Educating Students With Autism English Language Essay

Educating Students With Autism English Language Essay Many people with ASC (autism spectrum conditions) have intricacy in identifying emotions in themselves and other people. For young children learning to speak, suffering from autism present a special problem to their teachers as well as parents as they are faced with the challenge of teaching these unfortunate children how to express themselves through speech. The importance of effective communication cannot be underestimated. Yet teaching students with autism is not an easy task, it requires patience and use of special assistive technology tools to help these children learn how to form words and use them effectively. There are various technologies that can be used, while other are simple some of these technology are so advanced and needs extra training to use them. One of the basic technologies that has been used for a number of years is Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS ) studies have indicated that this technology improves communication of children with autism This paper intends to discuss on the use of this assistive technology to educate students with Autism. Introduction People with autism spectrum conditions have impairments in public communication; included in this core impairment is an intricacy with the social emotional reciprocity in addition to nonverbal communication such as gestures, facial expression and eye contact. Regularly, people with autism spectrum conditions have difficulties identifying emotions particularly complex emotions that call for metalizing (jealous, embarrassed, sarcastic) in both themselves and other people. All of these complications can add to challenges in keeping and making friendships and other encouraging peer relationships. WHAT IS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY? Assistive technology tool means any piece of equipment, item, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, off-the-shelf, or customized, that is used to maintain, increase, or improve functional abilities of people with disabilities. Assistive technology service directly assists people with a disability in the acquisition, selection, or use of an assistive technology. The Use of Assistive Technology to Educate Students with Autism The theory of mind is one conceptualization used to explain the social impairment in autism spectrum conditions (Golan and Bauminger, 2006). The theory states that people with autism spectrum conditions have an intrinsic disability in terms of recognizing the psychological perspective of others. That is, they have problem imputing emotion, meaning, and intent to other people. Deficits in this part are serious to effective social interaction, to a great extent it is anticipated on knowing what other people are feeling or thinking. Getting to know emotions is one aspect of the capability to take another persons perspective. A number of studies have researched on the interventions to educate individuals with autism spectrum conditions to identify emotions. These comprise social skill instruction (Golan and Bauminger, 2006) and assistive technology interventions. For instance, Bauminger (2006) examined the use of a behavior based intervention to assist in the emotion recognition skills of 15 high responding kids with autism, ages 8 to 17. The intervention involved lessons from a social skill syllabus used in the school setting for 2 to 4 hours per week for 7 months. The lessons comprised of activities such as role play and just plays with a normally developing peer and working on the skills acquired from each weekly lesson with parents at home. The end results showed advancement in the kids emotional ability and knowledge to give examples of difficult emotions. Specially, at post intervention, the partakers with autism were likely to start social communication with their peers and spent a lot of time displaying encouraging social behaviors. In another study, Hadwin, Baron-Cohen, Howlin, and Hill (1996) taught children with autism spectrum conditions to foresee and identify emotions in others using a computer based intervention called the Emotions Trainer. Partakers between the ages of 12 and 20, incorporated in either a control group or an experimental, were diagnosed with either Asperger syndrome or autism. The program comprised of five sections that incorporated asking the user to select the correct emotion out of four options explaining photographed facial expressions, events or situations, and descriptive captions and objects. Contrasted to the control group, the experimental group showed improvement in their ability to recognize emotions in tale and cartooned circumstances that triggered an emotional response, but not in their recognition of emotion in pictures (facial expressions), on which both intervention and control groups demonstrated improvement. The following section will examine Picture Exchange Communicat ion Systems (PECS) as one of the key assistive technology used to assist students with autism. Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS) This is a low technology assistive system created as an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), where pictures are used in place of words to assist children with autism to communicate because of their problems in speech development. At the initial stage of using PECS, a child is provided with a number of pictures of favorite toys or foods. If the child requires any of these things, he simply gives the picture of the specific item to a therapist, teacher or even caregiver (Charlop-Christy, et al. 2002). The person receiving this picture in return hands the toy or food to the child. Through this exchange, communication is then strengthened. Similarly PECS can as well be applied to make suggestions regarding things viewed or heard within the surrounding. For instance, a student might view a car passing by and give a picture of a car to his teacher. The objective of this method is that, when a child starts to acknowledge the importance of communication, the child will start using natural speech instead of pictures. How this assistive technology works A student with autism can be taught how to use this technology by his teacher, caregiver or a therapist, who understands the way this technology works. Normally, an applied behavior analysis (ABA) method is applied. Through this method, prompts are offered to control the picture exchange. More so, in the initial stages of PECS training, the student selects a picture he wants and gets what is on the picture, for instance food. Receiving food is meant to give a positive reinforcement to the student for his use of the picture in communicating. Normally PECS training entails six stages: Stage I: the teacher lists down a list of the students favorite items normally starting with foods. A single item from the list is chosen for the opening training lesson, and items picture is drawn. The item can be put in a place visible to the student, to allow the student to view the item but not to pick it. When the child seems interested in the item, the teacher gives such a student a picture card of the item. The teacher guides the students hand to pick the picture and give it to the teacher. The moment the teacher receives the card from the student, he communicates loudly the want the student wants, for instance, he say so you want the cake and give the cake to the child. Stage II: the teacher moves a little distance in order for the student to move towards him to give the picture card to the teacher. Stage III: the student is provided with several picture cards so that he can choose the one representing what he wants. The selected picture card is given to the teacher, at this moment; the student may use a binder or a communication board where the cards will be held. Stage IV: at this point, the student is provided with a card written on I want____. The student has to use this card together with the picture card illustrating what is wanted. The concept is that the student will learn the way to communicate through complete sentences. Those students who can not read the words can be in a position to recognize the words written as symbols on the card. Stage V: prior to this stage, the student has never been directly what he wants, at this stage, the teacher asks the student directly what he wants, and then waits for the student to select a picture representing what the students wants. This lesson builds the basis for future communication between the student and the teacher when the teacher wants to find out what the student wants. Stage VI: the moment the student is able to fluently use PECS, and has managed to generalize the system to use it to communicate with other people apart from the teacher; the student is taught the way make suggestions on something that he has observed. The teacher picks up something interesting and asks the student to say what the item is. At that stage the teacher also picks a card with I see _____. The student is to match the card with what he is seeing. In this manner, the child is able to learn how to communicate what he observes together with his experiences to other people (Charlop-Christy, et al. 2002). Theory behind this technology The express reinforcement coming from immediately receiving what a student with autism is the main principle of PECS. A student is able to show his inner wishes without speaking any words, and be rewarded. Such tangible rewards greatly reinforce such a child compared to social rewards, particularly during the initial stage of communication. PECS could as well improve the social relations of an autism child. This is because the child is able to learn to initiate communication; more so, at this point the child is not expected to speak, so the child is less intimidated. How effective is the technology A number of studies carried out have indicated that PECS is useful tool in helping children with autism. For example, a study carried out by Schwartz, et al. (1998) on eighteen preschool students suffering from autism and with speech difficulties established that those children were able to communicate through PECS in their school days. However, after a training of one year, nearly 50 percent of these children stopped to use PECS and instead began to natural communicate (Schwartz, et al. 1998). More studies supporting this observation were found by (Charlop-Christy, et al. 2002). generally, evidence from a number of studies have established that PECS assistive tool is an effective technique in developing natural speech in children suffering from autism, particularly if they are taught how to use this tool when is below six years of age (Bondy, 2001). Side issues This technology has no known side effectives to children with autism. Though a number of parents showed concerns that their children could end up depending on PECS as their communication tool, and fail to develop their natural speech, this concern lacks any credible support from studies. On the contra, there is credible evidence showing that children suffering from autism are able to learn through PECS to develop their speech quicker compared to those who have not used PECS (Bondy, 2001). Conclusion Children suffering from autism conditions have impairments in public communication; included in this core impairment is an intricacy with the social emotional reciprocity in addition to nonverbal communication such as gestures, facial expression and eye contact. Such children need special assistance when at school to improve on their communication special speech. Teachers and caregivers have a number of assistive technologies that they can use to assist these children. As discussed above one of the very effective and easy to use assistive technology is Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS), though it involves only six stages, they offer the child with the required speech mechanism and enable a student with autism to al least be able to form words and communicate his feelings. Nevertheless, as noted by Charlop-Christy, et al. (2002) this technology can be used together with other technologies for better results.

Three-Dimensional Grade Control in Road Construction

Three-Dimensional Grade Control in Road Construction Three-Dimensional Grade Control in Road Construction using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Introduction Contractors have used grade stakes installed on the side of the road at intervals of 100 feet for the vertical grade of the finished ground surface in road construction. The grade stakes are measured based on control points(CPs) which are reference points and markers established by surveyors at the design phase. By using the grade stakes, the contractors align the grade elevation with regulated tolerances which are typically less than 0.05 feet for subgrade and 0.02 feet for roadway surface (Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission 2016). The contractors confirm the final construction layout including as-built cross sections, which are measured by a total station or conventional survey methods such as a level, theodolite, and transit at intervals of 500 feet. The final products should be in reasonably close conformity with the design plans and specifications (Floyd et al. 2013). Figure 1: The conventional grade control using grade stakes (Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission 2016) However, in many cases, the contractors have experienced unsuspected discrepancies between the as-designed model and the as-built model, which cause the project cost and time overrun (Pitman 2001). These discordances could be derived from technical issues or human matters that are issues among people such as a lack of coordination and communication between designers and contractors (Arain et al. 2004). While the problems caused by human issues could be solved easily by involving the contractors and designers as coordinators, the resolving the technical problems, such as a measurement error, still remain challenges because the conventional grade control methods use only a few points to build a final grade layout, which can cause considerable errors at the non-measured area. For this reason, many researchers have studied on the application of new technologies such as a global positioning system (GPS), robotic total station (RTS), and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) to obtain dense poi nts for the grade control. Despite all these efforts, the contractors are still using the traditional methods for grade control because of the disadvantages of the new approaches regarding the economic and usability. In this regard, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is the most reasonable way to overcome such shortcomings (Nex and Remondino 2014). The photogrammetry using UAV is a time-competitive method to generate a digital surface model (DSM) which enables contractors to obtain the dense point cloud of the long-strip roadway construction site without intervals (Chiabrando et al. 2009). Moreover, the UAV allows the user to avoid working in hazardous environments (Barry and Coakley 2013). With such advantages, several researchers apply the UAV to roadway construction, especially for surveying earthwork projects (Siebert and Teizer 2014). The current accuracy of the UAV photogrammetry, however, does not completely meet the particular requirements in road construction such as the grading tolerance which is less than 0.05 feet. This study, therefore, reviews the current state of the three-dimensional grade control in road construction and presents a best practice for applying the UAV for the construction by providing a way to develop the accuracy of the UAV photogrammetry. Moreover, this study verifies the improved accuracy through the field test at an ongoing highway construction site in Georgia, the United States. Literature Review This study has reviewed current studies on the 1) grade control methods in road construction using dense point clouds, 2) applications of UAV for highway construction, and 3) accuracy of UAV photogrammetry. Current study on the grade control in roadway construction As mentioned above, the contractors today perform the grade control in a conventional manner using grade stakes and cross sections because those methods dont require a specialty. However, such methods are conducted sparsely at regular but widely spaced intervals, which can give rise to substantial errors when the contractors build a successive three-dimensional as-built model. To avoid this, many researchers have studied on the way to create a 3D as-built model without intervals as below. 3D grade control using GPS installed on the construction equipment The real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS technology provides a location information for a dynamic motion in real time. The advent of the RTK-GPS technology enables the users to control the machines blade systemically and to build 3D as-built model automatically (Stewart, 2006). For this reason, many global GPS manufacturers, such as Topcon, Trimble, and Leica, present automatic 3D grade control technologies as seen in Figure 2. According to a final report on Implementation of GPS Controlled Highway Construction Equipment in the University of Wisconsin, the use of the GPS to guide construction equipment is time-efficient and cuts costs (Vonderohe 2007). Figure 2: GPS controlled roadway construction equipment Accordingly, many Department of Transportation (DOT) have increased the implementation of the automated machine guidance with GPS (Townes 2013). However, the vertical error of RTK-GPS is typically over 1.5 inches, and sometimes a sudden elevation shift caused by a cycle slip or multipath, which can lead to a significant discrepancy between as-design model and as-built model. Therefore, its impossible to fully adopt the GPS to grade control in roadway construction unless there is an enhancement of the accuracy. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) for the highway construction process monitoring The TLS, which measures the location of thousands of points each epoch at ranges of hundreds of meters, is another method to collect high dense point data. The TLS generates more accurate 3D layouts than conventional survey methods (Slattery and Slattery 2013). D. Slattery et al. (2010) demonstrate that the TLS is a feasible means to control the grade in highway construction projects and to calculate earthwork quantities (Slattery and Slattery 2010). Despite the fact that the TLS guarantees accurate point clouds, this new technology faces several operational challenges. One of the primary challenges is that it takes extremely long time to acquire the dense points. In general, the measurement using TLS takes one hour to measure the area of 20,000 square feet. Furthermore, as the scanner is installed on the ground, TLS method forms shadow zones where cannot scan due to obstacles such as trees and hills. In particular, since the roadway construction site is quite long, such drawbacks co uld be fatal. In this regard, the UAV, which is a less time-consuming way of measuring fields, could be an effective alternative. Application of UAV for roadway construction The UAV referred to as a drone, has recently begun to be applied to the construction field with the improvement of the positioning technologies and high-performance digital camera (Turner et al. 2012). With the development of the high-performance UAV, many researchers have successfully applied the UAV for the 3D modeling of the construction site and the measurement of earthwork quantities. S. Siebert and J. Teizer (2014) presents a practice for the application of UAV to construction survey for earthmoving of the construction site. They assert that the UAV technology is a cost- and time-effective alternatives to ground-based survey applications (Siebert and Teizer 2014). Furthermore, M. Daakir et al. (2015) describe that the UAV equipped with GPS receiver can achieve a consistent 3D model with a relatively low cost (Daakir et al. 2015). The studies on the application of the UAV has been limited to the particular construction fields such as earthmoving project and field survey for plan ning the road construction because the accuracy of the photogrammetry using UAV is over two inches which exceed the tolerance for the vertical grade. Thus, the improvement of the accuracy of UAV photogrammetry is required prior to applying the UAV technology to the grade control in roadway construction. Figure 3: The developed UAV systems, S. Siebert and J. Teizer (left), M. Daakir et al. (right) Accuracy of UAV photogrammetry Several researchers have examined innovative ways of improving the accuracy of the UAV photogrammetry. The accuracy of the UAV photogrammetry directly depends on the ground sampling distance (GSD), which is determined by the focal length, flight altitude, and resolution of the camera. In general, higher GSD value indicates that the image would have a lower spatial resolution. Therefore, the altitude of the flight should be performed around 150 m above ground level to obtain images at the GSD of up to 10 cm. (RuzgienÄ- et al. 2015). In addition, the use of geo-referencing methods aligning UAV imagery with known points measured in advance also can improve the accuracy of the photogrammetry. J. Goncalves and R. Henriques (2015) assert that the vertical root mean square (RMS) errors of UAV photogrammetry can be decreased to 5cm by using ground control points (GCPs) as the geo-referencing (Gonà §alves and Henriques 2015). However, a minimum of three GCPs are required for the geo-refe rencing, and generally, more than nine GCPs should be appeared on the imagery to retain redundancy for least squares regression. Moreover, the method that aligns the imagery known as Image registration causes a systematic error which is a cumulative error. In particular, since the road construction site requires extremely long longitudinal measurement, the registration error is theoretically increased in direct proportion to the length of the construction site (Zheng et al. 2016). This study, therefore, proposed a method to correct the systemic error by originating the position of the flying UAV with dual-frequency RTK-GPS and resection method. Figure 4: The GCPs that J. Goncalves and R. Henriques (2015) used Methodology This chapter enumerates the methodology for applying the UAV photogrammetry to the grade control in road construction as follows. Type of UAVs Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) Ground Control Points (GCPs) Positioning of the UAV using space resection method 3D model generation Verification Types of UAV The type of UAVs is classified into three categories: fixed wing type, rotary wing type, and hybrid wing type integrated the fixed wing and rotary type. Fixed wing UAVs have characteristics that they have a simple mechanism and more efficient aerodynamics which allows the fixed wing UAV to fly longer duration at higher speeds than the rotary wing. On the contrary, the rotary wing UAVs have a relatively more complicated structure which may infer that they have lower speed and shorter flight range than fixed wing. The advantages of the rotary wing are that they can conduct vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and hovering. The fixed/rotary hybrid UAV has both characteristics of the fixed wing type and rotary wing type. The hybrid UAVs can perform VTOL and hovering and fly with little power like the fixed wing UAV. Table 1 shows the differences between the fixed wing and rotary drones. Since the roadway construction site is quite long and doesnt have vertical obstacles, the fixed wing ty pe of UAV is most appropriate for the surveying the road construction area. Most UAV for the land survey is equipped with single frequency GPS receiver for positioning of the flying vehicle. In general, the vertical accuracy of the single frequency GPS is compromised. For this reason, this study suggests mounting a dual frequency GPS on the UAV to improve their positioning accuracy. The vertical accuracy of the dual frequency RTK-GPS is known to be lower than 2cm in general circumstances. This study might use virtual reference station (VRS), which facilitate the RTK/GPS based on National Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS). Table 1 The differences between fixed wing type and rotary type Fixed wing Rotary wing Purpose Mapping Small area Mapping Inspection Application Land surveying (rural) GIS Construction Inspection Real estate Surveying (urban) Flight Speed High Low Coverage Large Small Flight Duration Times Long Short Wind Resistance High Low VTOL X O Hovering X O Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) As mentioned above, GSD value is related to the flight level, focal length, and resolution of the camera. Since the GSD value directly affects the results of the photogrammetry, it is important to determine the flight altitude. For a given flying height H, the GSD will be given by Where f is the lens focal length, and H is the flight altitude. Typically, in the case of the GSD of 5 cm, the standard deviation of 1 pixel in the parallax may result in a standard deviation of approximately 5 ~ 10 cm in the elevation error. The flight altitude also affects the overlapping rate which is related to the accuracy of the photogrammetry. That is to say, for a given focal length and resolution of the camera, increasing the altitude will increase overlap rate and GSD. Since it is possible to fly the UAV at low altitude in roadway construction site where is a barrier-free area, this study limits the flight height to 100 m or less to maintain the GSD of under 5cm. Although flying at low altitude can cause little overlap rate, the matter of overlapping can be solved by taking more pictures. Ground Control Points (GCPs) In the photogrammetry for field surveying, establishing a network of the ground control points The GCPs installed on the field is employed for the geo-referencing. Although the bundle image adjustment needs to have at least three GCPs, it is necessary to have 9 or more GCPs for providing enough redundancies for the least square adjustment. The GCP photogrammetric targets should be visible in the pictures and have about 5 ~ 10 times the dimensions of the GSD. Since the accuracy of the GCPs is crucial for the accuracy of the final results, the position of the GCPs should be measured precisely by total station or post-processing GPS. M.Chahbazi et al. (2015) state that although a large number of well-distributed GCPs as seen in Figure 5 (left) guarantees the highest accuracy, if it is impossible due to the field conditions, the best practice is to install the GCPs near the ends of the flight strips to be visible in several images from two closest strips. Furthermore, placing the GCPs with height variation is beneficial for the vertical adjustment of the UAV imagery. Figure 5: The methods to set up the GCPs in the article of M.Chahbazi et al. (2015) (left) when there are enough GCPs, and (right) if not. According to the construction survey manual of U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), contractors or sub-contractors should establish control points (CPs), which are semi-permanent reference points built beside the construction site at intervals of 500 feet, to align the horizontal distribution and vertical elevation. Since these CPs are measured from the second-order benchmark, which has a ratio of closure of 1:10000, it is possible to construct accurate GCPs. Positioning of the UAV using space resection method The position of flying UAV has been determined from the GPS embedded on the UAV until now. However, the accuracy of the GPS depends on the satellite signal which sometimes includes serious errors such as cycle slip or multipath caused by the environmental conditions. Moreover, time synchronization between the GPS and images from the Camera can also cause several errors. In this regard, this study proposes a new positioning method that improves the accuracy of the photogrammetric results by applying space resection method. The resection method is to determine an unknown point from two known points. This measurement method is usually used when measuring the location of the device such as total station or theodolite. Figure 7: The concept of the space resection for UAV photogrammetry (Ref. https://dronemapper.com/uas_photo-grammetry_processing) The space resection requires at least two known ground control points per an image, but this study used five ground control points for the least square adjustment. The accuracy of the space resection only depends on the range error of the camera, which is much more accurate than RTK-GPS, and therefore this study expects an improvement in the positioning accuracy of the operating UAV As-built 3D model generation The stereo images extracted from UAV photogrammetry go through the image matching process. The image matching process is usually classified into correlation based method and feature-based method. The correlation based method has various computational processes because they conduct the image matching with all area and pixels. In contrast, since the feature based method adjusts images with edges or corners in the pictures, the processing is faster than the correlation based method. Scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) is one of the most widely used features detecting method. The SIFT algorithm extracts key points from overlapped area, and align the images by using descriptors which are created from the extracted key points. The 3D structure is built by structure from motion (SfM) algorithm, which is a method to generate 3D structure by calculating the pose of the camera from 2D images. Most commercial software today has used the feature-based image matching and SfM algorithm to cre ate a 3D model. One of the commercial software is Agisoft PhotoScan which conduct image matching with the feature-based method. This study generates the as-built model of the roadway construction site based on the DSM generated from the Agisoft PhotoScan. The final as-built 3D model would be compared to the as-design model. An essential issue in this step is to synchronize the coordinates system used in both as-design model and as-built model. For this reason, it is essential that both models should be on the geographic information system (GIS) based on a global coordinate system. Verification Table 2 The whole process of this study Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step5 Objectives Planning UAV operation Establishing GCPs Obtaining images from UAV Generating 3D model Verification Details GSD Flight Altitude Overlapping rate The number Location Resection QC of images SIFT, SfM DSM Field Test Error Assessment

The Advantage Of Commercials :: essays research papers

The Advantage of Commercials It began in the early 1940's and to this day still is in many of our lives, even more so then before. It's the TV that I'm referring to. The TV started only as only musicals on it,. But eventually proceeded up to today's oriented world, with movies, sports, and violence. Today more than 98% of all households have a TV. Over 75,000,000 of TV sets are color. To how haw our lives depend on TV; according to A.C. Nielsen, America watches more than 7 hours per day. Many people say TV has many disadvantaged, like expensive commercials. For example, on 30 second commercials in the 1984 Super Bowl cost approximately 450,000 dollars. If you just look at the price it sounds costly, but in reality TV is one of the most cost-efficient media there is. Not only is cost an advantage of TV commercials, so are TV's impact credibility, selectivity, and flexibility. Television is powerful in may ways, mostly by having the ability to combine all major medial into one media called commercials. TV commercials are like direct mail because it comes directly to the consumer in his or her house. It is like the radio because TV has to have sound to make it powerful impact. It is also similar to print or newspapers because TV is able to show the product alone, in a setting, or in use. Finally, unlike any other advertising vehicle, TV can portray the object in motion while the other forms of media cannot. TV is believable mostly because of the old of "seeing is believing" an that is what TV does. Commercials have an unbelievable capacity to induce belief because of this old saying. The other major print that make TV commercial believable is that the actors make the commercials and A or the A+. What is meant by this is that when and actor uses a product on TV and has a satisfying look on his or her face, that's implying that the product is doing it's job effectively. Also the actors can demonstrate the product tooo The most common way to prove a product worthyness, is to test it against a well known competitor. All of these ways make TV commercials not only very believing, but also very persuading. The next quality that TV commercials have is that the commercials are selective. Commercials can reach any target audience. For example, if a commercial is toward children, the commercial will be played in between after school programs that the children like. If commercial is directed toward housewives, they will be played mostly during the midmorning and afternoon.

Graduation Speech: Enjoy the Journey :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Sitting in the backseat of the car, I used to bombard my family with these questions. On our summer road trips I was so anxious for the destination that I failed to appreciate the journey. However, as time passed and I grew older, I realized that it was the journey that was important and not the destination. For the past 13 years of our education we have been on a journey - a journey full of experiences, challenges and accomplishments. We have made it through elementary, middle and high school. It hasn't always been what we expected and certainly not easy, but as we progressed down the road, we stretched ourselves to reach across barriers and found ourselves in new and expanding roles. We were given the opportunity to explore our interests and discover what really excites us. We have become more independent and complete individuals. Our growth and self-discovery has placed us here tonight. Tonight we stand at a crossroad where each one of use will take a new direction in our life's journey. Walt Whitman said "Not I - not anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself." Where we end up isn't the most important decision, but instead it is the road we choose to take to get there. The road we take is what we will look back on and call our life. Life is a journey of everyday experiences, teaching us moment in, moment out, who we really are. It's important to remember these words "Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late." And so we find ourselves ready and eager to move on. We take with us the strength and knowledge we've gained through our interactions, encounters, challenges and accomplishments at school and at home with parents, teachers and friends. Remember life is not a race but a journey to be enjoyed each step of the way. I leave you with these words from the mountain climber John Amatt: "Adventure isn't hanging on a rope off the sides of a mountain.

conducting a strategic audit Essay -- essays research papers

Conducting a Strategic Audit http://www.albany.edu/~pm157/audit.html http://faculty.uwstout.edu/adekolaa/STRAMGT/powerpoints/Wal-Mart%20-%202000.ppt#256,1,Wal-Mart – 2000 One purpose of this course is to train you to assess an organization’s strategy. Part of your skill development is utilizing knowledge to address the real problems of a business organization. At the same time, technology is increasing your ability to obtain information rapidly from multiple sources. Being able to gather and use such information will become a competitive necessity for anyone in business and management. To prepare you for this, we used information technologies to analyze, discuss, and present business issues throughout the semester. To achieve these, you will form a group. While some information may be obtained from library research, field work, or direct interviews, it is expected that you will extensively use the Internet to integrate the diverse information from a top-management perspective. Each team will present its findings and recommendations to the class during the final sessions. They may then make changes for their final written report. Please consider these eight dimensions in formulating a unified, comprehensive, and integrated set of decisions that attains organization purpose. ________________________________________ Step 1: Situation Assessment †¢ What is our purpose? What is our "strategic intent"? †¢ How do we rank in our business and why? †¢ What is our fiscal condition and why? †¢ What is the relationship between the business strategy, organization environment, and overall performance? †¢ What is our sustainable competitive advantage? What core competencies do we posess? †¢ What are our strengths? Do we use these fully? †¢ What are our weaknesses? How can we solve or mitigate these? †¢ What are our opportunities? How can we exploit these? †¢ What are the threats to us? What can we do about them? Step 2: Strategic Managers †¢ What is our strategic vision? †¢ Do the executives possess the right leadership skills and abilities? †¢&nbs... ...; What are the expected fiscal results? †¢ What are the feasible alternatives to these activities? Step 7: Implementation †¢ What resources will this action plan require from finance, human resources, marketing, operations, and other functional areas and departments? †¢ What changes will have to occur for us to be successful in 2 to 5 years? †¢ Are there other organizations or individuals we might collaborate with? †¢ What training is necessary? Step 8: Performance Evaluation and Control †¢ When and how will we evaluate performance? †¢ What are the desired quantitative and qualitative measurements of success? †¢ Will this strategy justify the needed time and resources? †¢ Can we afford it? †¢ Realistically, can we implement this action plan? †¢ Have we included all supporting programs? †¢ Can we clearly establish accountability?

The Internet Wont Put an End to the Diversity of Style in Composition

The Internet Won't Put an End to the Diversity of Style in Composition From 1982, when the term â€Å"Internet† was first used, until today, over 520 million users have gained access to the Internet.[1] This gigantic leap in Internet usage suggests that in the coming years, even more people will be able to view material online. As more people continue to gain access, others will want to post their creations online with a greater frequency, allowing a wider range of viewers to see their work. Will this increase in compositions being made available on the Internet, however, lead to homogeneity of style? This is not at all the case. Assuming that diversity of style existed before the rise of the Internet, even as Internet usage continues to grow, the diversity of style in composition will continue to exist. To begin with, what is style, and what are compositions? Webster’s Dictionary defines style as â€Å"manner of expression in language; characteristic manner of expression, design, etc. in any art, period, etc.†[2] To make things easier, this paper will simply say that style is the particular way that one expresses oneself. Compositions are creations, especially those of literary, musical, or artistic works. The last two terms are important to remember, as many of those claiming that diversity of style is ending pay attention only to compositions created on instant messengers and chat rooms, devices which are text-based.[3] For now, however, a concentration will be made upon a claim of homogeneity brought upon by the dominance of American culture. Jonathan Rick asserts that â€Å"American culture has infiltrated even the most remote areas of the world.†[4] This contention cannot be denied. American cultural icons such as M... ...Rick, 1. [5] http://www.amnh.org/ and http://www.louvre.fr/index.html, respectively [6] Dibble, 4 [7] 544.2 million people [8] ComputerScope Ltd. Bibliography American Museum of Natural History. http://www.amnh.org/. Dibble, Chris. â€Å"Does the Internet entail an end to the cultural and historical diversity of style in composition?† 22 April 2002. http://www.duke.edu/~cfd3/essays/style.htm. The Louvre Museum. http://www.louvre.fr/index.html. Nua Internet How Many Online. February 2002. ComputerScope Ltd. http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/ Rick, Jonathan. â€Å"Does the Internet entail an end to the cultural and historical diversity of style in composition?† 27 March 2002. http://www.duke.edu/~jhr4/writing20/essays/essay2.pdf. â€Å"Style.† Webster’s New World Compact School and Office Dictionary. 3rd College Edition, 1994.

Fossils Nurse Essay

A fossil is the prehistoric remains of a plant or an animal. Fossils are usually are kept at their best when they are buried under many layers of sand and mud. Under the great pressure from the ground, the sand and the mud become sedimentary rock. The minerals combine forming a mould of the plant or animal under the ground. A fossil can be a trace fossil or a body fossil. A body fossil is what actual organic material from a creature or plant (like a bone). Trace fossils are signs of plants and animal activity that have been preserved in rock. For example, dinosaur tracks, trails and dung are all trace fossils. A body fossil is usually composed of bones of an animal. Preservation of the â€Å"soft† tissue of a body is rare especially over long periods of time. Most body fossils are made when an animal dies and falls, or is washed into a steam, and is covered with mud. In a few cases, though, fossils have been preserved by freezing (as with mammoths in Siberia and Alaska) or when the animals have become stuck and died in a tar pit (such as the famous La Brea tar pit near Los Angeles, California). Sometimes a fossil is the result of a volcanic eruption. Ash and mud from the volcano can cover animals and plants killing them at the same time. Geology is the study of the Earth, the materials of which it is made, the structure of those materials, and the processes acting upon them. It is also the study of organisms that have inhabited our planet. An important part of geology is the study of how Earths materials, structures, processes and organisms have changed over time. Fossils are linked to geology because, it is the study on how the world has build up over the years and fossils are animals and plants from over the years. They have changed over time because they have become smaller and form in different ways like freezing and volcanic eruptions. Over the years fossils have told us about life forms we had no idea about and is proved with the fossils or bones we have today in museums. This is how fossils are linked to geology.