the disease could be taken. Control participants were recruited by opportunity sampling. A total of fifteen control participants were tested, of which one participants’ data was discarded due to a large number of outliers in their performance across all tasks in the experimental protocol. These participants had no diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, nor any family history of the disease. The fourteen control participants whose data was used were seven males and seven females, with a mean age of 59.4. Procedure Patients were tested either in their homes or at the Huntington’s Disease Clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, in accordance with their preference. Patients were permitted to bring one friend or relative into the testing room if they desired. The control patients were tested in their homes. At the beginning of each testing session, all participants were asked to sign a consent form, and complete a short questionnaire regarding demographic information, including age, gender and educational background (a copy of this questionnaire can be found in Appendix B). Participants were then asked to complete each task from the experimental protocol (a copy of the protocol can be found in Appendix B). The testing session was recorded using a Dictaphone recording device in all sessions. After analysis, these recordings were destroyed. If any participant was unable to complete the pen and paper elements of the protocol due to reading difficulties or difficulties associated to their movement disorder, these sections were read to the participant and recorded by the experimenter. At the end of the testing session, each participant was debriefed, and given a debriefing letter to take away with him or her (a copy of this debriefing letter can be found in Appendix A). Measures FAS The FAS Word Fluency Test was used as a general measure of prefrontal cortex functioning. In this test, participants were asked to generate as many words as they could in one minute which began with the letter F, then repeat the task with the letters A and S. This test was used to assess if there was any significant difference in prefrontal cortex functioning between the patient and control groups. Emotional Stroop The Emotional Stroop tests were used to evaluate prefrontal functioning, and to measure reduction of in-group bias. This task was repeated before and after the perspective taking task. Three conditions were used; an XXXX condition, in which rows of XXXX were presented to serve as a control for the word conditions, neutral words, and words seeded with words salient to the out-group (asylum seekers). The words salient with the out group were gained via a pilot study. Initially, an opportunity sample of students from the University of Birmingham were interviewed and asked to generate words they felt were most frequently associated with asylum seekers. The words collected from this pilot study were then compiled into a questionnaire used in a second pilot study. Again, an opportunity sample of students from the University of Birmingham were used, and asked to tick the ten words from the list they felt were most frequently associated with asylum seekers. The ten highest scoring wo rds from this pilot study were then used in the stroop test. Words for the neutral and seeded conditions were matched for word frequency and word length. Perspective Taking Task A perspective taking task was used in order to try and reduce in-group bias. The participant was given a picture of a mythical asylum seeker, with a number of prompting words printed under the picture, and asked to ‘Adopt the perspective of an asylum seeker and imagine the day in their life as if you were that person, looking at the world through his/her eyes and walking in their shoes’, and describe a typical day in that persons’ life. The prompting words can be found in the experimental protocol, in Appendix B. Trait Lists Trait questionnaires were used to assess in-group bias before and after the perspective taking task. The trait list contained ten positive and ten negative traits, and the order of the words on the trait lists was randomised as such that the traits listed were not in the same order for the second presentation. Analysis Relative Positivity A measure of relative positivity was obtained. This was achieved by first subtracting the number of negative traits from the number of positive ones for each pair of trait lists (self on first presentation, out-group at first presentation, self at second presentation, outgroup at second presentation). This created a measure of positivity. The numbers generated from this exercise were then used in a second calculation. The positivity of the out-group before perspective taking was subtracted from the positivity of self before perspective taking. This was repeated for the after perspective taking results. Trait Overlap In order to gain the data for the trait overlap analysis, traits assigned to both the self and the out-group for each repetition of the task (before / after perspective taking) was measured. Where a trait was shared, a score of 1 was recorded, and where a trait was not shared, a score of 0 was allocated. Results FAS Word Fluency Test Table 1.1 Mean number of words generated in the FAS test. Group Mean number of words generated Standard deviation Patients 25.00 17.62 Controls 53.50 17.99 Participants in the patient condition generated fewer words (mean score = 25, SD = 17.62) than the control condition (mean score = 53, SD = 17.99). The 95% confidence interval for the estimated general population is between –12.64 and –44.36. An independent t-test showed that if there was no significant difference between the scores of patients and controls, this result would be highly unlikely (t = -3.737, DF =21, p

The eNotes Blog For Hemingways Birthday, A Gift to theWorld

For Hemingways Birthday, A Gift to theWorld JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY / AP (The birth certificate and family photograph of Ernest Hemingway from a scrapbook created by his mother, Grace Hall Hemingway.) Long before scrapbooking was a verb, mothers were collecting memories about their children and their achievements in volumes for posterity.   Fortunately for both fans and scholars of Ernest Hemingway, his mother, Grace, was one of these women who kept meticulous journals of her now-famous (and infamous) son. This week, in honor of what would have been the iconic American authors 114th birthday, July 21, 1899, the   John F. Kennedy  Presidential Library and Museum in Boston has made available to the public the digitized journals.   Ã‚  There are a total of five volumes and all can now be viewed online here. For scholars, this is particularly exciting news as the majority of the collection has  never  been available and only a few fortunate researchers have seen it at all. Prior to their digitization, the leather books were kept in a dark vault to prevent them from crumbling and otherwise becoming damaged. As for the content, there are notes about much of Hemingways life from age five until his graduation from high school. Grace chronicled nearly everything about young Ernests development.   On the day he was born, she noted that the day was sunny and birds were chirping. Later, some of the entries and memorabilia hint at the young boys future as a writer.   For example, his mother proudly notes that at age 3, her son is â€Å"using long words† and making sage remarks.   At age 5, Grace Hemingway said young Ernest had begun collecting war cartoons and expressing his admiration for acts of courage. In addition to notes, written by both his mother and Ernest himself, there are dozens of photographs, including those of his childhood home in Oak Park, Illinois (which the adult Hemingway called a neighborhood of wide lawns and narrow  minds) and shots from his familys lake house in Michigan, the setting for some of the Nick Adams stories. One of the volumes includes a letter from 13-year-old Ernest to his mother expressing regret for his behavior in church.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"My conduct tomorrow will be good,† he promised.   Other bits of relatively unknown information include reports of Ernests progress on the cello and his service on his high schools prom committee. The release of the materials is not only of interest to scholars and fans, but also to some of his family members.   Hemingways grandson, Sean, is now forty-six. His grandfather committed suicide in 1961, so Sean never knew him.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Looking at these kinds of things †¦ I feel like I have gotten a chance to know him a bit, he said.   (Source)

Black Panther Party Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Black Panther Party - Essay Example Edgar Hoover's saw Black Panther party as the greatest threat to the internal security of United States. In 1967, the founder of Black Panther Party, Newton was wounded during battle with police and charged with killing of a Police Officer and these episodes brought Black Panther Party to national prominence and they opened new chapters throughout the country. (History matters, n.d.). The Black Panther Party was one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militancy struggle for protecting ethnic minority and working class emancipation (Guerrilla War in the U.S.A., n.d.). The Black Panther Party was a progressive political organization and a most powerful movement for social change in America since 1776 and the civil war and it is referred as The Sixties and it is only the sole black organization in entire history of black struggle against slavery and oppression in the US that was armed and promoted a revolutionary agenda by the black masses for equality, justice and freedom (What was the Black Panther party, n.d.). History of Black Panther Party: After the assassination of Malcolm X in the year 1965, Huey P. Newton gathered some of his friend including Bobby Seale and David Hilliard and developed an organization in the year 1966 (What was the Black Panther party, n.d.). It was originally named as Black Panther Part for Self Defense and Black Panther were used as symbol. In 1967 Bobby Seale and 30 other party members were arrested and later in 1967 Newton were arrested for killing an Oakland Police Officer. To free Huey, panther Eldridge Clever begins a movement "Free Huey" and later Stokely Carmichael was recruited the party's prime minister in 1968. Carmichael, a former chairman of Students Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) was totally adamant of absorbing white into the movement and this has led to the basis of black power in US. To curtail the movement, in 1968 the FBI initiated a program known as counterintelligence program and later did the surgical assassinations for killing many members of the organization. These mass killings and several arrests were followed by a psychological war designed to split and destroy the party (Guerilla war in U.S.A., n.d.). Theory of Black Panther Party: Malcolm X was a role model of Black Panther part and the party members followed the Malcolm's belief of international working class unity across various minority group, color or gender and therefore they were able to unite various minority and white revolutionary group. The Black Panther party rejected the government stance to join politics and share power structure (Black Panther Party, n.d.). The Black Panther party took many ideas from Karl Marx, Lenin and Mao and shaped the Black Panther Party in such a manner in which it should organize a revolutionary cadre organization and from the Maoism the Black Panther Party considered them the vanguard party that is committed to organizing support for a socialist revolution (Black Panther Party, n.d.). They later adopted ten point programs. The Rules of Black Panther Party: In addition to ten point programs, every member of Black Panther party has to obey a number of rules and the enforcing authorities such as central committee members or central

Fundamentals of Insurance Planning and Risk Management Assignment

Fundamentals of Insurance Planning and Risk Management - Assignment Example Life insurance needs to be purchased for an amount that takes all expenses into consideration. It is estimated that life insurance will be required for an amount of $1,025,000. Following calculation sheds light on this figure: 75% of consolidated income is required for 14 years for a reason as noted above. University expenses are calculated for 4 years for both Mike and Karen. It is assumed that before the university, expenses will be managed from the family maintenance fund. According to the needs approach, when calculating expenses, it is best to overestimate needs a little. The idea is to buy and pay for a little more insurance than to underestimate and realize mistake when it is too late. The particular product that may meet the requirement to close the gap should be bought. Insurance consultants can be contacted for assistance in this matter to learn which product will be the most appropriate from a cost-benefit perspective. Long-term care insurance: Long-term care is typically needed by the elderly, but it is also required by anyone with a debilitating illness or injury who needs assistance to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) like bathing, feeding, and getting dressed (Beam, Wiening, Bickelhaupt 2005). Long-term care insurance ensures that any costs associated with care are covered, thereby lessening the financial burden on oneself and family.