Reading Cultures.Politics of Representation Essay

Reading Cultures.Politics of Representation - Essay Example While studying semiotics; however one must  consider  that there  is applied  semiotic structures as for instance architecture, dress or cuisine. Any edifice is a refuge and a  certain  message (Hall, 1980:58). Semiotics maybe applied to cultural studies to artifacts as literary texts, photographs, popular songs, food, road signs, advertisements, and clothing.  Semiotics does not  seek  to  find  the  importance  of texts but to be conversant with the process through which they become  meaningful  and how they are differently  being interpreted.  Representation is the  production  of meaning,  discourse  and  image  (Hall, 1997:3). Looking at the  advertisement  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Istanbul European capital of culture†, there are  several  cultural aspects about Istanbul and the people of Istanbul that  are brought  out. ... Big,  colorful  palaces built in the Ottoman Empire  style  of houses have been the way to in the Middle East even in the ancient times. From the images, it would be  rare  to find someone mistaking Istanbul to a city in the U.S, because of the unique buildings. There is a lot of use of horses as a mode of transport, of  course  representing how long they have been using them. The use of boats can also be seen and, it represents a  mode  of  transport  that is free and readily available from the way a  boat  flies in between buildings. In the advertisement, there illustrations of how easily one can  move  around the city from using the suspension bridge, to moving from one place to another via en electric train. Most of the modes of transport in the advertisement started in the ancient times. All through the advertisement, there is dancing. To bring out the  significance  of dancing in understanding the city of Istanbul, is the  code  of dressi ng used when dancing, the movements and the musical instruments used. All these elements used in the advertisement cannot be specified to  represent  only the city of Istanbul; it could be another Islamic city like Dubai or even Qatar. With that in mind, the same elements can only be associated with an Islamic community. Let us use an  example  in the use of color  white  as used by Andrew (1996:12). White  is  commonly  associated  with  peaceful  and, good times like weddings and, that is why people wear white wedding dresses, but in some places, white  is associated  with severe  thing  such as death.  Considering that, it is necessary to  note  how  specific  mode of dressing, the  architecture  and dancing are to a community. The meaning of the images shown in the advertisement is that Istanbul is an

The Relationship between Head Circumference and Recall of a List Words Essay Example for Free

The Relationship between Head Circumference and Recall of a List Words Essay ABSTRACT This laboratory experiment and report aims on identifying whether head circumference has a significant relationship with the recall of list of words. In this experiment, the researcher has asked 80 (68 females and 12 males) students to participate in the experiment and each were given a chance to memorise the 30 words provided by the researcher. Because of the incomplete response of some participants and extreme values, the researcher opted to use only 61 females and 7 males (68 participants) in the data analysis. Through the use of the SPSS, the study has found that there is a weak positive correlation between the two given variables. This means that the recalling skills of the participants are significantly relevant with their head circumference or head size. INTRODUCTION Cognitive psychology is the study of how the brain processes information. In more everyday terms, it is about the mental processes involved in acquiring and making use of knowledge and experience gained from our senses (Esgate, 2004). The main processes involved in cognition are perception, learning, memory storage, retrieval and thinking, all of which are terms that are used in everyday speech and therefore already familiar to most people. In some research studies, there has been evidence among elderly people with larger head size function better on tests of cognitive function (Reynolds et al, 1999).   As noted by psychologists, an adult head size or circumference is considered to give an appropriate estimate for maximal attained brain circumference (Wickett et al., 2000), such findings have been inferred as a supporting evidence of the theory which optimal neurological development in early phases of life can provide barrier against pathological activities that can influence cognitive performance as they reached their old age (Stern, 2002). However, as the size of the head is relevant to intelligence test scores among young adults, psychologists have noted some possible relations which have been found between head circumference and the cognitive function in elderly people (Deary et al., 2000). In psychological process, some psychologists are trying to determine the relationship between head circumference and recall of a list words.   Ã‚  In a study conducted by Gale, Walton and Matyn (2003) which investigated the cognitive function of elderly people and head circumferences, they have concluded that there is no relationship between cognitive function (memory recall) and head circumference. However, the study have also shown that people with larger head circumference as an adult gained relatively higher scores n the intelligence test on both testing events and were less likely to develop a decline in memory performance over the follow-up period in the study. One other hand, in a cross-sectional study conducted among 818 health older individuals, the researchers have found out that the head circumference is related to performance on global cognitive functioning, tests measuring intelligence and speed of information processing. However, this study has revealed that head circumference or size has not been significantly related with memory functions (Tisserand et al, 2001). In this regard, the main goal of this paper is to conduct an analysis on the relationship of head circumference and recall of a list words.   Thus, this study will work on the following hypothesis:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"There is a significant relationship between the head circumference and recall of a list words†. METHOD This study was conducted in order to assess the relationship of head circumference and recall of list words among students. In order to achieve the objective of the study and to the hypothesis, the descriptive method of research was utilized. The purpose of employing the descriptive method is to describe the nature of a condition, as it takes place during the time of the study and to explore the cause or causes of a particular condition. The researcher opted to use this kind of research considering the desire to acquire first hand data from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound conclusions and recommendations for the study. According to Creswell (1994), the descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition.     In terms of approach, the study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The quantitative approach focused on obtaining numerical findings was used with the laboratory experiments. The correlation research refers to studies in which the purpose is to discover relationships between variables through the use of correlation statistics (r). The square of a correlation coefficient yields the explained variance (r-squared). A correlational relationship between two variables is occasionally the result of an outside source, so we have to be careful and remember that correlation does not necessarily tell us about cause and effect. If a strong relationship is found between two variables, using an experimental approach can test causality. To assess the strength of relationship between variables, it is important to get the correlation coefficient, which can take on any value between -1 and +1, since this will tell the strength of the relationship between two ranked or quantifiable variables (Saunders et al, 2003, p. 363). Accordingly, a value of +1 represents a perfect positive correlation, which means that the two variables are exactly related, where, as the values of one variable increase, values of the other variable will increase. Conversely, a value of -1 shows a perfect negative correlation, which also means that the two variables are exactly related, only this time, as the values of one variable increase, that of the other decreases. Finally, correlation coefficients between +1 and -1 stand for weaker positive and negative correlations, and a value of 0 means that the variables are completely independent from each other. Table 1: Values of Correlation To assist the researcher in the statistical analysis of the gathered data, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used. SPSS is one of the most widely available and powerful statistical software packages that covers a broad range of statistical procedures, which allows a researcher to summarise data (e.g., compute means and standard deviations), determine whether there are significant differences between groups (e.g., t-tests, analysis of variance), examine relationships among variables (e.g., correlation, multiple regression), and graph results (e.g., bar charts, line graphs) (Einstein and Abernethy, 2000). PARTICIPANTS To gather pertinent information, the students were chosen as the respondents or participants for this laboratory study. The participants of this study composed of 68 females and 12 males. However, only 61 female students and seven males were considered to be analysed due to incomplete responses and extreme values. MATERIALS For this study, the experiment has used 30 words which has been shown among the chosen students. Note that the words used ranges from 3-letter words to 4-letter words and have one and two syllables. The data gathered using these words, will determine whether there is a significant relationship between head size or circumference and recall of list words.    PROCEDURE To achieve the objective of the study, the head circumference or size of the students were measured. The measurement of head circumference ranges from 53-62. In this study, the students/participants were asked to read or memorize 30 words which have been given above.   After which the students have asked to mention what words did they recall and the researcher lists the number of words mentioned by the respondents. The scores of the students and the measure of their circumference were used for the analysis of the correlation. RESULT Significant Relations of Head Circumference and Recall   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Using SPSS, the descriptive statistics and correlation of the variables were analysed. The result of the analysis were shown in tables and diagrams below.    Descriptive Statistics Table 2 Mean Std. Deviation N Head Circumference 57.015 2.06 68 Recalled List of Words 16.87 3.54    Correlations Table 3 Head Circumference Recalled List of Words Head Circumference Pearson Correlation Sign (2-Tailed ) N 1    .    68 **.315 000. 68 Recalled List of Words Pearson Correlation Sign (2-Tailed ) N 315.** 000. 68 1    . 68 **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)    Figure 1 Scattered Diagram Figure 2 DISCUSSION Given the data gathered from the laboratory experiment, analysis shows that the average of the head size of the students is 57.015 and the recalled words mean average is 16.87 out of 30 words. The correlations table displays Pearson correlation coefficients, significance values, and the number of cases with non-missing values. Pearson correlation coefficients assume the data are normally distributed. The Pearson correlation coefficient is a measure of linear association between two variables. Basically, the values of the correlation coefficient range from -1 to 1. The sign of the correlation coefficient indicates the direction of the relationship (positive or negative). The absolute value of the coefficient of correlation signifies the strength, with larger absolute values showing stronger relationships. The correlation coefficients on the main diagonal are always 1.0, because each variable has a perfect positive linear relationship with itself. Correlations above the main diagonal are a mirror image of those below. In our data, the correlation coefficient for head circumference (independent) and recall from lists of words (dependent) is 0.315. Since 0.315 is relatively close to 1 or -1 this indicates that head circumference (independent) is weak positive correlated with the recall of list of words (dependent). The significance of each correlation coefficient is also displayed in the correlation table. The significance level (or p-value) is the probability of obtaining results as extreme as the one observed. If the significance level is very small (less than 0.05) then the correlation is significant and the two variables are linearly related. If the significance level is relatively large, for example, 0.50, then the correlation is not significant and the two variables are not linearly related. In this result, since the p-value is less than 0.05, then the two variables are not significant Based on the given data, it has been found out that head circumference has a weak positive relation with the recall of lists words. In this regard, the research accepts the hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between head circumference and recall of lists of words among students. In the scattered diagram, it can be said that there is a vague relationship between the two variables. In this regard, it can be said that head size of the students may affect the number of words recalled by the students. CONCLUSION Based on the findings of the data analysis, it can be concluded that the instrument used in this study as well as the method used to achieve its primary objective has been efficient and effective. The findings have shown that the head size or circumference of the students who took part of the study have a weak positive relation with the number of words they recalled out of 30 words provided by the researcher. This study further concluded that the memory function of an individual can be measured through the head circumference or head size of such individual.    Reference Creswell, J.W. (1994). Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Deary IJ, Whalley LJ, Lemmon H, Crawford JR, Starr JM (2000). The stability of individual differences in mental ability from childhood to old age: follow-up of the 1932 Scottish Mental Survey. Intelligence 28: 49–55 Esgate, A. et al (2004). An introduction to applied cognitive psychology. Psychology Press. Hove, England. Gale, CR, Walton, S and Martyn, CN (2003). Foetal and postnatal head growth and risk of cognitive decline in old age. Brain, Vol. 126, No. 10, 2273-2278, Reynolds MD, Johnston JM, Dodge HH, DeKosky ST, Ganguli M. (1999).   Small head size is related to low Mini-Mental State Examination scores in a community sample of nondemented older adults. Neurology 53: 228–9. Stern Y. (2000). What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. J Int Neuropsychol Soc; 8: 448–60 Tisserand, DJ, Bosma, H, Van Boxtel, MPJ and Jolles, J. (2001). Head size and cognitive ability in nondemented older adults are related. Neurology 56:969-971 Wickett JC, Vernon PA, Lee DH. Relationships between factors of intelligence and brain volume. Personality Individual Difference 29: 1095–122.

People and Events of World War II :: essays research papers

People and Events of World War II The Axis Powers World War II was started by the Axis Forces, which were comprised of Germany, Italy, and Japan. They fought against the combined might of almost the entire world, and, but for a supreme combined effort on the part of America, the USSR, and Britain, almost won. During the war, the Axis Powers were totalitarian states, controlled by their respective leader or leaders. These are their stories.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During World War II, there were three men who were controlling the Japanese government, none of which liked each other. The first, Emperor Hirohito, born in 1901, was ruler from 1926 to 1989, the last divine imperial leader of Japan. During the first nineteen years of his reign he gave over power of the government to a militant party. The result of this was the war with China from 1937 to 1945 and adherence to the Axis Powers. At the end of the war Hirohito wanted peace and, in 1945, he unconditionally surrendered to the Allies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second, Isoroku Yamamoto, born in 1884, was the reluctant Commander- in-Chief of Japan's naval forces during WW II. He had a clear grasp of the situation and predicted that against a country like the U.S. or Britain, Japan would quickly lose the war. He died in 1943, shot down by the U.S. 13th Air Force in a surgical assassination strike.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The last, Tojo Hideki, was born in 1884, and was the most violent of the three. He was the leader of the militaristic party that controlled the government from 1926 to 1945, and the one who commanded the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1937. He controlled all government and military campaigns until 1944, when, as a result of bad military defeats, he resigned as Prime Minister. Tojo was later arrested, tried, and convicted by an international military court for conventional war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. He was later executed in 1948.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These three men had control over the Japanese government, and allied themselves to Germany and Italy, thus forming the Axis forces. So, as the Pacific was being dominated by the Japanese, Europe and North Africa were being equally terrorized by Germany and Italy, who were under the iron fists of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, respectively.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adolf Hitler was born in 1889, the son of a very low-ranking official, and a peasant. He wasn't very well educated, never completed high school, and was also rejected from institutes of higher learning because of his lack of talent. Although he was a poor student, he read non-stop, and it was from books

SROP Personal Statement Essay

As a young child growing up in the African countries of Cameroon and Gabon, I witnessed diseases such as malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, tetanus, and HIV/AIDS ravage villages and devastate local family members with horrible deaths. This early exposure to such suffering in my life encouraged a strong desire within me to do something useful to battle these horrific diseases. My first introduction to patient care came from voluntary work at local hospitals in Cameroon and in the United States where I worked assisting with patient transportation, providing food and water, and doing necessary tasks needed by each patient. This experience helped me develop good communication skills and medical technical skills in the hospital environment. I also had the responsibility of caring for a family member with a serious brain injury following a car accident. Assisting this family member allowed me to gain awareness of what is required when caring for patients on a day-to-day basis. These experiences allowed me to realize that not only do patients need research to provide cures for diseases, but that the patients already suffering from diseases also need adequate care. As a junior in the molecular biology program, my long-term goal is to dedicate myself to research in the fields of human biology. In order to achieve this goal, I plan to acquire a MD/PhD degree with research focusing on immunology, cardiovascular, or infectious diseases. A MD/PhD degree would enable me to combine my interest in medical patient care with the rewarding challenges of scientific investigation. The SROP program will help me prepare for a MD/PhD program by providing a platform to develop superior problem solving skills, practice research techniques, and conduct my own research project. I am determined to strive for excellence in all that I do and feel that the SROP program will give me essential tools I need to continue my quest in developing a career in the practical and theoretical aspects of the medical research field.

Perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell Essay

Every now and then everybody needs a little holiday, time to themselves. After a long period of working, sunny beaches, snowy mountain peaches or a quiet house by a river together with your family may seem to be as close to paradise as possible. Many would dream of a â€Å"never ending holiday† where all you have to do is what you feel like to, but not all fairytales end well. To begin with, in a world where everybody sits around doing nothing, enjoying their life the end would be imminent and quick. A â€Å"global holiday† would mean a sudden stop of production, resources would be consumed in a matter of days or weeks whereas it takes a longer time for them to be produced and even an immediate comeback would generate a great loss. Secondly, during holiday many tend to loosen up, take things less seriously and usually forget the knowledge they have accumulated during the lifetime. This results in not using your brain properly and within some generations information would be lost and progression stagnated. Nonetheless, on the other hand being in a perpetual holiday may positive. There wouldn`t exist any more stress, worries, rush, responsibilities. People would live longer and happier. The only worry we would have would be how to make us and the others around us more fortunate. We would have time for all our hobbies; we could fulfil the gaps in our social life. Taking these points into consideration, I would say that many of us would be ready to give up their career for a peaceful life but too few think about the consequences of such a choice.

Mean Season essays

Mean Season essays Hurricanes are an environmental disaster. People in hurricane-prone regions most want to know: when and where the next hurricane will make landfall and just how powerful the storms will be when they do hit. For the most accurate warning possible, people rely on the meteorologists. Still a few tenacious problems remain, like that forecasters cannot always predict weather nor how much a hurricane will intensify before it hits land. Thats a problem for people in the path of a storm who need to know if its enough just to nail plywood across the windows, or if they should leave town altogether. The need for better hurricane forecasting will become more urgent now as well as in the future to come. It will not take more than a handful of major hurricanes striking land on the crowded and densely developed U.S. East Coast to cause damage in the tens of billions of dollars. Forecasters rely on trends in the global climate that coincide with the ups and downs of Atlantic hurricane activity. One predictor," the warming of the equatorial Pacific, disrupts weather across much of the globe. Shifts in air circulation disrupt the vertical circulation in Tropical storms, which prevent them from growing into hurricanes. Scientists are sure that Atlantic hurricanes assemble over Africa. The collision of hot, dry air over the Sahara Desert, including warm, moist air from the equatorial jungle will give birth. The collision will cause disturbances in the atmosphere called Hurricane Seedlings." Each season there is about 60 seedlings blown west into the Tropical Atlantic by the trade winds. At first, Seedlings are nothing more than clusters of thunderstorms, but in an average year, nine will evolve into named tropical storms and about six become hurricanes. On their way across the ocean, seedlings feed on the heat in warm ...

7 Poor Parking Signs

7 Poor Parking Signs 7 Poor Parking Signs 7 Poor Parking Signs By Mark Nichol I’m inured to ineptly expressed messages on parking signs, but the signage reproduced here prompts a ticketing spree by the spelling police. What, exactly, is a low-emmiting, fuel-efficent vehicle can it park there if it’s magn-efficent? and how do you know whether you have one? This sign should read â€Å"Low-Emitting, Fuel-Efficient Vehicle Parking Only.† Sign makers in the United Kingdom are so polite! They ever so regretful that they must inconvenience you by informing you that this parking area is unsuitable for HGV’s. (In other words – to translate for Americans don’t park your semi here, bub.) That’s a charming sign, but an apostrophe and an s signals possession; an s alone indicates a plural, and that’s what â€Å"HGVs† is. Therefore, the message invites the question, â€Å"Unsuitable for HGV’s what? And who is HGV?† That’s comforting to know that none customers I guess that means â€Å"no customers† will be towed away. (Sometimes, after I dine at a Mexican restaurant, I feel like I need to be towed away or, better yet, hoisted onto a flatbed truck.) Oh, I get it now: noncustomers. What really clinches this failure of a sign is the gratuitous period after away, and the resulting fragment that follows. What’s a privae, and how does one park it (or them, as the Latin plural appendage -ae seems to indicate)? How kind of the sign maker, by the way, to refrain from taking up all that space on the weekends with a fleet of privas. Here, two possessive nouns are rendered erroneously in different ways: They should read Golfers’ and Rafters’ (unless, of course, the sign is targeting a single rafter). Customer’s only what? We expect better of a progressive international grocery store chain. (And â€Å"1 hour parking†? I know that commercial advertising is inimical to hyphenation that is perhaps the most ubiquitous signage error but, really, does Whole Foods Market have to be as careless as every other merchant?) You had to see this one coming: otherwise known as privates parking. (Entrance on Whitley, printing by Witless.) These images are from the websites Apostrophe Abuse, Funny Typos, and The Great Typo Hunt. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Coordinating vs. Subordinating ConjunctionsDifference between "Pressing" and "Ironing"Confusion of Subjective and Objective Pronouns