Authority Essay Example for Free

Authority Essay Define the term â€Å"authority.† What does it mean to be authoritative, and how do you go about establishing whether a source is, indeed, credible? Why is it important to not only invite authorities to speak in your writing, but also to establish your own authority as you write? Authority by definition: the power to give orders or make decisions, or the power or right to direct or control someone or something, or the confident quality of someone who knows a lot about something or who is respected or obeyed by other people (Merriam-Webster, 2010). Figures of authority are extraordinarily significant to the credibility within any paper. Including citation from members of society with an advanced skill set will not only solidify proposed ideas, but can also aid in swaying an argument (Ballenger, 17). Valid credibility can go a long way in improving the impact a piece makes on its reader. While it is important to include factual information of the writers proposed idea, it is equally important to establish a voice within the piece. Each article of information that comes from a professional standpoint can be a stepping stone towards the finished product of the writers work. Weaving an authoritative voice simultaneously strengthens the paper as well as the validity of the writers work. Lastly, citing authoritative individuals in a piece will grant the permission of their facts without sending the writer towards plagiarism. Although it is often unintentional, plagiarism happens quite frequently. It is imperative to the writer that citations of an authority figure (ie: scholars, researchers, critics, or specialists) are included in their piece to ensure the professionalism of their message can be brought to light using convincing sources.

Pestle Analysis Of Vietnam

Pestle Analysis Of Vietnam Knowledge about PESTLE topic and expectations prior to the class I understand that BE refers to external factors and that enterprises have to take into account to their strategic and operational planning processes for success. My business requires a good understanding of the BE elements that may create opportunities or threats to rural SMEs for the development of interventions to BE improvements. I also know that a good enabling BE will create competitive advantages of a country and interest to foreign investors for economic growth. I know how to use SWOT tool to stakeholders analysis. My understanding about PESTLE  [1]  factors is all about Vietnam only, below are summaries of my knowledge prior to the class. For politics, Vietnam is adopting a mixed economy and government still plays a big role in planning and governing and many countries do not recognise the market economy for Vietnam yet  [2]  even its WTO adhesion since January 2006. The approved official documents of the 11th National Party Congress clearly stipulate that Vietnam continues to apply the market economy with socialist orientation, and the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) still play the decisive roles of Vietnam economy. This may break the enabling BE and create threats to private SMEs. For economics, Vietnam maintains a stable and high economic growth (7% in average for the last decade). Local enterprises are facing up to challenges in access to expensive credit and financial management due to high inflation (9-11%), high interest rates of saving (13-17%/year), and to currency devaluation (three times in 2010)  [3]  . For social factor, Vietnam has a young population with 46% of population are in working age and around 1 million new entrants into labour market each year, but overall productivity remained extremely low and is only three-fifths the ASEAN average or around one-tenth the level in Singapore  [4]  . Vietnam is the only country in Asia to enter Top 5 of the 2009 Happy Planet Index (HPI), announced by the New Economics Foundation (NFF) in July 2009. Vietnamese peoples are very optimistic to their future thanks to stable political regime, peace and economic growth. For technological factor, power shortage is now very current with increasing demand; internet is widely accessible with reasonable price; counterfeit and imitation, especially in software products, are widespread in Vietnam. For Legal factor, Vietnam has available Enterprise Law, Investment Law and other global and regional agreements (WTO, ASEAN, APECà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦), in theory, all kind of enterprises (SOEs, private enterprises, joint ventures) have to play the game with the same rules, but in practice, the implementation of Laws is a real challenge due to poor quality of human resource in public service and corruption issues (116/178 ranked countries)  [5]  . For Environmental factor, Vietnam has a long coastal border (2500km) and is considered as one of the most vulnerable countries due to natural disaster risks, climate change and sea level rise. Enterprises in Vietnam have to take seriously into account the environmental factors to their business planning and operating processes. Vietnamese peoples do not tolerate easily to business practices that harm to environment. For example, the Vedan Vietnam Limited JSC, a wholly Taiwanese-invested firm has to pay a high cost for its pollution to Thi Vai River, the Coop Mart Supermarket System and retailers refused to sell Vedan products, promotional activities encourage the clients to say NO with Vedan and the company is facing to bankruptcy in 2007-2009. My consultancy services support rural SMEs to access to opportunities and to prepare for threats. I also work with government authorities to improve BE for SME development, including: Entrepreneurship Education. This intervention are to improve the entrepreneurship knowledge and skills to the youths, to develop their entrepreneurship mind set and finally to prepare them working productively in enterprises. Public-Private Policy Partnership and Dialogue (PPD). These forums are to reflect on the PCI  [6]   results and to critically debate on BE improvements, administrative reforms and BDS supports in favour to SME development. Making Market Works Better For the Poor. Such as business management training to business people in remote areas, the value chain analysis and upgrade in favour to poor producers, support for collaboration and coordination among poor producers for their greater bargaining power. Recently, I have created my own enterprise named Initiatives and Informal Education Promotion Company, called as IIE Vietnam and I work as the company Director, providing technical consultancy services to national and international organizations working in the area of local socio-economic development. My expectations from the class are about the comprehensive academic approaches and tools for PESTLE analysis. I wish to be able conduct stakeholders analysis, the scenarios planning, taking into account of PESTLE issues in order to improve my business. I also wish to have a broader understanding to global BE, especially the good enabling BE of EU countries, USA, Japan, the improving BE in major BRIC emerging countries and the worst BE in Africa, Cuba, Venezuela. I expect to be able to identify and explain BE context in those economies. Key learned ideas from this session Organisational Form and Purpose. There are different types of organisations; each of these organisations has its relative vision, mandates, values, advantages, disadvantages and stakeholders. When making strategic decisions about the organizations direction and scope, managers need to examine the organizational purpose, vision and stakeholders expectation for the future. Managers have to make sure that commercial organisations should be high accountable to the owners first, then that conflicts and different expectations from organizational stakeholders are properly responded. I am able to use the power/interest approach and tool for stakeholders mapping and analysis of my own company. Understanding the Managerial Environment. Managers will need to evaluate the current context and trends of BE for organisational strategic planning and operating, it includes the evaluation of local, regional political stability, government commitment to business, main economic indexes, labour force, technological development and availability, legal documents and finally environmental issues affecting business. With the results of BE analysis, managers are able to identify main opportunities and threats of their company. I am able to interpret the PESTLE framework for identifying, evaluating the impacts of key external environmental factors and developing 2011 scenarios to my own business. The Economy and the Role of Government. The Circular Flow of Income describes the operations of an economy; the consumers provide resources to firms for income, firms produce goods and services to consumers for margin, income and margin are used to pay living and operating costs, taxes for government spending, investments for productive capacity, technological development and savings. Government plays the role of policy maker and referee, ensuring the achievement of economic and social goals of a society, including high rate of decent employment, stable economic growth, low rate of inflation, trade surplus. Government use fiscal policy (taxes and public spending) and monetary policy (money supply and interest rates) as major tools of macro-economic management. Fiscal policy is a tool for managing demand, if government wants to increase the demand, it may reduce taxes and/or increase spending, if it wants to reduce the demand, it will do the opposite. Government has lot challenges in achieving simultaneously all the economic goals, an increase in demand may create high inflation. Government also use monetary policy for macro-economic management, an increase in interest rates will increase saving, reduce consumption and reduce investment spending, and thus reduce inflation. The interest rates affect exchange rates and banks/investors will spent their energy and efforts just to trade the money and not the production. The European Environment. The rationale of reduction in trade barriers and mobility restrictions is for costumers rights protection, competitive and technological enhancement. The main benefits for countries in joining EU include access to a largest and fairly competitive market, with safe and predictive BE, well established infrastructure, social protection, education, research and development. The main challenges for EU enlargement includes different educational, technological, cultural, infrastructural and competitive level between countries, politics, human rights issues, especially the legacy of the Soviet economy. United Kingdom, Switzerland are considering their EMU member due to negative factors such as economic cycle, sovereignty issues, unique values, transition and employment costs. Understanding the Global Environment. Globalisation is an inevitable trend of the World thanks to the development of ITC and education, to which countries and firms have to duel for success. The key globalisation drivers include politics, economics, market, costs and competition. Globalisation is bringing both opportunities and challenges to peoples. For competitive advantages in the global market, countries have to increase their political and social connections between peoples and states; firms need a good assessment of global costs. Globalisation allows firms not only to profit of better production factors, but also to gain market share and/or to access to growing market. Managers need to have strategic decisions on whether outsourcings, offshorings or insourcings for cost advantages. Government policy makers have to ensure the reasonable inequalities between rich and poor, the control of dominance and monopoly of biggest global firms, cultural degradation, global dependence and g lobal crime. Emerging Countries in Three Continents. The Japanese MITI with selective industrial policies, the keiretsu with alliance of firms with banks, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and with the Japanese government, the kaizen with continuous improvement or change for success, the kanban with scheduling system, have created the economic and technical success of Japan in 1980s. The reforms with special economic zones, the gradual opening of economy, the calls and government supports to FDI have transformed China from a backward agricultural economy to the words major manufacturing centre in 1990s, but the political regime and human right abuse in China is not appreciated by the international communities, and the world is facing up to social and environment costs with rapid expansion due to poor governance of social and environmental responsibilities. The replacement of interventionist economic policy by the liberal economic reforms together with the good investment in high-tech educati on and research have made India become a modern economy, the rapid economic growth in a complex cultural legacy and Hindu caste system is also creating lot of social issues in India, including poverty, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS. The ASEAN with its regional cooperation, cultural diversify, high level of general and scientific education, high saving and investment ratios, young and dynamic population, rapid growth of technology, openness with interventionist industrial policies, is creating a high interest of international investors and politicians (10 Primer Ministers of ASEAN, plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, S-Korea and Foreign Ministers of USA, Russia, and UN General Sectary participated in 2010 Hanoi East Asia Summit, 500 big local and international firms jointed the 2010 Hanoi ASEAN-BiZ Summit Conference)  [7]  . Even with rich natural resources, but the dependence on agricultural production and exports, the negative impacts of slavery, colonisation and socialism , the predominance of authoritarian regimes, poor access to education, public services, sanitation, water, poor governance with corruption, inefficient politicians, ineffective international development assistance and loans, uncontrollable internal rules, conflicts, diseases have left most African countries at the mercy of the world markets. Market Structures and Industry Analysis. Monopolists are able to control both production and purchase rights. In a high competitive market, specialism and location allow operators control over price. In the oligopoly market, competition of non-price methods such as advertising and sales promotion is appropriate. But the greater competition makes companies more efficient and the consumer has a bigger choice of good and services, policy makers have to build rules for fair competitiveness and anti-monopolistic competition. I am able to interpret the Porters Five Forces (current competitors, new entrants, buyers power, substitutes, and suppliers power) to market and competitive analysis of my business. The results will be used to defining and positioning my business, including the development and implementation of key success factors. Delivering Customer Value and Managing Marketing Performance. Firms need an appropriate targeting strategy due to different needs of customers. Customer segmentation allows firms to critically analyse characteristics of customer groups for the provision of relevant services and goods. Appropriate promotions with segmentation approach help firms not only to save costs, but also to provide desirable products and enjoyable prices. A good understanding of existing and potential markets through assessing current and potential market attractiveness, evaluating company and competitors current and potential strengths and weaknesses in serving a particular market, allow firm to take competitive advantages. Company brands are built from knowledge, esteem, relevance and differentiation. I am using the gained knowledge from these sessions to develop my business strategy with demand-driven and non-price competitive approaches such as owner branding, expertise enhancing, attitude improving for dif ferentiation and success. Making sense of Uncertainty. In a stable BE, forecasting works well to develop company future directions, but peoples are living in a fast changing environment with many unpredictable events; scenarios building is good tool to manage uncertainty. Scenarios building should be credible and includes PEST analysis. Companies need to build more than one scenario with both optimistic and pessimistic context to predetermine a list of trends and key success factors. Difficult concepts and Improvement plan Scenarios building, Brands building are two most difficult concepts with me, my improvement plan includes: Further reading: Due to time constraints for both learning and working activities, annual review and planning processes, I havent much time to do extra reading of suggested documents from the class; I planned time for further reading after Lunar New Year. More exchanges with colleagues, friends and experts: Informal discussions, exchanges through emails, chats with them will enable me to gain more knowledge. Participation in short and intensive workshops: The VCCI is organising short and intensive workshops on scenarios and brands building to support the entrepreneurs of SMEs, I will register for my participation to knowledge improvement. Learning from doing my works. I am the owner cum director of my small company; I am building scenarios and brands to my company and will learn from both success and failure. Extra reading and key learning points. I have visited the http://www.forbes.com and read the summary of the special report named Best countries for Business 2009, published at http://vneconomy.vn and have drawn the following key learning points: Vietnam dropped from number 113 to 118 in 2009 list of à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Best Countries for Businessà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ . Due to its weak export capacity, high trade deficit, weak protection of foreign investors. Denmark was ranked as the best place to do business. Thanks to its high per capita (36.000 USD/year), surplus trade (+2,9%), good ratio of public debt/GDP (41,6%). The US saw the biggest fall in 2009 ranking, falling to number 9 from the second position in 2008. Due to long-term issues such as lack of investment in infrastructure, increase of costs in health and retirement, high trade deficit. Venezuela is the worst country. Due to its robbery (nationalisation) of foreign firms. The top 10 of weakest countries of 2009 business environment are in Africa. Due to poor governance, abuse of human rights and democracy, poor investment in education, pubic services, basic human needs and imperviousness of international values. Annexes Reference sources: Much above information is summarised from the follow sources: Harrison A., Business Environment in a global context, Oxford University Press, 2010, New York, USA University of Gloucestershire Business School, Global Organizational Environment handouts

Modified Insertion Sort Algorithm: Binary Search Technique

Modified Insertion Sort Algorithm: Binary Search Technique Modified Insertion Sort Algorithm with Binary Search Technique: Application to Ranking of Images Retrieved by CBIR M. K. I. Rahmani M. A. Ansari Abstract—Due to the abundance of the high quality digital images in image repositories of very huge size on the ever growing Internet by enterprise houses, research institutions, medical healthcare organizations and academic institutions etc., finding a set of useful images from those image repositories with better precision and recall is a difficult task. Content Based Image Retrieval is a very efficient technology for retrieval of digital images from those databases. The process of image retrieval through CBIR has various phases like: Image segmentation, Feature extraction, Indexing, Clustering, Image matching through similarity measurement and Ranking of retrieved images through ordering them according to similarity value. The performance of a Content Based Image Retrieval system can be improved by improving the performance of some or all of these phases through designing better algorithms. Ranking of the Image data is very important to display the desired images to the in tended users. Images are retrieved according to the matching criteria was involved in the retrieval process. Retrieved images are ordered before they are displayed. For this ranking of the retrieved images are obtained through some easy and efficient sorting algorithm. Insertion sort is one of such algorithms but it is slow because of sequential search technique used to find the actual position of the next key element into the sorted portion of data. In this paper we have modified the insertion sort algorithm by using a novel technique of using binary search mechanism for finding the sorted location of the next key item into the previously sorted portion of the data quicker than conventional insertion sort algorithm. Performance on running time of the new algorithm has been compared with those of other conventional sorting algorithms. The results obtained on image matching parameter show that the new algorithm is better in performance than the conventional insertion sort and merge s ort algorithms. Performance of this algorithm is comparable to that of quick sort. Consequently, the new algorithm will improve the overall performance of Content Based Image Retrieval systems. Index Terms—Algorithm, Binary search, Sequential search, Insertion sort, Rahmani sort, Ranking, Image Ranking I. INTRODUCTION Many improvements have been introduced in searching and sorting algorithms during the last decade. Sorting is the process of arranging the elements in some ordered sequence which can be either in ascending, descending or lexicographic order [1]. Searching is the technique of finding the location of a key element or item in a database or a file. It is estimated that more than 25% of all computing time is spent on sorting the keys and some installations spending more than 50% of their computing time in sorting files [2]. As a matter of fact there has been done much research on the topic of sorting searching [3]. But there is not a single sorting technique which can be considered the best among the rest [2]. Bubble sort, selection sort and exchange sort are applicable for small input size, insertion sort for medium input size whereas quick sort, merge sort and heap sort are applicable for an application expecting large to huge data size [4, 5, 6]. All of the above sorting algorithms are comparison based algorithms and hence can be no faster than O(nlog2n) [5, 6], where O and n have their usual meanings. In this paper a new enhanced sorting algorithm has been introduced which shows more efficiency than the insertion sort and other sorting algorithms like bubble sort, quick sort and merge sort. The technique used for the enhancement in insertion sort is application of improved binary search, adapted from binary search, through which the location of the next element to be placed in the sorted left sub array can be found more quickly than the conventional sequential search used to find that location. The entire paper is organised in the following manner. In section II, the step by step method of the insertion sort is explained after some background work related to sorting technique. The other sorting algorithms like merge sort and quick sort are explained in section III. The new sorting algorithm, Rahmani sort is introduced and discussed in section IV. The analysis of Rahmani sort is done in section V. Results and comparison of performance of various sorting algorithms have been discussed in tabular forms in section VI along with the graphical description of the performance of various sorting algorithms. Finally the conclusions have been drawn and future scope of the research is mentioned in the section VII. Sorting Sorting is a process of arranging the available data items into an ordered sequence. The known ordered sequences have been increasing order, decreasing order, non-increasing order, non-decreasing order and lexicographic order. The process of sorting is applied to a collection of items prior to any such operation which may consume more time and/or space if applied without prior sorting. Definition of Sorting Formally a sorting technique can be defined based on partial order relation. The definition of partial order is given as below. Definition 1. Let R be a relation on a set S. For a, b, c à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ S, if R is: a) Reflexive, i.e. aRa for every a à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ S; b) Transitive, i.e. aRb ∠§ bRc ⇒ aRc; and c) Antisymmetric, i.e. aRb ∠§ bRa ⇒ a = b, then, R is a partial order on set S. Sorting is generally defined as an arrangement of a list of randomly input data by their key or themselves into a partial order R, where R implies ≠¤ particularly. Definition 2. For N elements a(1), a(2), , a(N) à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ S, sorting is a rearrangement of the elements in order to obtain a partial order a(si) R a(si+1) for ∀si, 1 ≠¤ si a(s1) ≠¤ a(s2) ≠¤ , , ≠¤ a(si) ≠¤ , , ≠¤ a(sN) Importance of sorting in computation There are two direct applications of sorting: first as an aid for searching and second as a tool to match entries in files. Broad areas of application of sorting fall in the solution of many other more complex problems, from database systems, networking, MIS, operations research and optimization problems. Sorting algorithm is one of the most fundamental techniques in computer science because of the following reasons. First, it is the basis of many other algorithms such as searching, pattern matching, information retrieval, knowledge based systems, digital filters, database systems, data statistics and processing, data warehousing, and data communications [1]. Second, it plays an important role in the teaching of design and analysis of algorithms, programming methodology, data structures and programming. Furthermore, it is a very challenging problem which has been widely and thoroughly studied [19-24]; the performance is dramatically improved [25-30] and considered the lower-bound of complexity has been reached [19, 20, 29, 30]. It is estimated that over 25% of all computing time is spent on sorting with some installations spending more than 50% of their computing time in sorting files. Consequently, study of sorting algorithms has great importance in the field of computing. A good knack of comprehension of the theoretical intricacies involved in the design and analysis of the underlying sorting algorithm is very much expected of a person who needs to implement the algorithm in real life applications. A Need of Sorting Algorithm with Reduced Complexity Unfortunately, there is no any single sorting technique which may be called the best among the rest. Bubble sort, insertion sort, selection sort and exchange sort are applicable for input data of small to medium size whereas quick sort, merge sort and heap sort are applicable for an application expecting large to huge data size. These sorting algorithms are caparison based and hence can be no faster than O (n log n). There are a few algorithms claiming to run in linear time but for specialized case of input data. So, there is an urgent need of a new sorting algorithm which may be implemented for all input data and it may also beat the lower bound (O (n log n)) of the problem of sorting. This work is an effort in that direction. What is a sorting algorithm? Sorting is a process of arranging the available data items into an ordered sequence. A sorting algorithm is a set of steps arranged in a particular sequence that puts the available data items into a certain order. The well-known ordered sequences have been increasing order, decreasing order, non-increasing order, non-decreasing order and lexicographic order. An efficient sorting mechanism is important to optimizing the design of other algorithms that require sorted data items to work correctly. Well-known ordered sequences Let r1, r2, r3, †¦ rn, be n number of input data items. Then any one of the following conditions must be satisfied for the input data items to be in a sorted sequence. Increasing order: For all 1 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ i à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ n, ri à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¼ ri+1. Decreasing order: For all 1 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ i à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ n, ri à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¾ ri+1. Non-decreasing order: For all 1 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ i à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ n, ri à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ ri+1. Non-increasing order: For all 1 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ i à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ n, ri à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ³ ri+1. Lexicographic order: This is the order in which all the words of the English language are arranged in a dictionary. II. Background Work A. Basic Concepts Sorting [1] is a process of rearranging the available data items into an ordered sequence. An ordered sequence can be any one of the known ordered sequences: increasing order, decreasing order, non-increasing order, non-decreasing order or lexicographic order [2]. A sorting algorithm is a set of steps arranged in a particular sequence that puts the available data items into a certain order. An efficient sorting technique is important to optimize the design of other algorithms that would need sorted key items to work properly and efficiently. For an application, a sorting algorithm is selected according to its computational complexity and ease of implementation. For a typical sorting algorithm ideal behavior is O(n), good behavior is O(n logn) and bad behavior is O(n ²) [1, 2]. The lower bound of time complexity of sorting algorithms using only comparison operation keys is O(n logn) [5, 6]. A sorting algorithm is easier to implement if its number of passes and the number of comparisons along with the actual number of swaps required to be performed can be easily predicted. Efficiency of the algorithm can be improved whenever it becomes possible to reduce the number of comparisons along with the actual number of swaps required to be performed. B. Classical Insertion Sort Algorithm This approach is based on the natural technique of sorting in day to day life by the human beings. Insertion sort is the simple sorting algorithm used in computation for the medium size data items or files. In the classical insertion sort approach the sorting of array elements is performed by inserting each element into its proper position in the previously sorted array. Insertion sort is considered to be faster than bubble sort and selection sort. It is very suitable algorithm for implementation using linked lists though its array implementation is more popular. C. The procedure The array is considered to be logically partitioned into two parts namely the first part and the second part. The first logical part has to be remained sorted always. Initially the first part is having only one element which is the first element of the input array and the second part comprises the rest of the input array. In the beginning, first part is automatically sorted because a single element is sorted by the definition of sorting. In each pass of the algorithm, the first element of the second part is separated from it before it is inserted into the first part’s proper position so that after its insertion the first part remains sorted. Before the start of the last pass of insertion sort, there is only one element remaining in the second part of the array, which is inserted into a proper position of the first part of the array and then the algorithm terminates. Shifting of elements may be required before we insert the current element in its sorted position. Shift operatio ns cost the most in array implementation of insertion sort. A formal description of Insertion sort algorithm InsertionSort (a, n) ‘a’ is an array of size ‘n’ starting at position 1; elements of ‘a’ will be sorted on termination. 1 for j ↠ 2 to n do 2 key ↠ a[j] 3 i ↠ j 1 4 while i > 0 and a[i] > key do 5 a[i+1] ↠ a[i] 6 i ↠ i-1 7 a[i+1] ↠ key Time complexity of Insertion sort is O(n2) and space complexity is O(n). Performance of insertion sort can be improved by quickly finding the location of an element and then by minimizing the number of shift operations required to be performed in its each iteration. Working of Insertion Sort algorithm Fig. 1 The operation of Insertion Sort on the array A = (14, 8, 20, 4, 6, 1) III. Other Sorting Techniques A. Merge Sort Merge sort is based on divide and conquer paradigm. The elements which are to be sorted are collected into an array. This array is divided into two sub arrays of almost equal sizes in top-down manner. Each one of the two sub arrays are again divided into their two constituent sub arrays of almost equal sizes respectively. This division process of the newly formed sub arrays will continue unless their size becomes unity. At size of unity, first of all, the sub array cannot be further divided and secondly the single element in the sub array is sorted, by the definition of sorting. After the last stage of division process, when all newly formed sub arrays are of unit size, the merging of the relevant unsorted sub arrays starts taking place in bottom-up manner with a view to form a sorted sub array (which was previously unsorted) for the next stage. The process of merging continues in the same manner unless the original array gets sorted. While division is a trivial job, the algorithm has to do the most critical job while merging the unsorted sub arrays into a sorted one. Time complexity of the Merge sort algorithm is ÃŽËœ(n logn) which is optimal. The major benefit of Merge sort is its stability and ease of implementation. The drawback associated with this algorithm is additional space requirement of ÃŽËœ(n) for the auxiliary array. B. Quick Sort Quick sort is also based on divide and conquer principle. Quick sort works by partitioning a given array A[p . . r] into two sub arrays A[p . . q] and A[q+1 . . r] such that every key in A[p . . q] is less than or equal to every key in A[q+1 . . r]. Then the two sub arrays are sorted through recursive calls to Quick sort. The exact position of the partition depends on the given array and index ‘q’ is computed as a part of the partitioning process. The main advantages of Quick sort is that it only uses an auxiliary stack and requires only n logn time to sort n items. The drawback associated with this algorithm is that it requires quadratic (i.e. n2) times in worst case. In this case, the situation can be simply overlooked by mistake and hence may cause serious problems. IV. Rahmani Sort Algorithm A. The Concept In the classical insertion sort, we place the first element from the second logical sub array into a proper position of the previously sorted first logical sub array. But while finding the proper position of the element to be inserted, in the left sub array, a simple linear search approach is used which has a time complexity of O(n). Even this linear time complexity of searching the proper location of the element to be inserted may be quite considerable. That is why insertion sort is not a suitable sorting algorithm for sorting large number of elements. So, by improving the search procedure adopted in insertion sort algorithm, somehow or the other, the performance of insertion sort can be improved. The proposed new sorting algorithm called Rahmani sort algorithm is based on the new concept of inserting the first element of unsorted sub array into the sorted position of the sorted sub array. The classical Insertion sort takes O(n2) time. Rahmani sort algorithm is enhancement of Insertion sort by decreasing the time of finding the position of the new element in the sorted sub array. In the following sub section the differences between the Insertion sort and the Rahmani sort are being discussed. B. The Procedure The procedure of Rahmani sort for arranging the input array in ascending order is being describes as below: C. The Algorithm Rahmani Sort is comprising of two sub algorithms, one is RahmaniSort(a, n) and another one is iBinary(a, lower, upper, mid). Here, a = Array of key items to be sorted. n = Total number of elements in the array ‘a’. lower = Lower index of the array ‘a’. upper = Upper index of the array ‘a’. mid = Middle index of the array ‘a’. Algorithm for Rahmani Sort RahmaniSort(a, n) 1 for i ↠ 2 to n do 2 temp ↠ a[i] 3 j ↠ iBinary(a, 0, i – 1, temp) 4 while i > j do 5 a[i] ↠ a[i – 1] 6 i ↠ i – 1 7 a[j] ↠ temp 8 return In the above algorithm, the element would be inserted in its proper position in the left sub array after shifting the rest of the array to the right side by one position. The iBinarySearch algorithm below above is used for finding the position of the largest element which is less than the key element stored in ‘temp’. After finding this position, each element of the sub array from this position onwards will be shifted to the right by one position. The shifting will start from the right hand side. Algorithm for Improved Binary Search iBinary(a, lower, upper, temp) 1 flag ↠ 0 2 loc ↠ 0 3 mid ↠ (lower + upper)/2 4 repeat while lower 5 mid ↠ (lower + upper)/2 6 if mid = a[mid] then 7 loc ↠ mid + 1 8 flag ↠1 9 if mid 10 upper ↠ mid – 1 11 else 12 lower ↠ mid + 1 13 if flag = 0 then 14 return lower 15 else 16 return loc à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ This paragraph of the first footnote will contain the date on which you submitted your paper for review. It will also contain support information, including sponsor and financial support acknowledgment. For example, â€Å"This work was supported in part by the U.S. Depart ­ment of Com ­merce under Grant BS123456†. The next few paragraphs should contain the authors’ current affiliations, including current address and e-mail. For example, F. A. Author is with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80305 USA (e-mail: [emailprotected] boulder.nist.gov). S. B. Author, Jr., was with Rice University, Houston, TX 77005 USA. He is now with the Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA (e-mail: [emailprotected]).

Fodors Functionalism Essays -- Body Mind Psychology Essays Searle

Fodor's Functionalism Fodor begins his article on the mind-body problem with a review of the current theories of dualism and materialism. According to dualism, the mind and body are two separate entities with the body being physical and the mind being nonphysical. If this is the case, though, then there can be no interaction between the two. The mind could not influence anything physical without violating the laws of physics. The materialist theory, on the other hand, states that the mind is not distinct from the physical. In fact, supporters of the materialist theory believe that behavior does not have mental causes. When the materialist theory is split into logical behaviorism and the central-state identity theory, the foundation of functionalism begins to form. Logical behaviorism states that every mental feeling has the same meaning as an if-then statement. For example, instead of saying "Dr. Lux is hungry," one would say "If there was a quart of macadamia brittle nut in the freezer, Dr. Lux would eat it." The central-state identity theory states that a certain mental state equals a certain neurophysiological state. The theory works in a way similar to Berkeley’s representation of objects. Both mental states and objects are a certain collection of perceptions that together identify the particular state or object.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fodor develops the idea of functionalism by combining certain parts of logical behaviorism and the central-state identity theory. From logical behaviorism, Fodor incorporates the idea that mental processes can be represented by physical if-then statements. As such, behavior and mental causation are no longer distinct and unable to interact. Also, logical behaviorism provides a way for mental causes to interact with other mental causes. This, in turn, may result in a behavioral effect. The last point is also a characteristic of the central-state identity theory. One doctrine of the central-state identity theory is called "token physicalism." Token physicalism states that all mental states that currently exist are neurophysiological. Thus, token physicalism does not place physical restrictions on the type of substance capable of having mental properties. When the points of logical behaviorism and the central-state identity theory, as described here, are combined, fu nctionalism is the result. The theory of functionalism supposes that a m... ...whether the simulation of mental processes resulting from a computer program are real mental processes?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the end of chapter two, Searle summarizes his criticism of functionalism in the following way. The mental processes of a mind are caused entirely by processes occurring inside the brain. There is no external cause that determines what a mental process will be. Also, there is a distinction between the identification of symbols and the understanding of what the symbols mean. Computer programs are defined by symbol identification rather than understanding. On the other hand, minds define mental processes by the understanding of what a symbol means. The conclusion leading from this is that computer programs by themselves are not minds and do not have minds. In addition, a mind cannot be the result of running a computer program. Therefore, minds and computer programs are not entities with the same mental state. They are quite different and although they both are capable of input and output interactions, only the mind is capable of truly thinking and understanding. T his quality is what distinguishes the mental state of a mind from the systemic state of a digital computer.

My Philosophy of Teaching Essay -- Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of Education The purpose of education is to provide students with a knowledge base that will enable them to achieve their goals. These goals will vary from student to student, but an education will enable students to reach their highest potential. Education is a gift and a privilege that all students, no matter their social status, race, or ethnic background, should receive. Education should better society as a whole, and this can only be accomplished through the hard work and dedication of teachers. Teachers play an imperative role in the educational process because the entire development of the student’s education would not be possible without them. This world would have no doctors, lawyers, or engineers if teachers did not help them to reach those professional goals. I believe teachers are handed an opportunity to impact the lives of students, and it is my responsibility as a future teacher to embrace that opportunity with a positive attitude. As I strive to fulfill my role as a teacher, I plan to adhere to the following guidelines: ...

Fin 486 Final Exam

Name___________________________________ MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question. 1) The primary emphasis of the financial manager is the use of A) cash flow. B) profit incentives. C) organization charts. D) accrued earnings. 1) _______ 2) All of the following are key strengths of a corporation EXCEPT A) low organization costs. B) readily transferable ownership. C) limited liability. D) access to capital markets. 2) _______ 3) The ________ is a measure of liquidity which excludes ________, generally the least liquid asset. A) quick ratio; accounts receivable B) current ratio; accounts receivable C) current ratio; inventory D) quick ratio; inventory 3) _______ 4) FASB Standard No. 52 mandates that U.S. based companies must translate their foreign-currency-denominated assets and liabilities into dollars using the A) average rate. B) historical rate. C) current rate. D) none of the above. 4) _______ Table 3.5 A financial manager at General Talc Mines has gathered the financial data essential to prepare a pro forma balance sheet for cash and profit planning purposes for the coming year ended December 31, 2004. Using the percent-of-sales method and the following financial data, prepare the pro forma balance sheet in order to answer the following multiple choice questions. (a) The firm estimates sales of $1,000,000. (b) The firm maintains a cash balance of $25,000. (c) Accounts receivable represents 15 percent of sales. (d) Inventory represents 35 percent of sales. (e) A new piece of mining equipment costing $150,000 will be purchased in 2004. Total depreciation for 2004 will be $75,000. (f) Accounts payable represents 10 percent of sales. (g) There will be no change in notes payable, accruals, and common stock. (h) The firm plans to retire a long term note of $100,000. (i) Dividends of $45,000 will be paid in 2004. (j) The firm predicts a 4 percent net profit margin. Balance Sheet General Talc Mines December 31, 2003 5) The pro forma total liabilities amount is (See Table 3.5) A) $650,000. B) $700,000. C) $500,000. 5) _______ D) $550,000. 6) If a United States Savings bond can be purchased for $29.50 and has a maturity value at the end of 25 years of $100, what is the annual rate of return on the bond? A) 6 percent B) 5 percent C) 7 percent D) 8 percent 6) _______ 7) If a person's required return decreases for an increase in risk, that person is said to be A) risk-indifferent. B) risk-seeking. C) risk-averse. D) risk-aware. 7) _______ Table 8.5 Cuda Marine Engines, Inc. must develop the relevant cash flows for a replacement capital investment proposal. The proposed asset costs $50,000 and has installation costs of $3,000. The asset will be depreciated using a five-year recovery schedule. The existing equipment, which originally cost $25,000 and will be sold for $10,000, has been depreciated using an MACRS five-year recovery schedule and three years of depreciation has already been taken. The new equipment is expected to result in incremental before-tax net profits of $15,000 per year. The firm has a 40 percent tax rate. 8) The initial outlay equals ________. (See Table 8.5) A) $44,100 B) $41,100 8) _______ C) $38,800 D) $38,960 Table 9.6 Nuff Folding Box Company, Inc. is considering purchasing a new gluing machine. The gluing machine costs $50,000 and requires installation costs of $2,500. This outlay would be partially offset by the sale of an existing gluer. The existing gluer originally cost $10,000 and is four years old. It is being depreciated under MACRS using a five-year recovery schedule and can currently be sold for $15,000. The existing gluer has a remaining useful life of five years. If held until year 5, the existing machine's market value would be zero. Over its five-year life, the new machine should reduce operating costs (excluding depreciation) by $17,000 per year. Training costs of employees who will operate the new machine will be a one-time cost of $5,000 which should be included in the initial outlay. The new machine will be depreciated under MACRS using a five-year recovery period. The firm has a 12 percent cost of capital and a 40 percent tax on ordinary income and capital gains. 9) The payback period for the project is (See Table 9.6) A) between 4 and 5 years. B) 2 years. C) 3 years. D) between 3 and 4 years. 9) _______ Table 10.1 A corporation is assessing the risk of two capital budgeting proposals. The financial analysts have developed pessimistic, most likely, and optimistic estimates of the annual cash inflows which are given in the following table. The firm's cost of capital is 10 percent. 10) If the projects have five-year lives, the range of the net present value for Project B is approximately ________. (See Table 10.1.) A) $201,000. B) $255,410. C) $303,280. D) $80,560. 10) ______ 11) The ________ is the firm's desired optimal mix of debt and equity financing. A) target capital structure B) book value C) cost of capital D) market value 11) ______ Table 14.5 Caren's Canoes is considering relaxing its credit standards to encourage more sales. As a result, sales are expected to increase 15 percent from 300 canoes per year to 345 canoes per year. The average collection period is expected to increase to 40 days from 30 days and bad debts are expected to double the current 1 percent level. The price per canoe is $850, the variable cost per canoe is $650 and the average cost per unit at the 300 unit level is $700. The firm's required return on investment is 20 percent. 12) What is the cost of marginal bad debts under the proposed plan? (See Table 14.5) A) $765 B) $5,100 C) $383 D) $3,315 12) ______ 13) Much of the commercial paper is issued by A) venture capitalists. C) small businesses. 13) ______ B) commercial finance companies. D) small manufacturing firms. 14) The part of finance concerned with design and delivery of advice and financial products to individuals, business, and government is called A) Financial Manager. B) Financial Services. C) Managerial Finance. D) none of the above. Table 2.1 14) ______ Information (2005 values) 1. Sales totaled $110,000 2. The gross profit margin was 25 percent. 3. Inventory turnover was 3.0. 4. There are 360 days in the year. 5. The average collection period was 65 days. 6. The current ratio was 2.40. 7. The total asset turnover was 1.13. 8. The debt ratio was 53.8 percent. 15) Inventory for CEE in 2005 was ________. (See Table 2.1) A) $32,448 B) $ 9,167 C) $36,667

Anecdote: the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Essay

â€Å"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time† essay was the only thing I was concerned with that night. Finishing it, handing it in, and voila, I’m done. But for me, it was always more complicated than that. Procrastination is practically my middle name. After what seemed like an eternity of blankly staring at the computer screen, the phone rang. All of my limbs felt unnaturally stiff as I went to retrieve the phone. â€Å"Hello?† I said. â€Å"Hi, it’s Sarah.† My best friend, Sarah, who was usually loud, hysterical, and had an exciting voice, now spoke in a distant mumble, as if it wasn’t really her. â€Å"Dude, I don’t have time to talk I have to finish this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I said. â€Å"Pedro Gurrola is dead† she said as if she herself were dead, too. â€Å"Huh?† I was sure I hadn’t heard correctly. â€Å"Alex’s dad? Pedro Gurrola? He was killed this morning in his garage,† she explained. â€Å"Jeez, that sucks.† I said, trying to focus on my paper. â€Å"I’d says it more than sucks. Anyway, all of the youth group is meeting at the church to comfort Alex. I’m really worried about her.† It took me a minute to realize she was suggesting I join too. Still subconsciously stressing about my paper, I excused myself. â€Å"Ah†¦I would go but I really have to finish this paper. I’m not even half way done. â€Å" â€Å"Are you serious right now?† She sounded sarcastic as usual, but I took it the wrong way. â€Å"I know right!† â€Å"No, not that you idiot. Just come to the church.† She sounded frustrated, so I gave in. â€Å"I’ll ask my mom.† â€Å"Okay, you better be there.† As I walked into the living room, the too familiar sound of my parent’s favorite show, Jeopardy, filled my ears. I looked at my parents, whose eyes were glued to the screen. â€Å"Hey Mom, can I go to the church?† She didn’t take her eyes off the screen. â€Å"What for?† â€Å"Pedro Gurrola is dead-â€Å" â€Å"30 seconds, contestants. Good luck!† interrupted Alex Trebek on the TV. â€Å"Pedro Gurrola, Alex’s dad, is dead.†I repeated. After I said it, it felt like I was hearing it for the first time as well. My parents glared at me like I was as entertaining as the TV show. Before they even had a chance to respond, I started for the front door. I knew what I had to do.